of this
last species into this country. You may believe as much as you please
of it. It is said that before the Romans under Julius Caesar thought it
prudent to come to England--of the coldness of which they had heard a
good deal--they procured some seeds of the Roman nettle, intending to
sow them when they landed in this country; so when they landed at
Romney, in Kent, they sowed the seeds. "And what use, papa," asked
Willy, "would nettles be to them during the cold weather in England?"
Well, they meant to nettle themselves, and so chafe their skins so as
to enable them to bear the cold better. And tough skins they must have
had, for the poison of the Roman nettle is much more severe than that
of the two common species. Camden, I believe, tells the story; as I
said, you may believe it or not. Do you see that tortoiseshell
butterfly hovering near the nettles? Its larva was a greenish-black
caterpillar with yellow stripes, and it lived, when in that state,
entirely on the leaves of the nettle; the larvae also of other kinds of
butterflies feed on this plant, as the admiral butterfly, and the
peacock butterfly. I have eaten the young shoots of the common nettles
in the spring of the year; they do not make a bad substitute for
spinach.

[Illustration: LARVA, CHRYSALIS, AND INSECT OF THE SMALL
TORTOISE-SHELL BUTTERFLY. (_Vanessa urticae._)]

How prettily the yellow flags skirt the pool; there, you see, is the
common branched bur-reed, with its sword-like leaves and round heads
of flowers; a little way in the pool is the pretty arrowhead with its
large conspicuous arrow-shaped leaves and flesh-coloured flowers, both
leaves and flowers standing several inches out of the water. In the
water, too, I see the brown leaves of the perfoliate pondweed; they
are almost transparent, and look when dry something like gold-beater's
skin. I see also the cylindrical tufts of the horn-wort with its
bristle-like leaves often several times forked. It grows entirely
under the water. See also a few rose-coloured spikes of the amphibious
persicaria.

[Illustration: YOUNG CRISTATELLA, MAGNIFIED.]

Such are some of the most conspicuous plants near our pond. It looks
likely to contain some fresh-water polyzoa, than which there are few
more beautiful tenants of the water. Here is a young one on this leaf
of persicaria; do you see it? I put it into my bottle. Now look, it
has lately been hatched from that round egg with curious hooks around
its