“There was one formerly,” replied the man “that was like a needle exactly. It was above one hundred feet high, and quite thin and pointed. It used to be called the pillar of Lot’s wife; but it fell down, and some of the cliffs have fallen down since then, and more will go soon I have no doubt of it. These cliffs are always a-falling, I think.”
“I have heard,” said Mrs. Merton, “that the name of Needles is a corruption of two Saxon words signifying Undercliffe; and there appears little doubt that these rocks once formed part of the cliff, as you see they are dotted with rows of flints.”
Agnes here stooped and gathered a flower from the down. It sprang from a little hollow place in the turf, and was thus sheltered from the cold by the higher part of the hollow. “Oh! do look mamma,” cried she, “I declare I thought there was a bee in the flower.”
“It is the Bee Orchis,” said Mrs. Merton, “which is common on these chalky downs, though it is rarely found in flower later than July.”
She then showed Agnes the curious construction of the flower, and told her that the pollen of the Orchis tribe, instead of being like fine dust, was in wax-like masses. “Here is another flower,” continued she, “which is of the same species, but something different, for nothing can equal the variety of nature.”
Fig. 13.
The Bee Orchis (Orchis apifera).
Agnes compared the two, and was astonished to find how different they were, though at first she had supposed them to be the same.
They now turned back in search of Mr. Merton; and as they ascended the hill, Agnes began asking her mother some questions about light-houses.
“They are buildings,” said Mrs. Merton, “erected on rocks near the sea-shore, in which lights are exhibited all night, for the direction of mariners.”