August 10, 1876, J 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



121 



At this season every spot of uncultivated ground has its 

 complement of vegetable life — its display of bright plants. 

 Those by the meadow and the waterside are less brilliant, per- 

 haps, in colour, but they bear a multitude of flowers which, 

 taken individually, display none the less the wondrous works 

 of creation and the Infinite Wisdom which has created each 

 for a purpose and a place. AruoDg the most striking objects 

 of meadow scenery during the month are the giant Reeds 

 which fringe nearly every Btream and river bank and bend 

 their plumed heads proudly over the water. In similar places 

 scarcely less conspicuous, but certainly not so elegant in ap- 

 pearance, are the Teazles, which stand up boldly, bending to 

 neither breeze nor storm ; and holding a supply of water in the 

 cup-like base of their leaves, they almost defy the droughts 

 which often dry up the sides of the stream or ditch on which 

 they grow, and leave the water but a silver thread between the 

 parched banks. 



Beneath the shade of the Reeds the exquisitely scented 

 Meadow-sweet is generally to be found, less brilliant in colour 

 than the Creeping Jenny and azure blue Myosotis, which are 

 still to be seen beneath the umbrageous shade of the many 

 varieties of aquatic plants fringing the banks of streamlet and 

 lake. The Meadow-sweet is dear to everyone, for its delicate 

 cream-coloured flowers seem to have caught the sweetest per- 

 fume of the new-mown hay so recently cut in their vicinity. 

 But perhaps the most striking of all our native weeds is the 

 giant Hemlock, which is at the present time in the very zenith 

 of its beauty, its magnificent deeply laciniated foliage rivalling 

 the rich leafage of tropical forests, and its large handsome 

 umbel of white flowers being in keeping with the size of the 

 leaf. 



Along the hedgebank the wild Bryony twines its graceful 

 glossy foliage up the stems and branches of Hawthorn and 

 Briar, and these display its pale green blossoms, which are 

 Ecarcely noticed nor give any promise of the handsome cluster 

 of berries the plant will display later in the year. A long 

 season of dryness during this month fully realises the poet's 

 description — 



" Deep to the root 



Of^ vegetation -parch'd, the cleaving fields 



And flipp'ry lawn an arid hue disclose. 



Echo no more returns the cheerful sound 



Of sharp 'ning scythe." 



The cattle also feel the oppressive heat, and 



" On the grassy bank 

 Some ruminating lie; while others stand 

 Half in the flood, and, often bending, sip 

 The circling surface. In the middle droops 

 The strong laborious ox of honest front, 

 "Which incomposed he shakes; ant from his sides 

 The troublous insects lashes with his tail, 

 Returning still. 

 In rueful gaze the cattle stand.'" 



In Derbyshire and the northern counties the children now 

 go forth in merry parties, can in hand, to gather the fragrant 

 harvest of wild Raspberries, which, if not so plentiful as that 

 of the Blackberries they will seek later on, is fully appreciated 

 by the careful housewife, who finds the luscious fruit no mean 

 addition to the produce of the Currant and Gooseberry bushes 

 of her garden. 



So long is the list of wild flowers of July that we cannot 

 eseay even to enumerate them, but the wild Clematis or 

 Traveller's Joy deserves a word, covering as it does in many 

 places every hedge in our southern and midland counties, grow- 

 ing often in close companionship with the wild Hop. They 

 garland together the quickset fence and stems of hedgerow 

 trees, and form a graceful feature in the wayside landscape. 

 Clematis, besides its common name of Traveller's Joy, bears 

 also that of Virgin's Bower, both being accounted for by 

 Gerard in the following manner : — " Traviler's Joie is this same 

 plant termed as decking and adorning waies and hedges where 

 people travell ; Virgin's Bower, by reason of the goodly shadowe 

 which they make with their thick bushing and climbing, as 

 also for the beautie of the flowers, and the pleasant scent and 

 savour of the same ; and by country folks ' Old Man's Beard,' 

 from the hoary appearance of the seeds, which remain long on 

 the hedges." 



