WILD FLOWERS WORTH NOTICE.
PLATE I.
BUTTERCUP. Ranunculus bulbosits.
WOOD ANEMONE. Anemone ncmorosa.
GLOBE FLOWER. Trollius Europatus.
TRAVELLERS' JOY Clematis
PHEASANT'S EYE. Adonis autumnalis.
COLUMBINE. Aquilegia Vulgaris.
WILD FLOWERS
WORTH NOTICE
% Selection of $mt of or ffatifce Jtonts
WHICH ARE MOST ATTRACTIVE FROM
THEIR BEAUTY, USES, OR ASSOCIATIONS.
BY
MRS. LANKESTER,
AUTHOR OF 'A PLAIN AND EASY ACCOUNT OF BRITISH FERNS,' AND OF THE
POPULAR PORTION OF SOWERBv's 'ENGLISH BOTANY,' ETC.
WITH 108 COLOURED FIGURES
FROM DRAWINGS BY J. E. SOWERBY.
LONDON:
DAVID BOGUE, 3 ST. MARTIN'S PLACE,
TRAFALGAR SQUARE, W.C.
1879.
n n a a v> :
CLAY AND TAYLOR, PRINTERS.
PREFACE.
THE success which has attended my little book on ' Wild
Flowers worth Notice,' in the various forms in which for
several years it has appeared before the public, determined
the publisher to produce it again in a revised and improved
condition, yet retaining its old character, only adding to it,
rather than altering it. I am therefore glad to have the
opportunity of correcting any error which may now exist in
work done some years ago, and have endeavoured to bring
the information given, up to the present time. When I
first undertook the task I felt the difficulty of selecting from
the British Flora certain 'Wild Flowers worth Notice,' and
the task would be scarcely easier now were I called upon
to make this selection definite. For what flowers are not
worth notice ? As, however, this cannot pretend to be an
exhaustive treatise on the British Flora, such as exists in
many forms and in large ponderous volumes compiled by
profound and learned botanists, I have endeavoured to
choose such plants as are representatives of particular
families, and are remarkable either for their beauty of
appearance or useful properties, and to give the best
botanical description I can either find or make of them, so
as to insure their recognition with the aid of the plate, and
to add such traditions, legends, and poetical fancies, as are
2090884
vi PREFACE.
associated with them, in order to increase the interest with
which they may be regarded.
Longfellow well says
" Wond'rous truths, and manifold as wond'rous,
God hath written in the stars above ;
But not less in the bright flow' rets under us
Stands the revelation of His love."
Then the natural connection between wild flowers and
bright sunshine, or the first warm days of spring, does it not
recall many a pleasant ramble to those who are in the
enjoyment of youth and health ? And even to the feeble
or afflicted, the remembrance of the soft lulling influence of
a summer's day, in sweet rural scenes, when everything
seems joyous and yet tranquil, is a refreshment and a delight.
In a charming series of short essays, called ' The Recreations
of a Country Parson,' is one ' Concerning Summer Days,'
which is so full of pleasant thoughts and the love of green
trees and fields, hedges and hedge-rows, that I cannot but
wish he would also write 'Concerning Wild Flowers.'
When I first began to write of 'Wild Flowers,' it was
suggested to me that I should select only those susceptible
of cultivation ; but to me, the great charm of the whole
subject is to fancy the beautiful creatures in their natural
homes, where they love to grow, not where they are
artificially placed and tended by the hand of man. The
wild bryony and clematis climbing luxuriantly over hedge
and neighbouring tree none the less rich for the demands
made upon it by groups of happy smiling children for
wreaths and festoons of wonderful length. The blue forget-
me-not peeping out from its bed of green leaves by the bank
of the clear running stream, asking only for moisture to
fringe its sides with turquoise flowers. A hundred other
lovely "children of the earth," as the blind girl of Bulwer
PREFACE. vii
calls them, owe much of their charm to the "lap" from
which they spring fresh and untouched by the hand of
man. Not that I would in any manner depreciate the
gardener's art or the skill of the florist, in so tending and
cultivating even our native plants, as to produce such per-
fection of colour and symmetry of form, that it is difficult to
recognize our friends of the wayside in the beauties of the
garden. But this is surely the admiration with which we
regard the well-dressed and fashionable denizens of a city
in contrast with the more simple, but, perhaps, not less
refined, rustic beauties. Then these favourites of ours must
be sought for, they call forth the energy and self-denial of
their admirers, and while making great demands in the shape
of country walks, and mountain rambles, bestow on their
captors rosy cheeks, the inestimable prize of healthful and
vigorous frames.
I have often, when urging the necessity of long walks and
frequent exercise, been told by young folks living in the
midst of rustic lanes, "There is no object to go out for.
In cities and towns there are a hundred objects, and we are
thus beguiled into walking." Why not then secure an
object, if but one, for a country walk ; an object which will
unfailingly repay you and be cheering in the remembrance ?
Cultivate an acquaintance with the wild flowers of your own
district, study them, gather them, transplant them if you
will into a corner of your own garden ; but, above all, visit
them in their own homes, and be not satisfied till you have
made a tolerable friendship with most of our British plants.
Like all things of beauty, they perish quickly ; and though
each month of the year brings its own attractions with it,
from the snowdrop of the early spring to the misletoe and
lichen of dark December, the lover of flowers will like to
preserve the forms of as many favourites as possible, by
drying; and few who have botanized in youth, cannot
viii PREFACE.
moralize in maturer age over the remembrances thus
furnished, and few who have once engaged in collecting
plants ever lose the recollection of the study or the interest
it inspired. I therefore say to all, observe, collect, and
preserve the wild flowers you find ; arrange and name them
scientifically, if possible ; but if that be not in your power,
still they will always be interesting to you as a pleasing
record of " times and places, and old familiar faces," which
one day you will value. When you have become well
acquainted with the wild plants of your own neighbourhood,
there are always rare ones to look for, and great is the
interest and excitement attending the discovery of a rare
species in an unexpected locality; but before you can
expect to become a discoverer, you must be a tolerable
botanist. But Botany, like other sciences, requires earnest
and systematic study. Those who wish to be able to dis-
cover the name of a 'plant by the aid of botanical books,
must first thoroughly understand the structure of a plant.
Facilities for the study of Botany, both in the metropolis
and in the provinces, are much greater now than when I
first wrote this little book, and urged it upon young people
of both sexes. The Government recognize Botany as one
of the subjects for science teaching ; and we find in the
Syllabus for the examination of teachers issuing from the
schools of science at Kensington, 'Subject XV., Elementary
Botany, including questions on the chemistry of plants,
histology, and the general structure of the flowering plant.'
In an advanced course of the same subject we have an
examination in vegetable physiology and morphology,
Subject XVII. according to the Government Syllabus. But
these efforts of the Government are simply in the way of
examinations to test the knowledge of teachers who are
supposed to have qualified themselves elsewhere, and to
submit to this test of their fitness for teaching the subject in
PREFACE. ix
the board and other schools of the country. About 1500
candidates present themselves annually for examination,
and Botany is now recognized as one of the subjects to be
taught in our national schools. I am reminded of the
efforts of the late Rev. Professor Henslow in this direction,
long before the matter had ever been considered by public
bodies and functionaries.
He was Professor of Botany in the University of Cambridge,
and at the same time Rector of Hitc.ham, in Suffolk. The
interest he took in his parish schools induced him to think
that the girls might with advantage know something of the
plants and vegetation of their own village. With his
characteristic energy and goodness, he set about teaching
all who chose to learn the elements of Botany, and by the
encouragement of his own kindly smile and approving words,
he soon succeeded in establishing a genuine love for plants,
not only to look at, but to understand, in the minds of these
children. The good professor arranged for his pupils a
system of naming, classifying, and drying their specimens,
and but few girls in the village of Hitcham are now unac-
quainted with their native plants. A good collection, made,
dried, and named by these young botanists, maybe inspected
any day in the permanent scientific collection of the
educational department of the South Kensington Museum,
where it is deposited as an example and an encouragement
to other village schools. It is but right to add that the
testimony of the Inspectors of Schools goes to prove that
this school ranks far above the average of schools in the
district in every respect ; and that in no way is there any
difference in its rules or arrangements, with the exception of
the introduction of Botany. We can, perhaps, readily
account for the indirect influence of this study on the habits
and minds of the pupils. The attention it awakens, the
methods of arrangement and order it encourages, and the
x PREFACE.
accuracy it necessitates, must re-act, in a great measure, on
the whole character and thoughts of the learner.
With regard to the means at the disposal of a student for
learning Botany, I may say that in London every medical
school has its classes which are open to all young men who
desire to study the subject, be they destined for the medical
profession or not, and there are ladies' classes innumerable
in association with every scheme for the improved education
of women. At Bedford College, York Place, Portman
Square, London, a larger and more complete course of
lectures on Botany than can be obtained anywhere else is
given to ladies by Mr. A. W. Bennett. It includes structural
and physiological Botany, and extends over the whole session
of study, numbering about 60 lectures. The fees are very
moderate, and the teaching I know is excellent. There is
also a ladies' class for the study of Botany about to be
formed at University College, under the valuable guidance
of the Rev. George Henslow, the son of the Professor
whom I have mentioned, and who follows in his father's
footsteps in the enthusiasm with which he regards his
favourite science.
In all our provincial towns there are good and pains-
taking botanists, many of whom have already formed
classes for work and study, and others who would I am
sure be glad to give private instruction where such help is
desired.
Let it not be supposed, however, that this search after
wild flowers need be confined to such as have at their dis-
posal all the appliances of science. The poorest inhabitant
of a cottage has within her reach the same delight from this
pursuit as the lady of the mansion, and we have many
instances of the successful cultivation of Botany by those
who have to labour hard for their daily bread. Among the
PREFACE, xi
hills which surround the great manufacturing city of the
north, Manchester, and even within the very atmosphere of
its smoke, there exists, at this day, a club of working
naturalists chiefly botanists. All of them are artizans in
some one of the great factories of the district. An account
published by one of themselves of their weekly botanical
excursions, their field-days, and the healthful and exhilarating
effect on the minds and bodies of the members of this club,
is most encouraging and delightful. The actual longevity
of these humble naturalists is very remarkable. Old Crow-
ther, one of the earliest workers in this direction, died at
the age of 79; he was a simple-hearted man, willing to
travel any distance and undergo any fatigue so that he
secured his flower. As one of his old companions said,
"he was not learned, but he was very loving." He never
touched his wages for the purpose of botanical pleasure,
but took home every penny, and trusted to fortunate acci-
dents for the means of supplying his scientific wants. An
account of the life and labours of another of this noble
fraternity, the late Samuel Gibson, of Hebden Bridge,
appeared in the ' Manchester Guardian ' of the 3oth May,
1849. His herbarium of plants was sold after his death for
the sum of ^75, and many portions of his collection are
now to be seen in the Peel Park Museum, Salford. In 1858
an annual meeting of these working-men naturalists took
place near Manchester, at which there mustered not less
than 200 zealous and well-informed botanists, all, with the
exception of four or five, of the artizan class. The one
striking feature of this meeting seems to have been the
hale and hearty appearance of the men already advanced
in life ; they were fine specimens of youth carried on into
old age. There is evidently something in natural history
wonderfully promotive of length of days. Men never step
xii PREFACE.
into the presence of nature with affection and reverence,
but they come back blessed and strengthened with a
reward.
Since Dr. Smiles undertook to write the biography of
some of our remarkable working-men, we find that the
love and study of plants, even to a scientific acquaintance
with them, is a noticeable feature in their pursuits and self-
education. But there are many who, having perhaps neither
time nor opportunity for special oral instruction in Botany,
are anxious to gain such knowledge of its principles as may
be obtained from books. To such I recommend the
following as best suited to their purpose: Henfrey's
' Rudiments of Botany,' Hooker's 'Primer of Botany,' Oliver's
' Lessons in Elementary Botany,' Hooker's ' Student's Flora.'
Babington's ' Manual of Botany ' is a useful book of reference
when the structure of plants has been mastered, and there
are innumerable others which will answer the same purpose.
For a large and comprehensive collection of the whole
British Flora, beautifully illustrated with a coloured drawing
of every plant, a minute scientific description, and a popular
account of the history and legends attached to each, I may
mention the beautiful work in eleven quarto volumes called
'English Botany,' published by Hardwicke, 192 Piccadilly.
But this great work is above the reach of most, as its
lowest price is 22 8s. It can, however, be taken in
83 Parts at 5^. each. I had the pleasure of being inti-
mately connected with this interesting work, for the ten
years it was in progress. A series of lectures has been
published by the Examiners in Science in the Department
of Education, " addressed to teachers on preparation for
obtaining science certificates, and the method of teaching a
science class." To the one on Botany, price 2d., I would
specially refer, as explaining and amplifying much that I
should wish to say here on the nature and advantages of
PREFACE. xiii
this study. A Directory, price 6d., is also published, con-
taining minute particulars as to regulations for establishing
and conducting science classes in schools. Either of these
pamphlets may be obtained by application to the Secretary
of the Science and Art Department, South Kensington
Museum. The late Rev. Professor Henslow, ever anxious
to assist and gratify others at any personal sacrifice, sent me
some years ago, in spite of the severe and painful illness
which carried him off, a little pamphlet prepared as a com-
panion to the specimens of his school plants deposited in
the Kensington Museum, entitled ' Illustrations to be
Employed in Practical Lessons on Botany.' In it he gives
full particulars of the system he has pursued in his schools at
Hitcham, and every direction for the commencement of the
study of Botany, with little wood-cuts as unmistakable
guides. Nearly every book on botany contains directions
as to drying plants, and in my ' Plain and Easy Account of
British Ferns,' I have endeavoured to be as clear as possible
on this point. Here, therefore, I would only say to those
who wish to make a collection of dried plants, get a
'Botanist's Portable Collecting Press.'* Change your
paper often while your plants are drying; when dry, put
them down carefully with bits of gummed paper on fools-
cap sheets ; write the name, order, locality, and date of
finding neatly underneath. It is a good plan to have a
sheet of thick cartridge or brown paper for each family,
to enclose all the specimens belonging to that family.
You can then place these cases on shelves, in drawers,
or a portfolio, for safety and preservation. Thus much
pleasure is laid up for days when out-of-door excursions
are impossible, but when the mind can be refreshed and
interested by the recollection of scenes and localities of
* These presses are made in three sizes, costing 7-r. 6d., &r. 6d.,
los. 6d., and may be obtained from the publisher of this work.
xiv PREFACE.
which these dried and perhaps withered flowers are the
only existing souvenirs. Wordsworth, the poet of nature,
tells us truly that
" Nature never did betray
The heart that loved her ! 'Tis her privilege,
Through all the years of this our life, to lead
From joy to joy ! "
P. L.
INTRODUCTION.
THIS little volume certainly does not presume to be a work
on Botany, strictly so called, of which there are so many
and such exhaustive guide-books to the British Flora. It is
not my intention to describe each Natural Order or Family
to which our specimens belong. Nearly every reader who
is sufficiently interested in plants to care to look for them,
and to compare them with the plates and descriptions here
given, will already know what constitutes a family or natural
order ; but lest some one should take up this book who has
not given any previous attention to the subject, I would say
that the whole vegetable kingdom is divided into three great
classes. These, again, are subdivided into orders, families,
or tribes, according as they most resemble each other ; these
are again subdivided into genera, and again into species.
We may popularly explain the system of classifying thus :
In a library there shall be a number of volumes of all sizes,
shapes, and containing varieties of matter ; we agree to
classify them not only by size and colour, but according to
their contents. Take all those treating of chemistry, then
all those on botany ; let those be families or orders ; then
all the red-bound chemical books, that is a genus ; then
from those separate the volumes with gilt leaves of a certain
size, and those with marbled leaves of a certain size, these
constitute species. In this way have our great botanists
divided the vegetable kingdom for the convenience of
arrangement and study ; and although there are often differ-
ences of opinion as to what shall constitute a species or a
variety , which would correspond in a library to a red, gilt-
edged book, with a slight change of style in the cover, say
xvi INTRODUCTION.
with a thicker, stouter back than the rest ; yet in the main
there is but little difficulty in preserving order and in classi-
fying every known plant according to its peculiarities. It is
very necessary for any one who wishes to study Botany to
understand thoroughly the distinguishing points of each
natural order. When once these are fixed in the mind, it is
easy to recognize plants as belonging to certain families, and
from the established habits of the family to draw conclusions
as to the nature, locality, and properties of the specimen
under notice. In order to give some notion of the nature
of a Natural Order or Family, I think it well to give a
sketch of that to which our first specimen belongs, and
which comes first in nearly all works on Botany.
RANUNCULACE^E. The plants belonging to this order are
herbs or climbing plants, never shrubs or trees. The flowers
are solitary, that is, singly, on a stalk, or in racemes, that is,
in bunches of irregular flowrets. The petals are generally
five, but sometimes are deformed and very minute, or
wanting altogether. The stamens are very numerous, and
placed on the receptacle. The fruit is composed of several
carpels, distinct or partially united. The seeds are erect or
pendulous. The family Ranunculacecz are widely diffused
all over the globe, but especially in cool and temperate
climates. Within the tropics they are chiefly confined to
high mountain districts. They are remarkable for their
acrid, poisonous qualities in many of the species of Ranun-
culus ; the acrid secretion in the leaves will produce blisters
if applied to the skin ; whilst the Aconite or Monk's Hood
is a deadly poison. A good example of the chief charac-
teristics of the family is afforded by the species figured in
our Plate No. i.
SYSTEMATIC CHAPTER OF CONTENTS,
FLOWERING PLANTS.
CLASS I.
EXOGENS OR DICOTYLEDONS.
Subdivision I. THALAMIFLOR^E.
ORDER 5. CISTACE^E.
Helianthemum vulgare . . 22
ORDER 6 VIQLACE^E.
Viola odorata 22
Viola tricolor . . . . . . 24
ORDER 7. DROSERACE^E.
Drosera rotundifolia . . . . 26
Parnassia palustris .. .. 37
ORDER 8. CARYOPHYLLACE^E.
PAGE
ORDER i. RANUNCULACKiE.
Ranunculus bulbosus
i
Clematis Vitalba
2
Anemone nemorosa
3
Adonis autumnalis
4
Trollius Europaeus
5
Aquilegia vulgaris
6
Aconitum Napellus
7
Caltha Palustris
8
ORDER 2. '.
Nymphasa alba . . . . 10
Nuphar lutea 12
ORDER 3. PAPAVERACE^E.
Papaver Argemone . . . . 13
Glaucium luteum . . . . 15
ORDER 4. CRUCIFER^.
Isatis tinctoria 17
Draba verna . . . . . . 18
Nasturtium officinale . . . . 19
Dianthus Caryophyllus
Lychnis diurna
29
30
ORDER 9. LINAGES.
Linum usitatissimum . . . . 31
ORDER 10. MALVACEAE.
Lavatera arborea . . . . 32
Malva moschata . . . . 33
Althasa officinalis . . . . 34
xviii SYSTEMATIC CHAPTER OF CONTENTS.
PAGE
ORDER n. HYPERICACE^E.
Hypericum calycinum . . 35
PACK
ORDER 12. GERANIACE^E.
Geranium sanguineum . . 38
Geranium Robertianum . . 39
Oxalis Acetosella . . . . 44
Subdivision II. CALYCIFLOR^.
wKUi, K 13. LEGUMINOS^E.
Ulex Europseus . . . . 42
Ononis spinosa . . . . 45
Trifolium fragiferum . . . . 46
Lathyrus aphaca . . . . 53
ORDER 14. ROSACES.
Rosa Canina . . . . . . 47
Rosa spinosisima . . . . 52
Potentilla reptans . . . . 54
ORDER 15. ONAGRACE^E.
Epilobium angustifolium . . 55
^Enothera biennis .. .. 56
ORDER 16. LYTHRACE^E.
Lythrum Salicaria . . . . 58
ORDER 17. CUCURBITACE.E.
Bryonia dioica . . . . . . 59
ORDER 18. CRASSULACE^.
Sempervivum Tectorum . . 60
ORDER 19. SAXIFRAGACE^E.
Saxifraga Hirculus . . . . 61
Chrysosplenium alternifolium 63
ORDER 20. UMBELLIFER^E.
Sium Angustifolium . . . . 62
Hydrocotyle vulgaris . . . . 64
Eryngium maritimum . . . . 64
Crithmum maritimum . . 66
ORDER 21. RUBIACE^E.
Galium Aparine . . . . 67
Subdivision III. COROLLIFLOR^.
Order 22. LORANTHACE^E.
Viscum album . . . . . . 69
ORDER 23. CAPRI FOLIAGES.
Sambucus nigra . . . . 73
Lonicera Periclymenum . . 74
ORDER 24. GALTACE^E.
Galium verum . . . . . . 76
ORDER 23. DIPSACE^.
Dipsacus Fullonum
77
ORDER 26. COMPOSITE.
Bellis perennis . . 79
Cichorium Intybus 82
Aster Tripolium 83
Inula Helenium 84
Athemis nobilis 85
ORDER 27. CAMPANULACE^.
Campanula rotundifolia . . 86
ORDER 28. ERICACEAE.
Vaccinium Myrtillus
88
SYSTEMATIC CHAPTER OF CONTENTS. xix
Erica Tetralix . .
Calluna vulgaris
90
ORDER 29. AQUIFOLACE^E.
Ilex aquifolium . . . . 92
ORDER 30. GENTIANACE^E.
Gentiana verna . . . . 94
Menyanthes trifoliata . . . . 95
ORDER 31. CONVOLVU-
LACE.E.
Convolvulus sepium . . . . 96
Convolvulus Soldanella . . 97
ORDER 32. BORAGINACE^E.
Echium vulgare . . . . 98
Myosotis palustris . . . . 99
ORDER 33. SOLANACE^E.
Hyoscyamus niger . . . . 102
Atropa Belladonna . . . . 104
Solanum Dulcamara . . . . 107
ORDER 34.' SCROPHULARI-
ACEJE.
Veronica Chamoedrys . . 108
Antirrhinum maj us .. .. no
Verbascum Thapsus .. .. in
ORDER 35. LABIATE.
Scutellaria Galericulata .. 113
Nepeta Glechoma .. .. 114
ORDER 36. LENTIBULARl^E.
Utricularia vulgaris .. .. 115
ORDER 37. PRIMULACE^..
Glaux maritima .. 116
Primula vulgaris . . 116
Primula officinalis .. 117
Lysimachia numrnularia 119
Anagallis arvensis .. 119
ORDER 38. PLANTAGINACE^E.
Plantago major . . . . 120
Subdivision IV. MONOCHLAMYDE^E.
ORDER 39. EUPHORBIAQE.
Euphorbia Peplis . . . . 122
ORDER 4o.-CALLITRICHACE^E.
Callitriche verna . . . . 123
ORDER 41. URTICACE-<E.
Urtica Dioica . . . . . . 124
xx SYSTEMATIC CHAPTER OF CONTENTS.
CLASS II.
ENDOGENS OR MONOCOTYLEDONS.
PAGE
ORDER 42. DIOSCOREACE^E.
Tamus communis . . . . 126
ORDER 43. HYDROCHARI-
DACE^E.
Stratiotes Aloides
127
ORDER 44. ORCHIDACE^:.
Orchis mascula . . . . 128
Orchis militaris . . . . 129
Ophrys apifera . . . . . . 130
Ophrys nmscifera . . . . 131
ORDER 45. IRIDACE^E.
Iris Pseudacorus 132
ORDER 46. -AMARYLLIDACE.E.
Narcissus Pseudonarcissus . . 134
ORDER 47. LILIACE^E.
Hyacinthus nonscriptus . . 136
Muscari racemosum . . . . 137
Scilla verna . . . . . . 138
Fritillaria meleagris . . . . 138
Lilium Martagon . . . . 139
Colchicum autumnale . . . . 140
ORDER 48. ALISMACE.E.
Butomus umbellatus . . . . 143
Sagittaria sagittifolia . . . . 143
ORDER 49. ARACE^E.
Arum maeulatum . . . . 144
Acorus Calamus . . . . 146
ORDER 50. CYPERACE^E.
Eriphorum Angustifolium . . 146
Scirpus lacustris . . . . 147
WILD FLOWERS
BUTTERCUP, OR BULBOUS CROWFOOT.
RANUNCULUS BULBOSUS.
THE name Buttercup is familiarly applied to nearly
all the species of Ranunculus with bright yellow
flowers. This species is distinguished from the rest
by its thickened stem, which at the lower part, under
the ground, expands into a sort of bulb, and by the
sepals, which, as soon as the flower expands, are
reflexed or turned back on the peduncle. The leaves
are divided into three stalked segments, more or less
cut. The whole plant is about a foot high ; it flowers
in the early summer, and is abundant in our meadows
and waste places. In Scotland it is found southwards ;
but in the north is seldom to be seen. The genus
Ranunculus is the type of the natural order Ranuncu-
laceae. The species are generally acrid, and not eaten
by cattle in their growing state.
a
2 WILD FLOWERS.
TRAVELLERS' JOY OLD MAN'S BEARD,
OR VIRGIN'S BOWER.
CLEMATIS VITALBA.
CLEMATIS VITALBA belongs to an almost exceptional
genus of the Ranunculus family. Its stem is climbing,
and woody at the base ; it is the only British plant
which gives us some faint notion of the bush ropes of
the tropics. The woody stems sometimes attain a
great thickness, and the petioles or leaf-stalks of the
young branches act as tendrils, and cause it to spread
to a great extent over trees and shrubs in its neigh-
bourhood. The flowers are of a greenish-white colour,
in loose bunches. The carpels are very conspicuous
when ripe, from their persistent styles, which grow
into long feathery awns ; hence the name, Old Man's
Beard. The petals are absent in this species, the
flowers being formed by the sepals. The leaves are
pinnate ; the leaflets, usually five in number, ovate and
slightly pointed in shape. This pretty and slightly
sweet-scented plant is one of the greatest ornaments
of our country hedges ; and we can, doubtless, all
remember with pleasure the delight with which in our
summer rambles we have torn down long wreaths of its
pretty green leaves and pale flowers to adorn a rustic
head-dress, or to luxuriate in its fragrance, which it
possesses in some degree in common with its relation
C. Flammula, the deliciously fragrant plant so well
known in our gardens.
WOOD ANEMONE. 3
There are above a hundred species of Clematis, most
of which are favourite plants in cultivation. Both our
own British species, Clematis Vitalba and C. crispa
(an exotic species), have been used as rubefacients in
rheumatism, and the dried leaves of C. Vitalba form
fodder for cattle in some places, the acrid juice they
contain when green disappearing after drying. When
dried, boys use clematis wood for smoking as they do
ratan. A thin slice of the wood is an interesting
object under the microscope, from the curious manner
in which the parts of the stem are arranged.
