HEATHLANDS. 125 



and so bitter and strong is the odour that immediately 

 after smelling them the mouth for a moment feels dry 

 with a sense of thirst. 



The angle of a field by the woods on the eastern 

 side of the heath, the entire corner, is blue in July 

 with viper's bugloss. The stalks rise some two feet, 

 and are covered with minute brown dots ; they are 

 rough, and the lower part prickly. Blue flowers in 

 pairs, with pink stamens and pink buds, bloom thickly 

 round the top, and, as each plant has several stalks, 

 it is very conspicuous where the grass is short. 



There are hundreds of these flowers in this corner, 

 and along the edge of the wood ; a quarter of an acre 

 is blue with them. So indifferent are people to such 

 things that men working in the same field, and who 

 had pulled up the plant and described its root as like 

 that of a dock, did not know its name. Yet they 

 admired it. " It is an innocent-looking flower," they 

 said, that is, pleasant to look at. 



By the roadside I thought I saw something red 

 under the long grass of the mound, and, parting the 

 blades, found half a dozen wild strawberries. They 

 were larger than usual, and just ripe. The wild 

 strawberry is a little more acid than the cultivated, 

 and has more flavour than would be supposed from 

 its small size. 



Descending to the lower ground again, the brake 

 fills every space between the trees ; it is so thick and 

 tall that the cows which wander about, grazing at 

 their will, each wear a bell slung round the neck, 

 that their position may be discovered by sound. 

 Otherwise it would be difficult to find them in the fern 



