378 Anniversm^y Address. 



burn. Myrrhis odorata indicates that some cottager's hand 

 had once laboured the spot; but often also a garden outcast, 

 as on the banks of the Eye up towards Ayton ; and in the 

 autumn there are frosted dew-berries (Ruhus ccesius) by the 

 pathway, acid to the taste. Cow-parsnip in the pasture speaks 

 for a considerable modicum of clay in the soil; the great white 

 Ox-eye (the Greeks ought to have dedicated it to Juno) accom- 

 panies it, as well as the brilliant blue Geranium dissectum. 

 Then there are the wild Basil {Clinopodium vulgar e) ; wild 

 Marjoram, plentiful; Poterium sanguisorha on rocks, but rare; 

 dwelling too among the rock fissures there are Sedum acre, 

 the wild Thyme, the rock Cistus, Knautia arvensis, Allium 

 vineale, and Thalictrum minus. This Thalictrum, when 

 grown in a pot and kept clipped, forms a cunning substitute 

 for Adiantum Capillus Veneris. Here is Fedia olitoria also ; 

 Stachys arvensis among the field soil where gravelly ; and the 

 Pimpernel searches out with its scarlet eyes the red soil in 

 which it luxuriates. The roses are Rosa tomentosa and R. 

 villosa, and near the summit of some of the banks R. spin- 

 osissima. ^sperw/a oc?orato frequents the wooded side ; there 

 are primroses and cowslips in their season ; Viola liirta 

 glances from some secret corner among the rocks ; the Carline 

 thistle finds some sun-beat, scantily grassy bank, suited to its 

 arid nature ; the Spindle tree can also find sustenance among 

 the rocky interstices ; and where moisture trickles down, you 

 unexpectedly come upon a bush of Hemp Agrimony, remind- 

 ing you, like Thalictrum, of a sea-side influence penetrating 

 inland far beyond the tide. Polystichum aculeatum and 

 Poly podium Dryopteris are the more select ferns. The 

 mosses, moreover, are of some of the rarer kinds. Having, a 

 short time previously, visited Roddam dene, I w^as often re- 

 minded of similarities ; both are dry, both have a red soil con- 

 stituted of Red Sandstone debris, while the mosses often 

 coincide, and testify to the presence of lime in both kinds of 

 rock; some of the Roddam sandstones " containing as much 

 as 40 per cent, of lime." (Tate, in '^' New Flora of Northum- 

 berland and Durham/' p. 5.) Thus Anomodon viticulosus, 



