Carrington Wild-flowers. 53 



Carrington Moss is further remarkable for the profuse 

 growth of that beautiful flower, the Lancashire asphodel, 

 which, at the end of July and the beginning of August, 

 lights it up with flambeaux of bright yellow. Here also 

 grow the Rhyncospora alba, the cranberry, the Andromeda, 

 and the cotton-sedge, all in great abundance; and on the 

 margin, among the ditches, luxuriant grasses peculiar to 

 moorland, and the finest specimens of the purple heather 

 that are anywhere to be seen so near Manchester. 

 The rich sunset-like lustre of this sturdy but graceful 

 plant renders it one of the loveliest ornaments of our 

 country when summer begins to wane into autumn. 

 Branches, gathered when in full bloom, and laid to dry in 

 the shade, retain their freshness of form and pretty colour 

 for many months, and serve very pleasingly to mix with 

 honesty and everlastings for the winter decoration of the 

 chimneypiece. Intermixed with the heather grows the 

 Erica tetralix, or blushing-maiden heath, an exceedingly 

 elegant species, with light pink flowers, collected in dense 

 clusters at the very summit of the stalk. The immediate 

 borders of the moss, and the lanes approaching it, are 

 prolific in curious plants. To go no further, indeed, 

 quite repays a visit. July is the best time. Then the 

 foxgloves lift their magnificent crimson spires, and the 

 purple-tufted vetch trails its light foliage and delicate 

 clusters beneath the woodbines; and the tall bright 

 lotus in coronets of gold, and the meadow-sweet, smelling 

 like hawthorn, make the lady-fern look its greenest, while 

 in the fields alongside stands, in all its pride of yellow 



