230 September — Sunlight on Thistles. 



XLII. 



Sunset-light on Thistles — Fruits not generally Conspicuous —The 

 Rowan — The common Cornel — Elder-berry — Blackberry — Small 

 Polygonum — Ferns — Persicaria — Wild Hop. 



I SPOKE just now of vermilion berries bathed in 

 the flame of sunset, and will add another obser- 

 vation about sunset-light. One of the finest sights in 

 Nature is a field of thistles in September, with the level 

 rays of a golden sunset striking across and catching the 

 down of the heads. The light is detained by them, and 

 in them as it were, so that each thistle-head becomes 

 a distinct source of light ; not with glittering reflection 

 like the ripples on water, but with a charming softness, 

 as if the rays were entangled in meshes of floss silk. 



The reader may think, that after saying so much 

 about flowers I dismiss fruits very summarily ; but it 

 so happens that fruits (I use the word, of course, in 

 the large botanical sense) are, as a general rule, less 

 visible than flowers, and in these chapters we have 

 talked almost exclusively of what is visible. Some 

 fruits are conspicuous, like those of the rowan-tree 

 lately mentioned; and the black, bitter fruit of the 

 common cornel, or dogwood, is visible enough at the 

 beginning of autumn in the hedges, the smooth leaves 

 turning pale as the fruit ripens. The elder-berries are 



