THE LIVING GARMENT 57 



of inches high, deepest green in colour, with many 

 small yet conspicuous blossoms, white and rose 

 colour, streaked with purple, and for the pupil of its 

 eye, one spot of divine yellow. It is a flower that 

 brightens the eye that sees it, since no person can 

 look at it and not feel gladdened at the sight. It 

 blossoms from July to October, and I always find it 

 on very steep slippery downs, often where the chalk 

 crops out of the thin soil, and I imagine the cause 

 of this to be that this plant to save itself must be 

 out of reach of the nibbling sheep. All other herbs 

 may be eaten down often to the roots without being 

 destroyed or defeated in their object of ripening their 

 seed at last; but at the slightest pull the eyebright 

 comes up, root and branch, and I think that most 

 if not all of the plants that grow on accessible ground 

 must get eaten up before they can ripen their seed. 

 Why the plant comes up so easily in the sheep's 

 mouth, or in your hand if you attempt ever so gently 

 to pull one small flowering branchlet, is the eye- 

 bright's secret. The plant is supposed to be a semi- 

 parasite that feeds on the roots of other plants, and 

 on examining a piece of turf you find that its root- 

 stems scarcely penetrate to the soil under the mat of 

 roots of the other plants; that from its root-stems 

 very fine hair-like fibres branch out, and are loosely 

 fastened to the grass roots ; but whether these fine 

 fibres suck the sap of the roots they attach them- 

 selves to, or merely feed on exudations and other 