WOOD ANEMONE, OR WIND. FLOWER.
ANEMONE NEMOROSA.
THIS is one of our commonest and prettiest hedge-
plants, belonging to the same order, Ranunculaceae.
The whole of the anemones are lowly herbs, usu-
ally perennial, as is this species. The flowers are
solitary, consisting of six smooth white elliptical
sepals. The leaves consist of three ovate or lance-
olate leaflets, of a dark bright-green colour. The
flowers may be seen in or near woods as soon in the
year as April, and our earliest spring walks are often
gladdened by its presence. Nothing can be prettier
than a bouquet of these simple delicate white flowers
in the midst of their natural guardians, the dark finely-
B 2
4 WILD FLOWERS.
cut green leaves ; they are among the earliest harbin-
gers of the season,
When earth, exulting from her wintry tomb,
Breaks forth with flowers.
To see these delicate flowers in perfection, however,
we must choose for our woodland excursion a bright
unclouded day, for the Wood Anemone is a natural
barometer, and droops at the approach of rain. There
are several British species of anemone ; but we have
selected the A. Nemorosa as the most attractive from
its very simplicity.
Anemone Pulsatilla, has fine large purple flowers.
A. Pczonia, the Peacock Anemone, common in the
south of Europe, with its bright scarlet or scarlet and
white flowers ; and A. Coronaria, the garden Anemone,
with its many varieties of hue, form striking contrasts
to the unobtrusive appearance of our little favourite.
The whole genus partake of the acrid and poisonous
qualities of the family, and are unsafe to take, even as
medicines, although they have had a reputation in
various complaints.
PHEASANT'S EYE.
ADONIS AUTUMNALIS.
ADONIS AUTUMNALIS Pheasant's Eye partakes
more of the character of the true Ranunculus than
any plant we have yet described ; it is distinguished
GLOBE FLOWER. 5
from that genus by the absence of a little scale at the
base of the petals, and from other genera of the same
order by the numerous hard, dry, sharp-pointed grains
of which its fruit consists. It is an upright annual
plant, from eight inches to a foot in height. The
leaves are finely cut into numerous narrow linear
segments. The sepals are green or slightly coloured ;
the petals from five to eight in number, but slightly
longer than the calyx, of a bright scarlet colour, with
a dark or black spot at the base inside the flower. It
is constantly to be found in cornfields in the summer,
from May to September in England and Ireland, and
sometimes in Scotland.
GLOBE FLOWER.
TROLLIUS EUROP&US.
TROLLIUS EUROP^EUS, Globe Flower, belongs also to
the order Ranunculaceae, and is so called from the
German word trollen, round, in reference to the round
shape of the flowers. The species are all perennial
herbs, with divided leaves and yellow flowers, com-
posed of coloured sepals. It is not a large genus, and
our native species, Trollitis Europ&us, is the most
generally known. It has from ten to fifteen broad
concave sepals, usually turned over in the shape of a
ball, and concealing petals, stamens, and carpels.
6 WILD FLOWERS.
In Scotland it is called Lucken Gowan, or Cabbage
Daisy. In some parts of England, as well as on the
continent of Europe, they are gathered on festive
occasions for making garlands and decorating the
cottages of the peasantry. In common with its natural
order, this plant is slightly acrid. It likes a rich,
moist soil, but loves a good strong light to flourish
under ; deriving vigour and colour as the moon derives
her light.
COLUMBINE.
AQUILEGIA VULGARIS.
AQUILEGIA, literally water-gatherer, is another genus
of plants of the Ranunculus family, so called because
the leaves collect water in their hollow. A . Vulgaris,
the Common Columbine of our hedges, is a pretty
little plant with a stem from one to two feet high or
more. The flowers, which are curious, are of a dull
purple or blue colour, and drooping. The root-leaves
and those at the lower part of the stem grow in a large
tuft, each with a long stalk. The petals have all a
long curved horn or spur at their base, which projects
below the calyx. The stamens are numerous. The
English name, Columbine, is derived from a fanciful
likeness to a dove, which is produced if we separate
one petal from the flower-cluster ; it brings with it two
MONK'S-HOOD. 7
sepals, and the appearance of a dove may be imagined.
When wild, the blossom is of a light-blue colour, but
the plant is subject to great changes in cultivation,
and readily produces double flowers. We find in
'Brown's British Pastorals,' that our dove-like plant
was, in former times, the insignia of a deserted lover:
" The Columbine by lonely wand'rer taken,
Is there ascribed to such as are forsaken."
MONK'S-HOOD, OR WOLF'S-BANE.
ACONITUM NAPELLUS.
ACONITUM NAPELLUS is a plant with a firm erect
stem one and a half to two feet high, also belonging
to the Ranunculaceae. The leaves are either stalked
or very close to the stem, of a dark-green colour and
very smooth. The flowers are large, and are easily
recognized as having the very large uppermost segment
of the calyx overhanging the petals and other parts in
the form of a helmet. The two upper petals inside
this covering are long and narrow, with spurs ; the
three lower ones very small. We may all remember
having plucked these flowers in our childhood, and,
having thrown back the hood or calyx, have delighted
in the fairy chariot and steeds formed by the petals
thus set free. No vegetable poisons are more power-
ful than those produced by this genus of plants ; and
8 WILD FLOWERS.
the common species, A. Napellus, yields it in the
greatest degree. It is sometimes prescribed medicin-
ally, and according to some writers very beneficially.
From ancient times these plants have been celebrated
as virulent poisons. In 1524 and 1526 two criminals
at Rome and at Prague, to whom the root was given
by way of experiment, very quickly perished. It
entered into the deadly draught which the old men of
Ceos were condemned to drink when they became
infirm, and is also said to have been the principal
ingredient in the cup which Medea prepared for
Theseus. The most virulent Indian poison, Bikh
or Bish, is supposed to be a preparation of a species
of Aconite. Dr. Wallich describes A. Ferox as used
by the native Indians to poison the water in the tanks,
in order to impede the progress of a hostile army. It
is also used to poison darts, arrows, and spears.
THE MARSH MARIGOLD.
CALTHA PALUSTRUS.
THIS plant is common enough by the side of any
stream or ditch we pass in our country walks in the
spring and summer. Its pretty golden cups have
attracted the admiration of poets from very early times.
John Dryden writes :
" And get soft hyacinths with iron blue
To shade Marsh Marigolds of shining hue."
PLATE II.
,
/lONK'S-HOOD. Aconitum Napellztf.
VHITE WATER LILY. Nymphaea Alba.
1ORN-POPPY. Glaucium luteum.
MARSH MARIGOLD. Caltha Palustrus.
YELLOW WATER-ULY. Nuphar Lutca.
PRICKLY POPPY. Pafaver Argemane.
THE MARSH MARIGOLD. 9
Belonging as it does to the order Ranunculacese it is
often confounded with the buttercups, owing, perhaps,
to its bright yellow colour; and some people think
that the bright golden appearance of butter is owing
to the presence of this flower in pasture-land. But
cows will not eat it at all unless obliged to do so by
extreme hunger, and even then they are often injured
by it. In appearance the Marsh Marigold is like a
large thick buttercup, with a stout stem and very large
glossy leaves. It is a beautiful flower, and by the side
of a river amidst the emerald grasses it shines like a
golden vase. Shakespeare undoubtedly thought of its
golden cups reflected in the clear river stream when
he wrote the well-known lines
' ' Hark ! hark the lark at heaven's gate sings,
And Phoebus 'gins to rise,
His steeds to water at those springs,
On challiced flowers that lies."
In common with most acrid and poisonous plants
the Marsh Marigold possesses a certain old medical
reputation. Dr. Withering believes in the exhalation
of some potent qualities from the flowers, for he tells
us that a girl was cured of fits by the introduction of
a quantity of the flowers into her bed-room, and this
reputation induced some who believed it to make an
infusion of the plant and administer it to children
as a cure for various kinds of fits. Such remedies
appear to us very dangerous however.
The Marsh Marigold is also called Water Calthrops
and Meadow Rout.
10 WILD FLOWERS.
THE WHITE WATER-LILY.
NYMPHsE ALBA.
THIS plant belongs to another natural order or family
Nymphseaceas, which consists chiefly of aquatic
herbs with floating leaves and solitary flowers ; found
in all temperate and tropical parts of the world.
They have usually four sepals and many petals in
several rows, contracting gradually into stamens. The
fruits are numerous, but are either imbedded into the
receptacle, or combined together to form a single
ovary with many cells. Nymphcea alba, the White
Water- Lily, has bright, smooth, heart-shaped leaves,
floating on the surface of the water ; usually six or
eight inches in diameter. The flowers are large,
white, and floating, with yellow stigmas. It is one of
the brightest ornaments of our still lakes and ponds
throughout Europe, and is a favourite plant with all
lovers of flowers. The flower of the White Water-
Lily is an excellent example of the law of morphology
in plants. The doctrine that all the parts of a plant
are modifications of the leaves, may be aptly illustrated
by tracing the gradual changes which take place in
the floral envelopes of this plant. Begin with the
outermost whorl of sepals, and trace the leaf-like
character gradually lessening until they become
changed into perfect stamens, with petal-like anthers
attached to them. The flower-stems are porous and
succulent, but rapidly lose their moisture if removed
THE WHITE WATER-LILY. II
from the water. The Water- Lily may be transplanted
from its native home by placing the thick stems in
baskets of earth, and fastening stones to them so as
to keep them well under water. These stems have a
bitter, astringent taste, but are quite free from any of
the poisonous acrid principle of the last family of
plants we met with. They have been used in dyeing
a dark-brown colour. Goats and swine will eat them,
and they have been used medicinally. It is, however,
as an object of beauty that the Water-Lily claims our
attention ; and nothing can be more lovely than a
calm lake on whose bosom may be seen floating,
numbers of these snowy nymphs. On Loch Lomond
acres are covered with them ; and in all the northern
English lakes they are more or less abundant. Like
the sacred Lotus of the Nile, the flowers rise and
expand as the sun gains strength, and close again in
the evening ; sleeping as it were through the hours of
darkness until called into life again by the warm rays
of light.
Moore poetically describes this natural process
"Those virgin lilies all the night,
Bathing their beauties in the lake,
That they may rise more fresh and bright,
When their beloved sun 's awake."
The stimulus of the sun's rays seems to have relation
to the fertilization of the plant. The pollen, if
scattered beneath the water, would be washed away
and decomposed, while on the expanded raised flower
12 WILD FLOWERS.
it is received without injury. This is truly the object
for which
"The water-lily to the light
Her chalice rears of silver white."
And as it is with poets in sentiment, so it should be
in our every-day life ; each daily duty, if viewed
aright, contains in it the elements of poetry, which
may be made to surround the most prosaic acts of
existence with beauty.
YELLOW WATER-LILY.
NUPHAR LUTE A.
THIS beautiful water plant is familiar to all who have
ever enjoyed a season of river life, or even to those
who make occasional boating excursions on our rivers.
It belongs to the same natural order as its more
modestly attired sister the White Water-Lily, though
of a different genus. " In golden armour glorious to
behold," it forms a glorious object on the surface of
lake or river, and is more frequently seen than the
White Water- Lily. The golden blossom of this
species has a powerful and not very refined smell
resembling ardent spirits, hence it has the common
name of Brandy-Bottle. The Greeks prepare a
cordial from the flowers. Both the seeds and the
root-stocks contain a quantity of starch, and the
PRICKLY POPPY. 13
leaves have been used as a styptic. All parts of the
plant contain tannie and are useful in the process
of tanning. An infusion of the rootstock was long
considered to be a specific in eruptive diseases of the
skin. Many of the tropical species of Nymphaeceae
have wonderfully tinted and coloured blossoms of blue
and crimson. The magnificent Water-Lily of the
West, known as the Victoria Regia, is nearly allied to
these British lilies. The flowers of this beautiful
species are often fifteen feet in diameter, and its leaves
measure six feet and a-half across. All lovers of
floral beauty should not fail to see these magnificent
flowers in the aquatic house in the Royal Gardens at
Kew, or in the Regent's Park Botanical Gardens,
where in the seasons they blossom in perfection, cul-
tivated and encouraged by careful attention to imitate
as much as possible their natural conditions and
temperature.
PRICKLY POPPY.
PAPAVER ARGEMONE.
PAPAVER ARGEMONE belongs to the family of
Poppies Papaveraceae. They are all herbs with
much-divided leaves and no stipules. The sepals are
two in number, and fall off as the flower expands
The flower consists of four regular-shaped petals.
14 WILD FLOWERS.
The stamens are distinct and numerous. The fruit is
a capsule opening in valves ; the seeds albuminous,
and containing a fixed oil. Papava Argemone, the
Pale Poppy, or Prickly Poppy, is not so common as
the Corn Poppy, P. Rhceas ; but is remarkable for its
delicacy. The flowers are of a pale red colour, with
a dark spot at the base ; the segments of the leaves
are few and narrow, and the fruit or capsule is covered
with minute bristles. There are several other species
of British poppies : the common Field or Corn Poppy,
P. RJiceas ; the Long-headed Poppy, P. Dubium ; the
Rough Poppy, P. Hybridum ; the Opium Poppy, or
P. Somniferum. All the species exude more or less a
milky juice, the narcotic properties of which are con-
siderable only in P. Somniferum. This species yields
the poppy-heads so commonly used in fomentations.
Opium can be prepared from the juice of the English
plant, which has been used instead of foreign opium ;
and although not so powerful in its action, possesses
the same properties.
Many are the curious legends and traditions con-
nected with the poppy plant. Theocritus tells us that
the silken petals of the poppy prove talismans for
Cupid, thus :
" By a prophetic poppy -leaf I found
Your changed affection ; for it gave no sound,
Though in my hand struck hollow as it lay,
But quickly wither'd like your love away."
In classic lore, the poppy was sacred to Ceres, though
YELLOW HORN-POPPY. 15
our modern notions of agriculture would rather regard
it as an intruder into her domains.
Of all the strange and baneful, as well as beneficial
effects of the poppy-juice or opium, we can hardly
speak here. As a medicine it is most valuable, if
carefully administered, and it has often soothed and
palliated the sufferings of humanity. As a hurtful
and sensual indulgence, its effects are well known ; in
Eastern countries, perhaps, better than our own. The
fascination of this pernicious habit, and its terrible
results, are vividly described in a popular work,
' Confessions of an English Opium-eater.'
YELLOW HORN-POPPY.
GLAUCEUM LUTEUM.
THIS plant reminds us of our seaside holiday-time,
of sandy beaches and rolling waves ; and as with no
objects are mental associations more vivid than with
flowers, the sight of a plant but rarely met with, must
recall to our minds the circumstances under which we
first saw it. Perhaps a first visit to the sea-beach, or
to some well-loved spot, and all the delicious refresh-
ment of the sea-breeze, the rest and repose which steal
over the most active mind when listening to the tune
of the waters, is in a measure brought back again, as
we see, even in its dead and dried state, the well-
1 6 WILD FLOWERS.
remembered plant of the sea-shore. Our Yellow Horn-
Poppy is the most striking and remarkable of our
sea-shore plants, and cannot fail to arrest the attention
of the most casual observer, in a position where so little
vegetation flourishes. The foliage is of a pale sea-
green colour, which botanists term glaucous : hence
its scientific name. It is rough, with short bristles ;
the pods or horns are from six to ten or twelve inches
long, crowned by the spreading lobes of the stigma.
When we see this pretty plant, it is interesting to
remember the history of Glaucus, after whom it is
named. He was the son of Neptune and of Nais, a
sea-nymph, but lived on shore. His nature, how-
ever, had some influence on his habits, and he was
fond of fishing. One day, having been very successful
in his sport, he laid his scaly prize on a neighbouring
marsh, when to his great surprise they began to nibble
the green grass, and then
" Sudden darting o'er the verdant plain,
They spread their fins as in their native main,
Left their new master, and regain'd the sea."
Amazed at what he saw, Glaucus resolved to test
the power of the herbage in his own person ; and no
sooner had he bitten it, than his hereditary aquatic
propensities seized him, and into the ocean he leaped,
when, for his faith and courage, he was received as a
denizen among the sea-gods.
In their domain he still shows his royal descent by
wearing a golden robe ; and yet, from old affection,
DYER'S WO AD. I/
high above it he bears his favourite long and curved
fishrod, with its point bent, as if a captive fish ever
strained it. Glaucus never goes far out to sea, but
rather frequents the shores and cliffs ; for Scylla, whom
he loved, was turned into a rock, with howling waves
around her ; and his faithfulness retains him still close
to her side.
The Yellow Horn- Poppy is the "squats" of the
Portland Islanders.
DYER'S WOAD.
ISATIS TINCTORIA.
OUR next specimen belongs to another and very
extensive and useful family of plants Cruciferae or
Crossworts. The species are herbs, or rarely under-
shrubs, with alternate leaves and no stipules ; four
sepals, four petals of equal size, or two on the outer-
side layer. The stamens are six in number, of which
two are generally shorter, or sometimes altogether
absent. The fruit is a pod, divided into two cells by
a thin partition, from which the valves generally
separate when ripe. When long, it is called a silique,
and when short, a silicic.
I satis Tinctoria preserves the general characteristics
of the family. The stem is from eighteen inches to
two or three feet high, branched in the upper part.
c
1 8 WILD FLOWERS.
Its long leaves are smooth and coarsely toothed and
stalked, the pods hanging on slender stalks downwards.
The flower is of a yellow colour.
The specific name tinctoria signifies its use in dyeing
or staining. From it was undoubtedly obtained the
blue dye or woad with which the Ancient Britons
stained their skins.
When the arts of civilized life /were not practised,
this substance supplied, according to the poet Garth,
all the requirements of a fashionable toilette.
" In times of old when British nymphs were known
To love no foreign fashions like their own,
When dress was monstrous, and fig-leaves the mode,
And quality put on no paint but woad."
At the present day this plant is used by dyers, not
on account of its own blue colour, but as a mordant
for other colours. Its colouring principle seems to be
identical with indigo. It is cultivated in Bedfordshire,
Northamptonshire, and Somersetshire.
THE COMMON WHITLOW-GRASS.
DRABA VERNA.
DRABA VERNA, a cruciferous plant, is one of our
earliest spring flowers ; and as soon as the bright days
of March and April tempt us out into the fields and
lanes, we may look for it .on dry walls and banks, with
PLATE III.
DYER'S WOAD. Isalis tlilcU-ut,
WATER-CRESS. Nasturtium, officina.lt.
SWEET VIOLET. Piola odorata.
WHITLOW-GRASS. Draba I'erna.
ROCK ROSE. Helianthfrnum Cu/gare.
HEART'S EASE. Hola tricolor.
COMMON WATER-CRESS, 19
its little stalk of white flowers. It is a small annual
plant, and lasts but for a few weeks ; the leaves are all
towards the base, ovate or oblong. The seed-pods
burst open in the month of May, and scatter the seeds
into the ground, where they lay securely till the next
season. The tiny flowers droop at night to keep the
stamens from the chilly dews of the early spring.
The common name, Whitlow-grass, is given on account
of the use of the leaves as a poultice in those un-
pleasant swellings.
It belongs to the genus Erophila of De Candolle, a
pretty name, expressive of its early appearance.
COMMON WATER-CRESS.
NASTURTIUM OFFICINALE.
NASTURTIUM OFFICINALE also known as Sisym-
brium Nasturtium, the Common Water-cress should
be familiar to every one, as belonging to the family
Cruciferas. It is very likely to be confounded with a
poisonous plant with which it grows, the Fool's Cress,
as it is called (Sium nodiflorum). From this it may
always be distinguished, and, in fact, from all other
Umbelliferae, by the petioles of the leaves not forming
a sheath round the stem. In addition to the characters
of the genus, the Water-cress is known principally by
the form of its leaves. The leaf is composed of from
c 2
20 WILD FLOWERS.
five to seven leaflets, which are arranged opposite each
other on a common leaf-stalk with a terminal leaflet.
The leaflets are somewhat heart-shaped and slightly
wavered or toothed ; they are succulent and their
surface is smooth. The terminal leaflet is always the
largest. The petiole or leaf-stalk does not in any
manner embrace the stem. The flowers are white,
and the pods, when ripe, are about an inch long. It
is a native of rivulets throughout the world, and is very
plentiful in our own country. The ancient reputation
of this plant as an article of food, valuable both for its
pleasant pungent taste and its antiscorbutic properties,
is well founded. Recent writers on the subject of
diet have shown that in partaking of fresh uncooked
vegetable food in the shape of salads or fruit, we are
obtaining those salts of potash and other constituents
so necessary to health, which in the process of cooking
are dissolved away.* Water-cresses are said to con-
tain iodine.
No better vehicle for the introduction of these
important substances can there be than fresh bright
Water-cresses ; and our old friend Gerarde's notion of
their value presages all the modern discoveries as to
their virtue. He says that the eating of Water-cresses
restores their wonted bloom to the cheeks of sickly
young ladies. He might have added that a walk to
the running stream where they grow would enhance
the effects of the remedy. So large is the consumption
* See Dr. Lankester's ' Lectures on Food.' London : R. Hardwicke.
COMMON WATER-CRESS. 21
of Water-cresses in London that they are cultivated
by market-gardeners to a great extent by means of
artificial water-supplies ; but none are so delicious as
those from natural streams. Our popular street-cry
has been rhymed by Swift thus :
" Fine spring water-grass, fit for lad or lass."
The name cress has, according to writers, many
origins. One says it signifies water cross, from its
cruciate flowers. Chaucer employs the Saxon word
kers (cress) to signify anything worthless :
" Of paramours ne raught he not a kers."
From which, perhaps, is derived the phrase of not
caring a curse for a thing. Nasturtium is a name
given to all these biting plants, each being a nasus
tortus, or nose-twitcher. Pliny records that they put
the nose into convulsions. Long ago the refreshing
nature of these plants as food was recognized, and
there is a Greek proverb, " Eat cress to learn more
wit." Knowing, as we now do, the influence of the
physical over the mental, we can rationally understand
the proverb.
There are several other species of Nasturtium native
i n England the Creeping Cress, N. Sylvestre or N.
Palustre; the Water-rocket, N. Terrestre ; and the
Water- radish, N. Amphibium.
22 WILD FLOWERS.
THE ROCK ROSE, OR ROCK CIST.
HELIANTHEMUM VULGARE.
OUR next plant belongs to a new family Cistacea;.
The characters of the order are that the species are
shrubs or herbs with opposite, or in a few exotic
species, alternate, leaves, with or without stipules,
generally smelling fragrantly. The petals are usually
five in number, broadly spreading, the sepals three,
nearly equal, overlapping each other in the bud, with
or without two smaller outer ones.
The species figured H. Vulgare, is a low under-shrub,
with a woody stem ; the leaves have stipules ; the
flowers are of a bright yellow colour, broadly spreading,
and blooming from May to September. It is found
in dry meadows and pastures throughout Europe and
western Asia, and is not uncommon in Great Britain.
The Rock Rose, or Cistus of our gardens, is a variety
of this species.
SWEET VIOLET.
VIOLA ODOR AT A.
THE Sweet Violet is a favourite with everybody,
and scarcely requires description to be recognized.
It is, however, interesting to know that it belongs to
the family Violaceae, and to the only European genus
of that family. It has five petals of unequal shape
SWEET VIOLET. 23
and size, the lower one being drawn out into a kind
of spur. There are five sepals, and the stamens are
connected together ; two of them with curious ear-like
appendages. The flowers are of a purplish colour
nodding. On the stem we have an example of what
are called bracts. The leaves grow at the base of the
plant, with rather long stalks, and are broadly heart-
shaped. There are several British species of this
genus, but our sweet-scented violet, and the pretty
blue dog-violet, which is inodorous but very attrac-
tive, are those most worthy of notice. Who does not
welcome the first violets in the early spring, " gleaming
like amethysts in the dewy moss ; " and there is no
land where these pretty flowers grow in which their
praises have not been sung. We must all have felt
the power of perfumes in recalling to the memory
images and scenes of past years, before these lines
were written
" The smell of violets hidden in the grass
Poureth back into my empty soul and frame
The times when I remember to have been
Joyful and free from blame." TENNYSON.
Not only is the violet celebrated for its beauty, but
for its uses and for its mystic powers. Violet roots
and violet flowers have been used as remedies in all
sorts of diseases. The Athenians were noted for their
love of these flowers, and they were reputed to
" moderate anger," to procure sleep, and to comfort
and strengthen the heart. At the present time the
24 WILD FLOWERS.
root is used as an emetic. Pliny prescribes a liniment
of violet roots and vinegar for gout and disorders of
the spleen. The violet is certainly a classical plant.
It was a favourite with the old Greeks. Homer and
Virgil both mention it frequently, and Shakespeare
alludes to a very old superstition, when he says,
" Lay her i' the earth,
And from her fair and unpolluted flesh
May violets spring."
HEART'S EASE.
VIOLA TRICOLOR.
THE old English names for this pretty flower are
various. It is called in Warwickshire to this time
" Love in Idleness," in other places " Pansy," " Kit run
the Street," and " Herb Trinity " ; but its common
name Heart's Ease, from its supposed potency in love
charms, seems to us the most appropriate. It belongs
to the natural order, Violaceae, as does its sweet-
scented and more modest relative. It is very common
in Scotland and the north of England, and although
described by botanists as an annual, it is occasionally
perennial. The Heart's Ease is considered sacred to
St. Valentine, and an old writer says, " while they are
fresh and green they are cold and moist under the
influence of Venus." We read of the Heart's Ease or
HEART'S EASE. 2$
Pansy in 'Shakespeare' on several occasions poor
Ophelia, in her half-crazed love-lorn wanderings,
gives away a handful of these pretty flowers, saying,
" There's Pansies, that's for thoughts."
The wonder-working " little western flower," which
so bewitched the Queen of the Fairies in the
' Midsummer Night's Dream,' is thought by critics to
be this same Heart's Ease :
" Yet mark'd I where the bolt of Cupid fell :
It fell upon a little western flower,
Before milk white, now purple with Love's wound,
And maidens call it, Love in Idleness.
Fetch me that flower ; the herb I showed thee once :
The juice of it on sleeping eyelids laid,
Will make or man or woman madly dote
Upon the next live creature that it sees."
This plant is no exception to the general rule, that
in nearly every vegetable product some one has dis-
covered some property which they consider medically
valuable. A decoction of it has been recommended
to be taken in skin diseases, and poultices made of
the leaves are supposed to be efficacious if applied
externally. As a cultivated garden plant Viola Tri-
color is very successful, and is well known. It is one
of the few British plants that repays the gardener for
cultivation, and is a favourite flower in all exhibitions
of horticultural skill.
26 WILD FLOWERS.
SUNDEW.
DROSERA ROTUNDIFOLIA.
