On these blackberries, the fruit
of which was in its green state, the drone-flies and hawk-flies simply
swarmed, telling the naturalist of their multitudinous successors, who
at present are in the preliminary stages of their existence.
Among the blackberries the scarlet fruit of the woody nightshade (a
first cousin of the potato) hung in tempting clusters, and I could not
help wondering whether they would endanger the health of the young
Minsterians.
In some places the common frog-bit had grown with such luxuriance that
it had completely hidden the water, the leaves overlapping each other as
if the overcrowded plants were trying to shoulder each other out of the
way.
In most of these streamlets the conspicuous bur-reed (_Sparganium
ramosum_) grew thickly, its singular fruit being here and there visible
among the sword-like leaves. I cannot but think that the mediaeval weapon
called the "morning star" (or "morgen-stern") was derived from the
globular, spiked fruit-cluster of the bur-reed.
A few of the streams were full of the fine plant which is popularly
known by the name of bull-rush, or bulrush (_Typha latifolia_), but
which ought by rights to be called the "cat's-tail" or "reed-mace.
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