MOORLAND IDYLLS. 



both in their attractive beauty and in the fact 

 that they serve to produce the seeds (which 

 are the analogues of eggs) for the coming 

 generation. In the purely preparatory, or 

 hard-eating, stage, the harebell has no stem 

 or branches to speak of; it consists of a 

 rosette of large orb-like leaves, often heart- 

 shaped towards the stalk, and pressed close 

 to the ground in a spreading circle. Each 

 such rosette springs in April from a buried 

 rootstock, which, in loose loamy soil, like 

 that of these Surrey moors, is often intricate ; 

 it burrows in and out with strange instinct 

 among the dry sand and stones, in search 

 of such rare moisture as it can manage 

 to find for itself. But though water is 

 scarce, access to light and air is easy ; 

 so the large round leaves, lying close on 

 the bare ground, get sunshine in abundance, 

 and feed to their hearts' content upon their 

 proper food the carbon in the atmosphere 

 while vegetation around is still low and 

 backward. In this stage they may be 

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