Signals of Autumn 187 



soils do the colours of the cornfield weeds tinge the 

 expanse of a field at harvest-time. There the clear 

 yellow of the corn marigold and the daisy-like 

 blossoms of corn chamomile may still hold their 

 own too well ; but elsewhere the poppies have 

 faded, and the charlock is hiding its beaked seeds. 

 The weeds still blooming in a thick field of standing 

 corn peep singly among the ears, and can only be 

 seen close at hand. The small pink convolvulus 

 still climbs persistently with its tangled bines ; 

 but it wastes too much effort in doubling and trebling 

 its loops to arrive often at a place in the sun. The 

 most conspicuous of all the weeds in a ripe corn 

 crop is the large field scabious, which has a long 

 flowering season in later summer, but is at its height 

 in the early days of August. It is a beautiful wild 

 flower of grassy banks, which earns the name of a 

 weed when it strays into the corn ; and it steals 

 among the parched barley and glowing wheat with 

 the gleam of purple which is the signal of the year's 

 decline. 



Foxglove stems, whipping stiffly in the Lammas 

 rain, have dropped all but the highest of their long 

 chain of bells, and no longer light up the dark 

 shadows of the beeches. They began to bloom 

 early in July, and the colour of the opening blossoms 

 moving upwards marked the progress of the month 

 to the eve of harvest. More local, but even more 

 abundant in certain woods, the rose-bay willow- 

 herb is also nearing the end of its season. Already 

 its thistle-like seeds begin to drift far in the rough, 

 south-west winds, entering railway carriages and 



