The Reddish Valley. 107 



in every direction, the bloom of the innumerable wild 

 hyacinth, which clusters here in great banks and masses, 

 so close that the green of the foliage is concealed. The 

 ground being a slope, and viewed from below, the effect 

 is most singular and striking. Shakspeare speaks of 

 "making the green one red;" here we have literally the 

 green made blue. In the same woods grows the forget- 

 me-not, in abundance only exceeded in the Morley 

 meadows. One might almost fancy that the nymphs of 

 ancient poetry had been transmigrated into these sweet 

 turquoise-coloured flowers. Among the specialities of 

 the Reddish valley, mentioned before as eminently rich 

 in plants of interest, are the bird-cherry, Prunus Padus, 

 and that curious fern the Lunaria. The first is quite 

 a different thing from the ordinary wild cherry of 

 Mobberley, Peover, Lymm, and the Bollin valley, having 

 long, pendulous clusters of white flowers, like those of the 

 laburnum, and with a smell of honey. It is seen not 

 only as a tree, but sometimes forms part of the hedges. 

 The lunaria grows in the meadows, and is in perfection 

 about the end of May. In August and September the 

 river-banks here are gay also with the fine crimson of 

 the willow-herb, the young shoots of which, along with 

 the flowers, drawn through the half-closed hand, leave 

 behind them a grateful smell of baked apples and cream. 

 The upper portion of the valley, nearer Hyde, was 

 very diligently and successfully explored in 1840-42 by 

 Mr. Joseph Sidebotham, then resident at Apethorne, a 

 townsman whom we have not more reason to be proud of 



