NATURE NEAR LONDON asE^a: 



But these, though the most prominent along the 

 hedge, are not the only flowers ; the prevalent 

 white is embroidered with other hues. The brown 

 feathers of a few reeds growing where the furrows 

 empty the showers into the ditch, wave above the 

 corn. Among the leaves of mallow its mauve 

 petals are sheltered from the sun. On slender 

 stalks the yellow vetchling blooms, reaching am- 

 bitiously as tall as the lowest of the brambles. 

 Bird's-foot lotus, with red claws, is overtopped by 

 the grasses. 



The elm has a fresh green it has put forth its 

 second or midsummer shoot ; the young leaves of 

 the aspen are white, and the tree as the wind 

 touches it seems to turn grey. The furrows run 

 to the ditch under the reeds, the ditch declines to a 

 little streamlet which winds all hidden by willow- 

 herb and rush and flag, a mere trickle of water 

 under brooklime, away at the feet of the corn. In 

 the shadow, deep down beneath the crumbling 

 bank which is only held up by the roots of the 

 grasses, is a forget-me-not, with a tiny circlet of 

 yellow in the centre of its petals. 



The coming of the ears of wheat forms an era 

 and a date, a fixed point in the story of the summer. 

 It is then that, soon after dawn, the clear sky 

 assumes the delicate and yet luscious purple which 

 seems to shine through the usual atmosphere, as if 



