of the brilliant emerald which now begins to spring afresh on the late-mown meadows; by the golden yellow 
of the rye, in some cases cut, and standing in sheaves ; by the rich dark green of the turnip-fields ; and 
still more brilliantly by sweeps, here and there, of the bright yellow charlock, and scarlet corn-poppy, and 
the blue succory, which, like perverse beauties, scatter the stray gifts of their charms in proportion as the 
soil cannot afford to support the expences attendant on them.” 
On the high downs, “ all the little molehills are purple with the flowers of the wild thyme, which ex- 
hales its rich aromatic odour as you press it with your feet ; and among it the elegant blue heath-bell is 
nodding its half-dependent head from its almost invisible stem, — its perpetual motion, at the slightest 
breath of air, giving it the look of a living thing hovering on invisible wings just above the ground. Every 
here and there, too, we meet with little patches of dark green heaths, hung all over with their clusters of 
exquisitely wrought filigree flowers, endless in the variety of their forms, but all of the most curiously deli- 
cate fabric, and all, in their minute beauty, unparalleled by the proudest occupiers of the parterre. This is 
the singular family of plants that, when cultivated in pots, and trained to form heads on separate stems, 
give one the idea of the forest trees of a Lilliputian people.” Here, too, are the “innumerable little thread- 
like spikes that now rise from out the level turf, with scarcely perceptible seed heads at top, and keep the 
otherwise dead flat perpetually alive, by bending and twinkling beneath the sun and breeze.” 
In the green lanes “we shall find the ground beneath our feet, the hedges that enclose us on either side, 
and the dry banks and damp ditches beneath them, clothed in a beautiful variety of flowers that we have 
not yet had an opportunity of noticing. In the hedge-rows which are now grown into impervious walls of 
many-coloured and many-shaped leaves, from the fine filigree-work of the white-thorn, to the large, coarse, 
round leaves of the hazel) we shall find the most remarkable of these, winding up intricately among the 
crowded branches, and shooting out their flowers here and there, among other leaves than their own, or 
hanging themselves into festoons and fringes on the outside, by unseen tendrils. Most conspicuous among 
the first of these is the great bind-weed, thrusting out its elegantly-formed snow-white flowers, but care- 
fully concealing its leaves and stem in the thick of the shrubs which yield it support. Nearer to the ground, 
and more exposed, we shall meet with a handsome relative of the above, the common red and white wild con- 
volvolus; while all along the face of the hedge, clinging to it lightly, the various coloured vetches, and the 
enchanter’s night-shade, hang their flowers into the open air; the first exquisitely fashioned, with wings 
like the pea, only smaller ; and the other elaborate in its construction and even beautiful, with its rich 
purple petals turned back to expose a centre of deep yellow ; but still, with all its beauty, not without a 
strange and sinister look, which at once points it out as a poison-flower. It is this which afterwards turns 
to those bunches of scarlet berries which hang so temptingly in autumn, just within the reach of little 
children, and which it requires all the eloquence of their grandmothers to prevent them from tasting. In 
the midst of these, and above them all, the woodbine now hangs out its flowers more profusely than ever, 
and rivals in sweetness all the other field scents of this month. 
“On the bank from which the hedge-row rises, and on this side of the now nearly dry water-channel 
beneath, fringing the border of the green path on which we are walking, a most rich variety of field-flowers 
will also now be found. We dare not stay to notice the half of them, because their beauties, though even 
more exquisite than those hitherto described, are of that unobtrusive nature that you must stoop to pick 
them up, and must come to an actual commune with them, before they can be even seen distinctly; which 
is more than our desultory and fugitive gaze will permit, — the plan of our walk only allowing us to pay the 
passing homage of a word to those objects that ivill not be overlooked. Many of the exquisite little flowers, 
now alluded to generally, look, as they lie among their low leaves, only like minute morsels of many-coloured 
glass scattered upon the green ground — scarlet, and sapphire, and rose, and purple, and white, and azure, 
and golden. But pick them up, and bring them towards the eye, and you will find them, pencilled with a 
thousand dainty devices, and elaborated into the most exquisite forms and fancies, fit to be strung into 
necklaces for fairy Titania, or set in brooches and bracelets for the neatest-handed of her nymphs. 
“But there are many others that come into bloom this month, some of which we cannot pass unno- 
ticed if we would. Conspicuous among them are the centaury, with its elegant cluster of small, pink, star- 
like flowers ; the ladies’ bed-straw, with its rich yellow tufts; the meadow-sweet — sweetest of all the sweet- 
ners of the meadows; the wood betony, lifting up its handsome head of rose-coloured blossoms; and, still 
in full perfection, and towering up from among the low groundlings that usually surround it, the stately 
fox-glove.” 
