HAY-TIME 143 



Midsummer is not however reserved for any one 

 kind of Insect, or any one kind of flower. It is the 

 very height of the flowering season, when the pro- 

 fusion, though not the variety, of flowers is greatest. 

 Then all sorts of flowers have a good chance, the 

 wind-fertilised Grasses, the Insect-fertilised Le- 

 guminosae, the flowers which trust to colour, or 

 perfume, or sweet taste all are copiously represented 

 in June and July. Some few indeed have hurried on 

 their blooms to open in spring, or kept them back for 

 autumn, as if for this small minority it were better to 

 be out of season than to compete with the throng. 

 Many bulbs, which can store up food when the days 

 are long, expend part of it in flowering early or late 

 in the year. Catkin-bearing trees flower so early 

 because the wind can then carry the pollen to the 

 stigmas through bare boughs instead of through 

 leaves, which would inevitably detain and waste a 

 great part of that small proportion which actually 

 reaches the tree. 



The botanist finds most occupation in July and 

 August, but the great spectacle, when the woods and 

 meadows and heaths are full of bloom, comes earlier, 

 and is at its best on Midsummer Day. 



HAY-TIME. 



It is July, and in the north of England the 

 meadows are almost ready for the scythe. The flat 

 fields along the river look brown, as if scorched by 

 the sun, but it is only the dull-coloured panicles of the 



