THE LIVING GARMENT 53 



of our trim, pretty artificial gardens a weariness, are 

 not too many : ia most places the untilled downs are 

 bare of furze and bramble and the plants that take 

 advantage of the bramble's protection, and are close 

 cropped by the sheep. Their very smoothness gives 

 them a character which is quite unique and has a 

 peculiar charm. Flowers are abundant and in con- 

 siderable variety, but many that are luxuriant in rich 

 soils, wherever there is shelter and protection, here 

 scarcely look like the same species : they have changed 

 their habits of growth, their form and size, to suit the 

 different conditions. The luxury of long stems, the 

 delight of waving in the wind, and the ambition to 

 overtop their neighbours, would here be fatal. Their 

 safety lies in nestling down amid the lowly grass, 

 keeping so close to the earth as to be able to blossom 

 and ripen their seed in spite of the ever-nibbling 

 sheep — the living lawn-mowers perpetually moving 

 about over them. The vegetation has the appearance 

 of a beautiful tapestry worked in various shades of 

 green, roughened with the slender dry bents standing 

 out like pale yellow thread-ends from the green tex- 

 ture: flecked, and in places splashed with brilliant 

 colour — red, purple, blue, and yellow. Or if you look 

 at the flowers with the sun before you they appear 

 like shining gems sewn into the fabric and forming 

 an irregular pattern. The commonest flowers of the 

 close-fed downs are mostly quite small. Commonest 

 in spring, when indeed yellow flowers most abound, 



