160 SUMMER 



familiar on the chalk and limestone soils as it is abundant 

 on many grits and sands. Blue corn-flowers prefer a sandy 

 soil without lime, and so does the purple corn-cockle, and 

 the little branching spurry, which is one of the most familiar 

 though unobtrusive of cornfield flowers. Yellow charlock 

 and white wild radish prefer one of the calcareous soils, 

 having the appetite for lime which marks the turnip tribe ; 

 and charlock abounds especially on the chalk soils, which are 

 usually lighter than those on limestone. The pretty pink 

 convolvulus is a very tolerant weed, and will thrive in any 

 soil that is not too wet or heavy ; but it particularly loves the 

 sandier lands, finding in them the perfection of porous light- 

 ness which it only partly enjoys on the loams spread over 

 the chalk downs. It can make itself very happy in looping 

 and twisting about the grasses and knapweeds on a rough 

 bank ; but the stems of corn form perfect natural props for 

 its aspiring bines, and it clasps them as tightly as the elm is 

 clasped by the ivy. 



Broad blood-red stains of poppy are most abundant in 

 June and July on the sandy soils ; but they also form one of 

 the great sheets of colour which are the peculiar glory of the 

 chalk countries. The chalk soil itself is of the most exquisite 

 richness and delicacy after rain. The white underlying 

 rock blends with the red upper loam in varying proportions 

 where the plough has shorn it, until the bare fallow is flushed 

 and dappled with roan. After a wet night at midsummer, a 

 bare chalk fallow is as beautiful in the distance as a field of 

 sainfoin. Then there is sainfoin itself, with the tints of 

 clouded rose in its massed blossoms. This is so firmly estab- 

 lished on the chalk that it often appears as a cornfield weed. 

 Crimson clover spreads a deeper and purer stain ; it is 

 curiously lucent at dusk, and glows on into the mid- 

 summer twilight as long as there is any light at all. It is a 



