AUTUMN 207 



Most summer flowers in fact linger on into or bloom 

 again in September. On a mullein stalk covered with 

 dry seed vessels, you will find a solitary blossom ; the 

 houeysuckle has a few blooms, pale and scentless : and 

 here and there all over the downs you will find, 

 "blooming alone," the dwarf thistle, hawkweed, rock- 

 rose, bedstraw, milfoil, viper's bugloss, harebell, 

 thyme, sweet woodruff, and many more. The scabi- 

 ous, both blue and mauve, is perhaps the commonest 

 flower at this season ; and the minute delightful eye- 

 bright, the most abundant in certain spots where the 

 soil is thinnest and the turf scarcely covers the under- 

 lying chalk. But night by night the year is busy 

 with her cold fingers picking these last gems out of 

 her mantle — the ornaments that accord not with her 

 faded cheeks and sorrowful eyes. 



Greatest of all seems the change with regard to in- 

 sect life : but a few days ago you moved in a world 

 teeming with millions of brilliant active beings, so 

 numerous and small and swift in their motions as to 

 be " seen rather than distinguished." And now ? — 

 Well, if the wind is still and the sun shines and you 

 miss and look for them, you will find a few left : a 

 bumble bee mechanically going about on his rounds 

 with a listless flight and the merest ghost of his old 

 hum ; a songless grasshopper ; a solitary fly trying to 

 appear cheerful. You look in vain for the merry little 

 blue butterflies and the grey heaths, so numerous a little 

 while ago. It is a surprise to see so splendid a crea- 



