right Hills
My note on the charm of late summer scabious has prompted a ellow-author to write from Scotland : " Your praise of it is just. t is very common on the riparian pastures of Argyll, but I am urious to know if you share my enthusiasm for the meadow esbill." I do ; the big mauve-blue geranium, very soft, very elicately wine-veined, is a delight, especially fine on Cotswold oadsides, when the strong purple torches of Campanula patula magnificent in company with it. But in the Cotswolds, as
n the Kentish Downs, two other late summer flowers are even ore splendid in their prodigal distribution than scabious and nesbill. On a bright late summer day the downs are flooded ith the cloudy pink light of bay willow-beet, tall as corn, and ild marjoram, soft as foam. No other two flowers give such a ass effect of radiance ; the hills, seen from a slight distance, ve the rosy fire of sunset clouds. Nearer, you see the marjoram, e the scabious, crowded with drowsy flights of butterflies, the cry beautiful silver-washed fritillaries, meadow-browns, pea- ks, tortoiseshells, marbled whites. And the Greeks, who had e word for so many things, had the words for marjoram. For
is botanical name is Origanum vulgare—oros, a hill ; ganos, rightness: brightness in hilly places.
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