The corn fields, which are now so golden in" the sun, are full 

 of bright flowers, which we shall be better "able to identify 

 when the harvest is cut and the many-coloured flowers rear 

 their heads above the stubble ; but in the woods, and even in 

 shady spots on heath and moor, the gentle "Woodruff may still 

 be gathered, though none, save those acquainted with it, would 

 stoop to gather so small and inconspicuous a flower. Our 



grandams, more versed in Nature's lore than we, never neglected 

 to gather a store of this plant for the sake of the perfume it 

 emits when pressed, a perfume which is only perceived after 

 the plant has been gathered. 



The Ferns are now in full beauty, the common Braoken 

 filling up the woods and covering many a common and wild 

 expanse, forming a covert for the hare and the timid young of 

 the fallow deer. 



" Ferns that grow the stream beside, 

 "Where the leveret loves to hide," 

 are among the most elegant and graceful forms of native 

 vegetation ; but Ferns are as various in their habitats as they 

 are in their beauty. We have the graceful and well-marked 

 Beech Fern and the broad Hart's Tongue ; the elegant Maiden- 

 hair, which affects moist places and finds a congenial home at 

 the fall of " The Lady's Well " on the borders of Dartmoor, 

 and the common Polypody which grows in every county, and 

 is most frequently seen near the habitations of man, on old 

 vails, and the broad banks that divide some fields, and finds 

 a home in the fissures of old trees, Hazel or Thorn stumps, 

 and similar places. 



Although less noticeable and less sought after than the 

 Ferns, the numerous Mosses now carpet as with a velvet pile 

 the damp woods, and clothe with verdure every moist spot 

 where they can find a reBting place. During the dewy eves 

 that generally mark the close of warm July days the merry 

 chirrupings of the nimble grasshopper are heard in place of 

 those songs with which in spring the birds were wont to make 

 night musical. Nor does the grasshopper sing a vesper song 

 only ; in the early morning before the sun has risen the merry 

 insect is abroad to greet the wakeniEg day with his cheerful 

 notes. 



" The poetry of earth is never dead ; 

 "When all the birds are faint with the hot sun, 

 And hide in cooling trees, a voice will run 

 From hedge to hedge about the new-mown mead. 

 That is the grasshopper! He takes the lead 

 In summer luxury ; he has never done 

 "With his delights, for when tired out with fon 

 He rests at ease beneath some pleasant weed." 



The lady-birds are now engaged clearing the Hop vine of 

 the aphides which so generally infest the plant. These pretty 

 little spotted insects seem, like the robin, to bear a charmed 

 life, for although children will sport with, they hardly ever 

 harm them ; and in France lady-birds are looked upon as sacred 

 to the Virgin, and have gained from this fact the name of 

 " Our Lady's Sheep " — indeed, the French peasants are so 

 careful of them that they will stoop to put them aside rather 

 than run the risk of trampling on them. During the summer 

 of 1868, when the Hop plants were terribly blighted, a most 

 wonderful swarm of lady-birds suddenly appeared in the fields 

 and surrounding districts; so numerous were they in parts of 

 Kent that they could be swept up by thousands. Thus we see 

 throughout creation wherever an evil exists Nature provides 

 the remedy, and through every stage of life one creature lives 

 by the destruction of another. 



The study of Nature in all her aspects is of absorbing in- 

 terest, and the universal charm of rural life and scenes is 

 delightfully touched upon by Cowper : — 



" 'TiB born with all. The love of Nature's works 

 Ib an ingredient in the compoundman, 

 Infus'd at the creation of the kind. 

 And though the Almighty Maker has throughout 

 Discriminated each from each by strokes 

 And touches of HiB hand, with so much art 

 Diversified that two were never found 

 TwinB at all points ; yet this obtains in all — 

 That all discern a beauty in Hie works, 

 And all can taste them : minds that have been foim'd 

 And tutor'd, with a relish more exact, 

 But none without some relish, none unmov'd." 

 -T. S. J. 



OUB BOBDEE FLCWEES— LIPWOETS. 



No collection of herbaceous plants should be without a 

 selection of this most accommodating race of plants. Their 

 noble habit, their attractive appearance, their beautiful and 

 curious-looking flowers are traits in their character that cannot 

 easily be passed by. For many of our choicest border flowers 

 we are indebted to distant lands. Our present subjects are 

 from the Levant, Cashmere, Armenia, Europe, Siberia, and 

 other countries. 



These are among the very best plants we have for what is 

 termed half-wild places, it only they can have light and air 

 afforded them. In largo borders when- established they pro- 



