232 COLIN CLOUT'S CALENDAR. 



Hnc:^cr 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 hollov\^ 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. 



