180 JULY. 



we recollect that three of these fiery insects are 

 said to be capable of stinging a horse to death ; 

 or when we read the admirable description of 

 Homer — 



So burns the 'vengeful hornet, soul all o'er, 

 Repulsed in vain, and thirsty still for gore : 

 Bold son of air and heat, on angry wings 

 Untamed, untired, he turns, attacks, and stings. 



Spring-flowers have given place to a very diffe- 

 rent class. Climbing plants mantle and festoon 

 every hedge. The wild hop, the bryony, the 

 clematis or traveller's-joy, the large white con- 

 volvulus, whose bold, yet delicate flowers will 

 display themselves to a very late period of the 

 year — vetches and white and yellow ladies' 

 bed-straw invest every bush with their varied 

 beauty, and breathe on the passers by their 

 faint summer sweetness. The Campanula ro- 

 tundifolia, the hare-bell of poets, and the blue- 

 bell of botanists, arrests the eye on every dry 

 bank, rock, and wayside, with its airy stems 

 and beautiful cerulean bells. There too we 

 behold wild scabiouses, mallows, the woody- 

 nightshade, wood-betony, and centaury : the 

 red and white striped convolvulus also throws 

 its flowers under your feet; corn-fields glow 

 with whole armies of scarlet poppies, cockle, 

 and the rich azure plumes of the viper's bugloss ; 

 even thistles, the curse of Adam, diffuse a glow 



