The Open Air 



reddening at the tips appeared ripening like apples 

 in the sunshine. This corner is a favourite with wild 

 bees and butterflies; if the sun shines they are sure 

 to be found there at the heath-bloom and tall yellow- 

 weed, and among the dry seeding bennets or grass- 

 stalks. All things, even butterflies, are local in their 

 habits. Far up on the hillside the blue green of the 

 pines beneath shone in the sun a burnished colour; 

 the high hillside is covered with heath and heather. 

 Where there are open places a small species of gorse, 

 scarcely six inches high, is in bloom, the yellow 

 blossom on the extremity of the stalk. 



Some of these gorse plants seemed to have a differ- 

 ent flower growing at the side of the stem, instead of 

 at the extremity. These florets were cream-coloured, 

 so that it looked like a new species of gorse. On 

 gathering it to examine the thick-set florets, if was 

 found that a slender runner or creeper had been torn 

 up with it. Like a thread the creeper had wound it- 

 self round and round the furze, buried in and hidden 

 by the prickles, and it was this creeper that bore the 

 white or cream -florets. It was tied round as tightly 

 as thread could be, so that the florets seemed to start 

 from the stem, deceiving the eye at first. In some 

 places this parasite plant had grown up the heath and 

 strangled it, so that the tips turned brown and died. 

 The runners extended in every direction across the 

 ground, like those of strawberries. One creeper had 

 climbed up a bennet, or seeding grass-stalk, binding 

 the stalk and a blade of the grass together, and flower- 

 ing there. On the ground there were patches of grey 

 lichen; many of the pillar-like stems were crowned 

 with a red top. Under a small boulder stone there 

 was an ants' nest. These boulders, or, as they are 

 called locally, " bowlers," were scattered about the 



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