FULL SUMMERTIDE 155 



rosy veil over the graves of departed lady's-smocks. 

 Spotted orchises have leapt from the mould with 

 torches of pale purple. Few people care to know 

 how grandly this plant (not to be confused with the 

 early purple orchis) repays cultivation, especially a 

 robust variety, sold by nurserymen as the Kilmar- 

 nock orchis. Planted in generous garden soil, it 

 throws up spikes eighteen inches long, and well- 

 established clumps will carry as many as a score of 

 these. From the river margin the great water-dock 

 (Rumex hydrolapathum) displays its splendid foliage, 

 more sumptuous than many a costly exotic grown 

 for table decoration. It was on this plant that the 

 caterpillar of the Large Copper butterfly (Polyom- 

 matus dispar) used to feed, a species almost certainly 

 extinct in Britain, the last recorded specimen having 

 been obtained in Huntingdonshire in 1847. How- 

 ever, butterflies have a mysterious way of reappear- 

 ing after a prolonged absence; the food of this 

 insect is still plentiful in the country, and some 

 watchful, lucky entomologist may strike the short 

 cut to fame by discovering it afresh. 



Kuskin insisted in one of his earlier works that 

 the beauty of natural forms never depends on violent 

 curves, the most intricate and ornate arrangements 



