156 Wild Life in Wales 



are overlooked altogether ; the ordinary Welshman, or even 

 the children, not appearing to have much of an eye for wild 

 flowers. White Thistles (chiefly Carduus acanthoides, 

 C. tenuiflorus, and Cnicus palustris) are frequent, as are also 

 pinkish, and white, forms of Scabiosa succisa, and S. arvensis. 

 Centaurea nigra, called locally " Black heads," is one of the 

 worst weeds in many of the fields ; but as it offers great 

 attractions to Goldfinches, in autumn, the naturalist at any 

 rate readily overlooks any bad qualities it may possess. 

 Once or twice 1 came upon pure white varieties of it, and 

 various shades of pink were common. A very pretty white 

 form of the Sheep's Scabious (Jasione montana) is also 

 deserving of mention, as it was not uncommon, especially 

 on the Cwm Cynllwyd road, not far from the village. 

 White Herb Robert (Geranium robertianum\ Hare-bell 

 (Campanula rotundifolia) y Self-heal (Prunella vulgaris), and a 

 number of other plants, were also seen from time to time, 

 one of the most interesting, and least expected here, being 

 the small Toad-flax (Linaria minor), which, as in so many 

 other localities, grew amongst the railway ballast and may 

 possibly be an importation. A very pretty pale variety of 

 the Dusky Crane's bill (Geranium ph<eum\ on the roadside 

 near the chapel at Pen-y-Pont, must conclude the list. It 

 grew alongside several plants of the normal colour, and its 

 pale mauve flowers made a striking contrast to those of the 

 ordinary dark purple. 



If we suppose, as there seems good ground for believing 

 may be the case, that white was the earliest shade assumed 

 by primitive flowers, when first the petals began to change 

 from green, and that the evolution has proceeded, through 

 yellows and reds, up to blues and violets, it becomes 

 interesting and instructive to note how much more often 

 any deviation from type is progressive at the bottom of the 

 scale and retrograde at the other extremity. Blues, and 

 reds, are prone to revert to white ; but yellow flowers, 

 though they greatly predominate in our woods and fields, 

 very rarely sport in that direction, but trend upwards 

 through orange to red. 



Milfoil (Achillea millefolium\ which in some of the old 



