A Floriferous Season
Seasons have their distinctions. This summer, as it seems to me, is remarkable for the size of its flowers. The harebells, those bluebells of Scotland, now blooming on Southern commons, are finer than any I remember ; and the same may be said of the foxgloves, both in height and size of blossom. Madonna lilies, those favourites of the cottage garden, are a wonder, especially in the number of flowers on one stalk. The most floriferous in my experience carried thirty-two, a number I have never 'known to be approached. Many hollyhocks are gigantic. A wild plant that excels in bigness is the mauve scabious. It is claimed that the garden scabious (of the Greaves varieties) are the best of all money-makers for those who sell cut flowers. If this is so—and, I think, it is—there is money to be made by picking bouquets of the wild species. Why is it, I wonder, that this flower exercises a peculiar fascination for the burnet moth ? The two together. make many a glorious patch of colour in my paddock.
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