Nature Watch, with Ron Freethy

THE wildlife around our coast in July and August can be spectacular.

All you have to do is to take your time and examine every plant closely.

I soon found two six spot burnet moths emerging from their cocoons. Soon they will be mating and laying their eggs on the ragwort which has been the subject of a recent article.

This is the time of year when even the simplest of cameras can be used. In the old days many naturalists had collections of pressed flowers which soon lost their colour.

How much better it is to record our native flowers on film.

One of the most beautiful flowers of the coastline is the common century, which has delicate pink flowers and obviously thrives on sandy soil.

This plant has no medical uses but the same cannot be said about the comfrey.

Comfrey not only grows around the coast but can be found in almost every hedgerow in East Lancashire.

Few plants have been of more value than the comfrey, which used to be known as knitbone.

Before the days when everyone lived close to a chemists shop every household had its medicine chest and nobody would be without comfrey. In these cottages comfrey leaves were hung up to dry and were used to treat bruises and breaks. Before plaster of paris the broken limb would be set in a splint and then packed with comfrey leaves. Did knitbone actually work?

Medical evidence suggests that the juice of a comfrey poultice when applied to the skin dilated the blood vessels and therefore improved the blood supply.

The bruises were therefore eased and the healing process was accelerated.

The list of flowers to be seen during the next few weeks is very long so why don't you get out your camera, a guide book to flowers and enjoy yourself.

If you manage to take a good picture, why not send it to Nature Watch and have your picture used to illustrate our Nature Spy section.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.