WAYS OF THE FLOWERS. 69 



mained longest in a condition nearly resembling the ori- 

 ginal state of the country. So that when agitators of 

 Communistic views lay stress upon the waste of land used 

 for pleasure purposes they frequently declaim in utter 

 ignorance of the facts, which are in exact opposition to 

 their theories. 



Like animals and birds, plants have their favourite 

 haunts : violets love a bank with a southern aspect, especi- 

 ally if there be a hedge at the back for further shelter. 

 Where you have by chance lighted upon a wild flower once 

 you may generally reckon upon finding it again next year 

 such as the white variety of the bluebell or wild 

 hyacinth, for which, unless you mark the place, you may 

 search in vain amid the crowded blue bloom of the com- 

 moner sort. The orchis, with its purple flower and dark 

 green spotted leaf, in the virtue of whose roots as a love- 

 potion the old people still believe, the strange-looking 

 adder's tongue, the modest wild strawberry, with its tiny 

 but piquant-flavoured fruit, all have their special resorts. 

 Even the cowslips have their ways : by brooks sometimes 

 a larger variety grows ; nor is there a sweeter flower than 

 its delicate yellow with small velvety brown spots, like 

 moles on beauty's cheek. 



In autumn, when the leaves turn colour, the groups of 

 trees in the park are more effective in an artistic point of 

 view than those in the woods (unless overlooked from a 

 hill close by, when it is like glancing along a roof of gold), 



