A GLANCE AT BRITISH WILD FLOWERS. 181 



Nature in this island is less versatile than with us, 

 but more constant and uniform, less variety and con- 

 trast in her works, and less capriciousness and reser- 

 vation also. She is chary of new species, but multi- 

 plies the old ones endlessly. I did not observe so 

 many varieties of wild flowers as at home, but a 

 great profusion of specimens ; her lap is fuller, but 

 the kinds are fewer. Where you find one of a kind, 

 you will find ten thousand. Wordsworth saw " gol- 

 den daffodils," 



" Continuous as the stars that shine 

 And twinkle on the milky way," 



and one sees nearly all the common wild flowers in 

 the same profusion. The buttercup, the dandelion, 

 the ox-eye daisy, and other field flowers that have 

 come to us from Europe, are samples of how lavishly 

 Nature bestows her floral gifts upon the Old World. 

 In July the scarlet poppies are thickly sprinkled 

 over nearly every wheat and oat field in the king- 

 dom. The green waving grain seems to have been 

 spattered with blood. Other flowers were alike uni- 

 versal. Not a plant but seems to have sown itself 

 from one end of the island to the other. Never 

 before did I see so much white clover. From the 

 first to the last of July, the fields in Scotland and 

 England were white with it. Every square inch of 

 ground had its clover blossom. Such a harvest as 

 there was for the honey-bee, unless the nectar was 

 too much diluted with water in this rainy climate, 

 which was probably the case. In traveling south 



