are passing up and down. Away to the west is the sea, from which a
breeze is nearly always blowing across the Chase. No wonder that the
little Hairbell loves the spot.

We have found a yellow flower and a blue one on the Chase, and now we
have not far to look for something red. Here is a clump of Heath or
Ling, and not far off a patch of Heather too. We must be careful to
distinguish Heath from Heather; let us look at the Heath first.

On the Heath, as on the Hairbell, we find bell-shaped flowers; but the
blossoms of the Heath are very small, and grow from a tough woody stem.
They are a reddish-purple. On little side branches growing from the
stems are the very tiny leaves. The whole plant is low, bushy, and
spreading.

[Illustration: HEATH AND HEATHER.]

The flowers of the Heather are rather larger, deep crimson in colour,
and grow in clusters. On the flower stems grow very small narrow leaves;
there are generally three of them together and they do not grow so
thickly as the leaves of Heath. Among these leaves are some that are
made up of several leaflets.

Gorse, Heather, and Heath are spreading plants, and, if they were
allowed to grow unchecked, they would soon smother and destroy the
turf. Every few years therefore the Chase is burnt. In winter or spring
both Gorse and Heath burn easily, the fire spreading fast from one patch
to another. The smoke of the burning Chase may then be seen from many
miles away.

When the fire has burnt out, the Chase looks very black and dismal. But
the roots and underground stems of both the Heather and the Gorse are
still alive. Fresh shoots will grow, and soon the Gorse will be golden
in the spring, the Heather purple in the summer, as they were before.

CHAPTER XII

IN THE LANES

This is the last day that we can spend in looking for wild flowers at
Willow Farm. Perhaps some of you already knew something about flowers
before this visit. If so, you may have been disappointed that we have
not seen some favourite flower of your own. You may think we have
passed over many flowers which deserved to be noticed.

For that matter I think _every_ wild flower deserves to be noticed; but
we certainly should not have time for all. I showed you several plants
growing on the walls and roof, because it was interesting to see that
quite beautiful flowers, such as the Wallflower and the Houseleek, could
grow with very little soil. We looked rather closely at the Clovers and
at t