FOXTON-FIRBY : NOTES ON FIELD BOTANY. 



151 



away, and lies hidden we know not wliere, although we may be certain it is 

 within six feet of us. There yet remain some few localities where the 

 graceful otter can be found ; but he who wishes to observe this creature in 

 its native state must employ even more caution in his approach to its haunts 

 than is practised by even a hungry cat when creeping towards her unconscious 

 prey. You can obtain great amusement by watching the movements and 

 position of various members of the finny tribe, the habits of which may be 

 studied with advantage from the river-bank, and useful memoranda also be 

 made as to the time and conditions selected by the fish for feeding, and the 

 nature of the fly, or other food, most sought after. There are countless other 

 objects of great interest to the practical, out-of-door naturalist, as Daines 

 Barrington would have called himself — qiice nunc describere longum est. 



Amongst the most interesting members of the floral world, to my mind, 

 at least, are the various kinds of aquatic plants, not only from their places 

 of growth, but from the singular mechanical contrivances exhibited in many 

 of them for their support and safety, the perfecting of their seeds, and their 

 subsequent dissemination. All through the summer months one might 

 almost imagine that the silent pools and slow-paced rivers re-floated on their 

 limpid surfaces the flowery coronals that in the olden times were used by 

 maidens to dress them with in honour of their haunting l^aiades. 



Tringing the river-bank with its fresh verdure, we find the Mare's-tail, 

 Hippuris vulgaris, waving its green tresses of linear thickly whorled leaves, 

 in the axils of which its inconspicuous flowers are placed. The order to 

 which this plant belongs, Haloragaceoe, is unimportant, yet in the situations 

 in which it grows it is not only ornamental, but reaching, as it sometimes does, 

 two or three feet in height, it forms a screen for its more delicate and fragile 

 neighbours, and sheltering forests for water-newts and frogs. Here the 

 Yellow Water Iris, or Corn Flag, Iris Pseud-acorus, lifts its sword-shaped 

 leaves and flaunts its yellow banners, one of the showiest of our English marsh- 

 plants. This plant is interesting in an heraldic point of view, being the one 

 which is supposed to have been adopted as the Fleur-de-lis, the symbol of 

 French monarchy. It is supposed to liave been introduced into the arms of 

 France about the year 1140, being first borne by Louis VII. This monarch, 

 who had exercised regal power during the life-time of his father, had 

 probably adopted and worn it even prior to this date as his badge or cogni- 

 zance, as our own Plantagenets distinguished themselves by bearing a sprig 

 of broom ; and from this circumstance its present name may be derived, being 

 a corruption of fieur-de-Loys, or flower of Louis. Some, however, believe 



