MINSMERE LEVEL 113 



The plants that most usually line the dykes, some- 

 times with a dense jungle of herbage, are the common 

 reed and the branched bur-reed or Sparganium. The 

 sword-like leaves of this latter species are very con- 

 spicuous along the ditches, mingled with the broad 

 leaves, which often turn reddish in the autumn, of the 

 great water-dock. In places, too, the reed-mace, 

 commonly but erroneously called the bull-rush, is 

 abundant, and now and then the far more beautiful 

 and elegant lesser reed-mace. Gerard calls the reed- 

 mace by its mediaeval name of " cat's-taile," and men- 

 tions various uses to which the down of the conspicuous 

 " mace or torch " was wont to be put. " The soft 

 downe," we learn, " stamped with Swines grease wel 

 washed healeth burnes or scalds with fire or water." 

 Moreover, " this downe in some places of the Isle of Ely 

 and the Low countries adioyning thereto is gathered 

 and well sold to make mattresses thereof for plow-men 

 and poore people." This custom no longer exists in 

 East Anglia, but the handsome plant is often cut and 

 sold for decorative purposes. The water plantain, with 

 tall flower-stems and loose panicles of small pale lilac 

 blossoms, is another frequent species along the ditches, 

 which are often choked with the rank growth of water- 

 hemlock, of which " the whole plant is of a naughty 

 smell." 



The somewhat sombre colouring of the dykes is often 

 relieved by vivid patches of colour when the great hairy 

 willow-herb puts forth its large rose-coloured flowers, 

 or the splendid purple loosestrife, perhaps the " long- 

 purples " of Shakespeare, fringes the " fleets " with its 

 flowers. Nor must the more select flowering-rush 

 (Butomus umbellatus, L.) be forgotten, one of the most 



