LXVI 



THE flowers of early summer have sunk out of sight, 

 but their places are filled with blossom not less varied 

 Autumn or brilliant. The rosebay willow-herb has 

 Flowers run t the top of its tall ladder and vanished 

 in a cloud of fluffy seeds. Nowhere can this pretty 

 weed be seen in such perfection as in some of the 

 cuttings on the London and South- Western Railway 

 between Alton and Winchester. Rooted in the dry 

 chalk, its petals take a deeper stain of rose than when 

 it grows in woods and moist places; and in order to 

 preserve its balance on the vertical sides of the cutting, 

 it has to adopt a more compact habit of growth than is 

 seen elsewhere. Thistles of every kind have parted 

 with their sculptured formality, and every breeze blows 

 them into further dishevelment. But there is plenty 

 of beauty still 



I spent some time this morning (1895) admiring the 

 rich tangle of an osier-bed on the Itchen. Here was the 

 later willow-herb (Epilobium hirsutum), spangled with 

 carmine ; the meadow-sweet, with creamy corymbs as 

 fragrant as on midsummer day ; white convolvulus ; 

 bitter-sweet, bearing purple and yellow flowers mingled 