A VERY pretty and curious little plant is the Sun-
dew, or Drosera Rotundifolia ; and it is found where
we should least look for beauty : in bogs and morasses,
in the damp corners of heaths and wildernesses, we
descry the ruby points of the leaves of this lovely
little plant sparkling amid emerald-green moss-tufts.
It is the type of the family Droseraceas, and is now
known to be nearly related to the curious plant
Dionsea, Venus' Fly-Trap, whose strange meat-eating
propensities have lately been fully discussed and
described by several naturalists, and have given
rise to many interesting and curious experiments at
the suggestion of the great original observer, Dr.
Darwin. The Drosera has a small flower-stalk, from
two to six inches in height, and bears on the top
the few little white flowers which expand in the
sunshine. The leaves grow very low down, close to
the ground, and are of a round shape, and thickly
covered with the minute red hairs, each of which
secretes a drop of fluid, which sparkles in the sunshine
like diamonds. These drops of fluid are of a some-
what glutinous nature, and entrap unwary insects that
happen to alight on the leaves. This curious circum-
stance attracted the notice of naturalists as long ago
as the year 1780; but no idea seems to have been
PLATE IV.
SUNDEW. Drosera rohtndifolia. GRASS OF PARNASSUS Parnassia palustris.
CLOVE PINK. Dianthns Catyophyltus. RED CAMPION. Lychnis diurna.
FLAX. Ltnum usitatissinatm. ST JOHN'S WORT Hypericum Calycimm.
SUNDEW. 27
formed as to what became of the insects which were
so entrapped until lately. It is now pretty clearly
established by a series of experiments, that the Drosera,
in common with Dionaea and some other carnivorous
plants, capture these insects for the purposes of food,
and digest and dissolve them by means of a fluid
which is poured out for the purpose, and that they
absorb the solution of animal matter so produced.
This is probably the only British plant possessing
these singular properties ; but there are many foreign
species in which it exists, and very interesting are the
accounts given of them by different observers. The
Dionaea crushes its victims to death in its leaves, and
covers them over with an acrid juice, by which they
are digested. Small bits of meat are absorbed by this
plant in the same way if presented to it.
Mr. Canby,* an American botanist, who fed and
watched it, says, that when the pieces of beef were
completely dissolved the leaf opened again with a dry
surface, and ready for another meal, though with an
appetite somewhat jaded. He found that cheese
disagreed horribly with the leaves, turning them black
and finally killing them. He details the useless strug-
gles of an insect to escape ; who being of a resolute
nature, at last ate his way out of the closed leaf;
but was evidently becoming very weak, overcome by
the acrid fluid which surrounded him. Then there is
* From an address by Dr. Hooker on Carnivorous Plants before the
British Association, 1874.
28 WILD FLOWERS.
an American genus of plants called Sarraceina, found
chiefly in bogs and shallow water, sending up stalks
bearing curiously-shaped flowers with hollow petals,
which contain water. These plants, as well as many
others, are called Pitcher Plants, and they secrete a
sweet and poisonous fluid which tempts and destroys
their prey. The flies and insects are attracted by the
honey-secreting glands on the edge of the pitcher,
and when once within its treacherous cavity, they are
unable to get out ; are drowned in the water it con-
tains, and made into a sort of broth for the nourishment
of the plant. The tropical Pitcher Plants are even
more fully developed for a carnivorous diet, and give
rise to much speculation, and excite great interest
amongst botanists. These examples from a foreign
Flora are mentioned in order to call attention to
the characteristic family habits of our little British
Drosera.
It is somewhat difficult to find the Sundew fully
expanded ; the best way of seeing it in all its beauty, is
to remove a tolerably large portion of the plant with a
trowel, and then, placing it in a saucer, surrounded with
the damp green moss in which it grows, cover it over
with a hand-glass, supply it freely with water, and you
have as pretty a little Ward's case as can be imagined,
and an interesting subject for botanical study likewise.
It is to be found, by careful searching, on Hampstead
Heath, on Wimbledon Common, and in most boggy,
heathy districts ; but since the drainage of these
THE CARNATION. 29
places it is gradually disappearing, and we must go
further away from town to find it in any quantity. It
has long been known as an acrid and caustic plant, and
has been supposed to cause the rot in sheep. It had
once a reputation as a cosmetic, and is said to burn
away corns and warts. It also curdles milk, and has
been frequently used in the diary for that purpose.
This is the plant of which Burton, in his ' Anatomic
of Melancholy,' says " that Bernardus Ponottus prefers
his herba solis before all the rest of herbs in this
disease (melancholy), and will admit of no herb upon
the earth to be compared with it." In Italy it is used
for making the liquor called Rossoli.
There are other species of Drosera in the British
Flora, which possess dyeing properties, as may be seen
when they are dried in the herbarium, by the red
colour they communicate to the paper.
THE CARNATION, OR CLOVE PINK.
DIANTHUS CARYOPHYLLUS.
THIS plant is a native of the South of France, but
is found wild on old walls in Kent and Norfolk. It
belongs to the family Caryophyllaceae, and is one of a
beautiful genus of plants, all of which are sweet-scented
and showy. Mr. Babington describes -six species of
Dianthus as natives of Great Britain. The Clove Pink
has solitary flowers ; the scales of the calyx are much
30 WILD FLOWERS.
shorter than the tube of the corolla ; the leaves have
smooth margins ; the petals are toothed, ovate, and
smooth ; the stem branching-, long, and procumbent ;
the seeds nearly flat, and the flower-stem from twelve
to eighteen inches high. The flowers of the genus
are of all colours, excepting blue ; in the British
species they are of a pale pink, and in all cases
fragrant. The flowers of the Clove Pink are used to
give colour and fragrance to a syrup used in medicine.
A small variety of this species is known by the name
of Picotees.
THE RED CAMPION.
LYCHNIS DIURNA.
THE Red Campion, Lychnis Diurna, belongs to the
family Caryophyllaceae. It has oblong leaves, usually
pointed, tapering to the base, the lower one stalked.
The flowers are few, in loose branches, of a red colour,
opening in the morning ; the calyx forming a sort of
capsule composed of two divisions, or teeth, which
curve backwards. The capsule thus formed becomes
globular as it ripens. This pretty plant is found in
moist shady woods and hedge-banks all over Britain.
It flowers all through the summer, beginning early in
the spring. The other British species are known by
the names of Scarlet Lychnis, Ragged Robin, and
FLAX. 3 1
White Campion. The Corn Cockle is also a pretty
plant belonging to this family, which is found blossom-
ing in corn-fields from June to September.
FLAX.
LINUM US1TATISSIMUM.
ONE of the most valuable of our native plants is
the Flax Plant Linum Usitatissimum ; and in the
delicate little blue flowers and fragile-looking stem
the uninitiated would little imagine the living of
thousands and the chief manufacture of a great country
to lie concealed. It is a tall, erect annual plant, wit'h
alternate narrow-pointed leaves, and flowers of a rich
blue colour, arrayed in a loose terminal bunch. The
fibre of the plant is woven into linen, and the seeds
are valuable on account of the mucilaginous nature of
their external coating, and for the oil they contain,
which is prized for burning and as a drying medium
in the arts ; the oilcake made from the seeds is an
extensive article of food for cattle. Flax is chiefly
cultivated in Ireland, and from a very early time the
importance of its culture was recognized in the
economy of this country. In 1750, Sir William
Temple wrote a treatise on the subject.
Microscopic examination has clearly proved that
the mummy-cloth of Egypt is made of linen fibres,
32 WILD FLOWERS.
and not, as was once supposed, of cotton. Herodotus
and Plutarch tell us that it was not permitted to any
Egyptian priest to enter a temple unless he wore a
linen garment. By the Greeks, linen was used in the
time of Herodotus ; possibly not produced by the
same species as the one now grown for the purpose,
but undoubtedly the fibre of a species of Linum. We
have four British species of this genus. None are of
any importance but the one we have selected. The
Welsh species, or the fairy flax, is an elegant little
mountain species, which is remarkable for its beauty
and grace, and has a medicinal reputation in its native
mountain districts. The exquisite delicacy of the flax
plant is aptly pictured by Coleridge :
' ' The unripe flax,
When through its half-transparent stalk at eve
The level sunshine glimmers with green light."
THE TREE MALLOW, OR SEA LAVATERA.
LAVATERA ARBOREA.
THE genus Lavatera was named in honour of
Lavater (a physician in Zurich, not the celebrated
physiognomist of that name), and belongs to the
Mallow family Malvaceae. The flowers in all the
genera of this family are twisted in the bud, the calyx
composed of five divisions, with three or more bracts
at the base, forming an outer calyx. The species we
THE MUSK MALLOW, 33
are now considering has a woody stem, something like
that of a cabbage, with thick, hard, flowering branches.
The leaves are on long stalks, with seven, five, or three
lobes, and soft as velvet. The flowers are mostly in
pairs, of a pale purple-red colour, with dark blotches
at the base of the petals. It blossoms from July to
October, and is found on seaside rocks throughout
Europe ; in Britain, chiefly on the south and west
coasts of England and Ireland, especially in the Isle
of Wight, and on the Bass Rock in the Frith of
Forth.
THE MUSK MALLOW.
MALVA MOSCHATA.
THIS plant belongs to the family Malvaceae. The
genus Mallow is a very favourite and well-known
group, and most of us may recall, when children, the
delight with which we have sought for the plants, in
order to secure the much-prized " cheeses" or fruits of
the mallow. The Musk Mallow has a tough woody
root, and an upright partially-branched stem. The
root-leaves have long leaf-stalks, with rounded limbs
cut into three or five lobes. The stem-leaves are much
more deeply cut and lobed than the root-leaves. The
whole herbage is more or less hairy. The flowers are
large, rose-coloured, or rarely white, crowded together
34 WILD FLOWERS.
at the top of the stem and branches. The calyx
consists of two whorls, the outermost composed of
three acute sepals, the innermost five-toothed. The
corolla has five wedge-shaped petals jagged at the
end. Were this pretty plant less common than it is, it
would, perhaps, meet with more admirers ; but the
extraordinary perverseness of the human mind leads
us to admire most that which is least attainable, and
to hold an everyday object in slight estimation. The
musk-like scent of the particular species of mallow we
have selected distinguishes it from the rest, although
it be but slight. The Musk Mallow, like the anemone,
closes its petals at night. In floral language it is re-
garded as the emblem of a sweet, mild disposition, and
we read that it was customary with the ancients to
plant Musk Mallows around the graves of their
departed friends. The common mallow, M. Sylvestris,
yields, when boiled, a plentiful tasteless mucilage,
which is used in some cases as a medicine.
MARSH MALLOW.
ALTHsEA OFFICINAL1S.
THIS species is also a Malvaceous plant, but belongs
to a different genus. Marsh Mallow AltJicea Officina-
lis, is a common European plant, and r is often found in
marshes, especially near the sea, in great abundance.
PLATE V
iE MALLOW. Lavatera arborea. MUSK MALLOW. Malva moschata.
RSH MALLOW. Althaea. affici,Mis. RED CRANE'S-BILL. Geranium sanguineum.
?B ROBERT. Geranium RoberUanirm, WOOD SORRELL Oxatis acetosella.
THE LARGE-FLOWERED HYPERICUM. 35
It is a perennial, with a carrot-shaped, white fleshy
root, as thick as the thumb, and a foot or more long.
The stems are two or three feet high, covered all over
with a soft down, which is also found on the leaves,
and gives them a hoary appearance. The leaves are a
little heart-shaped and three-lobed. The flowers are
not large, of a pale rose colour, and appear in very
short clusters from the bosom of the leaves ; the calyx
is five-toothed, and surrounded with bracts. The
whole plant, and particularly the root, abounds in
mucilage ; the demulcent lozenges sold in the shops
under the name of Pate de Guimauve, are made of
Marsh Mallow, and a few years ago there was an
ointment commonly used, which may still be in repute
for aught we know, called Marsh Mallow Ointment.
The hollyhock of our gardens is a species of Althaea
from the Mediterranean. It is found wild in China.
THE LARGE-FLOWERED HYPERICUM, OR
ST. JOHN'S WORT.
HYPERICUM CALYCINUM.
THIS is a showy plant, belonging to the family
Hypericaceae. It was brought to England by Sir G.
Wheeler in 1676, from its native woods near Constan-
tinople. It has been long cultivated in our gardens
and is found wild in bushy places in England and in
D 2
3<5 WILD FLOWERS.
Ireland. This species of St. John's Wort has a
creeping woody rootstock, the stems scarcely a foot
high, simple, and branching at the base only, with
large oblong leaves, green and smooth, having very
small clear spots on their surface. The flowers are of
a bright yellow colour, three or four inches in diameter,
with one or two on the top of each stem ; in our
gardens it is more luxuriant, and produces five or six.
There are thirteen British species of this genus, and
one hundred and seventy-two are enumerated by De
Candolle as growing in various parts of the world.
They are all known as St. John's Worts, and most of
them are worthy of cultivation. The hardy herbaceous
kinds will thrive in any common garden-soil, and are
easily propagated by dividing the roots or by seeds.
Those which require the greenhouse will thrive best in
a mixture of loam and peat, and strike root readily
under a hand-glass.
The Hypericum Perforation, the perforated St. John's
Wort, was one of the flowers gathered by our fore-
fathers to be thrown into the bonfires which were
kindled in London on the eve of St. John. In many
parts of France and Germany the peasants still gather
its golden blossoms, and hang them with much cere-
mony in their windows and doorways, as a charm
against evil spirits, storms, thunder, and all calamities.
This custom probably arose from the misinterpreta-
tion of some medical writers, who, believing in its
virtue as a remedy in maniacal disorders, called it Fuga
GRASS OF PARNASSUS. 37
Dcemomim. It was at one time worn about the person
in Scotland as a protection against witchcraft and
enchantment.
GRASS OF PARNASSUS.
PARNASSIA PALUSTRIS.
HERE we are among the gods ; but surely this
pretty plant has mistaken its habitation, for we find it
in marshy, boggy places, and scarcely ever on elevated
land. The Grass of Parnassus, or Parnassia Palustris,
belongs to the same family of plants as our little
Sundew Droseracea ; and it is often found in the
same localities. Why it is called a grass we cannot
imagine ; for with its delicately - coloured flowers
beautifully netted, it does not resemble the family of
grasses at all. The leaves around the roots are on
long stalks, while here and there a leaf clasps the
flower-stem. Each flower-stalk produces but one
flower, which has curious fringed scales, which lie
around the centre, and are the nectaries ; a little wax-
like gland exists at the tip of each hair. In former
times, this flower was called the Noble Liverwort, and
was doubtless considered a remedy in diseases of the
liver. It is the only British species of the genus. Sir
William Hooker tells us that this elegant plant, if
plunged into water in a garden-pot, surrounded by a
38 WILD FLOWERS.
ball of its native earth, will continue to blossom for
many weeks.
RED CRANE'S-BILL, OR THE BLOOD GERANIUM.
GERANIUM SANGUINEUM.
THE Blood Geranium grows in great profusion
on our western limestone coasts, and is one of the
most attractive of the species. The family to which
it belongs is Geraniacese ; of which the characters are
well preserved in the genus Geranium.
The plants known by this name must not be con-
founded with the so-called geraniums of our gardens,
which, though of the order Geraniacese, belong to the
subdivision Pelargonium. The five petals of our true
geranium are of the same size, while the inferior petals
of the pelargoniums are smaller than the other two,
and of a different character.
Geranium Sanguineum is known by its numerous
stems, about a foot long, leaning downwards, or some-
times upright, with spreading hairs. The peduncles
are mostly single - flowered ; the carpels smooth,
crowned with a few bristles ; the leaves nearly round,
seven-lobed. The flowers are large, of a dark purple
colour ; the sepals hairy, with a fine point. The
whole plant somewhat resembles the mallow in appear-
ance, and there is an Eastern notion that geraniums
HERB ROBERT. 39
were at first simply mallows, until Mahommed, de-
lighted with the fine texture of a shirt made for him
of mallow fibres, turned that plant into the more
beautiful geranium ; or some assert that his shirt
being spread to dry on a mallow plant, the transform-
ation was discovered on taking it up. There are
above a dozen British geraniums ; the most common
one, probably, being G. Robertianum, the Herb
Robert. The root of G. Maculatum, or Alum- root, is
a really powerful astringent, containing more tannin
than catechu or kino. In North America it is em-
ployed as a remedy in sore throat among children.
The beautiful red colour assumed by the leaves in
dyeing may have been suggestive of their efficacy
in arresting haemorrhages ; the fancy is scarcely
more absurd than our modern doctrine "that like
cures like."
HERB ROBERT.
GERANIUM ROBERTIANUM.
THIS pretty plant is also one of the Crane's-bills, and
belongs to the family Geraniaceae. It is one of the earli-
est to appear on the sunny banks in the spring-time with
blue-bells and primroses, and lasts long into the sum-
mer, when, by the presence of more attractive blossoms,
it is often overlooked. All lovers of wild flowers know
40 WILD FLOWERS.
the Herb Robert and recognize its small clumps of
leaves cut into numerous segments, looking beautiful
by their redness, which tint deepens in autumn to a
glowing crimson. In common with its family it has
a very disagreeable odour. The common name is
said by Dr. Withering to have been given to it after a
celebrated curator in the Botanic Garden at Oxford ;
but more probably it originated in its being used in
Germany to cure a disease called " Ruprecht's Plage,"
in allusion to Robert Duke of Normandy, for whom
the celebrated work of the Middle Ages, ' Ortus
Sanitatis,' was written. The name occurs in a MS.
vocabulary of the thirteenth century.
According to the old doctrine of signatures the red
colour of the leaves indicates its value in staunching
blood, for which purpose our much believing friend,
Old Gerarde, greatly extols it. In Wales it is still
administered in medicine.
Herb Robert is a very common plant on the shingly
beach of the south and "east of England, and very
pretty it looks with its tiny bright flowers and curious
long beak which terminates the carpels.
THE WOOD SORREL. 4*
THE WOOD SORREL.
; OXALIS ACETOSELLA.
THE Wood Sorrel, Oxalis Acctosella, belongs to the
same family as the Geranium Geraniacese. It is
easily recognized by its three delicately green leaflets,
with longish stalks, marked with a darkish crescent in
the centre, veined, and its lovely white flowers, which
at first sight resemble the wood anemone. There are
few walks or shady woods where, in the early spring,
the bright half-folded green leaves of this pretty little
plant may not be found. The tiny white flowers,
with their delicate purple veins, are called by the
Welsh "fairy bells," and are believed to ring the
merry peals which call the elves to " Moonlight dance
and revelry." The whole plant abounds in an acid
cooling juice, which contains oxalic acid. An infusion
of the leaves is frequently administered as a cooling
drink in Russia, and the salt prepared from it is used
under the name of "salt of sorrel," to remove the
stains of ink and iron-mould from linen. Among the
Druids, its triple leaflets were regarded as a mysterious
symbol of a trinity, the full meaning of which was
involved in darkness. So, too, St. Patrick chose this
leaf as his symbol to illustrate the doctrine he sought
to teach, and converted many by the apt use of an
illustration derived from a plant already sacred in the
eyes of his hearers. The original shamrock was
undoubtedly the Oxalis ; though the name became
42 WILD FLOWERS.
applied to all sorts of trefoiled plants. In all ages,
the trefoiled leaf has been regarded with veneration,
especially when, departing from its usual form, it is
found with four leaflets. The old song, " I'll seek a
four-leaved Shamrock," tells of the fairy spells to be
woven with its enchantment.
The wood sorrel approaches nearest of all our native
plants to a sensitive plant, not only closing its petals
and folding its bright green leaves at sunset, and with
every change of atmosphere, but even if the stem be
rudely or repeatedly struck. In a flower-saucer, or
pan covered with a glass shade, this pretty plant forms
a lovely object; and we have frequently seen it
blossoming year after year in a Ward's case or under
a hand-glass, covering the space given to it with its
delicate white blossoms. An old Welsh proverb
says
" Three things let no one trust such as shall dislike them,
The scent of trefoils, the taste of milk, the song of birds."
GORSE, FURZE, OR HULM.
ULEX EUROP^EUS.
THIS plant must not be confounded with the Broom,
which belongs also to the natural order Leguminosae,
and is not unlike it in general appearance. Both
plants also have bright yellow flowers ; but the Gorse
GORSE, FURZE. 43
abounds in spines or prickles, as all must find out who
attempt to gather its showy blossoms or to regale
themselves with its delicious perfume. Although so
common on almost every heath and waste piece of
land it is not a very hardy plant, and severe frosts
sometimes kill it and often bite it down to the ground ;
but it shoots up again in the spring. Linnaeus is said
to have lamented that he could not keep it alive
in Sweden even in a green-house. It was one of his
favourite plants, and it is related that, when he first
saw it in flower on Hounslow Heath he fell on his
knees and thanked God for having created so beautiful
a plant. The same story is told of Dillenius, so we
may doubt its authenticity. The common name of
Furze-bush or Furze given to the Gorse is of obscure
origin ; some say it is derived from fir, being like these
coniferous firs used for firewood or fuel ; but it seems
more likely that it was suggested by the bright yellow
flame-like flowers which appear almost like a " fire "
or " Furze " bush. Before the days of Linnaeus the
Gorse and the Broom were classed together both as
Brooms, and it was called Genista Spinosa ; but Lin-
naeus restored to it the name of Ulex, by which it has
ever since been recognized. In France the Gorse is
used commonly as fuel, and is cut down every few years
for the purpose. Even in some parts of England it is
largely used to heat ovens, and cultivated with that
object. In the county of Surrey it is grown and cut
down every three years simply as fuel for the bakers.
44 WILD FLOWERS.
The young shoots are eaten by cattle, and even the
older branches, when put into a mill and crushed, are
given to horses and cows to eat ; but we can hardly
divest ourselves of the notion that the chief value of
this beautiful plant is its picturesque beauty, and,
although it is curious to trace the uses of any plant
from an economic point of view, the pleasure felt at
the sight of a mass of the golden yellow blossoms of
the Furze brightening the heath and open lands as
they do in May and June, must be sufficient to give
it a claim to our attention. There is no season of
the year that there are not blossoms on the Gorse :
hence the old proverb that " When Gorse is out of
bloom kissing is out of season ; " but it is in the spring
time when its golden blossoms are most abundant,
and when its delicious cocoa-nut-like perfume " comes
wafting o'er the breeze."
In Wickliffe's translation of the Bible we read in
Isaiah : " A fir tre schal stre for a gorst, and myrte
tre schal waxe for a netal."
In calm and sunny weather the crackling caused by
the bursting of the seed pods of the Furze bushes is
often very audible.
" The path with laughing Furze o'errun,
When bursting seed bells crackle in the sun."
We may be sure that English poets have never been
insensible to the charms of this beautiful native, and
many lines occur to us which sing its praises.
THE REST HARROW. 45
" The Furze, in russet frock arrayed
With saffron knots, like shepherd maid,
Broadly tricked out her rough brocade ;
The singed mosses curling here,
A golden fleece too short to shear,
Crumbled to sparkling dust beneath
My light step on that summer heath."
Old Gerarde, writing in the time of Queen Elizabeth,
says, that he was requested by " divers earnest letters "
to send this shrub to Dantzic and Poland, where
the plants " are most curiously kept in their fairest
gardens." We agree with our old-fashioned poet
Cowper, who, in recommending a walk, suggests
" The common, overgrown with fern, and rough
With prickly Gorse that, shapeless and deformed
And dangerous to the touch, has yet its bloom,
And decks itself with ornaments of gold,
Yields no unpleasing ramble."
THE REST HARROW.
ONONIS SPINOSA.
THIS plant belongs to the Pea-flower family, or
Leguminosae. It is a low spreading little shrub, with
hard, tough, trailing roots, which often retard the
progress of the plough, while its numerous and thorny
branches are so great an impediment to the action of
the harrow in turning up the ground, as to have
obtained for it the common English name of Rest-
46 WILD FLOWERS.
Harrow. Frequently the whole plant is clothed with
sharp hairs or prickles, but sometimes they are quite
soft, and the plant smooth, according to the soil in
which it grows. The leaflets are oblong or obovate.
The flowers are solitary, on short branches of a pink
colour, sometimes streaked with a darker shade. It
is often very abundant on the sandy cliffs near the sea-
shore. This little plant has its uses ; for although in
its thorny state no animal but the donkey will eat it>
yet on better soils it mingles with the pasture, and is
relished by cows, sheep, and goats. The roots are
succulent and sweet, and have been considered good
as a pickle. In the time of Queen Elizabeth they were
often brought to table in this form.
THE STRAWBERRY CLOVER.
TRI FOLIUM FRAGIFERUM.
EVERY ONE must have noticed, and perhaps gathered,
this plant, wondering whether it were fruit or flower,
scarcely recognizing in the tiny red heads, the closely-
packed flowers surrounded by an involucre of bracts.
It belongs to the family Leguminosae, and is found
chiefly in damp meadows and in moist places near
the sea. In the neighbourhood of London it is not
uncommon. There are many British species of clover.
Mr. Babington describes twenty-one. The white or
PLATE VI.
T HARROW. Otimris Spinosa. STRAWBERRY CLOVER. Trifolium
-OW VETCH LING. Lathyrus a/ihaca. GORSE. UUx Europaeus.
LOW HERB. Epilobiutn anttstifol*ifm. EVENING PRIMROSE. Oenothera toennis
COMMON DOG ROSE. 47
Dutch clover is very largely cultivated, and is now
often used as the representative of the true shamrock,
or three-leaved plant of Ireland. The original mystic
plant was doubtless the Oxalis, of which we have
'before spoken. Leaves of this character have from a
very remote period been regarded with superstitious
veneration.
" The holy trefoil's charm "
was considered potent against all manner of evil.
COMMON DOG ROSE.
ROSA CANINA.
BOOKS have been written on Roses alone, and when
we think of the numbers of varieties of this beautiful
plant, and remember that they all originally sprang
from the simple rose of our hedges, we feel especially
drawn to it as the progenitor of so much delicious
beauty. All roses belong to the natural order Rosaceae,
and there are but few people who are ignorant enough
to mistake a rose, whether wild or cultivated, for any
other flower. Its very scent is more fragrant and
distinctive than that of any other flower, and the soft
velvety texture of its petals, its delicate and varied
hues, all combine to make it the Queen of Flowers.
Even the modest little hedge-rose, so great a favourite
with children, and with all who have the simple,
48 WILD FLOWERS.
unspoiled taste of childhood, has a beauty of its own.
