270 AUTUMNAL FLOWERS. 



centrated rays as foretold a calm burning day. The 

 liills were covered with a hot haze, in which their 

 outlines were tremulously quivering. The air was 

 filled with a constant buzz from the two-winged flies 

 that were hovering about the hedges ; and the dull 

 brown butterflies were flitting along in their dancing 

 jerking flight all around. 



] marked the change in the appearance of the hedge- 

 rows and banks produced by the progress of the season. 

 The spring flowers had all departed ; there were no 

 primroses now ; no germander speedwells, no violets, 

 no pileworts, scarcely any red campions ; but purple 

 loosestrife and the great willow-herb sprang up in the 

 ditches ; the long straggling shoots of the brambles 

 were covered with flesh-coloured blossoms ; and the 

 dense spikes of Teucrium were every where prominent. 

 The abundance of yellow flowers indicated the 

 approach of autumn; the handsome spikes of the 

 yellow toad-flax with its curiously spurred flowers 

 crowned the tall hedges, and a Potentilla was seen 

 here and there on the bank ; but the composite 

 flowers that botanists term Syngenesia were chiefly 

 characteristic ; the hawkweeds, and groundsels, and 

 ox-tongues, and sow-thistles. 



The foliage of the hedges and all the herbage had 

 lost the delicacy of spring, and had grown rank, and 

 coarse, and sprawling ; seeds were ripening on all 

 sides, and ferns were putting on their under- clothing 

 of brown tracery. 



"Not seldom did we stop to watch some tuft 

 Of dandelion seed or thistle's beard. 



