214 BRITISH FERTILITY. 



the American species. But England is the paradise 

 of snails. The trail of the snail is over all. 1 have 

 counted a dozen on the bole of a single tree. I have 

 seen them hanging to the bushes and hedges like fruit. 

 I heard a lady complain that they got into the kitchen, 

 crawling about by night and hiding by day, and baf- 

 fling her efforts to rid herself of them. The thrushes 

 eat them, breaking their shells upon a stone. They 

 are said to be at times a serious pest in the garden, 

 devouring the young plants at night. When did the 

 American snail devour anything, except, perhaps, 

 now and then a strawberry? The bird or other 

 creature that feeds on the large black snail of Brit- 

 ain, if such there be, need never go hungry, for I saw 

 these snails even on the tops of mountains. 



The same opulence of life that characterizes the 

 animal world in England characterizes the vegetable. 

 I was especially struck, not so much with the variety 

 of wild flowers, as with their numbers and wide dis- 

 tribution. The ox-eye daisy and the buttercup are 

 good samples of the fecundity of most European 

 plants. The fox-glove, the corn-poppy, the speedwell, 

 the wild hyacinth, the primrose, the various vetches, 

 and others grow in nearly the same profusion. The 

 forget-me-not is very common, and the little daisy is 

 nearly as universal as the grass. Indeed, as I have 

 already stated in another chapter, nearly all the Brit- 

 ish wild flowers seemed to grow in the open manner 

 and in the same abundance as our golden-rods and 

 purple asters. They show no shyness, no wildness. 



