THE ANGLER'S SOUVENIR. 



235 



Where mountain streams struggle through long 

 green moss, the small yellow umbels of the golden 

 saxifrage, and its yellow-green leaves, struggle 

 through the wet moss like a stream of gold, shining 

 in bright contrast to the vivid green of its mossy 

 cushion. 



In June and July the margin of our rivers is in 

 many places made most beautiful by the handsome 

 purple loose-strife a plant with a long, narrow 

 leaf, and tall, tapering spikes, a foot long, of rich 

 purplish-red flowers, on a stem two to four feet 

 high. 



In most meadows the silver-weed presents to our 

 notice its large, yellow, velvety flowers, growing 

 close to the creeping stem and pinnated leaves, 

 which, in large masses, shine silvery with the silken 

 down on their under-surface. 



The forget-me-not has fame enough for its 

 loveliness and its pretty name, and no flower 

 would be more missed than this were it never 

 more to gleam blue and bright from the lush 

 vegetation of the water-edges. It has, never- 

 theless, rivals by the waterside that run it hard, 

 and of its own colour and semblance. One of 

 these is the brooklime, a common plant, in flower 

 all the summer, and bearing bright blue flowers 

 on a stout, juicy stem, about a foot high, with 

 thick, dark-green leaves. In the water, among the 

 roots of the iris and reeds, it does its best to rival 

 its more graceful neighbour the forpet-me-not. 



