PURPLE SANDWORT. 29 



found in open places, where the reindeer 

 lichen, the wild thyme, or the stonecrop 

 covers the scanty soil. It may be gathered 

 in the neiglibourhood of Llanberis and 

 Craig Lochart, beside the gushing waters of 

 Holywell, and generally in the northern 

 counties. It is seen likewise on the rubbish 

 of old lead mines, for the Creator of the 

 vernal sandwort has imparted to it the pe- 

 culiar property of resisting the deleterious 

 effect of metallic oxides.* Seeds blown at 

 random on those refuse heaps, perish in the 

 course of a short time; vegetable life cannot 

 exist in the baneful atmosphere that per- 

 vades them ; but those of the vernal sand- 

 wort have scarcely rested there before they 

 spring forth, and hence it happens not un- 

 frequently that small patches of vegeta- 



* This curious fact was communicated by the Rev. 

 S. Pike Jones, author of " Botanical Tour,'" noticed in 

 " Withering's Arrangement," vol. ii. p. 552. 



