John Keble's Parishes: A History of Hursley and Otterbourne Part 17

TRAVELLER'S JOY (Clematis Vitalba).--Locally called Old Man's Beard, most appropriately, as its curling, silvery ma.s.ses of seeds hang in wreaths over the hedges. There is a giant trunk growing up from the moat of Merdon Castle.

MEADOW RUE (Thalictrum flavum).--Handsome foliage and blossoms, showing much of anthers, growing on the banks of the Itchen ca.n.a.l.

WINDFLOWER (Anemone nemorosa).--Smellfoxes, as the villagers'

children inelegantly term this elegant flower, spreading its pearl- white blossom, by means of its creeping root, all over the copses, and blus.h.i.+ng purple as the season advances.

WATER CROWFOOT (Ranunculus aquatilis).--The white flowers, with yellow eyes, make quite a sheet over the ponds of Cranbury Common, etc. Ivy-leaved (R. hederaceus).--Not so frequent. The ivy-shaped leaves float above, the long fibrous ones go below. When there is lack of moisture, leaves and flower are sometimes so small that it has been supposed to be a different species. It was once in a stagnant pond in Boyatt Lane, but is extinct again.

b.u.t.tERCUP or CROWFOOT - (R. sceleratus) Highly-polished petals, which spangle (R. acris) the fields and hedges with gold.

(R. repens) All much alike; all haunting (R. bulbosus) kitchen-gardens and pastures, where the cattle, disliking their taste, leave the stems standing up alone.

SPEARWORT (R. flammula).--Flower like the others, but with narrow leaves.

GOLDILOCKS (R. auricomus).--More delicate, upper leaves spear-shaped, lower pinnate. In the borders of the copse wood of Otterbourne House.

CORN CROWFOOT (R. Ficaria).--Small, growing between the corn with hooked capsules.

SMALL CELANDINE (R. Bcaria).--The real b.u.t.tercup of childhood, with its crown of numerous s.h.i.+ning petals, making stars along the banks at the first breath of spring. One of the most welcome of flowers.

KING CUPS (Caltha pal.u.s.tris).--Large, gorgeous flowers, in every wet place, making a golden river in a dell at Cranbury.

GREEN h.e.l.lEBORE (h.e.l.leborus viridis).--Under an oak-tree, in a hedgerow leading from King's Lane, Standon, and in Hursley.

FUMITORY (Fumaria officinalis).--The pretty purple blossoms and graceful bluish foliage often spring up in gardens where they are treated as weeds.

YELLOW F. (F. lutea).--An old wall at Hursley.

CLIMBING F. (Corydalis claviculata).--Cuckoo bushes. Standon, and in Hursley.

COLUMBINE (Aquilegia vulgaris).--This group of purple doves, or of Turkish slippers, does not here merit the term vulgaris, though, wherever it occurs, it is too far from a garden to be a stray.

Ampfield Wood, Lincoln's Copse, King's Lane, and Crabwood have each furnished a specimen.

BARBERRY (Berberis vulgaris).--This handsome shrub of yellow wood, delicate cl.u.s.ters of yellow flowers, and crimson fruit in long oval bunches has been sedulously banished from an idea that it poisons gra.s.s in its vicinity. There used to be a bush in Otterbourne House grounds, but it has disappeared, and only one now remains in the hedge of Pitt Downs.

POPPY (Papaver Rhaeas).--Making neglected fields glorious with a crimson mantle, visible for miles in the sun.

GREATER CELANDINE (Chelidonium majus).--Yellow flowers, very frail, handsome pinnate leaf--lane at Brambridge, Standon, and in Hursley.

CRUCIFERA

ROCKET (Diplotaxis tenuifolia).--Seen at Brambridge.

CHARLOCK (Sinapis arvensis).--Making fields golden.

WHITE C. (S. alba).--Standon, Hursley.

JACK-BY-THE-HEDGE (Sisymbrium alliaria).--Seen at Brambridge.

LADY'S SMOCK (Cardamine pratensis).--No doubt named because the pearly flowers look on a moist meadow like linen bleaching.

Sometimes double in rich ground.

HAIRY CARDAMINE (C. hirsuta).--Hursley.

YELLOW ROCKET (Barbarea vulgaris).--Road near Chandler's Ford. Near bridge over Itchen.

WATERCRESS (Nasturtium officinale).--Everywhere in running water, and now Poolhole is made into a nursery for it.

SHEPHERD'S PURSE (Thlaspi Bursa-pastoris).--Even the purses are to be seen before we well know the tiny white flowers to be in blossom.

PENNYCRESS (T. arvense).--Larger, and uplifting a spike of rounded, fan-shaped capsules.

WILD MIGNONETTE (Reseda lutea).--Mignonette all but the perfume-- chalk-pits.

DYER'S ROCKET (R. luteola).--Slenderer and more spiked; more common.

ROCK ROSE (Helianthemum vulgare).--There is an elegance and delicacy of colour about this little cistus which renders it one of the most charming of the many stars of the wayside, as it grows on Compton Hill.

SWEET VIOLET (Viola odorata).--The colour, purple or white or pink, seems to depend on the soil. White are the most common on the chalky side, blue on the gravel.

MARSH V. (V. pal.u.s.tris).--Small and pale, with round leaves. Seen at a spring in Otterbourne Park. (V. permixta).--Pinky--Kiln-yard, Otterbourne.

DOG V. (V. canina).--In every wood, rich and handsome.

SNAKE V. (V. hirta).--More delicate and small, growing in turf-- Pleasure Grounds, Cranbury.

(V. Riviniana).--Hursley Park.

(V. Reichenbachiana).--Dane Lane. The three last are very probably only sports of canina.

CREAM-COLOURED V. (V. lactea).--More skim-milk coloured, but known by lanceolate leaves--cuckoo bushes.

PANSY (V. tricolor).--Everywhere in fallow fields. In rich soil the upper petals become purple.

SUNDEW -

(Drosera rotundifolia) The curious, hairy, dewy leaves (D. intermedia) and flowers that never open in full day are to be found in the marshes near Hiltingbury.

MILKWORT (Polygala vulgaris).--Small and blue on Otterbourne Hill, as a st.i.tch in the embroidery of the turf; but larger, blue, pink, or white in the water-meadows beside the Itchen, deserving the American name of May-wings.

CARYOPHYLLEAE

DEPTFORD PINK (Dianthus Armeria).--This used to grow in a field near Highbridge, but has been destroyed, either purposely or by fencing.

BLADDER CAMPION (Silene inflata).--Showing its white flowers and swelling calyxes everywhere.

COMMON CATCHFLY (S. anglica).--Small and insignificant among corn.