88 AUTUMN AND WINTER 



it has a purple labiate blossom, mottled with creamy 

 white or pale yellow, and grows from three to six 

 inches high. A larger and more conspicuous member of 

 the tribe is the large flowered hemp-nettle, with purple- 

 spotted yellow flowers like those of the red and white dead- 

 nettles which are common on hedgebanks and in gardens. 

 It is common in cultivated fields in mountainous districts. 

 The tall yellow toad flax, or 'butter and eggs/ is a late 

 summer flower which blooms on strongly into September ; 



MUSK MALLOW 



and in some counties the fringes of the roads and cornfields 

 are brightened here and there with the large rosy blossoms 

 of the musk mallow, which flowers persistently from May to 

 September, or even October. These two plants do not 

 grow among the corn, but at its side ; but on soils free from 

 chalk or limestone the golden corn marigold often blossoms 

 vigorously after the crop is carried. It often puts forth an 

 extraordinarily vigorous autumn growth on cultivated land 

 when the summer has either been exceptionally dry or 

 exceptionally wet. In the former case, after lying parched 

 and dormant through drought, it is stirred to new vigour by 



