Vv WOODS AND FIELDS 193 
used to lie down on it, and draw the blades 
as they grew, with the ground herbage of 
buttercup or hawkweed mixed among them, 
until every square foot of meadow, or mossy 
bank, became an infinite picture and _ posses- 
sion to me, and the grace and adjustment to 
each other of growing leaves, a subject of 
more curious interest to me than the com- 
position of any painter’s masterpieces.” 
In the passage above quoted, Ruskin alludes 
especially to Swiss meadows. They are espe- 
cially remarkable in the beauty and variety of 
flowers. In our fields the herbage is mainly 
grass, and if it often happens that they glow 
with Buttercups or are white with Ox-eye- 
daisies, these are but unwelcome intruders 
and add nothing to the value of the hay. 
Swiss meadows, on the contrary, are sweet 
and lovely with wild Geraniums, Harebells, 
Bluebells, Pmk Restharrow, Yellow Lady’s 
Bedstraw, Chervil, Kyebright, Red and White 
Silenes, Geraniums, Gentians, and many other 
flowers which have no familiar English names ; 
all adding not only to the beauty and sweetness | 
of the meadows, but forming a valuable part 
O 
