ALONG THE RIVER 81 



loosestrife belongs to another tribe, despite the name, and to 

 a different phase of the year. It begins to bloom by the 

 banks of the river in July, like the willow-herb ; and when 

 their kindred purples begin to tinge the screens beside the 

 river we know that the year is already declining, and the riot 

 of midsummer has gone by. 



Beside all these luxuriant marsh and water-plants, the 

 banks of the river foster another company which prefer a 

 well-drained soil. They are able to grow by the river 

 because of the sharp contrast in soils which is often found 

 in such a place. The low steep banks against which the 

 river washes are often formed of alluvial grit, washed down 

 by the river in earlier epochs, and freed of clay and slime. 

 Thus the banks are porous and well drained, although there 

 is a free passage of water from beneath to feed the plants 

 that grow on them. Between the edge of the turf above and 

 the lip of the water below, among the water-rats' holes and 

 the rarer galleries of the sand-martins and kingfisher, there 

 is a group of plants quite different from the stately water- 

 flowers which overshadow them. It is more varied than the 

 true water-plants, and includes many species which have 

 strayed from the cornfields and pastures above ; but several 

 attractive plants are often found on the little earthen cliff, 

 and some of the commoner species take a delicate miniature 

 growth, in scale with the dwarf hanging garden. Dewberry 

 blossoms open in June on their small straggling briers, and 

 the soft berry with its delicate bloom is ripe before the black- 

 berry is yet in flower. Scorpion-grass, with its smaller grey- 

 blue blossoms, contrasts with the clearer colour and more 

 luxuriant growth of the forget-me-not in the water below. 

 Scorpion-grass is a land forget-me-not, and the common 

 garden varieties are derived from it, and not from the more 

 handsome water-plant, which is too thirsty a subject for the 



