NATURE AND BOOKS. 



WHAT is the colour of the dandelion ? There are 

 many dandelions : that which I mean flowers in May, 

 when the meadow-grass has started and the hares are 

 busy by daylight. That which flowers very early in the 

 year has a thickness of hue, and is not interesting ; in 

 autumn the dandelions quite change their colour and are 

 pale. The right dandelion for this question is the one 

 that comes about May with a very broad disc, and in 

 such quantities as often to cover a whole meadow. I 

 used to admire them very much in the fields by Surbiton 

 (strong clay soil), and also on the towing-path of the 

 Thames where the sward is very broad, opposite Long 

 Ditton ; indeed, I have often walked up that towing-path 

 on a beautiful sunny morning, when all was quiet except 

 the nightingales in the Palace hedge, on purpose to 

 admire them. I dare say they are all gone now for ever- 

 more ; still, it is a pleasure to look back on anything 

 beautiful. What colour is this dandelion ? It is not 

 yellow, nor orange, nor gold ; put a sovereign on it and 

 see the difference. They say the gipsies call it the 

 Queen's great hairy dog-flower — a number of words to 

 one stalk ; and so, to get a colour to it, you may call it 

 the yellow-gold-orangc plant In the winter, on the 

 black mud under a dark, dripping tree, I found a piece 

 of orange peel, lately dropped — a bright red orange 



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