Summer's Afterglow 239 



beneath the flame-tinged wood. Some of the 

 many wild flowers which can be found still rarely 

 blooming in the Summer of St. Luke are simply the 

 last stragglers of the kinds which normally bloom 

 in August or September. In this class fall the 

 yellow toadflax or wild snapdragon, and the heather 

 which still deeply flushes many moorlands with its 

 rusting bloom. In other cases the late autumn 

 blooming of wild flowers seems due to that curious 

 recrudescence of vernal strength under the fresher 

 autumn skies which can also be seen in the life of 

 birds. 



Such autumn blooming is especially common 

 when prolonged and severe drought has dwarfed 

 and checked the development of the flowers of 

 midsummer. In such a year the poppy will blossom 

 thickly by the hurdles of the autumn sheep-folds, 

 and the chicory widen its blue petals to paler skies 

 than those of its own July. But even in more 

 normal seasons many plants seem to gain a fresh 

 lease of life in October, and put forth new flowers 

 of spring before the swiftly coming end. The 

 honeysuckle often blooms freely in September and 

 October, though it can generally be found in flower 

 somewhere in the shade at all times after its first 

 blossoming in June. On feeble lateral stems, the 

 foxglove throws up small clusters of its purple- 

 spotted throats, far out-topped by the dry, capsuled 

 column of its July bloom. Most persistent among 

 autumn-flowering plants is the primrose, which, in 

 sheltered places, is often found even in September 

 uncurling its small new leaves and opening young 