It sits amidst its pretty dark compact green leaves
like a princess, and appears to look down at the
little flowers struggling on the bank beneath, and at
the climbing honeysuckle and bryony which twine
around its branches, and seem as though they wished
to pay court to its beauty. In exhaustive works on
Botany we find more than a dozen varieties of our
common Dog Rose, and it requires some knowledge
to be able to distinguish them for their differences
are small, though important to the botanist. We
can never gather a wild rose and admire its pretty
tinted pink buds and lovely fragile full-blown petals,
surrounding its cluster of yellow stamens, without
thinking of the more gorgeous relations it boasts of
in our gardens, natives and inhabitants of other and
warmer climes. The China rose, native of the
Celestial Empire, and growing there in wild profusion,
varies from a delicate blush colour to a deep crimson.
It abounds in the neighbourhood of Canton, and
blossoms six or eight times a year. In the south of
France it flourishes well out of doors ; but does not
well bear the climate of England, though a hybrid
variety is well known in our gardens as the tea-
scented China rose.
The fruit of the rose, whether wild or cultivated, is
well known, and in the country hedges " hips," as they
are called, are very popular as material for making a
homely conserve with sugar. It is an article which is
COMMON DOG ROSE. 49
also included in the British Pharmacopoeia. Although
these pretty red berries are called fruits they are not
so in reality, but are the enlarged persistent calyx
enclosing the real fruits, which are very numerous,
and are clothed, as well as the inside of the calyx,
with silky hairs. In preparing them for medicinal
use these hairs are carefully removed and the fleshy
calyx beaten to a pulp, to which is gradually added
three times its weight of sugar. It is used by
druggists as a vehicle for other medicines, and is a
very pleasant and wholesome preparation in itself.
In former times, when garden fruit was scarce and not
imported cheaply from other countries, " hips " were
thought good enough for dessert, and Gerarde assures
us that the hips of the rose maketh the most pleasant
meats and banqueting dishes, and tarts, and such like>
the making whereof " he commits to the cunning
cooke, and teethe to eate them in the riche man's
mouthe." The petals of roses form a delicate dish at
Chinese banquets, and we read of a ragout of the
flowers of the common China rose dressed whole and
served at a feast at Shanghae. Such things are not
unknown here, indeed, for amidst the numberless
delicate preparations of sugared bonbons we have but
lately seen dishes of tinted rose-leaves preserved in
sugar.
The rose has ever been a favourite flower with
poets and amongst Oriental writers. We are told in
Eastern story that it is the chosen flower of the
E
50 WILD FLOWERS.
melodious nightingale, amongst the branches of which
he sits and sings out his love tale, and the delicate
petals of which constitute his only food.
" For there the rose o'er crag and vale,
Sultana to the nightingale,
Blooms blushing to her lover's tale,
His queen, his garden queen, his rose."
The scent of the rose, delicious as it is here, never
attains the perfect fragrance and power that it does in
hotter countries, where it is cultivated solely for the
purpose of extracting its perfume. Its costliness is
considerable, as we know from the high price and
difficulty of obtaining a drop of genuine attar of
roses.
Englishmen glory in the rose as their national
emblem, for ever happily blended with the thistle and
the shamrock ; but it is not to be forgotten that at one
time it was the symbol of national war and bloodshed,
when the Red and the White Roses, and those that
wore them, as nearly related to each other as the
flowers themselves, waged a deadly fight with each
other ; when, according to Shakespeare, Warwick says
to Plantagenet
" This brawl to-day,
Grown to this faction, in the Temple Garden,
Shall send, between the Red Rose and the White,
A thousand souls to death and deadly night. "
An old author penned the following lines, worthy
of Anacreon, on presenting a white rose to a Lan-
castrian lady :
PLATE VII.
P?PLE LOOSE-STRIFE. Lythrum, salicaria, CREEPING CINQUEFOIL. Potenttlla reptans.
C3 ROSE. Rosa, canina. BURNET ROSE. Rosa, Spinosissima.
V_D BRYONY. Bri/onia Dimca,. HOUSE LEEK Sempervivum tectorum.
COMMON DOG ROSE, 51
" If this fair rose offend thy sight
It in thy bosom wear,
'Twill blush to find itself less white,
And turn Lancastrian there."
We could write a volume on the poems, legends,
and fancies connected with the rose, with which indeed
the name of England has been associated ages before
the brawl in the Temple Gardens. The elder Pliny, in
discussing the origin of the word Albion, suggests that
the land may have been so called from the number of
white roses which grew in it. Whatever we may think
of the etymology of this old Roman, we can at least
indulge in fancies as to the reports given by the
invaders but lately returned from Britain, as to the
woods and flowery hedge-rows under which they had
often rested during their sojourn in our island. And
we look with almost a new pleasure on our own wild
roses when we regard them as direct descendants of
the " rosas alba " of those far-off summers.
The pink Dog Rose used to be called the Canker, a
name it still retains in some parts of the country ;
but which we consider a libel on our pretty rose.
Hotspur alludes to this in Shakespeare's play, when he
accuses the Earls of Northumberland and Worcester
of trying
" To put down Richard, that sweet lovely rose,
And plant this thorn, this canker, Bolingbroke ! "
thereby meaning a usurper, which is certainly an
unfair term as applied to our own native wild hedge -
E 2
52 WILD FLOWERS.
side rose, blooming in our quiet country lanes, per-
fuming the air and charming all passers by with its
simple beauty.
COMMON BURNET ROSE.
ROSA SPINOSISSIMA.
ANY ONE who has been attracted by the pretty
flowers of this little rose, on its tiny low bush in the
midst of a sandy waste near the sea-shore, which is
its favourite abode, and has attempted recklessly to
gather the tempting sprays, will understand the
signification of its specific name ; for no rose ever
seemed to us so spiny or so sharp. It has the
prettiest little leaves, and grows in daintily-formed
sprays, which appear quite easy to pluck until we try.
It is also known as the Scotch rose, and is said to be
the parent of the Ayrshire rose of our gardens, and
of all our pretty Scotch roses. It is seldom met with
inland, and grows chiefly on sandy downs near the
sea, both in the north and south of England. I found
it in profusion in Cumberland. This was the rose
found by Sir W. Hooker in Iceland.
THE YELLOW VETCH LING. 53
THE YELLOW VETCHLING, OR YELLOW PEA.
LATHYRUS APHACA.
THIS plant is a common European field plant,
belonging to the natural order Leguminosae. It is a
little smooth pale-green annual, branching from the
root into several weak stems, either lying on the
ground or climbing by means of numerous alternate
simple tendrils, each of which springs from between
a pair of large stipules of a broad arrow-shape.
There are no true leaves or leaflets, except now and
then near the root. The flowers are solitary on
simple stalks, small, drooping, and lemon-coloured.
The bracts are in pairs, oval-shaped ; the teeth of the
calyx long and lanceolate, ribbed. The pod is about
an inch in length, smooth, and containing about six
round seeds, which are somewhat narcotic, and pro-
duce excessive headache if eaten abundantly when
ripe. In their young and green state they may be
eaten like green peas without inconvenience. L.
Sylvestris, the everlasting pea, is a well-known and
pretty species of the same genus. It is cultivated in
our gardens, and is often found wild in England.
The genus Lathyrus is nearly allied to Vicia, the true
vetches, of which there are many very pretty British
species ; Vicia Cracca, the tufted or purple vetch, is
one of the most attractive. We can imagine that it
54 WILD FLOWERS.
must have been this pretty flower which suggested to
Sir Walter Scott these lines :
"And where profuse the wood- vetch clings
Round ash and elm in verdant rings,
Its pale and azure pencill'd flower
Should canopy Titania's bower."
CREEPING CINQUEFOIL.
POTENTILLA REPTANS.
THIS is a common British plant, belonging to the
family Rosaceae, and is found on heaths, moors, and
open pastures throughout Europe. The stems are
prostrate, and creep along the ground, rooting at
the joints for a considerable distance. The stipules
are ovate, and mostly entire ; the calyx hairy. The
leaves are stalked with five obovate or oblong coarsely-
toothed leaflets. The petals are large, of a bright
yellow colour, mostly five in number, sometimes four.
This pretty plant is found on the borders of meadows,
edges of woods, and hedges throughout Europe and
Asia. It greatly resembles the common Tormentilla,
and is often mistaken for it. The latter is an astrin-
gent plant, and has been used medicinally; also for
tanning in the Western Islands of Scotland and the
Orkneys.
WILLO W-HERB. 5 5
WILLOW-HERB, OR CODLINS AND CREAM.
EPILOBIUM ANGUSTIFOLIUM.
APPLE-PIE PLANT, as it is called, is a very hand-
some plant, belonging to the family Onagraciae. It
has a creeping root, an erect, nearly simple, stem,
slightly hoary, but not hairy, like another species, E.
Nilobium Hirsutum. The leaves are shortly stalked*
lanceolate, entire, or with very minute distinct teeth.
The flowers are large, purplish red, in long bunches ;
the petals are slightly unequal, entire, and spreading
from the base ; the stamens and styles inclined down-
wards. The stigmas are deeply four-lobed. The pod
is from one to two inches long, more or less hoary.
It is found in mountains, woods, and meadows, in
Europe and Siberia. In Great Britain it is found in
moist places in the north of England, and in the south
of Scotland. It has crimson, inodorous flowers, with
blue pollen. It is a showy plant, and is often trans-
planted into gardens, where, however, it must be
carefully watched, or its creeping roots will encroach
on other plants. The down of the seeds furnishes
that soft downy substance which, either alone or mixed
with cotton, is often woven into stockings, gloves, and
such things. The leaves are used in the adulteration of
tea, or as a substitute for it. Its young root-stalks and
suckers are boiled and eaten ; and the Kamtschatkans
make a beer from an infusion of the plant. The pith
56 WILD FLOWERS.
is dried and boiled, and on being fermented is converted
into vinegar.
The name willow-herb is given probably from some
slight resemblance in the outline of the leaves to
those of a species of willow ; and perhaps, too, the
situations in which the greater part of the species
grow being near the water, or in it, may account
for it.
Gerarde says the willow-herbs stop bleeding, heal
wounds, and drive away snakes, gnats, and flies.
THE EVENING PRIMROSE, OR COMMON
CENOTHERA.
(ENOTHERA BIENNIS.
CENOTHERA BIENNIS belongs to the same family as
the willow-herb Onagraciae. It is a biennial, with
ovate, lanceolate, flat, toothed leaves, a rough hairy
stem ; the petals longer than the stamens, and about
half as long as the tube of the calyx. The flowers
are large, numerous, and of a bright yellow colour,
emitting a slight fragrance. They close in the bright
daylight, and open themselves as the sun goes down :
hence their name. It is found abundantly on the
Lancashire coast, and covers several acres of ground
near Woodbridge in Suffolk. The Suffolk poet
Bernard Barton has immortalized this, his native flower,
THE EVENING PRIMROSE. 57
in some beautiful lines, which we cannot refrain from
quoting here :
"Fair flower that shunn'st the glare of day,
Yet lov'st to open, meekly bold,
To evening's hues of sober grey,
Thy cup of paly gold.
I love to watch, at silent eve,
Thy scatter'd blossoms' lonely light,
And have my inmost heart receive
The influence of that sight.
I love at such an hour to mark
Their beauty greet the night-breeze chill,
And shine 'mid shadows gathering dark
The garden's glory still.
For such 'tis sweet to think awhile,
When cares and griefs the breast invade ;
In friendship's animating smile,
In sorrow's dark'ning shade .
Thus it bursts forth like thy pale cup,
Glistening amid its dewy tears,
And bears the sinking spirit up
Amid its chilling fears.
But still more animating far,
If meek religion's eye may trace,
E'en in thy glimmering earth-born star
The holier hopes of grace.
The hope, that as thy beauteous bloom
Expands to glad the close of day,
So through the shadows of the tomb
May break forth mercy's ray."
The pretty plant which suggested to the mind of
our Quaker poet these beautiful thoughts is the only
native species. It is sometimes called the Tree
58 WILD FLOWERS.
Primrose. The roots are eatable, and were formerly
taken after dinner to flavour wine, as olives now are ;
therefore, the genuine name was changed from Onagra,
the Ass Food, to (Enothera, the Wine-trap. We are
not sure whether the change was necessary for such as
need an incentive to imprudent potations.
PURPLE LOOS E-S T.R I F E.
L YTHRUM SALIC ARIA.
THIS is a showy plant belonging to the family
Lythraceae. It has a perennial root-stock, with short
annual erect stems, two or three feet high, slightly
branched, glabrous, or softly downy. The leaves are
of a dark-green colour, opposite, or sometimes in threes,
sessile, clasping the stem at the base, lanceolate and
entire, from two to three inches long. The flowers are
of a reddish-purple or pink colour, in whorled, leafy
spikes. It is the Lysimachia of Pliny, a name which
is applied to the Yellow Loose- Strife of our hedges.
Our word Loose-Strife is a simple translation of this
Latin word. A strong decoction of this plant acts as
an astringent, as it contains tannic acid.
WILD BRYONY. 59
WILD BRYONY, OR RED BRYONY.
BRYONIA DI01CA.
A PLANT belonging to the Cucumber family Cu-
curbitaceae, must not be confounded' with the Black
Bryony, Tamus Communis, which is a very different
plant, and about which we shall hear presently. It
has a thick, tuberous, perennial root-stock, sometimes
branched, the annual stems climbing to a great
length ; it is rough with minute hairs, containing an
acrid juice, and emitting a sickly smell when drying.
The tendrils are simple or branched, and spirally
twisted. The leaves are divided into five or seven
coarsely-toothed lobes, of which the middle is the
largest. The barren and fruitful flowers are on the
same plant, but on different stalks. The barren flowers
are placed in small bunches, several together, and are
of a pale yellow colour ; the fruitful flowers are much
smaller, generally two together, nearly round. The
berries are red or orange, about four lines in diameter,
containing several flat seeds.
It is a very common plant in hedges and thickets in
England, but it is not found in Scotland and Ireland.
60 WILD FLOWERS.
HOUSE LEEK.
SEMPERVIVUM TECTORUM.
HOUSE LEEK, Sempervivum Tectorwn ; so named
from its tenacity of life ; from semper and vivo, always
living. The little plant known by this name belongs
to the family Crassulacese. There is but one British
species. The foreign varieties are some of them very
elegant, and are grown in gardens "and greenhouses.
Our own species was originally a native of the Alpine
and sub-Alpine regions of Central Europe, but it has
now found its way to the tops of old walls, and the
thatched and tiled roofs of the houses of all the
countries of Europe. It is frequently called Jupiter's
Eye, Bullock's Eye, or Jupiter's Beard. It has very
thick and fleshy leaves, the lower ones, one to one inch
and a half long, ending in a small point, and bordered
by a line of short stiff hairs. The flowers are pink,
arranged along the spreading branches of the cyme,
without stalks. The petals are twelve in number,
smooth within, fringed with delicate hairs at the edges
and on the outside.
This plant is very closely associated with the Stone-
crops or Sedums, and shares with them virtues both
supernatural and physical. It is considered lucky by
the Welsh peasantry to have their roofs covered with
these plants ; they are believed to protect the house
from the ravages of the elements, and to ensure the
prosperity of the inmates. Pliny mentions the stone-
THE MARSH SAXIFRAGE. 6 1
crop as infallible for procuring sleep ; but to produce
this effect the plant must be wrapped in black cloth,
and carefully introduced under the pillow of the patient
without his knowledge. The juice of the House Leek,
when mixed with cream or applied by itself, is said
to give relief in burns and other external inflammations.
Its vitality is such, triat it survives the longest droughts,
and the rapidity with which it reproduces itself, even
after the roughest treatment, is surprising. Its power
of continuing to live under the most adverse circum-
stance is owing to the facility with which it abstracts
carbonic acid gas from the atmosphere. This substance
is the food of all plants, and it is thus that they take
out of the air and appropriate to their own nourishment
what would be injurious to man.
THE MARSH SAXIFRAGE.
SAXIFRAGA HIRCULUS.
THE Saxifrages are called also Stone-breaks, from
the wonderful manner in which the fibres of their
roots penetrate the strongest rocks and most un-
promising soils. The genus Saxifraga is the type of
the family Saxifragaceae. Our example is the Yellow
Marsh Saxifrage. The stem is solitary, from four to
eight inches long, sometimes covered with rusty hairs.
The stem has a purplish hue, and bears but one rather
62 WILD FLOWERS.
large yellow flower with red dots. The leaves are
alternate, narrow, oblong or linear, and entire. This
is one of the rare plants which it is so interesting to
find. It inhabits wet, turfy moors, at high elevations,
and has not yet been supposed to extend further
north than Berwick. It is worth cultivation, and will
grow well in peaty bog earth. The saxifrages of
Great Britain include the London Pride, that pretty
well-known flower of the gardens, which is the 5.
Umbrosa.
The vS. Oppositifolia, or Purple Saxifrage, is a
favourite spring plant, which, though found growing
in wild luxuriance on Welsh and Highland moun-
tains, is eagerly sought for and sold in Covent Garden
Market as an early spring flower. There are many
other British species. Mr. Bentham describes thir-
teen. Medicinal properties have been attributed to
some of them, and the white flowers of the common
saxifrage were supposed to indicate that it was
" governed by the moon."
THE WATER PARSNIP.
SIUM ANGUSTIFOLIUM.
THE narrow-leaved Water Parsnip is a plant belong-
ing to the family Umbelliferae. It has an erect stem,
branched and leafy. The leaves pinnate, the leaflets
THE GOLDEN SAXIFRAGE. 63
unequally lobed and serrated ; the umbels or branch
of flowerets, opposite the leaves. It is found in wet
ditches and shallow streams, and being of a poisonous
nature, ought to be carefully distinguished from the
water-cress, with which it often grows. Another
species, 5. Nodiflorum, is, however, more frequently
mistaken, and is therefore called Fool's Water-cress.
THE GOLDEN SAXIFRAGE.
CHRYSOPLENIUM ALTERN1FOL1UM.
THIS plant belongs to the order Saxifragaceae, but is
not certainly a true Saxifrage. The habit of thus
giving common English names to plants of different
genera leads to much confusion. It has alternate
leaves, the lower ones kidney-shaped, hairy, and
seated on long stalks. The flowers are small, in little
branches surrounded by leaves, and of a deep yellow
colour. It is not a common plant in Great Britain,
although pretty generally distributed. It flowers in
the spring by the sides of rivulets, and in moist shady
places.
64 WILD FLOWERS.
MARSH PENNYWORT.
HYDROCOTYLE VULGARIS.
AN Umbelliferous plant, having a slender perennial
stem, creeping along the wet mud, or even floating
in water ; rooting at every joint, and sending out from
the same point small tufts of leaves and flowers.
The leaves are orbicular, one to one inch and a half
in diameter, smooth, and attached by the centre to
rather a long stalk. The flowers are very small,
white, and on short stalks. The shape and size of
these leaves somewhat resemble a piece of money ;
hence the name pennywort. It is also known as
Pennygrass, White-rot, Fluke-wort, and Sheep's-bane.
These latter names it has obtained on account of its
being supposed to produce the rot and other diseases
in animals that feed upon it. This is, however, an
error, as it does not produce disease, but occurs in
damp, moist situations, where animals that feed are
likely to be attacked with rot and other diseases.
SEA HOLLY.
ERYNGIUAT MARITIMUM.
I AM glad to write again of a sea-shore plant, for I
associate with them quiet bright holiday hours ;
the never-weary sea, rippling on the clean smooth
PLATE VIII.
rfARSH SAXIFRAGE. Saxifraga Hirculus. GOLDEN SAXIFRAGE lA
VATER PARSNIP. Sium Anguslifolium. MARSH PENNYWORT. Hydrocotyle f^ulgaris.
EA HOLLY. Erytigium Mantimum. SAMPHIRE. Crithmum Maritimum.
SEA HOLLY. 65
beach ; happy children with spades and willing hands,
making fairy gardens in the sand, filled with the wild
flowers which grow around and up the sides of the
cliffs, whither they climb, regardless of downfalls, to
secure their treasures ; but woe to the little hands
that recklessly seize in their grasp the treacherous
Sea Holly, with its stiff, sharp-pointed, prickly leaves !
They are covered with a bluish or sea-green bloom,
being what is called in botany, glaucous. This
character is very common in plants growing near the
sea, but not confined to them. One would not easily
recognize the Eryngium as an Umbelliferous plant ;
but if it is carefully examined, it will be found to
preserve all the characteristics of the order. The
upper leaves embrace the stem, which is about a foot
high, and are lobed and palmate in shape. The
flowers are in heads rather than umbels, of a pale blue
colour. It is very abundant on the eastern shores of
England, and is found in Scotland and Ireland. The
plant is often called Sea Eryngo, Sea Hulver, and
Sea Holme. According to Linnaeus, the flower-
shoots are very good when boiled and eaten like
asparagus. The leaves are sweetish, with a warm
aromatic flavour. The root also is sweet to the taste,
and has a warm, aromatic smell. It has been used in
medicine, and was recommended by Boerhaave, the
great Danish physician. It is candied and sold in
the shops in London as a sweet-meat. At Colchester,
in Essex, there exists an establishment where this
F
66 WILD FLOWERS.
preparation was first made, more than two centuries
ago, by Robert Buxton, an apothecary. There is also
another British species, E. Campestre, called by John
Ray Friar's Goose.
THE SAMPHIRE.
CRITHMUM MARITMUM.
THE Samphire is also an Umbelliferous plant.
Those who have once seen it and smelt it will recog-
nize it again. It grows in places where none but the
adventurous can reach on the sides of cliffs, near
the sea, and in the clefts of rocks ; it fringes the edges
of precipices with its bright-green succulent leaves
and tiny blossoms. It is almost woody at the base ;
the young branches, foliage, and umbels, thick and
fleshy. The leaves are twice or thrice ternate, with
thick linear segments about an inch long. The
flowers are greenish, or yellowish-white, in umbels of
fifteen to twenty or more rays. The samphire is
warm and aromatic in flavour, and is frequently used
as a pickle. Visitors to the sea-side, who wish to try
this pleasant condiment, cannot do better than look
for it on the sides of the cliffs, and, if within reach,
gather a basketful of its bright green leaves ; they
should be separated from the stalks and flowers, and
then have spice and boiled vinegar poured on them in
GOOSE-GRASS. 67
the usual way. Samphire-gathering, when pursued as
a trade, frequently leads to loss of life, and terrible
dangers are encountered to secure it. It has almost
a classical association, since Shakespeare immortalized
it in ' King Lear.' It grows well on chalk rocks,
such as form the cliffs at Dover ; there, Edgar is
supposed to be leading Gloucester along, and says
"Come on, sir; here's the place : standstill. How fearful
And dizzy 'tis, to cast one's eyes so low!
The crows and choughs, that wing the midway air,
Show scarce so gross as beetles. Halfway down
Hangs one that gathers samphire ; dreadful trade !
Methinks he seems no bigger than his head :
The fishermen that walk upon the beach
Appear like mice."
It abounds also in the Isle of Wight and many other
sea-coasts of England, especially in the south, where,
with its bright green colour, it gives quite a character
to the cliffs and caves which overhang the sea.
GOOSE-GRASS.
GALIUM ASSARINE.
THIS troublesome little plant, which is always catch-
ing one's dress and clinging to everything it touches,
must be familiar to all who enjoy country walks.
It belongs to the natural order Rubiaceae, and is
familiarly called Cleavers, Catch-weed, and Scratch-
weed. The name Goose- Grass it derives from the fact
F 2
68 WILD FLOWERS.
of its being a favourite food of these birds, and when
they are turned out into the fields or on the commons
just before Michaelmas one may often see them busily
devouring it. In old herbals we find the Goose-Grass
supposed to be endorsed with wonderful medicinal
powers, and our old friend Gerarde writes of it as a
marvellous remedy for the bites of snakes, spiders, and
all venomous creatures. He also quotes Pliny as an
authority for the statement, that a pottage made of
" Cleavers, a little mutton and oatmeal," is good " to
cause lanknesse and keepe from fatnesse." This pre-
sumption would hardly recommend itself to modern
believers in Banting. According to Linnaeus the stalks
are used in Sweden as a filter to strain milk through.
Dioscorides relates that the shepherds made the same
use of it in his time. It is considered even now in
rural districts to be a purifier of the blood, and for
that purpose the tops are often put into spring broth.
It appears, however, that very many of our wayside
herbs are valuable in diet on account of the salts
which they contain ; but most of them are overlooked
and despised in favour of more costly and cultivated
herbs.
MISTLETOE. 69
MISTLETOE.
V1SCUM ALBUM.
OUR next plant is associated with thoughts of
pleasant meetings and festive boards, and happy are
those whose homes are filled at Christmas time with
the cheerful companions of summer rambles, having
health and spirits to enjoy the good gifts of God in
any form. The Mistletoe, or Viscum Album, is one of
a genus of parasitical plants belonging to the family
Loranthaceae, and is the only British representative of
the family.
" Mistletoe," says Lord Bacon, " chiefly grows on
crab-trees, apple-trees, sometimes upon hazels, and
rarely upon oaks, the Mistletoe whereof is accounted
very medicinal. It is an evergreen that bears a white
glittering berry, and differs entirely from the tree
whereon it grows. It continues green winter and
summer, which the tree does not."
" Nought was green upon the oak,
But moss and rarest mistletoe."
In many respects the Mistletoe is an object of great
interest to the naturalist. The manner in which it
derives its nourishment from other plants by engraft-
ing itself into the branches of a tree, and the curious
conditions of the seeds in germination, are worthy of
attention.
I need scarcely describe the plant so familiar to us
70 WILD FLOWERS.
all, as there is little fear of its being mistaken for any
other. I may, however, say that the leaves are entire,
varying from narrow oblong to nearly oval thick,
fleshy, and always obtuse. There are two kinds
of flowers, those bearing pistils and those bearing
stamens, each on separate plants : they are very small,
and are placed in little heads, about three to five in
each. The berry is about the size, and has somewhat
the appearance, of a white currant, very smooth, viscid,
and containing a simple seed. The manner in which
the plant establishes itself in the branch of a tree has
been much discussed. Old botanists believed that
the " Mistletoe Thrush " feeding upon the berries sur-
rounded his beak with the viscid mucus they contain,
and in order to get rid of it, rubbed his beak against
the branches, and thus inserted the seeds, from which
springs a new plant. Paley, in his ' Natural Theology,'
gives at length his views on the subject. Of no other
plant can it be said that the roots refuse to shoot in
the ground, and no other plant is known to possess
this adhesive generative quality when rubbed on the
branches of trees.
The seeds in germination seem to offer an exception
to the general law that the radicle or root of the
embryo shoots downwards, and the plumule upwards ;
for it is found that the radicle of the Mistletoe invari-
ably turns itself down upon the body to which it is
attached, whatever may be the position of the surface
of that body with respect to the earth. For instance,
MISTLETOE. 71
if a cannon-ball to which Mistletoe seeds are glued on
all sides be suspended by a cord some distance from
the earth, both the upper and under seeds, as well as
those on the sides, all direct their radicle to the sur-
face of the ball. This property insures their growing
upon the branches of trees, to whatever side they may
happen to adhere.
