THE VERGE OF THE FOREST 77 



species may be found. The sea-beet grows in abund- 

 ance, and the sea-campion, the sea-milkwort, scurvy 

 grass and the frosted orache ; while on the shingly spit 

 where stands Calshot Castle, built by Henry VIII. with 

 stones from Netley and lead from Beaulieu Abbey, 

 some rarer plants flourish. The Portland-spurge grows 

 there, its only habitat in the county of Hants, and in 

 vast abundance the wild seakale. Indeed so plentiful 

 is the seakale that in former years the coastguards and 

 fishermen were wont to blanch the young shoots by 

 covering them up with sand and shingle and to send 

 them to the Southampton market. And, curious to 

 relate, abundant as the plant is at Calshot Spit, it will 

 be seen nowhere else, except sporadically, and that very 

 seldom, along the Hampshire shore. 



In summer-time the moorland is most attractive. 

 The curious, carnivorous sundews, both the long-leaved 

 and the round-leaved species, are abundant, and in 

 places their rarer relative, the Droscra anglica, Huds. 

 may be found. The lovely little marsh St John's wort 

 and the equally lovely creeping-pimpernel are every- 

 where, while the upright yellow spikes of the bog 

 asphodel appear like candles or torches over the swamps 

 and the tiny white flags of the cotton-grass wave gently 

 in the breeze. This is where the sphagnum moss is 

 found, gathered in large quantities during the war to 

 make compresses and bandages for our wounded soldiers. 

 Scattered all over the moorland the solitary purple 

 flowers of the strangely named " meadow-thistle " will 

 be seen, and spikes of the spotted orchis ; while here 

 and there the marsh club-moss, or lycopodium, may be 

 noticed creeping over the black soil. But the chief 

 glory of Dibden Bottom is the Calathian violet, or 



