Mere Cloiigh. 179 



of miniature fir-cone, which serves at once for flower and 

 seed-pod, and will well repay minute examination. When 

 ripe, an impalpable green powder dusts out of this little 

 cone-like body, every particle a distinct and living seed, 

 and originating a new plant, if not destroyed before it 

 can germinate. Under the microscope, these particles 

 perform most amusing evolutions. It is merely necessary 

 that some one breathe upon them while we observe, to 

 make every little atom twist and entangle its long arms 

 as if it were an animated creature. A magnifying power 

 of sixty is quite sufficient to show these curious move- 

 ments, and the seeds, if preserved in a pill-box, will keep 

 good for many years. All the neighbouring dells and 

 groves likewise contain this charming plant, and growing, 

 as it often does, in large patches, we seem to have woods 

 within woods. Hurst Clough, best reached from Moly- 

 neux Brow, noted also for the Rosa villosa, is one of the 

 richest. Not that it is confined to them, being more or 

 less diffused in most directions out of Manchester, -but 

 it is here that it grows most plentifully and luxuriantly. 

 Contemporaneous with the sylvan horsetail, there comes 

 a second kind of golden saxifrage. The common sort 

 was mentioned when describing Ashley meadows. This 

 one, scientifically called the alternifolium, is larger and 

 handsomer, as well as rare, and is to be gathered on 

 the left-hand borders of the stream, just after passing the 

 white cottage in the middle of the clough. Another plant 

 of special interest, and blooming at the same time, is the 

 mountain-currant, Ribes alpinum, which grows on the 