It is asserted that a branch of Mistletoe, when placed
in water, has no power of absorbing this fluid, but that
when the branch to which it is attached is immersed,
then the water is readily absorbed and penetrates into
the Mistletoe itself. The following experiment was
performed by De Candolle. He immersed the branch
of an apple-tree bearing Mistletoe in water previously
coloured with cochineal, which, penetrating the wood
and inner bark of the apple-tree, entered the Mistletoe,
when its colour was even more intense than in the
former.
Having no immediate connection with the earth,
this curious plant, when discovered on the oak, already
a sacred tree, became an object of superstitious worship
to the priests of the Ancient Britons. The Druids, as
they were called, held it in the greatest veneration,
and the ceremony of separating the Mistletoe from the
oak was one of their greatest religious rites. It was
held on the sixth day of the moon, from which day
they computed time. The occasion was celebrated
by the sacrifice of two white bulls, which were tied to
the oak-tree by their horns ; then one of the Druids,
72 WILD FLOWERS.
clothed in white, mounted the tree, and with a knife
of gold cut the Mistletoe, which was received in a
" white sagum," or cloth made of wool : this done,
they proceeded to their sacrifices and feastings. Our
own national practice of decorating our churches and
houses with Mistletoe and holly at Christmas time
may, perhaps, be a remnant of the old superstition. If,
however, it only be regarded as a pleasant custom,
there can be no harm in it, and long may it be ere
so graceful a decoration be discontinued. Sir Walter
Scott, in describing Christmas in the olden t imes,
says
" The hall was dress'd with holly green,
Forth to the wood did merry men go,
To gather in the mistletoe."
The origin of the old-fashioned tradition, that a kiss
under the Mistletoe is only fair play, I am unable to
find. I observe, however, as civilization advances, and
manners become more polite, this practice is more
honoured in the breach than the observance. In a
pretty book I have had by me for many years, called
' A Wreath of Friendship,' written in part by the late
Rev. Professor Henslow, when a young man, are some
pretty lines on the Mistletoe. I cannot help quoting
them here :
" Past is the time, when bending low,
Druids revered thee, mistletoe ;
Error's broad shades are chased away
By Revelation's brilliant ray,
PLATE IX.
MISTLETOE, fiscvm Album. ELDER. Sambuctis Nigra.
HONEYSUCKLE. Lonicera Peridymenum. YELLOW BEDSTRAW. Galium Perum.
GOOSE-GRASS. Galium Assarine, TEAZLE. Dip.iacus Fullonum.
ELDER. 73
And superstition can no more
Bid us a humble plant adore.
Yet who in hour of Christmas mirth
Can place thee o'er the social hearth,
With ivy and with holly gay,
Or twine thee with the fragrant bay,
Nor lift with joy his heart above,
Nor hymn the notes of praise and love ?
Fair plant, a mystery thy birth,
Thou dost not fix thy home on earth ;
Rock'd by the winds, fed by the shower,
Thy cradle is an airy bower ;
No voice of crime in thy leafy dome,
But the songs of birds to cheer thine home.
From the wilding crab this branch was riven,
From waving in the breath of heaven.
Alas ! alas ! they have brought it low,
To the dwellings of care, and pain, and woe."
ELDER.
SAMBUCUS NIGRA.
THE Common or Black Elder, is a small tree or
large bush, belonging to the family Caprifoliaceae.
It is known by possessing a five-cleft calyx, a five-cleft
rotate corolla, five stamens, and three stigmas, a
roundish pulpy one-celled berry, hardly crowned by
the remains of the calyx. The stem is irregularly
but always oppositely branched, the young branches
are clothed with a smooth grey bark, and filled with
a light spongy pith ; the leaflets are deep green and
smooth, usually with an odd one. The flowers are in
74 WILD FLOWERS.
bunches of a cream-colour, with a sweetish but faint
smell. The berries are black, with reddish stalks.
Considerable medicinal value was at one time attri-
buted to this plant, but it is now chiefly used in the
rural districts of England for making a wine from the
berries, which, when spiced and drunk hot, is regarded
by some people as very agreeable. The flowers are
employed in making a distilled water, which is cooling
and refreshing, and is sometimes introduced into
confectionery. The wood is hard and tough. The
pith, on account of its solidity and great lightness, is
used for making small figures and balls for electrical
experiments. The undeveloped buds, when pickled,
form a good substitute for capers. It is on the leaves
of the elder that the caterpillar of the sphinx, or
death's-head moth, delights to feed. It changes into
a chrysalis about September, and in the following
July may be seen as the gigantic and curious moth,
with the markings of a skull on its thorax. There
are two species of elder native in Britain, of which 5.
Ebulus, or Dwarf Elder, a rare plant, is the other.
HONEYSUCKLE, OR WOODBINE.
LO NIC ERA PERICLYMENUM.
THIS is a favourite flower, on account of its delicious
fragrance and its lovely blossoms, intermingling with
every hedge-row, and turning round the trunk of
HONEYSUCKLE. 75
many a sturdy tree. It belongs to the family Capri-
foliaceae. The leaves are ovate or oblong, smooth
above, somewhat downy or slightly hairy beneath,
the upper ones the smallest. The flowers are of a
pale yellow colour, the corolla about an inch and a
half long. The berries are small and red. There are
two other species of honeysuckle native in Britain,
L. Caprifolium,\.\}.e. Perfoliate Honeysuckle, or Goat's-
leaf, and L. Xylosteum, the Fly or Upright Honey-
suckle.
The leaves of the perfoliate honeysuckle are quite
smooth and broader than those of our example, and
it flowers earlier in the year. The fly honeysuckle is
rather rare ; it has white scentless flowers, and is by
no means so attractive as either of the others. It is
often planted in shrubberies.
The true Woodbine of the poets is undoubtedly the
L. Periclymenum ; it obtains the name evidently from
a corruption of woodbind, from its habit of twisting
round the stems of trees. Milton calls it " the
Twisted Eglantine," and Shakespeare says
"So doth the woodbine, the sweet honeysuckle,
Gently entwist the maple."
At the base of its long tubular flower lies the honey,
and when the bee cannot reach it, other insects tap
it, by making a puncture at the base of the tube, and
thus regale themselves. In almost every country lane
in England, from early in June to August, are we
76 WILD FLOWERS.
delighted with the sweet scent of one or other of
these pretty climbers ; and well do I remember, on a
memorable occasion, becoming almost overpowered
with the perfume, as bough after bough was pulled
from its native Suffolk hedge, and piled up, so as to
make a floral couch in a carriage in which I sat one
still warm summer evening in July. Later in the
year, the clusters of bright red berries, which follow
the flowers, are very picturesque, and afford food for
the birds ; for they are not poisonous. The hawk-
moth is often found hovering near the honeysuckle,
attracted, perhaps, by its fragrance or feeding on the
honey it contains.
YELLOW BEDSTRAW.
GALIUM VERUM.
LADIES' BEDSTRAW, or Cheese Rennet, belongs to
the family Rubiaceae. It is distinguished by having
its leaves about eight in a whorl, small and linear.
The stems are much branched at the base, six inches
to a foot long, ending in a panicle of small golden-
coloured flowers. The roots afford a rich yellow dye
and impart this colour to the bones of animals who
feed upon it. The whole genus possesses a property
like that of rennet, of curdling milk, which gives rise
to their common name. The Galium Verum is one of
FULLER'S TEAZLE. 77
the prettiest plants, which decorates our driest sand-
banks, gaily blossoming for full three quarters of the
year. It is the sweetest of all the genus, and was
formerly much used for strewing floors and laying in
beds ; whence the name of bedstraw, at a time when
feather-beds and luxurious spring couches were un-
known. According to John Ray, the flowering tops,
when distilled, make a refreshing beverage, and the
roots are useful as an astringent medicine. The
French used formerly to prescribe the flowers in
hysteria and epilepsy.
FULLER'S TEAZLE.
DIPS AC US FULLONUM.
THE Fuller's Teazle will be easily recognized,
from our drawing, although we have one or two other
British species. It belongs to the family Dipsaceae,
and is a stout biennial, four or five feet high, with
numerous prickles on the stems, the leaves, and, in
fact, on the whole of its surface. The heads of the
flowers are of a pale lilac-colour, at first ovoid, but
gradually becoming cylindrical, nearly three inches
long and about one inch and a half in diameter ; the
scales of the involucre are hooked, or reflexed, and
very hard. On this- account they are used in the
manufacture of cloth in a process of brushing or
78 WILD FLOWERS.
raising, called teazling. It consists in applying the
ripened head or fruit of the teazle to the cloth. The
teazles are attached to a cylinder, which revolves upon
the cloth, and the loose particles are raised, so that
they may be easily sheared or cut off, to give the cloth
the fine appearance it assumes. No instrument has
ever been invented to supersede the teazle. Various
substitutes have been tried ; pieces of wire have been
fixed into a leather back, but nothing answers the
purpose so well as the elastic spines of the teazle.*
The plant is imported in large quantities from France
and other parts of Europe, and is also extensively
grown in England ; but as a hot sun and dry weather
are essential to the proper drying of the teazle heads,
those imported from the Continent are esteemed the
best. Country people are still said to cure agues in
various parts of England by a singular remedy
obtained from this plant, which is of course only
imaginary. If the heads be opened longitudinally in
the autumn, a small worm may frequently be found
in the centre. Of these, three, five, or seven, always
an odd number, must be taken, sealed up in a quill
and worn in good faith, as an amulet or charm against
ague.
* See Dr. Lankester's ' Lectures on the Uses of Animals.'
PLATE X.
CHICORY. Cichorium Intybus.
ELECAMPANE. Inula Helenium.
DAISY. Bellis Perennis.
SEA ASTER. Aster Tripolium.
CHAMOMILE. Jnthemis Nobilit.
HAREBELL. Campanula RotundifoUa.
DAISY. 79
DAISY.
BELLIS PERENNIS.
THIS well-known flower is almost the first that is
grasped by the hand of childhood and the last to retain
its place in the floral calendar of the aged. To sit on
the green grass and make daisy chains is the delight
of our little ones, and the sight of the " bright-eyed,
pink-tipped flower " must ever renew the associations of
our youth ; so it is well we should say something about
it amongst the " wild flowers worth notice." The
Daisy, botanically, is a typical flower of the natural
order to which it belongs Compositae, and it is the
only British species of its genus the name of which
signifies perpetual beauty. Were we teaching Botany,
there would be no need to describe this little flower,
it is so well known all over the world ; but we should
with a good magnifying-glass endeavour to show that
each one of the little white strap-shaped petals, as they
appear to be, as well as the yellow fibres which form
the centre, are in reality perfect flowers of themselves,
containing all the organs that are necessary to a flower.
The Daisy is not the simple flower it appears to be, but
is really a great many flowers put together in one
large head and held together by the little green cup,
which looks like a calyx, but is not one at all. It
is really a number of little bracts or leaves that grow
together and form a case for the flowers inside. Under
the microscope it is readily seen that the white strap
8o WILD FLOWERS.
is really a tube, and at one end there is a little thread
ending in two horns, which is the style with two stigmas.
By the aid of the glass it may also be seen that the
tiny yellow threads in the centre contain the petals,
with their stigmas and the little stamens growing
around. A good pocket magnifying-glass adds greatly
to the pleasure of a botanical ramble. The Daisy has
always been a favourite with poets, both those of olden
times and more modern writers. Chaucer describes
himself as passing whole days leaning on his elbow
and his side,
" For nothing ellis, & I shall not lie
But for to lokin upon the daisie
The emprise & flowre of flowres all."
In another place he gives us the origin of the
name
" One called eye of the daie
The daisie, a flowre white and rede,
And in French called La bel Margarete."
It has been said that Chaucer's frequent praises of the
Daisy were intended as tributes to Margaret Countess
of Pembroke, but of this there is no certain proof.
The device of Margaret of Anjou, the unfortunate
queen of Henry VI., was the Daisy. The French name
Marguerite has reference to the resemblance of its
pearly bud to the rarer pearls of the ocean. In Scot-
land it is called the gowan, and in the north of
England it is recognized as the children's flower and
is called " bairnwort." We all remember Wordsworth's
lines on a Daisy
DAISY. 8 1
" 'Tis Flora's page, in every place
In every season, fresh and fair
It opens with perennial grace,
And blossoms everywhere,"
Common as the Daisy is with us, it is not so in the
extreme north of Europe and in America, where it is
treasured as a garden flower. There is an old Celtic
legend, that each new-born babe taken from earth
becomes a spirit, which scatters down on the earth
some new and lovely flower to cheer its bereaved
parents ; and there is a tale told that Malvina, who lost
her infant son, was thus cheered by the virgins of
Morven who came to console her : " We have seen,
oh Malvina ! we have seen the infant you regret
reclining on a light mist ; it approached us, and shed
on our fields a harvest of new flowers. Look, oh
Malvina ! among these flowers we distinguish one
with a golden disk surrounded by silver leaves ; a
sweet tinge of crimson adorns its delicate rays ; waved
by a gentle wind we might call it a little infant playing
in a green meadow, and the flower of thy bosom has
given a new flower to the hills of Cromla." Since
that day the daughters of Morven have consecrated
the Daisy to infancy. It is called the flower of
innocence ; the flower of the new-born.
We all recollect the recipe of " Daisy roots and
cream," prescribed by the fairy godmothers of old to
stunt the growth of " ill weeds," as those were told who
grew tall to their own detriment ; but although there
82 WILD FLOWERS.
may be a sort of bitter astringent property in the daisy
root, we doubt the efficacy of the dose. Gerarde, how-
ever, mentions the Daisy under the name " Bruisewort,"
and says it is an unfailing remedy " in all kinds of
aches and pains," besides curing fevers, inflammation
of the liver, and "alle the inwarde parts."
The Daisy appears almost interwoven with the
materials forming the green carpet of our fields and
pastures, though it is an unwelcome intruder on our
velvet and closely shaven lawns, appropriated only to
mossy tufts and the finest grass. Still the Daisy
adapts itself to all circumstances, and can seldom be
excluded from any green sward, however much care
be taken to eradicate it.
CHICORY.
CICHORIUM INTYBUS.
CHICORY, or Succory, belongs to the family Com-
positae. It is often seen growing wild on the borders
of our corn-fields, and is sure to attract attention by
its pretty blue flowers. It is from one to three feet
high. The leaves near the ground are spreading,
more or less hairy, with a large terminal lobe and
several smaller ones, all pointed and coarsely toothed,
the upper leaves smaller, less cut, and embracing the
stem by pointed auricles. The flowers are in heads,
THE SEA ASTER. 83
in closely sessile or unstalked clusters, of a bright blue
colour. When blanched, or grown without light, the
leaves are often eaten in early spring salads, and are
very good ; they are somewhat bitter, like endive, but
lose that taste by cultivation. The French call the
long slender leaves " Barbe de Capucin," Monk's
Beard. The root is long, like a carrot, and is used in
large quantities, when dried, as a substitute for, or an
addition to, coffee. In Belgium and many parts of
Germany, large districts are devoted to the cultivation
of this plant for the sake of its root, which is dried in
a kiln or slow oven. It is afterwards roasted like
coffee, ground in a mill, and sold in the market. It
is decidedly a pleasant addition to coffee ; but, being
much cheaper than the coffee berry, it becomes an
adulteration when mixed with it and sold as pure
coffee. If a teaspoonful of the powdered chicory be
added to a teacupful of ground coffee, it will be found
to improve the flavour, and to be in no way injurious.
THE SEA ASTER.
ASTER TR I FOLIUM.
THE Sea Aster, or Sea Starwort, is a pretty plant,
found growing in salt marshes, near the coast, and
belong to the family Compositae. It is seldom above
a foot high, erect or decumbent at the base ; slightly
G 2
84 WILD FLOWERS.
branched, the leaves linear, entire, and somewhat
succulent. The flower-heads are in a compact
corymb ; the involucral bracts few and oblong. The
centre of the disk of the flower is bright yellow, the
circumference blue or purple.
ELECAMPANE.
INULA HELENIUM.
ELECAMPANE is found in pastures in various parts of
Europe. It is a native of Great Britain, and belongs
to the order Compositae. It has a thick, branching
root, which is aromatic, bitter, and mucilaginous.
The stem is three feet high, leafy, round, furrowed,
solid branched, and most downy in the upper part.
The leaves are large, ovate, serrated, and veiny, downy
and hoary at the back ; the root-leaves stalked ; the
rest are sessile, clasping the stem. The flower-heads
are solitary, at the downy summits of the branches,
two inches broad, of a bright yellow colour, with
reddish streaks ; the scales of the involucre are broad,
recurved, leafy, finely downy on both sides. The rays
are very numerous, long, and narrow, each ending in
three unequal teeth. Various preparations of the
boiled root have been recommended, mixed with
sugar, to promote expectoration and to strengthen
the stomach. Some think a spirituous extract con-
tains most of its aromatic and tonic properties. We
CHAMOMILE. 85
may generally find the plant in cottage gardens, on
account of its reputed virtues. Inulin, a peculiar
substance contained in the root, is a form of starch
insoluble in cold water, but soluble in hot water, from
which it is deposited on cooling. With iodine it gives
a greenish-yellow compound which is not permanent.
Inulin is distinguished from gum by its insolubility in
cold water, and is otherwise chemically interesting.
CHAMOMILE.
ANTHEMIS NOBILIS.
COMMON CAMOMILE, or Chamomile, is frequently
found in a wild state on many of the commons near
London, where it adds a peculiar richness of colour
and fragrance to the turf. It is a dwarf plant, belong-
ing to the family Compositae, with finely-cut leaves ;
the flower-heads are white in the ray, but deep yellow
in the disk. All parts of the plant are intensely
bitter, especially the little yellow flowers of the disk ;
for this reason the wild flowers are more efficacious
than the cultivated sort, in which there is scarcely
any disk, the white flowers of the ray having almost
entirely usurped their place. An infusion or extract
of these flowers is often used in medicine as a
stomachic, and also as a fomentation externally.
Besides the bitter principle contained in this plant,
86 WILD FLOWERS.
chemists have obtained from it camphor and tannin,
and also a volatile oil, of a beautiful blue colour.
HAREBELL.
CAMPANULA ROTUNDIFOLIA.
No wild flower is more admired, or has had its
praises sung by poets more frequently, than this
pretty delicate little inhabitant of every heath and
sunny bank of our country districts. Every village
child loves its pretty bells, and numberless are the
fancies which connect it with fairy legends and floral
charms. It seems scarcely necessary to describe it
botanically ; but, lest it should be confounded with
other species of the same genus, it may be well to say
that it belongs to the family Campanulaceae. The
leaves on the tiny stem are very slender, like those of
grass, but near the ground there are a number of
roundish notched leaves, which mostly die away at
the time of flowering. The bell-shaped corolla is of
a pale blue colour, and has five broad lobes, much
shorter than the entire fruit. We have nine wild
species of Campanula, some of which have stout
stems with large purple flowers, many of which bear
the cultivation of the garden very much better than
our true little Harebell, which is unhappy away from
its native haunts. The Canterbury Bell, with its large
HAREBELL. 8/
handsome flowers, is one of the favourites of our
gardens, and at one time abounded in the neighbour-
hood of Canterbury and other parts of Kent : it was
gathered by pilgrims to the shrine of St. Thomas a
Becket there, and treasured in evidence of the task
they had completed. The little plant I have chosen
as most worth notice is the true Harebell of Scotland,
the same which in the ' Lady of the Lake ' is men-
tioned as being strewn in Ellen's pathway.
" For me she stoop'd, and looking round,
Pluck'd a blue harebell from the ground ;
This little flower that loves the lea
May well my simple emblem be."
It is said that the presence of the Harebell indi-
cates a barren soil ; yet how lovely are its tiny cups
on their cobweb stems, gently waving to and fro with
every breath of wind, so that one might almost believe
in the reality of the silver music said to come from
them in the days of yore, when the good fairies
" Rang their wildering chimes to vagrant butterflies."
And even now, with all the sobering influences of
botanical study upon us, we can heartily sympathize
with the little one who, having filled her lap and both
hands with blue bells innumerable, and white bells
too, both growing close together, was heard to whisper
in the real spirit of prayer and happiness " Dear
God, do make some pink bells too ! "
88 . WILD FLOWERS.
BLACK WHORTLEBERRY.
VACCIN1UM MYRTILLUS.
THIS plant, known also as Black Whortleberry, may
be regarded as the representative of the British
berries known as Bilberries, Cranberries, Cowberries,
Windberries, &c. It belongs to the natural order or
family Ericaceae, and is a small shrub, from six inches
to a foot high, with spreading green branches. The
leaves fall off in the winter, and are small, ovate, with
tiny teeth, and a very small stalk. The flowers are
nearly round, of a pale greenish white colour, with a
tinge of red, growing singly in the axils of the leaves.
The berries are round, nearly black, and covered with
a bluish kind of bloom, crowned by the short teeth of
the calyx. This shrub is found on most mountain
heaths and woods throughout England, Scotland, and
Ireland, with the exception of the eastern part of
England. The leaves have been much used in the
adulteration of tea. The berries are frequently eaten,
either in tarts or uncooked. They have a sharp
astringent flavour, which is not pleasant to every one,
but, like the rest of the family, they have their
admirers.
The Cranberry, V. Oxycoccus, is well known, and is
much liked in England. Great quantities of the berries
are imported from Russia, Sweden, and America, into
this country, packed in tubs. They are considerably
PLATE XI.
WHORTLEBERRY, f-'acdnium MyrtiUus.
HEATHER. Calluna Vulgaris.
SPRING GENTIAN. Genttaiia I'erna
HEATH. Krica Telralir.
HOLLY. Uei Affuifolium.
BUCKBEAN. Menyanthes Trifoliate
HEATH. 89
larger and finer in appearance than those grown in our
own country, but not so full of flavour.
The other species of Vaccinium are the Bog
Whortleberry, V. Uliginosum, and the Red Wortle-
berry or Cowberry, V. Vitis-idcea.
HEATH.
ERICA TETRALIX.
THIS is the most widely distributed and best known
of all our native heaths. The leaves are four in a
whorl, lanceolate and linear, ciliate, downy above and
on the midrib beneath. The stem is bushy at the base,
with rather short, erect, flowering branches. The
flowers are rose-coloured, forming little clusters or
close umbels at the end of the stalks. It is commonly
found in the West of Europe, and in Britain is most
plentiful in the western counties. I have, however,
constantly found it in Suffolk, the Isle of Wight, and
other parts, often growing with the heather or Calluna
Vulgaris, from which it is well to distinguish it. The
larger and more bell-like blossoms of the Erica, and
its downy appearance, are the evident marks by which
we may recognize it. These heath flowers were
adopted as the badges of the Highland clans ; and
although this heath is not especially a Scotch plant,
the Erica Tetralix was borne by the Macdonalds, the
90 WILD FLOWERS.
Erica Cinerea by the Macalisters, and the Calluna
Vulgaris by the Macdonnells. All these plants grow
together on the moors and fells in the North of
England and Scotland, and give a peculiar aspect to
the landscape, shedding as it were a purple hue over
the distant mountains, and forming a characteristic
feature of these northern districts.
There are six species of Erica in Great Britain.
HEATHER.
CALLUNA VULGARIS.
THE Heather grows, as I have said, in common with
the heaths, and is often mistaken for them. Its smaller
more purple blossoms, placed all along the stems in
little bunches, will serve to distinguish it. Sometimes
the flowers are white, but this is rare. It is especially
the plant of the Highlander, and is associated so
strongly with his country in all its legends and poetry,
that it appears almost as exclusively the child of the
mountain fastnesses as the national music of the
bagpipe. To the Highlander this plant is something
more than a mere badge of clanship ; it furnishes him
with much that is valuable in everyday life. The
heather branches, freshly gathered and arranged so
that the elastic tips of the shoots form a level surface,
HEATHER. 9 1
constitute a couch such as that described by Sir Walter
Scott :
" Before the heath had lost the dew,
This morn a couch was pull'd for you,
O'n yonder mountain's purple head."
And again,
" The stranger's bed
Was there of mountain heather spread."
Cabins are also thatched with it, and the walls of
the cottages are often made of alternate layers of
heather and a kind of mortar. As fuel it serves well,
and it is said to yield a yellow dye, which I am told
is at present used by the cloth-manufacturers of York-
shire. Moreover, in England the sprigs of the heather
are constantly made into brooms or besoms, which
are very serviceable. As food for moor game and
grouse, the heather is almost essential, and it is only
where this plant will grow that these birds can be
preserved. The red deer also crops the young shoots
of the heather. Bees extract honey from the flowers,
which though dark in colour, is very rich in flavour.
I have seen the heather, and, indeed, many species
of heath, prettily used as a border for flower-beds in
gardens. Sir W. Hooker suggested it, and has carried
it out at Kew. Accustomed as we are in the southern
districts to see the heath plants only as a low shrub, a
foot or two in height, we are surprised to read of
" Heather black that waved so high,
It held the copse in rivalry. "
92 WILD FLOWERS.
Yet so it is, and in certain wild and peaty districts
it may be found quite tall enough to justify this
description.
THE HOLLY.
ILEX AQUIFOLIUM.
THIS plant belongs to the small natural family
Aquifoliacese, and is the only British representative of
the family. It seems hardly needful to describe so
well-known and favourite a tree, associated as it is
with the happiest days of childhood, with Christmas-
day gatherings and merry-makings, with joyous faces
and warm hearts, while to some of us, perhaps, who
have passed the sunshine of life, its bright green leaves
and red berries may call up memories of the com-
panions of past years, now passed away, never more
to share in our joys or our sorrows. Familiar as we
all are with the red berries of the Holly, we may not
have seen its flowers, for they blossom when all nature
is bright, and are overlooked amidst their more showy
and attractive neighbours. They grow closely round
the stem, and are white and wax-like, opening in May
and June. The bright shining green leaves are armed
with sharp prickly teeth, but the upper ones on a bush
are frequently smooth. This circumstance the poet
Southey impresses on the memory in his charming
lines on the Holly Tree,
THE HOLLY. 93
" Below a circling fence its leaves are seen,
Wrinkled and keen.
No grazing cattle through their prickly round
Can reach to wound ;
But as they grow where nothing is to fear,
Smooth and unarm'd the pointless leaves appear."
The tendency to produce these prickly points ren-
ders the Holly peculiarly fit for hedges, and when
Dutch horticulture prevailed in England, such hedges
were not unfrequent.
" A hedge of holly, thieves that would invade,
Repulses like a growing palisade."
