ON THE CHALK DOWNS 117 



the bed-straw ; and the blurred insect darting from one blue 

 tube to another is one of the most characteristic features 

 of June. 



Bugloss means ox-tongue, and the broad rough leaves 

 which suggested the name are common to many plants of 

 the borage tribe, including the luxuriant comfrey of the May 

 and early June river-banks. Hound's-tongue is another 

 characteristic plant of the same family, which is fond of a 

 chalk soil. It is not inaptly named; the leaves, though 

 rough, are smoother than the ox-tongue leaves, and with 

 their central furrow, where the main rib comes, they are 

 not unlike the protruded tongue of a panting dog. The 

 plant has tall clusters of dull red eyelike blossoms. Some 

 plants in this family have the peculiar gift of changing from 

 a similar dull red to blue after they fully expand. The 

 garden lungwort, which sometimes escapes into hedges and 

 copses, is the most familiar example of this curious little 

 trick, while it is also noticeable in the viper's bugloss as the 

 buds open. In the comfrey the same inconstancy expresses 

 itself in the free tendency of the plants to bear flowers of 

 pink or purple or white. Another curious feature of this 

 group is the excessive hardness of some of the seeds. The 

 English name of the gromwell seems due to an obscure con- 

 fusion of the herbalists ; but the scientific name Litho- 

 spermum stone-seed is thoroughly clear and appropriate, 

 for the little shining seeds are almost as hard as grains of 

 flint, and are actually said to contain a proportion of silica. 

 Gromwell often grows with hound's-tongue, and has incon- 

 spicuous greenish yellow blossoms, which make no great 

 show among the flowers of June on the chalk. 



Yet not all the brilliance of midsummer on the bushy 

 chalk warrens is due to the brightness of their flowers. In a 

 good year of heavy showers and warm sunshine, the sheer 



