banks of
streams or damp ditches.

[Illustration: MEADOW SWEET.]

It is a beautiful plant, as well as a fragrant one. At the top of the
tall stems are large clusters of small five-petalled flowers,
creamy-white. The stem itself is handsome; it is often three or four
feet high, smooth, stout, and of a reddish colour. The large leaves grow
alternately on the stem; they are made up of several pairs of leaflets
with a single leaflet at the end. The upper surface of the leaves is
dark green, but the under side is generally covered with a soft white
down.

The scent of Meadow Sweet is very pleasant in the field to-day, but I
think we should find it rather too strong if we took a bunch into the
house. Yet Queen Elizabeth is said to have loved Meadow Sweet strewn on
the floors of her apartments.

CHAPTER IX

IN THE CORN-FIELD

One morning early in July, while we are having breakfast at Willow Farm,
we ask Mr. Hammond if he thinks we shall find any flowers in his
wheat-field. The farmer laughs and says he hopes we shall not, but he is
very much afraid that we shall. As we are here on purpose to look for
flowers we are glad to find them anywhere. Mr. Hammond thinks more about
his crops than about flowers, and does not care to see a single blossom
in his corn, however pretty it may be.

We are soon at the field, and there is no mistake about the flowers
being there too. Close to the gate, where the wheat is not quite so
thick as elsewhere, there is a splendid patch of scarlet poppies. This
is perhaps the very brightest wild flower that we have.

Some plants, as we have seen, are annuals, others are perennials. An
annual only lives for one year. The plant springs up from the seed,
grows through the summer, and in the autumn or the winter dies. A
perennial lives for many years. The flowers fade and fall as those of
annuals do; even the leaves and stems may droop and die. The roots and
lower part of the stem do not die; they live in the ground through the
winter, and in the following year fresh stems appear. The White Clover
which we found in Ashmead is a perennial, the Crimson Clover is an
annual.

If you sowed a patch of your garden with Poppy seed you would have the
flowers growing there year after year. You might therefore say, "Surely
the Poppy is a perennial. I only sowed the seed one year, yet the
poppies appear again and again." That is because the plants sowed their
own seed. The flowers faded; then the