CHAPTER XVII 



FRITILLARIES 



IT is curious how some rare and attractive plants, 

 confined, it may be, to comparatively a few places 

 in Great Britain, are yet extraordinarily abundant in 

 the places where they occur. The wild tulip is a very 

 scarce species, but I know of one disused chalk-pit 

 where it covers the entire surface of the ground. The 

 beautiful Scilla autumnalis, L., or autumnal squill, only 

 occurs in one locality in the county of Hampshire, but 

 there it stars with its exquisite blossoms some acres of 

 ground. The lovely summer snowflake is seldom met 

 with, but on the banks of the Loddon, near Reading, it 

 is abundant. So with the fritillary or snake's-head, 

 one of the handsomest and most attractive plants in the 

 British flora. It is now to be found in perhaps one 

 locality only in Hampshire, but there, at the right 

 season, it is to be seen in tens of thousands. The last 

 week in April is the best time to see this gorgeous sight, 

 but the plant lingers on in blossom for the space of 

 nearly a month. I paid a visit to this favoured spot a 

 few years ago, and well was I rewarded for a long 

 journey. There is no secret about the locality, for 

 during the season of flowering it is visited by vast 

 numbers of people on foot, on bicycles, in carriages, in 

 motor cars, who carry away with them bunches of the 

 curiously marked and exquisitely beautiful blossoms. 

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