GRASS HEATHS 



203 



spicuous. In autumn this type of grass heath may be recognised 

 by the reddish-brown colour due to these three sets of plants. 

 It could not be mistaken for a Nardus heath, which is whitish in 

 appearance. The chief plants, in addition to those already men- 

 tioned, are : the Bog- Asphodel, the Marsh Pennywort, the Bird's- 

 Eye Primrose. The Bog Moss is often present in considerable 

 quantity in the wettest part of the heath. All these plants like 

 a wet situation. The Bog - Asphodel 

 (Narthecium ossifragum) has the habit 

 of an Iris, and the same sword-shaped 

 leaves ; but its flowers are like those of 

 the Lily. It is difficult to say when it 

 is most beautiful, when in flower in July 

 or in fruit at the end of August or 

 September. In the Lake district it is 

 often seen covering extensive tracts, and 

 the deep yellow flowers with their scarlet 

 anthers and woolly filaments are very strik- 

 ing when seen in a mass. The colouring 

 of the fruit in autumn is in its own way 

 as beautiful ; the perianth of the flower 

 has turned to orange, the fruit is a red- 

 dish-brown, easily recognisable at a dis- 

 tance. The Marsh Pennywort (Hydrocotyle 

 vulgaris) is thus named from the leaf, 

 which is in the shape of a penny. The 

 leaf-stalk is attached to the centre of the 



leaf. The flowers are very minute and FIG. 65. Bog-Asphodel, with 

 greenish, with a tinge of pink. The stem 

 creeps along the wet mud of the bog or 



fruit at left (Narthecium 

 ossifragum}. 



marshy ground of the heath, rooting at every node and giving 

 out small tufts of leaves and flowers. The Bird's-Eye Prim- 

 rose is very different in appearance from the Common Prim- 

 rose. It has smooth leaves, which are white and mealy beneath, 

 and umbels of lilac flowers with a yellow eye ; the calyx is nearly 

 as long as the corolla, and the fruit is twice as long as the calyx. 

 It is a plant confined to the northern counties of England, to one 

 or two counties of Scotland, and is unrecorded in Ireland. 



