THE FLOWERS OF SUMMER 69 



into white till about the twentieth of the fresh 

 month; after which, for many weeks, especially 

 when rain-washed, they are delightfully pure and 

 fragrant, all over our country-sides. So that we 

 would willingly part with many a flower before 

 " The May." 



The glory of summer is the hedge. The glory 

 of the hedge is the wild plants, which straggle, 

 at their own sweet will, and know not when to stay. 

 In such wanderers, especially of the flowering 

 kinds, Scotland is not very rich. Many of these 

 are lovers of chalk, of which we have none ; and 

 the rest seem to prefer milder quarters. 



No "traveller's joy," fitly so called, such as 

 lends a wealth of beauty to the waysides of the 

 southern counties of England, is ours. One bush 

 grows against a gable hard by, covering it in the 

 summer - time from side to side, and sending 

 straggling twigs away above the chimneys. And 

 it is hard to convince those who see it for the first 

 time, that such things are really wild. 



No bryony breaks out of all bounds, running on 

 either side away from its roots, and over the tops of 

 the hedges. Nor does the convolvulus hang its 

 great white bells over the green. 



And yet our hedges are not without their 



