ESCAPED FROM GARDENS 83 



ing Sailor, or Kenilworth Ivy, as it is often called, 

 and the same persistent little vine could be seen 

 clinging to the stone heaps a long way up the road. 



" See the patch of splendid blue Larkspur over in 

 that shabby field," cried Flower Hat, standing up and 

 grasping the reins. "Did you ever before see such a 

 mass of blue growing wild? It 's as if the sky had 

 fallen." 



"It is fine, certainly," I said, crawling under the 

 fence (which here was of bars instead of stones or 

 rails), followed by Flower Hat, who for obvious 

 reasons, decided to climb over. 



"It 's not Larkspur. It is Bugloss, orBlueweed, 

 as they call it," I said, as I drew nearer the patch of 

 color. 



"Now here again is a plain, unforced illustra- 

 tion of a flower that must be seen in -its un- 

 troubled haunt to be known at its best. To look at 

 that bank of blue, it appears, as you now said, as if 

 a bit of sky had fallen. Yes, you are improving, 

 Flower Hat. A year ago you would have said * blue 

 silk' instead of 'sky,' as a simile. Now pick a 

 stalk, and you have an odd, but a rather untidy 

 looking flower, its bright blue suppressed by the 

 poor quality of its foliage ; in truth it comes very 

 close to the weed limit." 



