228 



J U L Y. 



Boys will now be seen in the evening twi- 

 light, with match, gunpowder, etc. and green 

 boughs for self-defence, busy in storming the 

 paper-built castles of wasps, the larvae of which 

 furnish anglers with plenty of excellent baits. 

 Spring-flowers have given place to a very dif- 

 ferent class. Climbing plants mantle and fes- 

 toon every hedge. The wild hop, the bryony, 

 the clematis or traveller's-joy, the large, white 

 convolvulus whose bold, yet delicate flowers 

 will display themselves to a very late period of 

 the year vetches, and white and yellow ladies' 

 bed-straw invest every bush with their varied 

 beauty, and breathe on the passers by their 

 faint summer sweetness. The Campanula ro- 

 timdifolia, the hare-bell of poets, and the blue- 

 bell of botanists, arrests the eye on every dry 

 bank, rock, and wayside, with its airy stems 

 and beautiful cerulean bells. There too we 

 behold wild scabiouses, mallows, the woody- 

 nightshade, wood-betony, and centaury; the 

 red and white striped convolvulus also throws 

 its flowers under your feet; corn-fields glow 

 with whole armies of scarlet poppies, cockle, 

 and the rich azure plumes of the viper's 

 buglos; even thistles, the curse of Adam, 



