1

species is the Spotted Orchis, with smooth shining spotted leaves, and a dense spike of pinkish flowers. There is also the Purple Orchis, the Bird's-nest Orchis,3 and the Helleborines, with occasionally one or two others. Many of the species prefer a calcareous soil, and some of the most attractive grow on open downs. They are all interesting and instructive when studied. by the light of modern investigation.

The Stinking Iris 5 is one of the wild representatives of the Garden Iris, or "Flag." It has sword-shaped leaves and purplish flowers. When ripe, the threelimbed capsule splits down each division and exposes the bright red seeds. It is by no means uncommon in the chalky woods of the South, but is rare in the North. The leaves when crushed have a strong odour, which is sickly and oppressive, but hardly fœtid.

The curious" Herb Paris "6 is very local, but it occurs generally in woods. It is one of the plants which, when once seen, will always afterwards be recognized, from its weird and singular appearance.

The sweet little "Lily of the Valley "7 we have seen extending for a great distance over the ground in some of the Kentish woods and elsewhere.

"The lily-of-the-vale, whose virgin flower

Trembles at every breeze, beneath its leafy bower,"

is sometimes called "Jacob's Ladder," and is considered the type of humility. The fragrance of its fresh blossoms is universally admired, and it is by

1 Orchis maculata.

2 Orchis mascula.

3 Neottia nidus-avis.

5 Iris fætidissima.

6 Paris quadrifolia.
7 Convallaria majalis.

4

Cephalanthera.

G

no means surprising that many poets have sung its praises. The larger, but less admired, and less common "Solomon's Seal," is sometimes found in woods.

The wild wood Hyacinth, with its drooping blue flowers, is so common and so great a favourite that a spring nosegay of wild flowers would seem imperfect without it. Children will always call them "bluebells," although the Campanula alone merits

1 Polygonatum multiflorum.

2 Scilla nutans.

that name. In spring some woods seem to be carpeted with green and blue from the profusion of these flowers, which deserve always to be associated with "buttercups and daisies" and primroses.

The only wild Garlic we have met with in woods is the Ramsons.1 It has a strong odour of garlic, and is said to be a great favourite with the Russians as a seasoning for their food :

"Eat leeks in Tide, and ramsons in May,

And all the year after physicians may play."

After all these there still remain some plants which have flowers so insignificant that they are not popularly classed with flowers at all, but receive the general and vague designation of grasses. Not that they are all grasses which the popular application of the word includes, but they are grass-like in their appearance and in the character of their flowers. This group includes the rushes, the sedges, and the grasses. The rushes are associated in one's mind with marshes and swamps, but there are what are termed wood-rushes, which have leaves that resemble those of grasses and the flowers of rushes. Two of these may be named as the most common-they are the Hairy Wood-rush 2 and the Great Wood-rush.3 The leaves are fringed with long soft hairs, unlike those of any grass; and when in flower the rigid, erect, branched flower-stalk, not to hint at botanical distinctions, more resembles a rush.

The sedges again resemble grasses in the form of their leaves, but they are more rigid, usually larger

1 Allium ursinum. 2 Luzula pilosa. 3 Luzula sylvatica.

and coarser, and more addicted to swamps. The wood Club-rush 1 reaches the height of three feet in damp corners of woods; the great drooping serge,2 with its long pendulous "cat's-tail" spikes is easily recognized; as also the pendulous wood-sedge,3 with its looser, more straggling spikes. There are also a few smaller species commonly sylvan in their habits, but offering no special cause for mention.

5

4

The true grasses-some of them are the same as are found in lanes and by roadsides, such as the common Cock's-foot, and the sweet-scented vernal grass, which has the odour of melilot in drying, and, in fact, gives the odour to new-mown hay. Then there will be found the tall Brome-grass; the rough Bromegrass; the wood Couch-grass; the Oat-grass; the wood reed; and the false Brome-grass.10 In addition to these will doubtless be the tufted Hair-grass,11 and the Soft-grass,12 which will not by any means exhaust the list.

8

Grasses are particularly subject to two kinds of parasites. One consists of a soot-like dust which smothers and destroys the flowering heads, and is known as smut,13 common to all the cultivated grains as well as the grasses. The other is a black, hard, horny body, which absorbs and takes the place of

1 Scirpus sylvaticus.

2 Carex pendula.

3 Carex sylvatica.

4 Anthoxanthum odoratum.

5 Bromus giganteus.

6 Bromus asper.

7 Triticum caninum.

8 Arrhenatherum avenaceum.

9 Calamagrostis epigeios. Brachypodium sylvaticum.

10

11 Aira cæspitosa.
12 Holcus mollis.

13 Ustilago carbo.

some of the seeds, standing out like a spur from the scales of the flower-heads, and is known as "Ergot." These are two of the most common diseases of the grass tribe, all the world over, except perhaps the "rust " and the "mildew," which are about equally common. As for the insectivorous pests of grasses these are almost multitudinous. We can only suggest that the vegetable and animal parasites of the grasses and rushes are so numerous that an entire volume of considerable size might be filled with mere descriptions of them.