160 COLIN CLOUT'S CALENDAR. 



down : nor do I see any chance of mowing up there as 

 long as those big dark shadows continue to chase one 

 another with such cruelly heedless merriment across the 

 broad sloping flank of Pilbury. The corn in the Home 

 Close ought now to be filling out in ear under a genial 

 flood of sunshine ; instead of which, constant rain is 

 turning the field into a fine crop of golden charlock : 

 while as to the turnips, they bid fair soon to afford ex- 

 cellent cover for wild duck, which could be most con- 

 veniently and satisfactorily shot, American fashion, from 

 a shallow punt along the furrows. In such weather as 

 this it is good to be a philosopher ; and one may at 

 least reflect with pleasure that crops which are spoilt 

 for all practical purposes are still quite good enough 

 to philosophise upon. 



Indeed, from the biological point of view, even the 

 rain is not without a certain mournful interest of its 

 own. Turnips differ very little in their origin from 

 charlock ; and there is nothing on earth that charlock 

 loves so much as a wet summer. But, then, charlock is 

 not anxious for fresh material to store up in its root- 

 stock for the flowering season, like the swedes and 

 turnips. The difference all lies in the fact that the weed 

 is an annual, while the plant from which we get our 

 cultivated roots has been practically converted under our 

 hands into a sort of irregular biennial. There is a 

 wonderfully close similarity between almost all these 

 cabbage-like plants in the wild state, and they illustrate 

 beautifully the natural limitations of man's selective 

 agency in producing artificial varieties. Charlock is a 

 capital typical example of the race ; for it is perhaps 

 one of the simplest and earliest forms now surviving, and 



