And now for some other plants, without reference to their species, but simply to their beauty. On Ashley Common and the neighbouring grass-fields grows the moth-mullein (_Verbascum Blattaria_), dropping its yellow flowers, as they one by one expand. In the neighbouring pools, as far as Wootton, the blossoms of the great spearwort (_Ranunculus Lingua_) gleam among the reeds. There, also, the narrow-leaved lungwort (_Pulmonaria angustifolia_), with its leaves both plain and spotted, opens its blue and crimson flowers so bright, that they are known to all the children as the “snake flower,” and gathered by handfuls mixed with the spotted orchis. And the ladies’ tresses, too (_Spiranthes autumnalis_), shows its delicate brown braid on every dry field on the southern border. Besides these, the feathered pink (_Dianthus plumarius_) blooms on the cloister-walls at Beaulieu; and the Deptford pink (_Dianthus Armeria_) in the valley of the Avon at Hucklebrook, near Ibbesley. The bastard-balm (_Melittis Melissophyllum_) flaunts its white and purple blossoms over the banks of Wootton plantation, whilst at Oakley and Knyghtwood the red gladiolus crimsons the green beds of fern. Briefly, let me say that, as is the Forest soil, so are its plants. Nature ever makes some compensations. The barrenest places she ever clothes with beauty. If corn will not grow, she will give man something better. In the great woods the columbines and tutsan shine in the spring with their blue and yellow blossoms, and the wood-sorrel nestles its white flowers among the mossy roots of the oaks. In the more open spaces the foxgloves overtop the brake, and in the grassy spots the eyebright waves its white-grey crest; and not far off are sure to gleam faint crimson patches of the marsh-pimpernel, half hid in moss; whilst the swamps are fringed with the coral of the sundew. [Illustration: The King’s Gairn Brook (Another View).] CHAPTER XXII. THE ORNITHOLOGY. [Illustration: The Heronry at Vinney Ridge.]