70 COWSLIPS 



it is found growing in profusion in its native land. 

 We have it in the hedge-rose, violet, bog asphodel, 

 primrose, scented orchis, for example. And I would 

 even include, or I should like to include, the 

 cowslip; but it is too delicious. 



If by chance I have a reader who shares my feeling 

 concerning the scent of flowers and would like to 

 experience the full deliciousness of the cowslip, I 

 would advise him to repair at its season to that 

 curious strip of flat country extending from the 

 lower reaches of the Somerset Axe to the River 

 Parret below Bridgwater. It is all meadow or 

 grassland drained by innumerable dykes, which 

 divide it into vast fields of an emerald green; it 

 is on a level with the sea, or a little below the 

 level at high tide, protected from it by the old 

 bank made by the Romans in their day. Here you 

 may come upon a field of close-cropped grass abund- 

 antly sprinkled over with cowslips and no flower of 

 any other kind. The stems, crowned with their little 

 nodding clusters, grow but a foot or two apart and 

 four or five inches high, so that lying flat on your 

 back you have them pretty well on a level with your 

 nose. Imagine the sensation on a day of brilliant 

 sunshine with a warm light wind blowing wave on 

 wave of the delicious fragrance over you! 



Before finishing with this part of my subject, I 

 must say a word about a curious phenomenon respect- 

 ing the flowers which Linnaeus called " melancholy " 

 — those which pour out their sweetness most copiously 

 by night. One of the commonest is the honeysuckle; 



