CORNFIELD FLOWERS 161 



favourite summer crop of the light chalk soils, and not a wild 

 cornfield flower, except for a stray bloom here and there ; 

 but its crimson is inseparable in the landscape from the con- 

 trasted stains of poppies flagrant with scarlet, and charlock 

 massed yellow as sulphur against the sky. The magnificence 

 of these sheets of colour is almost incredible ; and to any one 

 who revisits the chalk countries after absence they are 

 almost as astonishing as ever, after the comparative dullness 

 of the colours even at midsummer among farms on other 

 kinds of soil. Nature shows a complete indifference in 

 bestowing her glories on the thrifty and the unthankful 

 crop. The clover and the charlock and the poppy alike 

 excel the glories of Solomon, irrespective of the part they 

 play in the economy of man. 



' The sleep-flower sways in the wheat its head, 

 Heavy with dreams, as that with bread ' 



but if its splendour of colour were only as portable as the 

 grain, that pure dream of scarlet would sell dearer in cities 

 than any opium. 



Besides the supreme stains of charlock and poppy, the 

 colours of other cornfield flowers are splashed on the land- 

 scape at times with a heavy brush. Corn-flowers dapple the 

 fields on sandy soil with their deep but brilliant blue. The 

 same lands are often stained golden yellow with the corn- 

 marigold ; and purple corn-cockle and tall white campion, as 

 well as the scarlet poppy, variegate a crop of vetches or 

 almost hide a growing field of roots. Mayweed, or common 

 camomile, covers many arable fields with its coarse green 

 tufts and large daisy-like flowers ; but it is too low-growing 

 to compete successfully with the rising corn, and is commonest 

 in root-fields and among garden crops. It has no exclusive 

 taste for any one soil, and when it appears on chalk it conspicu- 



