180 Country Rambles. 



bank of the half-lane, half-watercourse, running from 

 the lower side of the reservoir towards the river. It is 

 a large, green, leafy bush, with glossy foliage, and appears 

 to be the only one in the Prestwich neighbourhood. 

 How it got there is a botanical problem, yet only one 

 out of many of the same kind. Nature is for ever putting 

 some droll spectacle before our eyes, and playing panto- 

 mimes for our amusement and curiosity, if we would but 

 care for them as they deserve. As Pott Shrigley is the 

 place above all others for bluebells, so is Mere Clough 

 the place above all others for its colleague the wood- 

 anemone. Tens of thousands of this lovely flower, the 

 fairest companion of the opening buds, grow in the open 

 spaces among the trees at the lower part, sheeting them 

 with the purest white, tinged here and there with a faint 

 blush, like sunbeams falling on snow. On a fine day at 

 the end of April or beginning of May, there is not a 

 more charming picture to be found. In the moister parts 

 of the clough, especially near the reservoir, may also now 

 be seen in perfection the deep yellow marsh-marigold. 

 Like the anemone, it is a common plant, but none the 

 less to be admired. The same as to that dainty little 

 flower, the wood-sorrel, which begins to open freely about 

 the time that the anemones depart. Easily discovered by 

 means of its curious leaves, which are formed of three 

 triangular pieces, placed on the summit of a little stalk, 

 and rise about three inches above the ground, no one can 

 fail to be charmed with its fairy form and the delicacy 

 of the lilac pencillings on the inner surface of the petals, 



