NUTTY AUTUMN 125 



the sheaves are carted. Once now and then a blue and 

 slender bell-flower is lighted on ; in Sussex the larger 

 varieties bloom till much later. 



By still ponds, to which the moorhens have now 

 returned, tall spikes of purple loosestrife rise in bunches. 

 In the furze there is still much yellow, and wherever 

 heath grows it spreads in shimmering gleams of purple 

 between the birches; for these three, furze, heath, and 

 birch are usually together. The fields, therefore, are 

 not yet flowerless, nor yet without colour here and there, 

 and the leaves, which stay on the trees till late in the 

 autumn, are more interesting now than they have been 

 since they lost their first fresh green. 



Oak, elm, beech, and birch, all have yellow spots, 

 while retaining their groundwork of green. Oaks are 

 often much browner, but the moisture in the atmosphere 

 keeps the saps in the leaves. Even the birches are only 

 tinted in a few places, the elms very little, and the 

 beeches not much more : so it would seem that their 

 hues will not be gone altogether till November. Frosts 

 have not yet bronzed the dogwood in the hedges, and 

 the hazel leaves are fairly firm. The hazel generally drops 

 its leaves at a touch about this time, and while you are 

 nutting, if you shake a bough, they come down all around. 



The rushes are but faintly yellow, and the slender 

 tips still point upwards. Dull purple burrs cover the 

 burdock ; the broad limes are withering, but the leaves 

 are thick, and the teazles are still flowering. Looking 

 upwards, the trees are tinted ; lower, the hedges are not 

 without colour, and the field itself is speckled with blue 

 and yellow. The stubble is almost hidden in many fields 

 by the growth of weeds brought up by the rain ; still the 

 tops appear above and do not allow it to be green. The 

 stubble has a colour white if barley, yellow if wheat or 



