AUTUMN 207 



Most summer flowers in fact linger on into or bloom 

 again in September. On a mullein stalk covered with 

 dry seed vessels, you will find a solitary blossom ; the 

 honeysuckle has a few blooms, pale and scentless : and 

 here and there all over the downs you will find, 

 "blooming alone," the dwarf thistle, hawkweed, rock- 

 rose, bedstraw, milfoil, viper's bugloss, harebell, 

 thyme, sweet woodruff, and many more. The scabi- 

 ous, both blue and mauve, is perhaps the commonest 

 flower at this season; and the minute delightful eye- 

 bright, the most abundant in certain spots where the 

 soil is thinnest and the turf scarcely covers the under- 

 lying chalk. But night by night the year is busy 

 with her cold fingers picking these last gems out of 

 her mantle the ornaments that accord not with her 

 faded cheeks and sorrowful eyes. 



Greatest of all seems the change with regard to in- 

 sect life: but a few days ago you moved in a world 

 teeming with millions of brilliant active beings, so 

 numerous and small and swift in their motions as to 

 be "seen rather than distinguished." And now? 

 Well, if the wind is still and the sun shines and you 

 miss and look for them, you will find a few left: a 

 bumble bee mechanically going about on his rounds 

 with a listless flight and the merest ghost of his old 

 hum ; a songless grasshopper ; a solitary fly trying to 

 appear cheerful. You look in vain for the merry little 

 blue butterflies and the grey heaths, so numerous a little 

 while ago. It is a surprise to see so splendid a crea- 



