58 FAMILIAR WILD FLOWERS. 



long 1 time in flower, and even when not in blossom its 

 bright green leaves and the way in which it covers a large 

 area with its trailing masses of foliage are amply sufficient 

 to recommend it. It does best on a low bank or rockery, 

 but those who have not the delight of a garden may 

 cultivate it to great advantage as a pot-plant. Many a 

 window-sill in the smoky and stifling air of our great 

 towns is brightened, amidst the squalor and depressing 

 dinginess, by the living green of its long pendulous stems 

 and foliage, and the rich gold of its kindly blossoms. A 

 friend who saw the drawing from which our illustration is 

 taken was very much puzzled because the stem was thickest 

 at the top, and yet when he turned the drawing upside down 

 all the flowers then seemed to be pointing the wrong way ; 

 but his difficulties were at an end when we explained the 

 trailing nature of the plant ; and it is very interesting to 

 notice how in all such cases, despite the downward direction 

 of the stem, the leaves and flowers that clothe it will always 

 aspire towards the light. A sloping bank well covered 

 with the blossoms of the little moneywort all facing up- 

 wards to the sun is a constellation to be enjoyed, and we 

 strongly advise our readers to put themselves in the way 

 of enjoying it as soon as possible. In many places the 

 plant is called the creeping Jenny, and under this name it 

 is sold in Covent Garden and hawked about the streets 

 of London. Far away from the coster's barrow or the 

 salesman's stall slowly runs a river through the rich green 

 meadows ; those who would skirt its banks must not be 

 too nervous about damp boots, for great hills rise on 

 either side, and the valley is often more or 'less flooded. 

 As we pursue our way the water-rat that we have startled 

 plunges with a sudden dash into the stream and breaks 



