THE ANGLER'S SOUVENIR. 



233 



for they are stiff and strong. They form an attrac- 

 tive feature in the landscape, hiding, as they do, 

 all the barren spots. Under the shelter of the roof 

 of its leaves, and between the pillars of its stems, 

 the water-fowl feed and take refuge. We are very 

 fond of the butterbur, because of its size and sturdy 

 strength, and its picturesque effect in brook scenery. 

 Its roots extend rapidly, and send up shoots here 

 and there. Where it has seized upon some bit of 

 marshy meadow-ground, as it sometimes does, and 

 gains a headway, it is most difficult to eradicate. 



The queen of the meadows, and not of the 

 meadows alone, but the woodland glades and the 

 shady lanes, is in our eyes the feathery, fragrant 

 meadowsweet. It is not by any means exclusively 

 a waterside plant, but as it is most abundant in the 

 fertile "haughs" by the river-side, it may well be 

 included in this chapter. In July and August its 

 white blossoms, green-tinged and creanry, quiver in 

 crowded clusters in the summer air. Amid the 

 crowd of gaudy blossoms which at this time burst 

 upon our ken, the meadowsweet looks pure and 

 ethereal a lily among scarlet roses, sweet seven- 

 teen by the side of painted forty. Often the angler 

 wades knee-deep through it, as it spreads its summer 

 snow by the streamlet ; and light as snow-flakes, 

 and as graceful in texture, are its tiny blossoms. 

 In the dew-wet night it gleams ghost-like in the 

 margin of the wood, and loads the gloaming with 

 its sweet yet heavy odour. It dances in the 