The celebrated John Evelyn had such a hedge at
Say's Court, four hundred feet long, nine feet high,
and five feet broad, which he planted at the sugges-
tion of Peter the Great, who resided at his house
while he worked in the Deptford Dockyard. In
his Diary he asks, " Is there under heaven a more
glorious and refreshing sight of the kind than such
an impregnable hedge, glittering with its armed and
varnished leaves, the taller standards at orderly
distances blushing with their natural coral ? " The
Holly is a very slow-growing tree, and its timber is
amongst the hardest of white woods ; it is much used
by Turners, and especially in the manufacture of
Tunbridge ware.
94 WILD FLOWERS.
THE SPRING GENTIAN.
GENTIANA VERNA.
THIS is one of the brightest ornaments of our
northern districts. It belongs to the family Gentian-
aceae, and to a genus which flourishes especially in
Alpine and Arctic regions. This pretty little Gentian
is, however, sometimes found in warm mild districts.
I have met with it in the Isle of Wight, on Shanklin
Downs. Bitterness is a characteristic of the whole
family, and this principle seems to have something
to do with the bright blue colour of the blossoms, for
the brighter the hue the more bitter the taste. Our
little spring Gentian has a perennial leafy stock,
densely tufted, often spreading to four or five inches
in diameter, with ovate or oblong leaves. The flower-
stems are simple and numerous, sometimes so short
as to give the flowers the appearance of being seated
on the leaves ; sometimes they are an inch or two in
length, and bearing one bright blue terminal flower.
The corolla is tube-like, nearly an inch long, with five
ovate lobes, and smaller two-cleft ones between them.
The bitter principle of all the gentians is valuable as
a medicinal agent.
G. Nivalis, the little Snow Gentian, grows on our
loftiest mountains in Scotland and Wales, but is far
better known as a native of the Alps and Pyrenees.
BUCKBEAN. 95
BUCKBEAN, OR MARSH TREFOIL.
MENYANTHES TRIFOLIATA.
THE Buckbean belongs also to the family of
Gentians Gentianacese. It is a beautiful aquatic
herb, and is found in wet bogs and shallow ponds all
over Great Britain. The stem is short, creeping, or
floating, with a dense tuft of leaves, consisting each
of a long stalk, sheathing at the base, and three
obovate or oblong leaflets, one to one and a half
inches long. The flowers are white, tinged externally
with pink, in an oblong raceme on a peduncle of from
six inches to a foot long, proceeding from the base of
the tuft of leaves. The corolla is deeply five-lobed,
and fringed on the inside with white filaments. None
of our native plants exceed this in beauty. In the
fresh-water aquarium it is a beautiful object, and may
easily be preserved in this artificial condition for some
time. In common with all its family, the Marsh
Trefoil abounds in an intensely bitter quality, which
has frequently been used medicinally. Withering
says that the leaves have been used during a scarcity
of hops as a substitute for them in brewing beer.
96 WILD FLOWERS.
GREAT BINDWEED.
CONVOLVULUS SEPIUM.
THERE can scarcely be any occasion to describe this
favourite and well-known plant, which wreathes its
graceful festoons over our hedgerows, opening its
large tender white blossoms to the bright sunshine,
and gathering their folds together as a rain-cloud fore-
tells the approach of a shower, which would shatter
their delicate texture. Botanists no longer call this
plant by the old name so familiar to our childhood.
It is no longer the Convolvuhis, but is known as a
distinct genus, under the name Calystegia. The
lovely white blossoms survive but for a single day ;
whence they are called " Belle de jour" by the French.
They are, however, so rapidly succeeded by a profu-
sion of buds ready to take their places, that the decay
is not noticed, and our attention is taken off from the
flower which has lived " its little day " and is now no
more. A well-known author says, " How affecting an
emblem of human life does this simple Convolvulus
present to us. The gay, the young, whose existence
has seemed but a day, are cut off, and others, equally
gay and equally mortal, occupy their places ; and the
remembrance of them is quickly dissipated by the
attractions of their successors, who, perhaps, like
them, are doomed early to submit to the common lot
of humanity."
Beauty alone is not the sole merit of this plant ; the
PLATE XII.
GREAT BINDWEED. Convolvulus Septum. SEA BINDWEED. Cmvolvulus Soldanella.
SKULL-CAP. Scuiellaria Galericulata. GROUND IVY. Neptta Glechoma.
VIPER'S BUGLOSS. Eclrium Fidgare. FORGET-ME-NOT. Myosotis palustris.
SEA BINDWEED. 97
root has properties similar to those of C. Scammonia,
and has been used as its substitute under the names
of Montpellier and Bourbon Scammony. It has an
ancient reputation as a medicinal agent, Galen him-
self being said to have recommended the leaves as an
external application to swellings and abscesses.
SEA BINDWEED.
CONVOLVULUS SOLDANELLA.
THIS is one of the prettiest of our sea-shore plants.
It is abundant on the eastern coasts of England, on
sand-hills, and flourishes well on the red clay of
Suffolk and Norfolk. It belongs to the same family
as the large Convolvulus, but is much smaller, trailing
along the ground, and seldom rising to a height above
six or eight inches. The leaves are small and kidney-
shaped, with broad lobes at the base. The flower is
of a delicate or bright pink colour, streaked sometimes
with a darker shade. This plant shares, in common
with the rest of its family, a reputation for curative
properties ; indeed, but few of our wild plants have
not been employed in rustic pharmacy with more or
less success ; and it is only since the science of
chemistry has proved that the active principles of
these vegetable productions are the same in many
different plants, and can be extracted by chemical
H
98 WILD FLOWERS.
processes, that the practice of making infusions of all
sorts of herbs and weeds has been gradually aban-
doned for a more convenient method of administering
the valuable principles to be found in nature's labora-
tory in smaller quantities and a less troublesome form.
VIPER'S BUGLOSS.
ECHIUM VULGARE.
THIS plant is one of the most beautiful of our wild-
flowers. It belongs to the family Boraginaceae, and
is known by its showy flowers, having an irregular and
unequal margin, and a sort of bell-shaped figure. The
red or purple spots and hairs are very remarkable.
The corolla is' at first of a reddish-purple colour,
turning afterwards bright blue ; so that there are
constantly flowers of both colours to be seen at once.
The whole plant is covered with stiff, spreading, almost
prickly hairs. The root-leaves are stalked and spread-
ing, but often withered away at the time of flowering.
The common name of Viper's Grass originated from a
resemblance the ripe seeds are supposed to have to the
head of that reptile ; and hence arose the idea that it
might act as a remedy against the bite of the creature
an adaptation of the more recent but not less absurd
fallacy that " like cures like." The showy blossoms
are very attractive to bees, and not even the sharp
FORGET-ME-NOT. 99
hairs by which they are guarded are sufficient to deter
these little plunderers from their depredations on the
sweet store concealed in the flowers. But we must
not consider these little creatures as merely selfish
seekers of their own gratification ; they, in common
with the whole of creation, serve great purposes, and
carry out the designs of the Great Architect of all,
even without their own consciousness of doing so.
As the insect flies from flower to flower, it transports
on its delicate legs and wings some portion of the
pollen which is to fertilize the next plant which it
enters, and produce seed to reproduce the species.
Every class of animals seem to assist in this great
work of propagation in the vegetable world. Seeds
are carried about by birds and deposited, as if by
accident, in situations favourable for their growth ;
and even the giddy butterfly, as it alights on each gay
flower in the sunshine, is the messenger of a new life
to the rapidly-fading beauty of the garden.
FORGET-ME-NOT.
MYOSOT1S PALUSTRIS.
THIS is so entirely a flower of associations, that it
is difficult to unravel anything like a botanical or
prosaic description of the plant itself, from the nu-
merous poetical fancies and legendary tales by which
H 2
100 WILD FLOWERS.
it is surrounded. It belongs to the Borage family
Boraginacese, and has small downy, ovate leaves, which
are not unaptly compared to mouse-ears. Botanists,
finding that the plants commonly received as Forget-
me-nots differ in some minor characteristics, divide
the species into three varieties. The true Forget-me-
not has rather a large rotate flower, of a clear blue
colour, with a yellow eye. Most abundantly does it
grow beside brooks, rivers, and wayside streams, and
must we say it ? even in stagnant ditches, asking
only for moisture to adorn the most deserted places
with its torquoise flowers. In cultivation, itjwill even
dispense with this requirement, and will produce
blossoms of a larger size than when wild. It is an
excellent plant for window gardening, and is improved
by " bedding,"as the gardeners calHt blossoming all
the summer through, if properly trimmed. Beauty,
however, is not the sole attraction of this favourite
flower ; it has associations connected with it in legends,
in poetry, and in real life, which live long after its
beautiful blossoms have perished. For many centuries
it has been regarded throughout Europe as the emblem
of eternal friendship or love. It is pleasant to regard
so lovely a flower as expressive of a tender feeling.
The well-known story is one belonging to the days of
chivalry, when a knight and his lady-love were wan-
dering on the banks of a stream where grew clusters
of these gem-like flowers. In those days the wish of
a love done was law to the lord : the lady,'_desiring to
FORGET-ME-NOT. IOI
possess some of the bright blue blossoms, caused her
faithful knight to rush into the stream to obtain them
for her, when, overborne by the strength of the current,
he was carried away, and could but cast, with dying
hand, the flowers she wished for towards her, exclaim-
ing " Forget me not." Even in our less chivalrous and
more prosaic times, the language of this flower is not
forgotten, and it is not long since we saw, on St.
Valentine's day, when such sentiments are in fashion,
and all nature is pressed into love's service, a pretty
painted wreath of " Forget-me-nots " inclosed in a
suitable envelope, with the words "Pretty flowers,
speak for me," neatly inscribed within. One of our
great botanists suggests, with a more philosophical and
less poetical mind, that the real signification of the
name is, after all, due to the bright blue tint and yellow
eye of this charming flower, which, if once seen, is not
likely to be forgotten. Nevertheless, we remain
faithful to the generally-received tradition, and in
justification of it, call to remembrance that as early
as 1465, when a joust was held in which Lord Scales,
brother to the Queen of Edward IV., took part, the
fair ladies of her court presented to that favoured
knight a collar of gold, enamelled with " Forget-me-
nots." I am not aware that this much-prized plant
has ever been used in the arts of life, yet it is a house-
hold favourite, and reminds us that there is in the
human mind a deep and close association between the
external beauty of nature and the strongest feelings
102 WILD FLOWERS.
of our hearts. Who but loves to meet, as Coleridge
has it,
" By rivulet or wet roadside,
That blue and bright-eyed flow'ret of the brook,
Hope's gentle gem, the sweet Forget-me-not.''
HENBANE, OR HOGSBEAN.
HYOSCYAMUS NIGER.
THIS belongs to the family Solanaceae, vyhich is
chiefly characterized by its poisonous properties.
Wherever there is a patch of waste ground, there may
be seen the dull yellow blossoms of this dangerous
plant. Its whole appearance, and the peculiar faint
and disagreeable odour emitted by it, would seem
almost to indicate its nature ; yet the narcotic prin-
ciple yielded by it is most valuable as a medicine,
properly administered. It is a coarse, erect, branch-
ing annual, about one or two feet high, more or less
hairy and viscid. The leaves are rather large, sessile ;
the upper ones clasping. The calyx is short when in
flower, but points round the fruit, and is then an inch
long, strongly veined, with five broad, stiff, almost
prickly lobes ; the stem ovate, and irregularly pin-
natifid. The flowers are remarkable for their purple
veins, which give them a curious appearance when in
blossom, and which cause the whole plant to be pecu-
liarly adapted for a process now not uncommon in
HENBANE. 1 03
ornamentation. If soaked for a long time in water,
with some chemical agent, the soft parts of a plant
decompose and disappear, leaving only the woody
fibrous parts entire and bleached. These form what
are known as skeleton plants, and I have seen several
extremely beautiful specimens of the Henbane treated
in this way, which indicates that the woody tissue is
abundant in this plant. The narcotic properties of
the Henbane are most strongly developed when the
flowers have just fallen and the seeds are ripening.
Lightfoot mentions that a few of these seeds have
deprived a man of his reason and the use of his
limbs ; nevertheless they are frequently smoked in a
tobacco-pipe as a cure for tooth-ache. The expressed
juice of the plant, forming an extract, is recognized
in the " Pharmacopoeia," and in some cases is very
valuable where other anodynes are inadmissible. A
curious effect is produced on the system by these
vegetable poisons, somewhat like intoxication ex-
citement, restlessness, and irritability are often the
first symptoms of their action. A story is told of a
gardener and his wife, who lived happily and in perfect
contentment, until one day the good man, wishing
to dry some Henbane plants, hung them up in his
bedroom for that purpose. From that hour his
domestic peace vanished ; his wife became a perfect
shrew, and he returned each curtain-lecture with
interest. Happily Sir Cresswell Cresswell's court was
unknown, or the speedy separation of the discontented
104 WILD FLOWERS.
parties would have rendered the solution of the mystery
for ever impossible. Accidentally the Henbane was
removed, and peace was restored. Each felt that,
after all, the other was not to blame, and with
returning amiability came increased happiness. It
remained, however, for philosophers to trace the con-
nection between the baneful effects of the Henbane
exhalations and the irritable, quarrelsome condition
of those who breathed them.
DEADLY NIGHTSHADE, OR DWALE.
ATROPA BELLADONNA.
THIS is one of our most poisonous native plants, and
must be clearly described in order to be avoided. It
belongs to the family Solanaceae, and is an erect,
smooth, or rather downy herb, with a perennial root-
stock and branching stem. The leaves are stalked,
rather large, ovate, and entire, with a smaller one
usually proceeding from the same point, often so small
as to look like a stipule. The flowers are solitary, on
short peduncles in the forks of the stem, or the axils
of the leaves. The flower is of a pale purplish-brown
colour, bell-shaped, nearly an inch long. The stamens
are shorter, with distinct filaments. The berries are
large, and of a shining black appearance, which fre-
quently tempts children into eating them, to their
PLATE XIII.
ENBANE. Hyoscyariius Ni'grr.
JGHrsHAOE. Solatium Dulcamara.
iNAPDRAGON. Antirrhinum Ma jus.
DEADLY NIGHTSHADE. Atropa Belladonna.
GERMANDER SPEEDWELL. Veronica Chamaei
GREAT MULLEIN Verlascum Tliapsus.
DEADLY NIGHTSHADE. IO5
injury. The modern name, Belladonna, refers to the
practice of the Italian belles, who make use of its
properties to enhance their personal charms. A
portion of the extract, when placed in contact with
the pupil of the eye, causes it to dilate, and gives
a brilliancy and lustre to these speaking orbs, which
is much coveted and admired. I am told that this
practice is not confined to the land of cloudless skies
and southern breezes, but that in our own country
the preparation is to be seen on the toilette-tables
of our fashionable ladies. Happily this property
is turned to good account by modern science, and
in examinations of the eye it is found to be of
great service in dilating the pupil, as well as previous
to the operation for cataract. Numberless are the
instances where death has ensued from partaking of
this plant or its berries. The very powerful nature of
its poisonous qualities has directed the attention of
modern professors of Materia Medica towards it, and
at this time it is considered to be a valuable medicinal
agent. A medical friend of ours, enthusiastic in the
discovery of hidden truth, not long ago nearly fell a
victim to his own experiments on the action of an
extract of the leaves of Atropa Belladonna. He had
previously made known his belief that animal charcoal
is the best and safest antidote to vegetable poisons.
He was, however, too much under the influence of the
poison to think of his own remedy, and it was only by
the timely interference of a friend, who knew of the
106 WILD FLOWERS.
discovery, that his life was saved. It is a favourite
remedy in homoeopathic medicine ; but as the doses
given are inappreciable, it would be difficult to trace
any results from their administration. The poisonous
properties of this plant have long been known, as
appears from its having been used by the Scotch under
Macbeth to poison the Danes. Our great poet
Shakespeare, with his wonderful appreciation of
natural phenomena, refers, undoubtedly, to the same
plant in Banquo's speech, " Or have we eaten of the
insane root that takes the reason prisoner ? " Paroxysms
of madness are among the curious and direful effects
of this plant on the system, to which it is supposed
Plutarch refers in his account of the strange and
disastrous results produced on Marc Antony's soldiers
" from tasting unknown herbs " when distressed for
provisions.
To the same genus of plants belong the Mandrakes,
Atropa Mandragora, the roots of which are super-
stitiously connected with numerous fancies, and are
still sold on the continent of Europe as ingredients in
love-philtres and charms. Some writers recognize
them as the mandrakes of Scripture.
WOODY NIGHTSHADE. IO/
WOODY NIGHTSHADE, OR BITTER-SWEET.
SOLANUM DULCAMARA.
THIS belongs to the same family of plants as our
last example, and is believed to have the same
poisonous properties, in both fruit, leaves, and stem.
This has, however, been disputed of late, and the
Professor of Materia Medica at University College con-
siders all the Solanums as perfectly innocuous. It has
a shrubby stem, with climbing or strangling branches,
often many feet in length, but dying far back in the
winter. The leaves are stalked, ovate, or lanceolate,
two or three inches long, usually broadly cordate
at the base and entire, but sometimes with an addi-
tional smaller lobe or segment on each side, either
quite smooth or downy on both sides, as well as the
stem. The flowers are rather small, blue, with yellow
anthers, in loose branches, shorter than the leaves.
The berries are small, round, or ovoid, and of a bright
red colour. It is to be found in hedges in shady moist
situations, all over England and Ireland more rarely
in Scotland. As a medicine, this plant has been used
both internally and externally ; it is recommended
in asthma and many other diseases.
IDS WILD FLOWERS.
GERMANDER SPEEDWELL.
VERONICA CffAM^EDRYS.
THIS is one of the prettiest of our wayside plants,
belonging to the family Scrophulariaceae. There are
so many species of Veronica, that they are somewhat
difficult to distinguish from each other. The lovely
blue flower, " The Celestial Bird's-eye Blossom," as it
has been called sometimes, causes it to be mistaken for
the true "Forget-me-not," but those who study both will
soon learn to distinguish them. The leaves are shortly
stalked, ovate, cordate, crenate, and hairy. The flowers
spring from the leaves on rather long stalks, and have
a five-cleft calyx. The common name of Speedwell
is well chosen, for what so cheering to the wayfarer as
its bright blue flowers peeping out from the hedgerows
to greet him as he passes by " Stars that in earth's
firmament do shine." The whole of the Veronicas
have had their day in rustic medicine, and perhaps a
larger list of virtues belongs to the Germander Speed-
well than any of the rest. As a substitute for tea it is
considered excellent by some writers. The Emperor
Charles V. is said to have used it as a remedy for gout,
and in cancer it is recommended by old Gerarde to be
given in " Good broth of a hen," a prescription in
which possibly the vehicle may have had more efficacy
than the medicine.
In a pleasant little book by Mr. Hibberd, called
GERMANDER SPEEDWELL. 109
'Brambles and Bayleaves,' an anecdote connected
with this charming little plant is given from the life of
Rousseau, which is too interesting to remain unquoted
here. " During the earliest and happiest days of
Rousseau's life, he was walking with a beloved friend
on a calm, serene, summer evening. The sun was
setting in all its glory, spreading sheets of fire over
the western sky and upon the unrippled surface of the
lake, making the water still more transparent with a
vivid and glowing light. The friends sat on a soft
mossy bank, enjoying the calm loveliness of the scene,
conversing on the varied phases of human life in the
unaffected sincerity of true friendship. At their feet
was a bright tuft of the lovely Germander Speedwell,
covered with a profusion of brilliant blue blossoms.
Rousseau's friend pointed to the little flower, the
Veronica Ckam&drys, as wearing the same expression
of cheerfulness and innocence as the scene before them.
Thirty years passed away ! Careworn, persecuted,
disappointed, acquainted with poverty and grief;
known to fame, but a stranger to peace, Rousseau
again visited Geneva. On such a calm and lovely
evening as, thirty years before, he had conversed with
the friend of his bosom, and had received a lesson from
the simple beauty of a flower, he again was seated on
the self-same spot.
" The scene was the same ! The sun went down as
before in golden majesty ; the birds sang cheerfully in
the soft light of eventide ; the crimson clouds floated
1 10 WILD FLOWERS.
solemnly in the western sky, and the waters of the lake
were calm as before. But the house wherein the first
feelings of love and friendship, and the first fruits of
his genius had budded, was now levelled with the
ground. His dearest friend was sleeping in the grave.
The generation of villagers, who had partaken of the
bounty of the same beneficent hand, had passed away,
and none remained to point out the green sod where
that benefactor lay. He walked on pensively ; the
same bank, tufted with the same knot of bright- eyed
speedwell caught, his eye, the memories of past years
of trouble and sorrow came upon him ; he heaved a
sigh and turned away, weeping bitterly."
SNAPDRAGON.
ANTIRRHINUM MA JUS.
THIS is a plant belonging also to the family Scrophu-
lariaceae. It is frequently cultivated in gardens, but
also grows wild on old walls and stony places, and on
chalk cliffs in the south of England. The leaves are
narrow, lanceolate, or linear entire. The flowers are
large, of a purplish-red colour, or variegated with
white. The corolla is above an inch long, opening
like a mouth when pressed between the finger and
thumb. They form perfect insect-traps : numbers of
these little creatures, attracted by the sweet nectar to
GREA T MULLEIN. 1 1 1
be found within, enter the treacherous tube, but on
seeking to return, find their egress effectually pre-
vented. Those, however, who are clever enough to
gnaw a hole through the side of their prison escape
uninjured. Gmelin says, that in Persia an excellent
oil, equal to that of the olive, is procured from the
seeds of the A. Majus ; and Vogel observes, that the
common people in many countries attribute some
supernatural influence to this plant, believing it to
have the power of destroying charms, and rendering
maledictions of none effect. All the varieties of Snap-
dragon are peculiarly able to resist the effect of great
droughts, and supply vegetation and beauty in situa-
tions where other flowers would perish from the power
of the sun's rays.
GREAT MULLEIN.
VERBASCUM THAPSUS.
THIS plant belongs to the natural family Scrophu-
lariaceae, and is a stout, erect biennial, two to four feet
high, clothed with soft woolly hairs, which circumstance,
I believe, has given rise to its name Verbascum, being
a corruption of barbascum, or bearded. The leaves
are oblong, pointed, slightly toothed, narrowed at the
base into two wings running a long way down the
stem, the lower ones often stalked, and six or eight
112 WILD FLOWERS.
inches long or more. The flowers are in a dense
woolly terminal spike, a foot long or more. The
corolla is yellow, slightly concave ; the stamens are
five in number, three hairy, the other two longer and
smooth. The whole plant is very showy and attract-
ive when growing in perfection, as it sometimes does
on open moors and commons. The common name
Torch-blade, or King's Taper, may have arisen from
its candle-like appearance when growing by itself,
pointing straightly upwards, and with its flame-like
crown of flowers. Some authors account for these
common names rather by the fact, that the woolly
covering, which is still collected for tinder, was at one
time used as wicks for tapers, especially for those
employed in religious services ; the very trouble en-
tailed in collecting the material seeming to recommend
it for this purpose in a church where bodily sacrifices
and penances are enjoined. The Verbascum was
formerly held in high repute as a medicine in disease
of the lungs ; it possesses some mucilaginous sedative
qualities, which caused the old herbalists to believe in
it. It is one of the many herbs said to stupefy or
poison fish. According to an old writer, its ashes,
made into soap, will restore hair which has become
grey to its original colour.
COMMON SKULL-CAP. 113
COMMON SKULL-CAP.
SCUTELLARIA GALERICULA TA.
IN our summer rambles, especially on the banks of
rivers or lakes and in swampy ground, we often see
this little plant with its solitary bluish flowers in the
axils of its bracts, and finding no resemblance to any-
thing like a skull in it we wonder at its name. The
name of the genus to which it belongs Scutellaria
is supposed to have reference to the likeness of the
calyx to a sort of cup with a lid to it, called Scutdla, or
perhaps to a cap or head covering.
Dr. Withering tells us that " when the blossom falls
off the cup closes upon the seeds, which, when ripe,
being still smaller than the cups, could not possibly
escape or overcome its elastic force, and must conse-
quently remain in useless confinement. But nature,
ever fruitful of resources, finds a method to discharge
them. The cup being dry divides into two distinct
parts, when the seeds, already detached from the
receptacle, fall to the ground."
114 WILD FLOWERS.
GROUND IVY.
NEPETA GLECHOMA.
FORMERLY we used to recognize this common little
plant as Glechoma Hederacece of Linnaeus, but it is
now put in the genus Nepeta, and, like the last speci-
men, belongs to the labiate or lipped class of plants,
LABIATE. It is one of our commonest hedgeside
plants, and abound in woods and moist shady places.
It is bitter and aromatic, and when the leaves are
rubbed they give out a slight scent. It used to have
a reputation as a remedy for consumption, and was
collected to be made into tea with that object.
Until the reign of Henry VIII. it was commonly
used for making beer ; and, indeed, as an infusion
it is by no means an unwholesome drink as a substi-
tute for tea when the latter cannot be obtained.
It is called by old English writers Ale-hoof, Gill-
go-by-ground, Tun-hoof, and Cat's-foot. It is still
sold in the London herb shops, but is not a remedy
recognized in the Pharmacopoeia. Mixed with wine it
is said to take away the white specks which are some-
times seen in the eyes of horses and cows " the pinne
and wet or any griefe out of the eyes of horse or cow
or any other beast" being squirted into the same
with a syringe.
BLADDER- WOR T. 115
BLADDER-WORT.
UTRICULARIA VULGARIS.
THE Bladder-wort is a pretty aquatic plant, abundant
in our pools and water-channels, belonging to the
family Lentibulaceae. It is very remarkable for
the buoy-like vescicles which are developed on its
immersed leaves, and which serve to float the plant
above the water. At certain seasons the whole plant
is submerged, and then, if we examine these vescicles,
we find them filled with water ; gradually air becomes
generated in the vescicles, expels the water, and the
apertures are closed by a curious valve, so that the
plant now becomes buoyant, and rises to the surface ;
the flowers expand, the seeds ripen, and then the
living energy of the plant seems exhausted air no
longer fills the vescicles, but water takes its place, the
plant sinks to the bottom, and the seeds are sown in
their most fitting soil. The flowers are rather large,
and of a yellow colour. The corolla has a short,
conical, more or less curved, spur. The leaves are
pinnate with numerous segments. In the eastern
counties of England the Bladder-wort is not uncom-
mon, and in many other localities it has been found,
although it must be considered as rather rare.
I 2
Il6 WILD FLOWERS.
SEA MILKWORT.
GLAUX MARTIMA.
SEA MILKWORT is common on nearly every sea-coast.
