48 NATURE NEAR LONDON. 



parsley and cow-parsnip. But these become monoto- 

 nous. Therefore, I am constrained to describe it as 

 a district somewhat lacking flowers, meaning, of 

 course, in point of variety. 



Compared with the hedges and fields of Wiltshire, 

 Gloucestershire, Berkshire, and similar south-western 

 localities, it seems flowerless. On the other hand, 

 southern London can boast stretches of heath, which, 

 when in full bloom, rival Scotch hillsides. These 

 remarks are written entirely from a non- scientific 

 point of view. Professional botanists may produce 

 lists of thrice the length, and prove that all the 

 flowers of England are to be found near London. But 

 it will not alter the fact that to the ordinary eye the 

 roads and lanes just south of London are in the 

 middle of the summer comparatively bare of colour. 

 They should be visited in spring and autumn. 



Nor do the meadows seem to produce so many 

 varieties of grass as farther to the south-west. But 

 beetles of every kind and size, from the great stag 

 beetle, helplessly floundering through the evening air 

 and clinging to your coat, down to the green, bronze, 

 and gilded species that hasten across the path, appear 

 extremely numerous. Warm, dry sands, light soils, 

 and furze and heath are probably favourable to them. 



From this roadside I have seldom heard the corn- 

 crake, and never once the grasshopper lark. These 

 two birds are so characteristic of the meadows in 

 south-western counties that a summer evening seems 

 silent to me without the '* crake, crake ! " of the one 

 and the singular sibilous rattle of the other. But they 

 come to other places not far distant from the road. 



