TREES AND FLOWERS 



129 



you may know it without examining the root, by means of the 

 greenish -yellow sepals, which turn back on to the main stem, 

 and probably act the part of sentries by forbidding unwelcome 

 insect visitors from creeping in the golden palace unawares, 

 without offering anything in return. The story of Nature is 

 largely one of " give and take." Such seems to me, in a sentence, 

 one of the great laws which rule and control the web of life. 



I am tempted to relate that the Primrose vistas in the belt 

 of woodland I have visited since I was a boy are, to my mind, 

 and especially at the time, among the fairest sights I can ever 

 hope to see. 



PIG. 59. GREATER STITCHWORT. 



The Primroses, which so richly decorate the leafy, woodland 

 bed in early Spring, are among my earliest recollections, for I 

 remember how, as a family of Nature lovers, we always used to 

 respond to the call of the woods when Primrose time had come 

 again ; and it is probably because of old associations that I have 

 such a warm place in my affections for this favourite flower. 



Linked up with childish memories, too, is the Greater Stitch- 

 wort, for the same sunny hedgebanks, along which I wandered 

 as a boy, still have their full complement of the pure waxen-like 

 flowers of this common plant. It receives its generic name of 

 Stellaria from its starry heads of blossom, and, when at its best, 

 presents, with the abundant Hedge Parsley, one of the fairest 

 sights in all England. 



Traveller's joy, Wild Clematis, or, as it is more popularly 



