HERBS 165 



flowered a little earlier than in their wild state how 

 many scenes they recall to memory ! We found them 

 on the tops of the glorious Downs when the wheat was 

 ripe in the plains and the earth beneath seemed all 

 golden. Some, too, concealed themselves on the pastures 

 behind those bunches of tough grass the cattle left un- 

 touched. And even in cold November, when the mist 

 lifted, while the dewdrops clustered thickly on the grass, 

 one or two hung their heads under the furze. 



Hawkweeds, which many mistake for dandelions ; cow- 

 slips, in seed now, and primroses, with foreign primulas 

 around them and enclosed by small hurdles, foxgloves, 

 some with white and some with red flowers, all these 

 have their story and are intensely English. Rough- 

 leaved comfrey of the side of the river and brook, one 

 species of which is so much talked of as better forage 

 than grass, is here, its bells opening. 



Borage, whose leaves float in the claret-cup ladled out 

 to thirsty travellers at the London railway stations in 

 the hot weather; knotted figwort, common in ditches; 

 Aaron's rod, found in old gardens ; lovely veronicas ; 

 mints and calamints whose leaves, if touched, scent the 

 fingers, and which grow everywhere by cornfield and 

 hedgerow. 



This bunch of wild thyme once again calls up a 

 vision of the Downs ; it is not so thick and strong, and 

 it lacks that cushion of herbage which so often marks 

 the site of its growth on the noble slopes of the hills, 

 and along the sward-grown fosse of ancient earthworks, 

 but it is wild thyme, and that is enough. From this bed 

 of varieties of thyme there rises up a pleasant odour 

 which attracts the bees. Bees and humble-bees, indeed, 

 buzz everywhere, but they are much too busily occupied 

 to notice you or me. 



