232 COLIN CLOUT'S CALENDAR. 



linger on in blossom among them, with lilac rays and 

 yellow centres, like Michaelmas daisies ; and thick 

 fleshy leaves, often pickled by country housewives as a 

 poor substitute for that almost forgotten relish, sam- 

 phire. For the most part, however, the asters are now 

 fully in fruit : each head covered by a fluffy mass of 

 gossamer-winged seeds, that fly away by hundreds with 

 every breath of the misty sea-breeze. No wonder they 

 grow by hundreds on the flats here ; seeing that each 

 head produces a hundred seeds, and each seed flies 

 away lightly on its own account to find a fitting rest- 

 ing-place by some similar pool or tidal hollow. On 

 the bank by the confining shingle beach the strawberry 

 clover spreads its ripening heads, which adopt the 

 exactly opposite tactics of protective devices against 

 animal invaders ; for the seeds are here enclosed in a 

 little swollen network of calyx-veins, which redden as 

 they ripen, giving the head a rough resemblance to a 

 raspberry rather than to the sister fruit from which it 

 takes its popular name. Altogether, the flora of Bed- 

 moor is rich and tempting. Even the casual passer by 

 pauses on the causeway that carries the road across the 

 moor to admire the brilliant colouring of crimson glass- 

 wort and yellow ragwort : the patches of red are on too 

 large a scale not to attract the least observant eye : but 

 to those who love pottering about, with all attention 

 fixed on the beautiful things below, it is a very paradise 

 of native seaside vegetation. 



