NUTTY AUTUMN 



|HERE is some honeysuckle still flow- 

 ering at the tops of the hedges, where 

 in the morning gossamer lies like a 

 dewy net. The gossamer is a sign 

 both of approaching autumn and, exactly at the 

 opposite season of the year, of approaching spring. 

 It stretches from pole to pole, and bough to bough, 

 in the copses in February, as the lark sings. It 

 covers the furze, and lies along the hedge-tops in 

 September, as the lark, after a short or partial 

 silence, occasionally sings again. 



But the honeysuckle does not flower so finely 

 as the first time ; there is more red (the unopened 

 petal) than white, and beneath, lower down the 

 stalk, are the red berries, the fruit of the former 

 bloom. Yellow weed, or ragwort, covers some 

 fields almost as thickly as buttercups in summer, 

 but it lacks the rich colour of the buttercup. Some 

 knotty knapweeds stay in out-of-the-way places, 

 where the scythe has not been ; some bunches of 

 mayweed, too, are visible in the corners of the 

 stubble. 



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