24 Country Rambles. 



Richardia Ethiopica, which, opening a great white vase 

 on the summit of its stem, resembles an alabaster lamp 

 with a pillar of flame burning in the centre; the leaves 

 lifted on long stalks, and shaped like the head of an 

 arrow. Keeping the figure of this noble plant before the 

 mind's eye, as the type for comparison, there is no 

 difficulty in identifying the arum of Cotterill Wood. The 

 latter is essentially the same in structure, but rises to the 

 height of only some six or eight inches instead of thirty, 

 with leaves proportionately smaller, and the flower, 

 instead of white and vase-like, of a pale transparent 

 green (though often mottled, like the leaves, with purple 

 stains), and curving over the pillar in the centre like the 

 cowl of a monk. The pillar is of a rich puce or claret 

 colour, and occasionally of a delicate light amber. In 

 the south of England, where the plant abounds, the dark 

 ones are called "lords," and the amber-coloured, "ladies." 

 Newbridge Hollow, the Ashley Woods, and several other 

 places about Bowdon, share the possession of this 

 remarkable plant, which is, without question, the most 

 eccentrically formed of any that grow wild in the British 

 Islands. It is found also near Pendlebury, at Barton, 

 Reddish, and several other places, but very scantily, a 

 circumstance worth notice, because illustrating so well 

 what the learned call botanical topography. The floras 

 of entire countries are often not more strongly marked by 

 the presence or absence of certain species than the por- 

 tions even of so limited an area as that of Manchester 

 half-holiday excursions. Here, too, grows in profusion 