It belongs to the family Primulaceae, and is conspic-
uous from its rose-coloured tiny flo* ei , resting in
the axils which its ovate fleshy opposite leaves form
with its branched and procumbent stem. It is very
pretty while growing, and is associated with some of
our pleasantest sea-side rambles, and though scarcely
attainable without incurring wet feet, it is worth the
inconvenience ; and those who are in health must not
shrink from searching the salt marshes on the coast,
for many very charming botanical treasures find their
homes there.
PRIMROSE.
PRIMULA ^VULGAR IS.
THE Primrose is a type of the natural order Primu-
laceas. We select this plant because it is the real
true primrose of our childhood not the cowslip, with
its deep yellow cups and nodding flowers nor the
oxlip, with its larger but paler blossoms ; but the
sulphur-coloured primrose with which we all associate
the early days of spring, and the first ramble in the
PLATE XIV.
BLADDER-WORT. Utricularia ^ulgaris. MILKWORT. Glaux Maritima.
PRIMROSE- Primula Vulgaris. SEA COWSLIP. Primula Officinalis
MONEYWORT- Lysimachia Nvnimularia, PIMPERNEL. Anagalus Arvensis.
COWSLIP. 117
meadows or by the hedge-side. The first Primrose of
the year is prized and welcomed, but when the thick
tufts of its blossoms are seen, then we feel that spring is
really come, and we almost fancy that no other flower
ever looked so lovely or so fresh and pure. Botani-
cally, the Primrose is an excellent example of a plant
with regular monopetalous corolla, and is a good
specimen for a first lesson in botany. Pretty flower
as it is, all animals reject it as food excepting the pig.
It seems, however, not wholly objected to by man, or
woman either, for I lately saw a receipt for a primrose-
pudding. A kind of wine, too, is made from the
flowers, something like cowslip wine, but more deli-
cate in flavour.
COWSLIP.
PRIMULA OFFICINALIS.
THERE seems to be no reason for describing the
Cowslip, for I suppose every one knows it as an old
friend of childhood, as well as its relative the prim-
rose, or its frequent companion the daisy. It belongs,
as may be almost inferred, to the same natural order
as the primrose Primulaceae, and there is evidently a
tendency in the one species to run into the other.
We have seen specimens of primroses becoming small,
and growing two or three on a stalk, on a plant
Il8 WILD FLOWERS.
bearing single-stalked primroses, and cowslip flowers
on single short stalks, amidst the tiny clusters of cups
usually found on a Cowslip stalk. In some country
places the Cowslip is called the Paigle. Its flowers
contain a quantity of honey, and possess some very
slight narcotic properties which has induced the idea
that an infusion of them is good as a medicine.
Cowslip wine is a favourite country febrifuge, and is
given to children in all sorts of feverish attacks, such
as measles and the like. The gathering of Cowslip
flowers forms quite an occupation in Worcestershire,
where they are sold by measure to the British wine-
makers of that part of the country. They are fer-
mented with sugar and water, and when well prepared
are really not unpalatable. The sedative qualities
of the plant are sufficient to have procured for I it
the reputation of an anodyne, and we find Pope
writing
" For want of rest
Lettuce and cowslip ; probatum est."
Montgomery also alludes to the process of wine-
making from the flowers
" Whose simple sweets with curious skill
The frugal cottage dames distil,
Nor envy France the vine,
While many a festal cup they fill
With Britain's homely wine."
The root of the Cowslip is also astringent and
diuretic, and was at one time used medicinally. It has
HONEYWORT. 119
a scent resembling anise, and was at one time esteemed
as a perfume in some parts of Europe. The leaves are
perfectly wholesome, and may be eaten as a potherb
or a salad.
MONEYWORT, OR CREEPING LOOSE-STRIFE.
j r .LYSIMACHIA NUMMULARIA.
THIS is a pretty little plant, to be seen in all hedges,
or on banks, during the summer and autumn, through-
out England. It belongs to the natural family Primu-
laceae. The stems are prostrate, trailing to the length
of one or two feet, often rooting at the nodes. The
leaves are round, on very short stalks, looking almost
like pieces of money ; the flowers yellow, large, and
handsome, on short stalks the segments of the calyx
are pear-shaped. With a microscope little pedicillate
glands may be seen covering the blossoms and stamens.
PIMPERNEL, OR POOR MAN'S WEATHER-GLASS.
ANAGALLIS ARVENSIS.
" Whose brilliant flower,
Closes against the approaching shower,
Warning the swain to sheltering bower,
From humid air secure."
THIS well-known and very attractive little plant
belongs to the family Primulaceae,and is a neat, much-
120 WILD FLOWERS.
branched, procumbent annual, six inches to near a foot
long, with opposite, broadly ovate, sessile, and entire
leaves. The calyx divisions are pointed. The corolla
is rotate, and usually of a bright red colour ; some-
times it is white or pale pink, or blue. The blue
variety is as common in central and southern Europe
as the red is with us, but in England it is very rare.
I have, however, found it in Suffolk, in a lane near
Felixstowe, where the red Pimpernel grows most lux-
uriantly. The extreme sensitiveness of this pretty
little plant to a change of atmosphere causes it to shut
up its petals at the approach of rain. In fine weather
it remains open from about eight in the morning till
four in the afternoon. It is a common weed in the
valley of the Nile, and its botanical name, which is
derived from the Greek, signifies a " reviver of the
spirits," in allusion to the medical and magical pro-
perties for which it was at one time highly valued.
At present its only use seems to be as a pot-herb, and
it is also sometimes more especially on the Continent
eaten as a salad.
PLANTAIN, OR WAY-BREAD.
PLANTAGO MAJOR.
THOUGH not an attractive-looking plant as we gener-
ally see it by the wayside, it is so closely associated
with almost every walk along a country lane, or even
PLATE XV.
GREAT PLANTAIN. PlanLago Major.
WATER STAR-WORT. Callitriche Verna.
BLACK BRYONY. Tumi/5 Communis.
PURPLE SPURGE. Euphorbia Peplis.
COMMON NETTLE . Urtica Dioica.
WATER SOLDIER. Stratiotes A
PLANTAIN. 121
high-road, that it can scarcely escape notice. The
leaves are erect or spreading, broadly ovate, entire or
toothed, on longish channelled stalks. The peduncles
are usually longer than the leaves, bearing a long
slender spike of sessile flowers. The sepals are green
in the centre, the stamens longer than the corolla; the
whole flower is small, white, with pinkish anthers.
In general the Plantains are regarded merely as
troublesome weeds. Their leaves are eaten by some
animals, but contain very little nutriment. The com-
mon name of P. Major is undoubtedly Way-bred, not
Way-bread, as it is usually spelt, from its frequency by
the way-side, seeming as if bred on the road. This
plant has a peculiar tendency to follow the migrations
of man, as if domestically or sympathetically attached
to the human race, and has followed our colonists to
every part of the world; so that it has been named
by the natives in some of our settlements "The
Englishman's foot," for with a strange degree of
certainty it is found wherever our countrymen have
trod. It is a favourite food with birds, and nothing
delights them more when kept in confinement than a
supply of the long stalks of Plantain to peck at. In
the summer, when a supply of other green food can
be found for our favourites, the Plantain is not so
much sought for ; but it should be gathered and laid
by in store for the winter, when it will be a treat to
the little inhabitants of our aviaries. Bruised Plan-
tain leaves are esteemed an excellent remedy for cuts
122 WILD FLOWERS.
and bruises, and also as an application to the bites of
stinging insects. In the Highlands of Scotland an
ointment is made from them, which is said to be very
efficacious. There are five British specious of Plan-
tain, some of which have medicinal reputation from
their mucilaginous properties. P. Coronopus has been
eaten as a salad, but is too bitter to be pleasant.
PURPLE SPURGE.
EUPHORBIA PEPLIS.
THIS is a handsome plant belonging to the family
Euphorbiacese. It is found only on the sea-coasts,
and is becoming rare in Great Britain. It loses all
its leaves before flowering, when the short main stem
divides close to the base, so that the whole plant
appears to consist of the forked procumbent branches
lying on the sand in patches from six inches to a foot
in diameter. The whole plant has a reddish or pur-
plish hue, and that peculiar glaucous appearance so
general in sea-shore plants. The leaves are opposite,
half oblong, heart-shaped, and very thick, with small
stipules at their base. The flower heads are very
small. The genus Euphorbia is a very extensive
one ; there are fourteen or fifteen British species,
nearly all of which have an acrid poisonous secretion.
WATER STAR-WORT.
A notion prevails that milk is an antidote to this
poison, but without reason, as we read in Withering's
botany of a strong youth who was poisoned by drink-
ing milk in which the plant had been boiled. As a
cure for warts we can believe in the virtues of the
Spurge ; its astringent or acrid qualities may have
some powerful effect as an external application ; but
old Gerarde's advice is certainly worthy quoting, where
he says : " These herbes by mine advise would not be
received into the body, considering that there be so
many good and wholesome potions to be made with
other herbes that may be droken without perill."
The ancient Britons used the Euphorbia to poison
fish, which practice is continued by the Abyssinians.
It is said that the fish thus killed are good for food,
but this is doubtful, as there are instances of people
being poisoned merely from drinking the milk of a
goat which had fed on the Euphorbia.
WATER STAR-WORT.
CALLITRICHE VERNA.
THIS is the representative of the only genus of Water
Star- worts Callitrichacese in Great Britain. This
pretty plant is very suitable for the aquavivarium,
and is found in stagnant and slowly-running water all,
over the country. It is easily known by its upper
124 WILD FLOWERS,
leaves floating on the water, and two or three pairs of
them forming a little green star, hence its name.
This plant forms a beautiful object under the micro-
scope, for its leaves and stem are covered with very
minute rosette-shaped bodies, which seem to supply
the place of hairs in other plants. There are other
species of Water Star-wort in England, but they are
much more rare.
COMMON NETTLE.
URT1CA DIOICA.
THE very name of the genus of plants to which the
Nettle belongs indicates its peculiar property. It
comes from the Latin word uro, I burn, and but few
there are on whom it has not at some time or other
impressed itself and its properties on their memory.
The appearance of the leaves of the Nettle are well
known, beset with numerous tiny hairs, each furnished
with a little receptacle at their base, which exudes an
acrid fluid when touched, causing pain and inflamma-
tion to the skin. Bad as are the stings of our ordinary
common Nettle, they are nothing as compared with
those of the great Roman Nettle Urtica Pilulifera
which is found chiefly near the sea. Camden relates,
that when Julius Caesar landed on Ro'mney marshes
the soldiers brought some of the Nettle seed with them
COMMON NETTLE. . 125
and sowed it for their use " to rub and chafe their
limbs when, through extreme cold, they should be stiff
and benumbed ; being told before they came from
home that the climate of Britain was so cold that it
was not to be endured without some friction to warm
their blood." Certainly rather than use Nettles in
this way, one would prefer to live in the parish of
Dreepdaily, where they " force Nettles for early spring
Kail."
We are told that Nettles, dressed like spinach, are
excellent, and they may be earthed up and blanched
in the same way as sea-kale, when they form a very
palatable vegetable. Cattle do not eat Nettles when
growing or fresh gathered, but when dried in hay do
not refuse them.
The juice of Nettles yields a beautiful permanent
green dye which is used in Russia for woollen stuffs.
The fibres of the plant are strong, and can be woven
into textile fabrics. Campbell, the Scotchman who
complains of the neglect with which Nettles are
treated in England, says, " In Scotland I have eaten
Nettles, slept in Nettle-sheets, and dined off a Nettle
table-cloth." The fibre is more difficult to prepare for
weaving than that of flax, otherwise it might have
found more favour as a fabric in Britain.
Goldsmith mentions a curious application of Nettle
properties in rearing young chickens. He tells us
to catch a young capon, strip his breast of feathers,
and then rub it with Nettle leaves ; put a brood of
126 WILD FLOWERS.
chickens under him, which presently run under his
breast, and, rubbing his bare skin gently with their
heads, allay the stinging caused by the Nettles. This
process, if repeated for a few nights, causes the capon
to take an affection to the chickens that have thus
given him relief, and he continues to afford them the
protection they seek, and will from that time bring
them up like a hen with the tenderest care.
Nettle tea is a country remedy, well known, and
thought to be very efficacious in the early spring. It
is, however, possible that the Nettles themselves
boiled and eaten might be equally beneficial and more
agreeable, for it is certain in most cases that a large
proportion of vegetable diet is likely to contribute to
good health.
BLACK BRYONY.
TAMUS COMMUNIS.
THIS is an elegant climbing plant, which through the
whole summer may be seen festooning our hedges and
bushes. Its bright shining heart-shaped leaves clothe
the trunks of many of our sturdy old trees with a
verdure unequalled by any other plant. The lightness
of its twining stems prevents it from injuring the
branches within its grasp, for they have not the firm-
ness or strength of the ivy, which is sometimes too
WATER SOLDIER. I2/
close in its embrace.* The flowers are unattractive
and small, but the berries of the Bryony, hanging like
clusters of wild green grapes during the summer, and
changing into brilliant scarlet balls in the autumn, are
objects of great beauty. They are very poisonous, and
must not mislead by their charming appearance. The
early shoots of the plant, however, have frequently
been boiled and eaten, it is said, with great relish and
with no bad results. The roots have a black colour
externally, hence the name of the plant. The interior
is white and full of starch, which is, however, bitter
and unwholesome. The acrid pulp of these roots has
been used as a stimulating plaster.
WATER SOLDIER.
STRATIOTES ALOIDES.
THIS plant, so named from its sword-shaped spring
leaves and fancifully military appearance, is a very
ornamental aquatic plant. It belongs to the family
Hydrocharideae, and is found very abundantly in lakes
and watery ditches in the east of England. In Nor-
folk and Suffolk it is very plentiful, and is an interesting
* The family Dioscoraceas, to which the Tamus belongs, includes the
yams ; the tubers of which are well known as an article of food in South
Africa and Mexico, and have lately been extensively sent to England,
but, as yet, are not very popular, so great is the prejudice against any
innovation on our old habits in diet.
128 WILD FLOWERS.
plant to observe. It remains submerged during the
greater part of the year, but raises itself to the surface
on special stalks during the season for fertilizing the
seeds. It forms a favourite hiding-place for multi-
tudes of aquatic insects, as may be seen if a plant be
quickly raised out of the water. The whole plant
seems to resemble an aloe more than anything else,
and is equally rigid and sharp in its leaves.
EARLY ORCHIS.
ORCHIS MASCULA.
WE now come to a most attractive and beautiful group
of wild flowers, difficult to describe, and very puzzling
to the young botanist, but easily recognized by any one
who has seen and gathered them, even without knowing
their scientific distinctions. The Early Orchis blossoms
in the months of May and June, and may be found in
any meadow or moist wood throughout Great Britain.
The stem is a foot or a foot and a half high, bearing
numerous showy flowers, in a loose spike, from three
to six inches long, varying in colour from a pinkish
purple to flesh-colour, or even white. The leaves are
broad and often spotted with purple. The bracts are
coloured nearly as long as the ovary, with a single
rib. The upper sepal and the petals converge over
the ovary, but the lateral sepals are spreading, or turned
PLATE XVI.
ARLY ORCHIS . Orchis Mascula.
EE ORCHIS . Ophrys Apifera
ELLOW iRIS. Iris Pseitdacorus
I
MAN ORCHIS. Ore/us Mililaris.
FLY ORCHIS. Ophrys Muscifera.
DAFFODIL. Narcissus Pseudonarcisiu's.
MAN ORCHIS. 129
back. The lip is scarcely longer than the sepals, often
slightly downy in the centre, turned back on each side,
with three short lobes, the middle one the largest.
The tubers of all the Orchis plants contain a good
deal of farinaceous nutritious matter, consisting, accord-
ing to modern chemists, of a principle called Bassorin.
This substance is commonly known as saloop, or salep,
a word derived from the Persian name of the Orchis,
which, according to Forskhale, is sahleb. When boiled
in water, it used to be sold at the corners of the streets
in London, and was a favourite drink with coal-heavers,
porters, and other hard-working men. It is still highly
esteemed in the East ; and during the Great Exhibi-
tion of 1851 was exhibited and sold as a beverage. It
is said to contain more nutritious matter according to
its bulk than any other vegetable substance, and that
an ounce a day will sustain a man ; hence it is a
favourite food, from its portability, with pedestrian
travellers in wild deserts and uninhabited countries.
MAN, OR MILITARY ORCHIS.
ORCHIS MILITARIS.
THIS is a handsome species of Orchis, from one to two
feet high, with entire tubers. It is difficult to say
what fancy has given rise to the name ; the red colour
K
130 WILD FLOWERS.
of the flowers or the shape of the root may have sug-
gested a soldier-like resemblance. The leaves in the
lower part of the stem vary from broadly oval to
oblong ; they are usually three to five inches long. The
flowers are numerous, in a dense oblong spike, with
short bracts. The sepals are red or purple, and con-
verge over the petals and column in the shape of a
helmet. The lip is more or less spotted with rough,
red points, and four-lobed, or rather t/iree-lobed, with
two entire lobes, and a third one divided in the middle
into two, with a small tooth in the cleft or notch. It
is found on chalky hills, on the borders of woods, and
in hilly pastures. Near London it should be looked
for about Dorking, Rochester, and Northfleet. There
are very many other British -Orchis ; all of them are
pretty and attractive, and one, A- Conopsea, has a
fragrant, agreeable scent.
BEE ORCHIS.
OPHRYS APIFERA.
THIS plant belongs to the family Orchidaceae, and
to a section of that family most curiously eccentric in
the forms of its flowers, very closely resembling the
Orchies with the habits, tubers, and foliage of that
group of plants ; but the flowers of Ophrys have no
spur, and the lip is usually very curved, resembling,
FLY ORCHIS. 13 1
more or less, the body of an insect. They are often
called Orchis, though not properly belonging to that
genus. The Bee Orchis blossoms in July, in dry
pastures, in chalky and limestone districts. In the
eastern counties of England it is not uncommon. It
has a brown, velvety lip, variegated with yellow, which
resembles the body of a bee ; the purplish petals look
like the expanded wings of an insect which had just
settled on the stem of the flower. Langhorne's pretty
lines have been often quoted, but are too descriptive
to be omitted here :
" See on the flow'ret's velvet breast
How close the busy vagrant lies,
His thin-wrought plume, his downy breast,
The ambrosial gold that swells his thighs.
Perhaps his fragrant load may bind
His limbs we'll set the captive free ;
I sought a living bee to find,
And found the picture of a bee. "
FLY ORCHIS.
OPHRYS MUSCIFERA.
THIS is a much more delicate, slender plant than the
Bee Orchis, with narrow leaves and a slender spike of
three or four flowers. The sepals are whitish-green ;
the lips brownish-purple, oblong, convex, and with
pale blue or white marks in the centre ; the two lateral
lobes turned down ; the central one large, with a deep
K 2
132 WILD FLOWERS.
notch. The blue spot upon the base of the middle
segment of the lip contributes much to the resemblance
of the flower to a fly, which, indeed, is singularly close.
We have also in this genus of plants the Spider
Ophrys ; and there is also the Butterfly Orchis, and
the Lizard Orchis ; these latter names are not, how-
ever, so well applied as those of the bee and fly.
YELLOW FLAG WATER FLAG.
IRIS PSEUDACORUS.
THE Flag plant is found in wet meadows and marshes
and along water-courses throughout Europe. It be-
longs to the family Iridaceae. The stem is about two
feet high. The lower leaves are often much longer, stiff
and erect, and of a pale green colour ; the upper leaves
are shorter. The flowers proceed from a sheathing
bract, are large, erect, and of a bright yellow colour,
two or three together. The stigmas are petal-like,
rather longer than the inner segments, two-cleft at the
top, with a short scale-like appendage inside at the
base of the lobes. The capsule is green, from two to
three inches long, with numerous pale brown seeds.
The medicinal uses of this plant are various. The
juice of the fresh root is very acrid, and acts powerfully.
Withering mentions a case where it was given to some
swine bitten by a mad dog, and they escaped the
YELLOW FLAG. 133
disease ; while some others, bitten by the same dog }
died with all the symptoms of hydrophobia : but I
need not say that unless some evidence existed of this
plant possessing active properties, Withering's cases
do not prove any connection between the medicine
and the cure. It is on such reasoning as this that
many medical fallacies are based. The roasted seeds
are said to be a good substitute for coffee, when care-
fully prepared. Few plants can exceed the Iris in
elegance of form ; in our gardens it is a great orna-
ment, and by the sides of streams and lakes it should
always be encouraged
"Amid its waving swords,
In flaming gold the Iris towers. "
The Iris is undoubtedly the original of \hz_fleur de lys
in the arms of France, and in many pieces of sculp-
ture in which this device is introduced, it is not diffi-
cult to recognize it. The plant was considered in
ancient times as peculiarly sacred to the Virgin Mary,
as shown in the old legend of the knight who, more
devout than learned, could never retain in his memory
more than two words of a prayer to the Lady Mother.
These were Ave Maria, and with these he constantly
addressed his prayer to Heaven. Night and day his
prayer continued, until the good old knight died and
was laid in the chapel yard of the convent, when, as
a proof of the acceptance of his brief though earnest
prayer, a plant of fleur de lys sprang up on his grave
134 WILD FLOWERS.
displaying on every flower in golden letters the words
Ave Maria. The sight induced the monks, who had
despised him during his lifetime on account of his
ignorance, to open his grave ; and there they found
the root of the plant resting on the lips of the good
old soldier who lay mouldering there.
In Britain we find but two really native species of
Iris, 7. Pseudacorus and /. Fcetidissima, the smell of
the crushed leaves of which is thought to resemble
roast beef ; tastes differ, however, for Linnaeus, when
he gave the specific name, must have regarded it as
anything but savoury in smell. The juice is some-
times used to excite sneezing in cases of headache,
but it is a very unsafe practice.
DAFFODIL DAFFY-DOWN-DILLY.
NARCISSUS PSEUDONARCISSUS.
THIS is a well-known pretty plant, belonging to the
family Amaryllidaceae. The name Narcissus seems
to be wrongly applied to this species, as it belongs,
no doubt, to the Narcissus Poeticus of the Greeks,
which has a flower with a very powerful scent, a
quality from which the daffodil is free. The Nar-
cissus was consecrated to the Furies, who stupified
their victims, hence Sophocles calls these flowers
,' garlands of the infernal gods." The fable of the
DAFFODIL. 135
youth Narcissus, after whom the plant is named, is
well known to everybody ; how he fell in love with
his own image reflected in the water, and pined away
until he was changed into the pale flower which
rightfully bears his name. Our present specimen, the
Daffodil, bears simply the old English name affo
dyle, which signified " that which cometh early," and
it was long before the word was corrupted into daffo-
dil. It is one of our earliest spring flowers ; it is
rare in Scotland and Ireland, but in the south-west of
England its yellow or pale lemon-coloured blossoms
may be seen covering acres of land. In Cornwall
they are still called Lent lilies. The root, and, to
some extent, the whole plant, is poisonous, yet a
useful spirit is distilled from it, which has been used
as an embrocation, and also given as a medicine.
Most welcome are these pretty spring flowers to us
all, and in cottage gardens they add beauty and grace
without expense or trouble, for they grow under
almost any conditions.
" When the vales are decked with daffodils,
I hail the new reviving year,
And soothing hope my bosom fills."
136 WILD FLOWERS.
WILD HYACINTH.
HYACINTHUS NONSCRIPTUS.
THIS well-known pretty plant is known to every child
who has rambled in the fields and woods in search of
wild flowers. It is sometimes called the Harebell, or
Bluebell, but is quite distinct from the Campanula
Rotundifolia, the true Bluebell of Scotland. It belongs
to the family Liliaceae, and by some botanists is not
called Hyacinth at all, but is placed with the squills,
and is called Scilla Nutans. It is the child of the
spring and the denizen of the woods, whilst the Camp-
anula is the pride of harvest time, and flourishes in
exposed situations. The wild Hyacinth has a white
bulb, full of clammy juice. The leaves are linear,
shorter than the flower-stem. The stem is about a
foot high, angular, with a terminal one-sided raceme
of drooping blue flowers, each with a small narrow
bract at the base of the pedicel. We all know the
beautiful sweet-scented Hyacinth of the gardens, but
nothing can be more charming than the masses of these
wild blue Hyacinths sometimes seen in sheltered places
under the spreading branches of trees, forming almost
a living carpeting to some shady nook. In Kew Park,
acres of the green grass is changed from green to blue
by the presence of these lovely blue flowers. The
Hyacinthus Nonscriptus is not the true Hyacinth of
ancient Greek story ; that is supposed to have been a
PLATE XVII.
ILO HYACINTH. Hyacinthus Nonscriptus. GRAPE HYACINTH. Muscari Racemosum.
'RING SQUILL. Scilla 7ema. TURK'S-CAP LILY. Lilium Martagon.
AKESHEAD LILY. Fntiilaria Meleagris. MEADOW SAFFRON. Colchicum Atttumnale.
GRAPE HYACINTH. 137
species of Lily, which sprung from the blood of the
beautiful boy Hyacinthus, whom Apollo unfortunately
killed ; so that though we cannot claim for our favour-
ite a place in classic lore, we think that its own
unassuming beauty, delicate scent, and the early
associations it must recall to all hearts, will justify its
introduction here. The juice contained in the root
of the Hyacinth is sometimes used as starch or gum.
At one time, when stiff ruffs were worn, it was much
in request. It also served the purpose of the book-
binder, to fasten the covers of books securely.
GRAPE HYACINTH.
MUSCARI RACEMOSUM.
THE Grape Hyacinth belongs to the order Liliaceae,
but may be easily distinguished from our common
Hyacinth, although belonging to the same family, and
flowering about the same time. The leaves are narrow,
lanceolate, rather thick, not stiff, from six inches to a
foot long, or, when very luxuriant, a foot and a half
long. The stem is usually shorter, with a close ter-
minal raceme, or head of small, dark blue flowers,
looking almost like little berries ; a few of the upper-
most are of a paler blue, erect, much narrower, and
without stamens or pistil. At one time this plant was
very much cultivated in gardens. It abounds in
138 WILD FLOWERS.
sandy soils, and is plentiful in the eastern counties of
England.
SPRING SQUILL.
SCILLA VERNA.
THIS plant belongs also to the family Liliaceae, and is
a pretty plant, found chiefly in the north and west
coasts of England, near the sea. In Wales it has,
however, been frequently met with, and on the east
coast of Ireland, but rarely in Scotland. It is a
delicate little plant, with a small bulb, and narrow,
linear leaves, two to four inches long. The flower-
stem is seldom above six inches long, with several
small, erect, blue flowers, in a short terminal raceme,
almost forming a corymb. The blossoms are bell-
shaped, but not pendant, and of a bluish-violet colour.
