NATURE NEAR LONDON 



again ; horse-tails, too, so thick in marshy places 

 one small species is abundant in the ploughed 

 fields of Surrey, and must be a great trouble to the 

 farmers, for the land is sometimes quite hidden 

 by it. 



In the adjoining water tank are the principal 

 flowers and plants which flourish in brook, river, 

 and pond. This yellow iris flowers in many 

 streams about London, and the water parsnip's 

 pale green foliage waves at the very bottom, for it 

 will grow with the current right over it as well as 

 at the side. Water plantain grows in every pond 

 near the metropolis ; there is some j.ust outside 

 these gardens, in a wet ha-ha. 



The huge water docks in the centre here flourish 

 at the verge of the adjacent Thames ; the marsh 

 marigold, now in seed, blooms in April in the damp 

 furrows of meadows close up to town. But in 

 this flower-pot, sunk so as to be in the water, and 

 yet so that the rim may prevent it from spreading 

 and coating the entire tank with green, is the 

 strangest of all, actually duckweed. The still 

 ponds, always found close to cattle yards, are in 

 summer green from end to end with this weed. I 

 recommend all country folk who come up to town 

 in summer time to run down here just to see duck- 

 weed cultivated once in their lives. 



In front of an ivy-grown museum there is a 



Z24 



