THE LIVING GARMENT 45 



of nine or ten inches ; its exceedingly thin, dark- 

 coloured, wire-like, leafless stems crowned with their 

 loose clusters of minute turquoise blue blossoms. The 

 smallness of the flowers and thread-like fineness of 

 the stems had made them invisible until seen close 

 at hand, and then how beautiful they looked ! The 

 whole level expanse, thick strewn with shining white 

 flints, appeared covered with a thin veil or mist of a 

 most exquisite blue. 



Of the more splendid — one might almost say 

 bizarre — effects, caused by masses of bright-coloured 

 flowers, a good many instances could be given if 

 space allowed. One must suffice. This was a very 

 dense grow^th of viper's bugloss covering about an 

 acre of ground on the summit of a down east of the 

 Cuckmere stream. This plant usually grows scattered 

 about even w4ien most abundant, as I have found it 

 in some spots in Suffolk : here the rough stalks 

 studded with their intense blue flowers grew thick 

 as corn, one other plant with them — namely, the 

 large woolly thistle, which grew to the same height 

 as the bugloss stalks, and had flowers of an enormous 

 size. One of these big flower-heads would have filled 

 a small coffee-cup. It struck me as most curious that 

 the purple of the thistle and the bright blue of the 

 bugloss looked so well together ; but the sight was a 

 very beautiful as well as a singular one. 



I will here remark that large masses of blue flowers 

 seen under a blue sky in a strong light, however novel 



