19 
NATURE AND BOOKS. 
WHAT is the colour of the dandelion? There are 
-many dandelions: that which I mean flowers in May, 
when the meadow-grass has started and the hares are 
busy by daylight. That which flowers very early in the 
year has a thickness of hue, and is not interesting ; in 
autumn the dandelions quite change their colour and are 
pale. The right dandelion for this question is the one 
that comes about May with a very broad disc, and in 
such quantities as often to cover a whole meadow. I 
used to admire them very much in the fields by Surbiton 
(strong clay soil), and also on the towing-path of the 
Thames where the sward is very broad, opposite Long 
Ditton ; indeed, I have often walked up that towing-path 
on a beautiful sunny morning, when all was quiet except 
the nightingales in the Palace hedge, on purpose to 
admire them. I dare say they are all gone now for ever- 
more; still, it is a pleasure to look back on anything 
beautiful. What colour is this dandelion? It is not 
yellow, nor orange, nor gold; put a sovereign on it and 
see the difference. They say the gipsies call it the 
Queen’s great hairy dog-flower—a number of words to 
one stalk; and so, to get a colour to it, you may call it 
the yellow-gold-orange plant. In the winter, on the 
black mud under a dark, dripping tree, I found a piece 
of orange peel, lately dropped—a bright red orange 
cz 
