. The wild-flowers of Selborne and other papers . as it is sometimes calledfrom its time of flowering, the winter heliotrope, hasfirmly established itself. It is often in blossom asearly as January, and with its fragrant flowers is notan unwelcomed intruder, except when it strays beyondthe limits of the shrubbery. In the garden at Swain-ston, consecrated by Tennysons lines beginning— Nightingales warbled without,Within was weeping for thee, the plant is remarkably abundant. John Ray noted the broad-leaved spurge as com-ing up spontaneously here in my own orchard atBlack Notley, and a specimen
. The wild-flowers of Selborne and other papers . as it is sometimes calledfrom its time of flowering, the winter heliotrope, hasfirmly established itself. It is often in blossom asearly as January, and with its fragrant flowers is notan unwelcomed intruder, except when it strays beyondthe limits of the shrubbery. In the garden at Swain-ston, consecrated by Tennysons lines beginning— Nightingales warbled without,Within was weeping for thee, the plant is remarkably abundant. John Ray noted the broad-leaved spurge as com-ing up spontaneously here in my own orchard atBlack Notley, and a specimen of this uncommonplant, gathered by his friend Dr. Dale in Raysorchard, is preserved in Buddies Herbarium at theSouth Kensington Museum. A few years ago thewriter visited Rays house on Dewlands, now, alas!burnt to the ground, and searched in vain for thebroad-leaved spurge. The place has been muchaltered since the great naturalist died there in 1705,and the orchard has been mostly stubbed up. Anancient pear - tree, however, was standing, which. KAV (From an oldnugra b. 1628: d. 17 •S) P^LOWERS OF THE FIELD 85 tradition alleged to have been planted by the botanisthimself. And beneath its lichen-covered branchesthere was growing among the potatoes a most rareand interesting weed. It was the lovely bluepimpernel {Anagallis ccurulea, Sch.). Seldom, indeed,is this dainty little annual met with, but once seen itsbeauty will never be forgotten. Old Gerarde and theearly botanists regarded it as a distinct species, andcalled it the blew-flowred or female pimpernell, indistinction to the male or scarlet pimpernell, or poormans weather-glass. Once or twice only had thewriter seen this delicate and lovely variety of the scarletAnagallis; and there, in one of the most interestingof British localities, in the garden of the house onDewlands—the home of the celebrated John Ray,where he wrote his Synopsis of British Plants, thefirst true English Flora—beneath the venerable pear-tr
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectplants, bookyear1906
