TREES AND FLOWERS 



137 



as opportunity offers, along the banks of some enchanted stream, 

 for there I meet with a different fauna and flora, which, to an 

 all-round field naturalist, brings unfeigned delight. 



The refined grace of the Flowering Rush, and Great Water 

 Plantain, are old companions of mine, and 

 I love to tread near the secluded retreat 

 of the Water Mint so as to stir up the 

 pleasant aroma which this plant offers. 



The nearer bosom of the water is grace- 

 fully silhouetted with the fairy chalices of 

 innumerable blossoms of Water Crowfoot, 

 an aquatic cousin of the flaring gold of 

 the one I know better in the green 

 meadows, and I stay to listen to the 

 wind rustling the Rushes and Arrowheads, 

 until a Sedge Warbler warns me that I 

 am encroaching ^>on its chosen habitat, 

 and a Reed jjjjinting tinkles out its 

 impetuous little song. 



I have almost risked life and limb in 

 scaling the saddle of Goatfell, away in the 

 Isle of Arran, in my efforts to discover 

 some new plant treasure, such as Salix 

 herbacea, our smallest British Shrub, no 

 taller than a Daisy, or to see in their 

 own homes the Northern Bedstraw, Bog 

 Asphodel, Grass of Parnassus, Bog Pimpernel, Tutsan, and Cotton 

 Grass. 



I have sought for (and found) the carnivorous Sundew on 

 Dartmoor, and feasted my eyes in glorious Devon upon the living 

 patchwork of the purple Heather, and the fire of the flaming 

 Western Furze, perhaps the greatest floral pageant I have ever 

 witnessed anywhere during my expeditions among trees and 

 flowers. 



FIG. 63. ARROW HEAD. 



