Note 53 — TINTERNE ABBEY.
Reading edition
The naturalist will not leave the area of the Abbey without noticing an alder-tree in the northern transept, covered with aphides, to which a long train of black ants have for some years been observed continually coming and departing through the sacristy door, and pacing along the pediment of one of the lofty columns to the root of the tree. This is the only procession now visible in the Abbey, and is formed, not for devotion, but for a lowlier, yet not less imperative purpose—the alder-tree is their refectory, and the sweet exuviæ of the plant-lice form their food.—Thomas’s Tinterne, p. 26.
b He enumerates the following as indigenous in the fruitful vale of Tinterne:—Delphinium consolida, Aquilegia vulgaris, Saponaria officinalis, Eriophorum polystachion, Galanthus nivalis, Narcissus pseudo-narcyssus, Allium Carinatum, Ornithogalum Pyrennaicum, Acorus calamus, Euphorbia Cyparissias, Anemone pulsatilla, A. Appenina, A. nemorosa.