THE LIVING GARMENT 45 



of nine or ten inches ; its exceedingly thin, dark- 

 coloured, wire-like, leafless stems crowned with their 

 loose clusters of minute turquoise blue blossoms. The 

 smallness of the flowers and thread-like fineness of 

 the stems had made them invisible until seen close 

 at hand, and then how beautiful they looked ! The 

 whole level expanse, thick strewn with shining white 

 flints, appeared covered with a thin veil or mist of a 

 most exquisite blue. 



Of the more splendid one might almost say 

 bizarre effects, caused by masses of bright-coloured 

 flowers, a good many instances could be given if 

 space allowed. One must suffice. This was a very 

 dense growth of viper's bugloss covering about an 

 acre of ground on the summit of a down east of the 

 Cuckmere stream. This plant usually grows scattered 

 about even when most abundant, as I have found it 

 in some spots in Suffolk: here the rough stalks 

 studded with their intense blue flowers grew thick 

 as corn, one other plant with them namely, the 

 large woolly thistle, which grew to the same height 

 as the bugloss stalks, and had flowers of an enormous 

 size. One of these big flower-heads would have filled 

 a small coffee-cup. It struck me as most curious that 

 the purple of the thistle and the bright blue of the 

 bugloss looked so well together; but the sight was a 

 very beautiful as well as a singular one. 



I will here remark that large masses of blue flowers 

 seen under a blue sky in a strong light, however novel 



