The scarlet lychnis is in bloom, and, with its rich coronet of flowers growing on a tall slender stem, adds greatly to the beauty of the garden.
Among the flowers of summer, we must not forget to mention the evening primrose (Aenothera biennis). This plant bears its primrose-coloured flowers on branches of three or four feet in height, and hence it is called the tree-primrose, or evening star, because the flowers regularly burst open and expand in the evening, between six and seven o’clock.
The yellow hammer (Emberiza citronella) forms its nest and lays its eggs very late in the year, it being quite the end of June, or the beginning of July, before any number of them are found: the eggs are to be distinguished from those of every other bird by their being figured with irregular hair-like scratches, as if marked with a pen; so much so, that, in the midland countries, this bird is called the ‘scribbling or writing lark.’
One last flower and I must emerge from my basement into the sunshine of summer.
The beautiful but evanescent flowers of the convolvulus are now open; they live but for a day, opening their cups in the morning, and at sunset closing them forever.
It is of course, morning glory, sometimes known as bind weed.
Until next time, Happy Rambles
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