240 AUTUMNAL FLOWERS 



mild indignation by the dry, unemotional phrases in 

 which he describes the loveliest flowers, as if 



' A primrose by the river's brim 

 Dicotyledon were to him, 

 And nothing more.' 



No doubt he was right, for he who once begins to 

 gush over the beauty of flowers soon becomes an in- 

 tolerable bore. Still there seems to be something 

 short of completeness in describing the primrose merely 

 as having ' a corolla usually yellow or straw coloured ' ; 

 the harebell as having ' a few elegantly drooping blue 

 flowers,' and the sweetbriar as having ' flowers pink, 

 usually solitary.' However, even Bentham betrayed a 

 tinge of enthusiasm, in writing of the Heath family, 

 ' which,' says he, ' comprises perhaps more ornamental 

 plants than any other order.' We have come to the 

 dullest time in all the outdoor gardener's calendar 

 duller than it need be because of the fashion which 

 concentrates effort upon summer and autumn display. 

 But in the west country at least, from Ross-shire to 

 Cornwall, there need be no break in the succession of 

 flowers, except there happen an early and severe frost, 

 such as befell in the Novembers of 1905 and 1906. In 

 the present season (1908) we have escaped any such 

 affliction, and there is enough gay colour in border 

 and shrubbery to tempt one along swimming paths and 

 sloppy turf to enjoy it. 



In mild districts there is no month in the year 

 during which some member of the Heath family may 

 not be had hi full flower in the open air. The Cornish 



