They have done
much in this way on the Upper Thames, though not on the lower reaches of
the river. The "sweet sedge," so called--the smell is rather sickly to
most tastes--is now found on the Thames near Dorchester, and between
Kingston and Teddington among other places, though it was once thought
only to flourish on the Norfolk and Fen rivers. It is not a sedge at all,
but related to the common arum, and its flower, like the top joints of the
little finger, represents the "lords and ladies" of the hedges. So the
burr reed, among the prettiest of all the upright plants growing out of
the water, is not a reed, but a reed mace. Its bright green stems and
leaves, and spiky balls, are found in every suitable river from Berkshire
to the Amur, and in North America almost to the Arctic Circle. In the same
way the yellow water villarsia, which though formerly only common near
Oxford, has greatly increased on the Thames until its yellow stars are
found as low as the Cardinal's Well at Hampton Court, extends across the
rivers of Europe and Asia as far as China. The cosmopolitan ways of these
water plants are easily explained. They live almost outside competition.
Pages:
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35