n8 THE MUSIC OF WILD FLOWERS 



ing numbers may be a matter of scientific speculation, 

 but the fact remains beyond dispute. When the Meon 

 Valley Railway in Hampshire was being made, some 

 twenty-five years ago, the long, curving line of low 

 embankment which ran not far from the course of 

 the river between Wickham and Warnford was almost 

 immediately occupied with a dense growth of yellow 

 charlock. Long before the line was ready for traffic 

 the course of the railway all down the green valley 

 could be traced by a winding ribbon of shining 

 gold. After the first season or two other plants 

 entered into competition, and the yellow line of 

 charlock became less and less conspicuous. And 

 now a vast number of different species occupy the 

 embankment. 



Sometimes, indeed, a railway embankment is a verit- 

 able flower garden at the right season. I know such a 

 garden on the Great Western Railway line between 

 Winchester and Shawford, where the line runs below 

 the shelter of St Catherine's Hill. The embankment 

 slopes towards the west, looking over the canal in the 

 direction of the ancient hospital of St Cross. Often in 

 summer-time do I visit this garden. It is probably at 

 its best in the early days of June, when the slope is 

 literally ablaze with colour. Yellow predominates, not 

 only because of the splendid patches of Lotus corni- 

 culatus, L., or bird's-foot trefoil, but also because of the 

 abundance of the much rarer and far more local tufted 

 horseshoe vetch. At first sight the plant might be mis- 

 taken for the common lotus, but the curious structure 

 of the seed vessels, which resemble a series of horseshoes 

 united by their extremities, at once distinguishes it. 

 With the deep yellow of the leguminosa is mingled a 



