in the clefts of the rocks. In ravines flourishes the
blood-red crane's-bill, and the common harebell, so
desiderated on the granite formation, but not found
there, may here be met with.
Mr. Johns says:—
"A sloping bank on the right hand of Caerthillian valley, about a hundred yards from the sea, produces, I think, more botanical rarities than any other spot of equal dimensions in Great Britain. Here are crowded together in so small a space that I actually covered with my hat growing specimens all together of Lotus hispidus, Trifolium Bocconi, T. Molinerii, and T. Strictuni. The first of these is far from common, the others grow nowhere else in Great Britain."
The cross-leaved heath, found elsewhere pretty generally, with its little cluster of pale waxlike bells at the head of the stalk, does not affect the Lizard. The woad, wherewith our British ancestors dyed themselves, flourishes abundantly in the Meneage peninsula. It has bright yellow flowers in panicles growing on an upright stem, some two or three feet high, and appears in June and July.
The woad (Isatis tinctoria) yields true indigo, but it contains only about one-thirtieth of the quantity found on the indigo tinctoria cultivated in India. The leaves are ground to a paste in a mill, and then allowed to ferment during eight or twelve days. After that they are formed into balls and dried.
In ancient times this pasty mess was directly used in dyeing by those who carried on all kinds of
