THROUGH THE YEAR 25 



me, have been moulded original and distinct 

 creations. No they evolved. 



Now, with so much alike in these plant patterns, 

 mark the odd little distinctions. First, rough 

 chervil (like hemlock) must have its stem blotched 

 with purple, whereas the stem of cow parsley must 

 never be stained. They come to nothing, these 

 purple marks, so far as we can see, they serve no end 

 we can understand ; but Nature would as soon 

 omit to stain the rough chervil as to wing the swift. 

 That is the rough chervil's chief mark of distinction ; 

 but it has, too, a darker leaf, a more drooping way, 

 so that as the flower stems unbend upward they 

 look as though they fainted in summer heat or had 

 been nipped by frost before the dawn. Chervils 

 in the wild do not intermarry ; perhaps the 

 table of affinities in plant life rules out for ever 

 such a union. Yet how close their companionship 

 in the hedge often is ! They nestle side by side 

 in the long grass, though they keep their patches 

 distinct. And the one pattern is not fully developed 

 till the other is ended for the year. 



"THEY ALSO SERVE" 



With the red linnets marriage is a real, a very 

 close tie. Through the nesting season the partners 

 are inseparable, and their season is not short like 

 the missel thrush's or nightingale's. It covers the 

 best part of five months. Two, if not three, families 

 are reared, and even in July linnets are to be seen 

 in plenty, collecting grasses and hairs and wool for 



