CORNFIELD FLOWERS 165 



narrow-leaved hemp-nettle is a very characteristic plant of 

 chalky cornfields in the south. This is a little branching 

 plant, usually about six inches high, with clusters of rosy 

 flowers marked on the lip with a white or yellow spot. It is 

 usually as neat and compact as the common hemp-nettle of 

 the hedges is lax and straggling. The difference of habit is 

 so great that the resemblance of the corn hemp-nettle to the 

 better-known kind is often masked. Closely allied to the 

 hemp-nettles are sundry cornfield species of red dead nettle, 

 which distinguish themselves from the common red nettle of 

 summer gardens and winter rubbish-heaps by a sparer and 

 smaller growth. 



As midsummer passes, and the corn reaches its full 

 height, the deep purple blossoms of the greater knapweed 

 begin to spread their flat fringes a little beneath the swelling 

 ears. Simultaneously the first lilac flowers of the field 

 scabious open a little higher and nearer the light. Each of 

 these cornfield flowers has a meadow counterpart. The 

 black knapweed, which country people call hardheads, is a 

 very common weed in the pastures throughout later summer ; 

 and the small scabious blooms on the down from midsummer 

 onwards, while later summer brings the devil's-bit scabious in 

 rough or clayey pastures. But the field scabious and greater 

 knapweed are each the largest and most graceful of their 

 families ; the greater knapweed has a clean-cut leaf, and a 

 general distinction of colour and outline which the scrubby 

 ' hardhead ' lacks. But they are not wholly welcome when 

 they appear in the corn, even to the nature-lover with no 

 direct interest in the cleanness of the crop. Their purple 

 blossoms mark the gradual shortening of the days; and 

 though they make a new and graver contrast with the tints 

 of beeswax kindling in the ears of corn, they dispel the 

 bright midsummer harmony that we noticed in the vetch- 



