Botanizing at OaJcslwtt Heath. 275 



tolerably clear space of wet black earth, the bog pimpernel, 

 Anagallis tenella, has covered it with its tiny Horizontal stems 

 and fresh green dot-like leaves ; but it is out of flower, and we 

 see only half its beauty. The next find is Lycopodium inun- 

 datum, in large tufts, deliciously green and in very luxurious 

 condition. After placing a number of such things in the vas- 

 culum, and adding a few roots to the store in the basket for 

 addition to our collection of living curiosities, we make a general 

 survey of the scene, and are as much delighted with our feet 

 reeking in the bog as an hour ago when we trod the dry sand 

 and inhaled the bleak air upon the cone. The heaths have 

 entirely changed their character, yet here are all the same 

 species, E. tetralix with its lovely terminal umbels of soft rose- 

 bells, E. cinerea with whorled racemes of purplish red, E. v.agans 

 with its crowded spikes of pink blossoms, and Galluna vulgaris, 

 as fresh in bloom as in August, and of several shades of colour, 

 from rich fiery crimson to deep dull purple. This was one dis- 

 tinct feature in the scene, the freshness of the flowers as com- 

 pared with their comparatively faded condition on the dry bleak 

 uplands. Next we observe that several spikes of pure white 

 flowers were to be found on E. tetralix and E. cinerea, and 

 then we discovered that we were not among a mere under- 

 growth of heath, for the plants had the character of specimens 

 with distinct stems, freely branched and tree-like in all their 

 characters. A specimen of ling measured three feet six inches 

 in height, and specimens of two and a-half to three feet 

 were plentiful on every hand, and these all in wet bog and 

 deeply bedded among Sphagnum, Lycojpodium, and innumerable 

 mosses, lichens, and rushes. But there was yet another feature 

 of this scene observable, and strange that we did not see that 

 first. The rich colourings of the heaths were mingled with a 

 general haze of deep orange, which we found to result from an 

 immense profusion of blossom spikes — the blossoms now closed 

 and the seed ripening — of the bog asphodel, Narthecium ossi- 

 jragum, which after all is the prevailing weed here, and only 

 escaped notice at first because it had passed its prime, and had 

 ceased to glow with its bright shades of amber, orange, and 

 gold. From this charming spot we departed reluctantly, with 

 the vasculum and basket crowded, and our pockets wet with 

 tufts of bog containing rooted plants which were to be taken 

 home alive for culture in the garden. 



Now we began to know something of the bog. The inci- 

 pient wood thickened as we progressed, along the boundary line, 

 and we soon found that we were traversing the bed of a great 

 boggy watercourse between two distinct forests, a sort of low 

 channel, about 250 feet broad, consisting of a spongy surface of 

 vegetation, chiefly rushes and aquatic grasses, and that at every 



