John Keble's Parishes: A History of Hursley and Otterbourne Part 22

NIPPLEWORT (Lapsana communis).--Too frequent weed.

DANDELION (Leontodon Taraxac.u.m).--How can its praise for glorious brilliant flowers and stems fit for chains be pa.s.sed by, or for the "clocks" that furnish auguries!

(L. autumnalis).--Is this a separate species, or the dandelion blowing in autumn?

GO-TO-BED AT NOON (Tragopogon pratensis).--Beautiful when open early in the day, beautiful when the long calyx is closed, and most beautiful with its handsome winged pappus--King's Lane, Otterbourne Churchyard.

WILD LETTUCE (Lactuca muralis).--On heaps of flints.

MOUSEAR (Thrincia hirta).--Sulphur-coloured, small, and held to be an excellent remedy for whooping-cough.

OX-TONGUE (Helminthia echioides).--The rough leaf is well named.

HAWKBIT (Hieracium autumnale).

(Apargia hispida).--In cornfields.

SHEEP'S-BIT (Jasione montana).--Cranbury Common.

SOW THISTLE (Sonchus arvensis).

(S. pal.u.s.tris).

WHORTLEBERRY (Vaccinium Myrtillus).--Ampfield Wood.

CROSS-LEAVED HEATH (Erica Tetralix) Otterbourne Hill, the glory of early autumn.

BELL HEATHER (E. cinerea).

LING (Calluna vulgaris) BIRD'S NEST (Monotropa Hypopitys).--South Lynch Wood.

ASH (Fraxinus excelsior).

PRIVET (Ligustrum vulgare).--Lane leading to the Itchen.

GENTIAN TRIBE

THE PERIWINKLE (Vinca minor).--Curiously irregular in blossoming.

One spring the ground is covered with blue stars, another only with evergreen trails. Its only habitat here is Lincoln's Copse.

YELLOWWORT (Chlora perfoliata).--Ampfield Wood.

CENTAURY (Erythraea Centaurea).--Cranbury.

GENTIAN (Gentiana Pneunomanthe).--Baddesley bog, Cranbury.

(G. Amarella).--Pitt Down.

BOGBEAN (Menyanthes trifolium).--This lovely flower abides in the wet banks of the Itchen.

BINDWEED (Convolvulus sepium).--Pure and white.

(C. minor).--In shades of pink. Called lilies by the country-folk.

DODDER (Cuscuta Epithymum).--Red threads forming a beaded network over the furze.

(C. Trifolii).--Coa.r.s.er fibres, smaller b.a.l.l.s of blossom, in some years strangling the clover.

WOODY NIGHTSHADE (Solanum Dulcamara).--Purple flowers, red berries, beautiful everywhere.

(S. nigrum).--White-flowered, black-berried. At Cranbury, and occasionally elsewhere.

DEADLY NIGHTSHADE (Atropa belladonna).--Used to be near the front door at Hursley Park.

HENBANE (Hyoscyamus niger).--Formerly on the top of Compton Hill, and at the angle of the lane leading to Bunstead.

BORAGE TRIBE

MULLEIN (Verbasc.u.m nigrum). The handsome spikes (V. Thapsus) everywhere.

(V. Blattaria).--Formerly in hedge of cottage at Silkstede.

GROMWELL (Lithospermum officinale).--Beside Winchester Road on way to Twyford.

FORGET-ME-NOT (Myosotis pal.u.s.tris).--Itchen meadows.

MOUSE-EAR, SCORPION GRa.s.s (M. versicolor).--Stubblefields.

(M. sylvatica).--Ampfield.

(M. arvensis).--Everywhere.

COMFREY (Symphytum officinale).--Itchen banks.

HOUND'S TONGUE (Cynoglossum officinale).--Merdon Hill, but it has disappeared from Otterbourne.

PRIMROSE (Primula vulgaris).--Has any one observed the tiny blossoms of seedlings of the first year? Now and then there are stalked heads like oxlips, white or red varieties.

COWSLIP (P. veris).--Covering some few fields, and delightful for cowslip b.a.l.l.s. Sweetest of scents.

YELLOW LOOSESTRIFE (Lysimachia vulgaris).--A beautiful shrub by the water-side.

MONEYWORT (L. Nummularia).--The Creeping-Jenny of rock-work, etc.

YELLOW PIMPERNEL (L. nemorum).--Covering the ground in woods with its delicate pentagon stars.

PIMPERNEL (Anagallis arvensis).--A beautiful blue variety once came up in the kitchen-garden at Otterbourne House, and prevailed for several years.

(A. tenella).--In the bogs towards Cuckoo Bushes.

l.a.b.i.aTAE

WATER FIGWORT - (Scrophularia Balbisii). Both common and not beautiful.

(S. nodosa)