44 Cornish Cliffs in Spring 



headlands, complete this striking combination of 

 colour, and repeat the blueness of the sea and sky. 

 In the soft airs that blow from the Gulf Stream 

 many blossoms are found decking the open cliffside 

 which in other parts of England are confined to 

 sheltered inland corners ; while plants which on 

 other coasts grow sparely are here luxuriant and 

 high. Deep beds of primroses slant steeply seaward, 

 fading on the slopes in May among the bracken 

 and the bluebells ; and many hollows are strewn 

 with the gold of the gorse. As the bluebells and 

 sea-campion fade in turn, the hanging terraces are 

 beset with the massed rods of opening foxgloves, 

 which for nearly a month prolong their stain of 

 purple, as the blossoms successively unclose from 

 the butt to the point of the stem. 



But almost more astonishing than the wealth of 

 diverse blossom on the cliffs is the profusion and 

 intense luxuriance of their verdure. There are 

 many earthy and rocky slopes, often as much as a 

 quarter of an acre in extent, which are entirely 

 covered with young and tender ivy- shoots, forming 

 a mantle of almost incredible freshness and lustre. 

 These ivy-slopes run at every angle from a gentle 

 and traversable ascent to a sheer precipice. Many 

 of the upper and less precipitous folds of the cliff are 

 covered almost as densely with the intense green 

 shoots and purple blossoms of the ground-ivy, which 

 here justifies its name by its dense, creeping growth, 

 though it is no relative of the ivy. Here and there, 

 in some lonely or inaccessible garden of the cliff- 

 face, stands a may -tree white with blossom. Up the 