The foreign species of Squills have long been celebrated
for their medicinal qualities, but I am not aware that
any properties of a like kind have been attributed to
their British relatives.
SNAKESHEAD LILY, OR COMMON FRITILLARY.
FR1TILLARIA MELEAGRIS.
THIS pretty plant belongs to the Lily tribe Liliaceae ;
indeed, this is so beautiful a family of plants, that it is
TURFS-CAP LILY. 139
difficult not to show a partiality to it when choosing
wild flowers " worth notice." The Fritillary is not a
common plant ; it is found chiefly in the southern and
eastern counties of England, and cannot be said to be
wild at all in Scotland. The unexpanded blossom,
somewhat fancifully, is said to resemble a snake's head ;
hence its common name. It has a stem about a foot
high, with its leaves alternate and linear lanceolate ;
the single drooping flower, of a dull red colour, marked
curiously with pink and dark -purple ; hence the name
Fritillaria, from Fritillus, a dice-box the frequent
companion of a cheque or checkered board. It
blossoms in April, in meadows and pastures through-
out England, and is the only British species of the
genus. In the season the meadows of Christ Church.
Oxford, are covered with these beautiful flowers.
Many handsome foreign species are cultivated in our
gardens. The handsome Crown Imperial (Fritillaria
Imperialis) is a native of Persia, and belongs to the
Tulip group of the lilaceous tribe of plants.
TURK'S-CAP LILY.
LILIUM MARTAGON.
THIS belongs to the Tulip group of the Lily family of
plants. It is not a common plant in its wild state,
though in gardens it is cultivated to great perfection
and beauty. It is to be met with, however, on chalk
140 WILD FLOWERS.
hills and in woody places in the southern parts of
England. The scent of the Lily is so powerful as
to be very annoying to some people, though in this
species, and in their wild state, it is not so perceptible.
The flower may readily be recognized, from its common
name. The petals are reflexed, and turn over, forming
a sort of turban, while the stamens appear like a tuft
of feathers at the top.
MEADOW SAFFRON.
COLCHICUM AUTUMN ALE.
IN the autumn of the year, when all nature seems
losing her brilliancy, and the "sear and yellow leaf"
proclaims the approach of winter, this pretty flower
forms a gay carpet in the fields and meadows. It
may easily be mistaken for a crocus, which, however,
belongs to a different family, and blossoms in the
spring of the year.
" The Crocus blows before the shrine,
At vernal dawn of St. Valentine."
The Colchicum belongs to the family Melanthaceae,
while the crocus is placed with the Iridaceae. The
flowers of the Colchicum are large, of a pale purple
colour, and spring up without leaves, forcing their way
through the soil, and expanding just above the ground,
leaving the tubular part with the ovary and filaments
MEADOW SAFFRON. 141
enveloped in membranous sheathing spathes below the
soil. Each stalk produces six or eight of these flowers.
The stamens are six, the ovaries three, each with a long
thread-shaped style, and not adhering in any manner
to the flower. These are succeeded by the fruit in the
form of three little follicles, which slightly adhere
together by their inner edge, and in the spring are
elevated above the soil by their lengthened footstalk.
At this time too the foliage makes its appearance in
the form of an erect tuft of oblong shining sheathing
leaves. Each follicle contains several oblong seeds.
So like is the whole plant to the autumn crocus, that
inexperienced observers may readily mistake one for
the other. They may be distinguished, however, by
remembering that the crocus has only three stamens,
one style, and an inferior ovary ; while the Colchicum
has six stamens, three styles, and a superior ovary.
The crocus, too, is perfectly free from those poisonous
qualities which distinguish the Colchicum, and render
it so useful a plant in medicine. Many species of
Colchicum are cultivated for the sake of their flowers,
and are badly distinguished by botanists from our
specimen, which alone is of any worth in materia
medica. So virulent are the poisonous properties of
the C. A utu mnale, that the fingers are sometimes be-
numbed in preparing it, and cattle which have been
driven to eat it through hunger have frequently died.
It is very important for those who are employed in
collecting the plant for medicinal use, to know that
142 WILD FLOWERS.
the active principle it contains appears to become
concentrated in different parts of the plant at different
seasons of the year. In June and July the root is in
perfection ; in September the flowers, and the seeds in
the following spring. No vegetable poison has been
more advantageously applied in medicine than this.
Sir Everard Home recommended a tincture of it as
efficacious in curing the gout, and it is now even more
generally prescribed in rheumatism and gout than in
his time. The Hermodactyl of the Greeks is believed
to have been a species of Colchicum; it was celebrated
as a remedy for gout in ancient times, and its celebrity
has been again revived as an ingredient in the French
remedy " Eau Mtfdicinale."
FLOWERING RUSH.
BUTOMUS UMBELLATUS.
THIS is a peculiarly elegant plant, belonging to the
family Alismacese. It is a rush-like plant, with three-
cornered, sword-shaped leaves, and umbels of hand-
some rose-coloured flowers containing nine stamens,
a peculiarity by which it is immediately recognized
among other wild flowers. The roots are regarded in
Russia as a specific in hydrophobia, but experiments
made with them in this country have not confirmed
the accounts given of their properties by Russian
COMMON ARROW-HEAD. 143
physicians, and they do not seem to offer any remedy
for this terrible and incurable disease. Well may the
name of this beautiful plant signify the " Pride of the
Water : " it is one of the most ornamental natural
adornments of our lakes and rivers, and in marshy
districts, where all looks barren and desolate, there
may be seen the bright-coloured flowers of the
Flowering Rush, by their beauty making " the wilder-
ness to rejoice and blossom as the rose."
Withering quotes a couplet, which is expressive and
true :
" Her rosy umbels rears the Flowering Rush,
While with reflected charms the waters blush."
COMMON ARROW-HEAD.
SAG1TTARIA SAGITTIFOLIA.
THIS plant belongs to the family Alismaceae, but
differs from some other genera of that family in having
unisexual flowers. The leaves, which are arrow-shaped,
rise out of the water on very long stalks, the blades
six or eight inches long. The flower-stem is leafless,
erect and longer than the leaves bearing on its upper
part several distant whorls of rather large white flowers
with a purplish tinge at the base of the petals ; but so
readily do they fall off, that it is difficult to preserve
them. The upper flowers are those which contain the
144 WILD FLOWERS.
stamens, the lower ones on shorter stalks contain the
pistils. There is but one locality in Scotland re-
corded where this plant is growing wild ; that is
somewhere near Paisley. In England and Ireland it
is not uncommon, and may be seen in luxuriance on
the banks of the Thames, above Putney, during the
summer and autumn. The roots of this plant, as well
as those of other species, contain an amylaceous
matter, which is said to form a nutritious food, and is
eaten for that purpose by the Chinese and Kalmuk
Tartars.
CUCKOO PINT, LORDS AND LADIES.
ARUM MA CULA TUM.
CAN we wonder at the delight of country children
with this curious plant, which seems almost to be one
of those things we constantly see in nature, designed
to illustrate the grotesque as well as the beautiful.
Its large handsome spathe, rising up amidst the ele-
gantly-shaped spotted leaves, forms a fitting shelter
for the bright-coloured spadil or flower-stalk, the lord
or lady, whichever it may be, within its protecting
hood. The plant belongs to the family Aracese, and
is the only representative of its family found wild in
this country. It would puzzle the beginner in botany
to make out the parts of the flower corresponding to
PLATE XVIII.
FLOWERING RUSH. Butomus umbcllatus. ARROW-HEAD. Sagittaria Sagittifolia.
CUCKOO PINT. Arum Marulatum. SWEET FLAG. Acorns Calamus,
:OTTON GRASS. Eriophorum Angustifolium. BULRUSH. Scirfus lacustris.
CUCKOO PINT. 145
those of a Primrose, but after a little study they will
be easily understood. The attraction of this curious
plant does not cease after the early spring, when the
green leaves have faded away, and the lords and
ladies and their habitation are no more seen ; the
little bunch of seedlike bodies about half-way down
the coloured spadil, which are in fact the pistils and
seed-vessels, in the autumn of the year assume a
brilliant red colour, looking like a bunch of coral, as
amid the withering grass of some hedge -side they
attract the notice of the passer-by ; beware, however,
of being tempted to taste them. The whole plant is
acrid, pungent, and poisonous. The tubers contain a
sort of farinaceous substance, which, when freed from
its acrid qualities, constitutes a nutritious article of diet.
Large quantities are collected in Portland Island and
on the dry and sunburnt districts on the banks of
the Bristol Channel, and sold under the name of
Portland sago. It is largely used to adulterate arrow-
root. On the Continent its economical uses appear
to be generally known and appreciated. Dr. Wither-
ing quotes Wedelius for the supposition that it was
on this plant, under the name of Chara, on which the
soldiers of Caesar's army subsisted when encamped
at Dyrrachium. A curious belief is recorded by
Gerarde as coming from Aristotle, that when bears
were half-starved with hybernating, and have lain in
their dens forty days without any nourishment but
such as they get by " sucking their paws," they were
146 WILD FLOWERS.
completely and suddenly restored by eating this plant-
Medicinally the Arum had at one time a great reput-
ation in common with all other plants containing
acrid or poisonous principles. In rheumatism, gout,
and even consumption, its virtues were vaunted, but
are now happily discarded. The Arum is one of
those plants which exhibits the curious and interesting
fact of the vegetable evolution of heat, so evident,
that for some hours after the opening of the spathe
it may be felt with the hand or tested with the
thermometer.
COMMON COTTON GRASS.
ERIOPHORUM A NG US T I FOLIUM.
THE appearance of this pretty plant, which belongs to
the natural order Cyperacea, is well known to all who
have made excursions in the early part of the year in
moorland regions. The tufts of its pretty silky heads
waving in the wind add beauty to the wildest districts.
But lately bunches of its silvery threads were pre-
sented by troops of rosy Welsh children on the look-
out for tourists amidst their own mountain passes.
Various attempts have been made to utilize its silky
down and to substitute it for cotton, but without suc-
cess. The fibres are too rigid, and are shorter than
those of cotton, and lack the knack of twisting pro-
perly which is the peculiarity of the real cotton plant,
BULRUSH. 147
and in which it is unrivalled. In the districts where
this cotton grass grows, however, it is collected by the
poor inhabitants for stuffing pillows ; but it absorbs
moisture, and is not really good for this purpose.
Candle and lamp-wicks are made from it where it
grows, but on the whole it cannot be considered a use-
ful plant, and is only worth notice on account of its
beautiful and graceful appearance which we all must
admire.
BULRUSH.
SCIRPUS LACUSTRIS.
THIS handsome curious plant is often seen growing
on the banks of our rivers and lakes. It belongs
to the family Cyperaceae ; and is a representative
of rushes of many and various kinds. It grows in
clear stagnant water; but when its long stems are cut
down, with its dark brown velvety spikes, they readily
dry up and form beautiful objects of adornment for a
long time. At this period, when it has become the
fashion to cover our walls with china and other works
of art, a number of these handsome spikes with their
leaves attached are very effective around a high mantel-
shelf or panel containing china ; and it is a suitable
addition to the large antique vases, with which our
corridors and rooms are now adorned, to put bunches
of these Bulrushes and other plants of the same order
L 2
148 WILD FLOWERS.
into each vase, as they require no care and no moisture.
The reed-mace TypJia Latifolia, is sometimes called
the Bulrush, but erroneously. The stems of this hand-
some plant are used for making the bottoms of chairs,
mats, and other things of the sort. Coopers use them
largely for placing between the staves of casks. Large
quantities are brought from the marshy districts of
Holland, where they grow, for this purpose, being first
dried in the sun and tied up in bundles. The old
name for the Bulrush was " bumbles." Gerarde, the
old herbalist, tells us that " the tender leaves that be
next the root make a convenient ointment against the
biting of the spider called Phalangium."
The Bulrush recalls to our minds the extensive
domestic use of rushes in ancient times, when even the
process of weaving them into mats was unknown, and
when the floors were daily strewed with fresh-gathered
rushes ; sometimes, be it said, without removing the
accumulated litter of days from beneath, thereby out-
raging every law of health, then so little known or
regarded. We can imagine, if the practice were cleanly
and carefully carried out, it would not be unpleasant
in the summer time. It still obtains, as we have said,
on certain days in Norwich Cathedral, when rushes
and the sweet-scented flag are strewn as of old ; and
we believe that until very lately the floors of some of
the old colleges at Oxford were innocent of rugs or
carpets, and knew no covering but the green and
fragrant rush.
SWEET-FLAG. 149
SWEET-FLAGSWEET SEDGE.
A COR US CALAMUS.
IT is, perhaps, well to conclude our selection of Wild
Flowers with one which is worth notice for qualities
that do not directly address the eye. Beauty of
form and colour are not alone the attractions of the
vegetable kingdom, and, as with many other good
things in life, we do not become aware of their ex-
cellence on a superficial acquaintance. The charming
qualities of this our last specimen are undiscovered
until we seek for them ; not in fact until we have
gathered it, and bruised it in our fingers. Then
comes forth the pleasant fragrance which gives it its
special character. It is a reed-like plant with a
creeping horizontal stem. From this springs many
deep green sword-shaped leaves about three feet
long. In the . midst of all is a leaf-like stem, from
below the point of which comes a cylindrical, or
rather a conical, spadix of greenish flowers, which are
so densely packed together, that the stalk is quite
hidden. It grows abundantly in the eastern counties
of England, on the banks of rivers, and was used
formerly for strewing the churches on festival days ;
the custom is, I believe, still preserved in the cathe-
dral in Norwich on certain occasions. The very aro-
matic smell of this plant is singular amongst our
native species. This property has, as might be ex-
pected, been made available in medicine. The roots
150 WILD FLOWERS.
have a strong aromatic smell and a warm pungent
taste, consequently they have been prescribed in many
ailments where slight stimulants seemed necessary.
They constitute the Calamus Aromaticus of the shops.
Having now gone over the allotted collection of
Wild Flowers, endeavouring to chronicle the chief
attractions and virtues of each, I can but feel how
little has been said when compared with all that re-
mains unsaid, but felt. I have hesitated in making
these little sketches many a time, because I had not
the courage to pass by others rudely, whose claims to
notice seemed as great as any I have chosen. The
whole field of Nature lies before us ; I can but hope
that if there have been some interesting thoughts
suggested by these our selected examples, they may
but be inducements to still further study of the forms
and functions of those beautiful creations on which so
much of our welfare and happiness depends.
"Blame me not, laborious band,
For the idle flowers I brought ;
Every aster in my hand
Comes back laden with a thought." EMERSON.
INDEX
Aconitum Napellus
Acorus Calamus
Adonis autumnalis
Althaea officinalis
Anagallis arvensis
Anemone nemorosa
Anemone, Wood
Anthemis nobilis
Antirrhinum majus
Aquilegia vulgaris
Arrowhead, Common
Arum maculatum
Aster, Sea
Aster Tripolium
Atropa Belladonna
Bedstraw, Yellow
Bee Orchis
Bellis perennis
Bindweed, Great
Bindweed, Sea
Bitter-sweet . . .
Black Bryony . . .
Black Whortleberry
PLATE FIG. PAGE
ii i 7
xviii 4 149
i 4 4
v 3 34
xiv 6 119
i 3 3
i 3 3
x 4 85
xiii 5 1 10
i 6 6
xviii 2 143
xviii 3 144
x 2 83
x 2 83
xiii 2 104
xii
xiii
xv
xi
7 6
130
79
96
97
107
126
88
152
INDEX.
PLATE FIG. PAGE
Bladder- wort ...
Blood Geranium
Bryonia dioica
Bryony, Black
Bryony, Red or Wild ...
Buckbean
Bugloss, Viper's
Bulrush
Burnet Rose, Common...
Butomus umbellatus
Buttercup
Callitriche verna
Calluna vulgaris
Caltha palustrus
Campanula rotundifolia
Campion, Red
Carnation
Chamomile ...
Chicory
Chrysoplenium alternifolium
Cichorium Intybus
Cinquefoil, Creeping ...
Clematis Vitalba
Clove-pink
Clover, Strawberry
Codlins and Cream
Colchicum autumnale ...
Columbine
Convolvulus sepium
Convolvulus Soldanella
Cotton Grass, Common
Cowslip
Crane's-bill, Red
Creeping Cinquefoil
Creeping Loose-strife ...
Crithmum maritimum ...
Crowfoot, Bulbous
xiv
i
"5
V
4
3*
vii
5
59
XV
5
126
vii
5
59
xi
6
95
xii
5
98
xviii
6
H7
vii
4
52
xviii
i
142
i
i
i
XV
3
132
xi
3
90
ii
2
8
X
6
86
iv
4
30
iv
3
29
X
4
85
X
i
82
viii
2
63
X
I
82
vii
2
54
i
2
2
iv
3
29
vi
2
4 6
vi
5
55
xvii
6
140
i
6
6
xii
i
96
xii
2
97
xviii
5
146
xiv
4
117
V
4
38
vii
2
54
xiv
5
119
viii
6
66
i
i
i
INDEX.
153
Cuckoo-pint ...
Daffodil, or Daffy-down-dilly
Daisy
Deadly Nightshade
Dianthus Caryophyllus . . .
Dipsacus Fullonum
Dog Rose, Common
Draba vema . . .
Drosera rotundifolia
Dwale
Dyer's Woad ...
Early Orchis ...
Echium vulgare
Elder
Elecampane ...
Epilobium angustifolium
Erica tetralix . . .
Eriophorum angustifolium
Eryngium maritimum . . .
Euphorbia Peplis
Evening Primrose
Flag, Sweet ...
Flag, Yellow or Water
Flax
Flowering Rush
Fly Orchis
Forget-me-not . .^
Fritillaria Meleagris
Fritillary, Common
Fuller's Teasle
Furze
Galium Assarine
Galium verum
Gentian, Spring
Gentiana verna
PLATE
FIG.
PAGE
xviii
3
144
xv i
6
134
X
5
79
xiii
2
JO4
iv
3
29
ix
6
77
vii
3
47
iii
2
18
iv
I
26
xiii
2
104
iii
I
17
xvi
I
128
xii
5
98
ix
2
73
X
3
84
vi
5
55
xi
2
89
xviii
5
146
viii
5
64
XV
2
122
vi
6
56
xviii
4
149
xvi
5
132
iv
5
31
xviii
i
142
xvi
4
I3 1
xii
6
99
xvii
5
138
xvii
5
138
ix
6
77
vi
4
42
ix
5
67
ix
4
76
xi
5
94
xi
5
94
154
INDEX.
Geranium, Blood
Geranium Robertianum
Geranium sanguineum ...
Germander Speedwell ...
Glaucium luteum
Glaux maritima ... .
Globe Flower
Golden Saxifrage
Goose-Grass ...
Gorse
Grape Hyacinth
Grass of Parnassus
Great Bindweed
Great Mullein
Ground Ivy
Harebell
Heart's Ease ...
Heath
Heather
Helianthemum vulgare
Henbane
Herb Robert ...
Hogsbean
Holly
Holly, Sea
Honeysuckle ...
Horn Poppy, Yellow ...
House Leek ...
Hulm
Hyacinth, Grape
Hyacinthus nonscriptus
Hyacinth, Wild
Hydrocotyle vulgaris ...
Hyoscyamus niger
Hypericum calycinum ...
Hypericum, Large-flowered
39
38
108
PLATE FIG. PAGE
v 4 38
v 5
v 4
xiii 4
15
116
5
63
67
42
IV
xii
xiii
xii
VI
xvii
xvii
xvii
viii
xiii
iv
137
37
96
in
114
24
89
90
22
I O2
39
IO2
92
64
74
15
60
42
137
136
136
64
1 02
35
35
Ilex Aquifolium
92
INDEX.
155
Inula Helenium
Iris pseudacorus
Isatis tinctoria
Ivy, Ground ...
Lathyrus aphaca
Lavatera arborea
Lavatera, Sea
Leek, House ...
Lily, Snakeshead
Lily, Turk's-cap
Lily, White Water
Lilium Martagon
Linum usitatissimum . . .
Lonicera Periclymenum
Loose-strife, Creeping ...
Loose-strife, Purple
Lords and Ladies
Lychnis Diurna
Lysimachia Nummularia
Lythrum Salicaria
Mallow, Marsh
Mallow, Musk
Mallow, Tree
Malva moschata
Man Orchis ...
Marsh Mallow
Marsh Marigold
Marsh Pennywort
Marsh Saxifrage
Marsh Trefoil
Meadow Saffron
Menyanthes trifoliata ..
Military Orchis
Mistletoe
Moneywort
Monkshood ...
Mullein, Great
PLATE FIG. PAGE
x 3 84
xvi 5 I3 2
iii I 17
xii 4 1 14
vi 3 53
v i 3 2
v i 3 2
vii 6 60
xvii 5 I3 8
xvii 4 *39
ii 3 10
xvii 4 139
iv 5 3i
ix 3 74
xiv 5 "9
vii i 5 s
xviii 3 144
iv 4 3
xiv 5 119
vii I 58
v 3 34
v 2 33
v i 3 2
v 2 33
xvi 2 129
v 3 34
ii 2 8
viii 4 64
viii i 6 1
xi 6 95
xvii 6 140
xi 6 95
xvi 2 129
ix i 69
xiv 5 119
ii I 7
xiii 6 III
156
INDEX.
Muscari racemosum
Musk Mallow
Myosotis palustris
PLATE FIG. PAGE
xvii 2 137
v 2 33
xii 6 99
Narcissus pseudonarcissus
Nasturtium officinale . . .
Nepeta glechoma
Nettle, Common
Nightshade, Deadly
Nightshade, Woody
NupharLutea
Nymphasa alba
111
xii
xv
xiii
xiii
ii
ii
134
19
114
124
104
107
12
IO
(Enothera biennis
Old Man's Beard
Ononis spinosa
Ophrys apifera
Ophrys muscifera
Orchis, Bee ...
Orchis, Early ...
Orchis, Fly ...
Orchis, Man or Military
Orchis mascula
Orchis militaris
Oxalis acetosella
vi 6 56
i 2 2
vi I 45
xvi 3 130
xvi 4 131
xvi 3 130
xvi i 128
xvi 4 131
xvi 2 129
xvi I 128
xvi 2 129
v 6 41
Papaver Argemone
Parnassia palustris
Parnassus, Grass of
Parsnip, Water
Pea, Yellow
Pennywort, Marsh
Pheasant's Eye
Pimpernel
Plantago major
Plantain
Poor Man's weather-glass
xv
xv
XV
xiv
13
37
37
62
53
64
4
119
120
I2O
6 119
INDEX,
157
Poppy, Prickly
Poppy, Yellow Horn
Potentilla reptans
Prickly Poppy
Primrose
Primrose, Evening
Primula officinalis
Primula vulgaris
Purple Loose-strife
Purple Spurge
PLATE FIG. PACE
ii 6 13
" 5 IS
vii 2 54
ii 6 13
xiv 3 116
vi 6 56
xiv 4 117
xiv 3 116
vii i 58
xv 2 122
Ranunculus bulbosus
Red Bryony ...
Red Campion
Red Crane's-bill
Rest Harrow ...
Robert, Herb . . .
Rock Cist
Rock Rose
Rosa canina ...
Rose, Common Burnet
Rose, Common Dog
Rosa spinosissima
Rush, Flowering
i i I
vii 5 59
iv 4 30
v 4 38
vi i 45
v 5 39
iii 4 22
iii 4 22
vii 3 47
vii 4 52
vii 3 47
vii 4 52
xviii I 142
Saffron, Meadow
Sagittaria sagittifolia .
St. John's Wort
Sambucus nigra
Samphire ...
Saxifraga Hirculus
Saxifrage, Golden
Saxifrage, Marsh
Scilla verna ...
Scirpus lacustris
Scutellaria Galericulata
Sea Aster
Sea Bind weed
xvii 6 140
xviii 2 143
iv 6 35
ix 2 73
viii i 6 1
viii 2 63
viii 2 63
viii I 6l
xvii 3 138
xviii 6 147
xii 3 113
x 2 83
xii 2 97
158
INDEX.
Sea Holly ...
Sea Milkwort ...
Sempervivum Tectoram
Sium angustifolium
Skull-cap, Common ...
Snakeshead Lily
Snapdragon . . .
Solanum Dulcamara . . .
Sorrel, Wood...
Speedwell, Germander . . .
Spring Gentian
Spring Squill . . .
Spurge, Purple
Squill, Spring
Starwort, Water
Stratiotes aloides
Strawberry Clover
Sundew
Sweet Flag or Sweet Sedge
Tamus communis
Teazle, Fuller's
Traveller's Joy
Tree Mallow ...
Trifolium fragiferum
Trollius Europaeus
Turk's-cap Lily
Ulex Europseus
Urtica dioica . . .
U tricularia vulgaris
Vaccinium Myrtillus
Verbascum Thapsus
Veronica Chamsedrys ...
Vetchling, Yellow
Viola odorata . . .
Viola tricolor ...
Violet, Sweet...
LATE FIG.
PAGE
viii
5
6 4
xiv
2
116
vii
6
60
viii
3
62
xii
3
"3
xvii
5
138
xiii
5
no
xiii
3
107
V
6
41
xiii
4
1 08
xi
5
94
xvii
3
138
XV
2
122
xvii
3
138
XV
3
123
XV
6
127
vi
2
4 6
iv
I
26
xviii
4
149
XV
5
126
ix
6
77
i
2
2
V
I
32
vi
2
4 6
i
5
5
xvii
4
i39
vi
4
42
XV
4
124
xiv
i
"5
xi
i
88
xiii
6
in
xiii
4
108
vi
3
53
iii
5
22
iii
6
24
iii
5
22
INDEX.
159
Viper's Bugloss
Virgin's Bower
Viscum Album
Water-cress
Water Flag ...
Water Lily, White
Water Lily, Yellow
Water Parsnip
Water Soldier
Water Starwort
Way- bread
White Water Lily
Whitlow Grass
Whortleberry, Black
Wild Bryony ...
Wild Hyacinth
Willow Herb...
Wind Flower ...
Woad, Dyer's
Wolfs bane ...
Wood Anemone
Woodbine
Wood-sorrel . . .
Woody Nightshade
Yellow Bedstraw
Yellow Flag ...
Yellow Pea . . .
Yellow Vetchling
Yellow Water Lily
PLATE
FIG.
PAGE
xii
5
9 8
i
2
2
ix
I
6 9
iii
3
19
xvi
5
132
ii
3
IO
ii
4
12
viii
XV
3
6
62
127
XV
3
123
XV
i
1 2O
ii
iii
3
2
IO
18
xi
I
88
vii
xvii
5
i
59
'136
vi
5
55
i
3
3
iii
i
17
ii
i
7
i
3
3
ix
V
3
6
74
xiii
3
107
ix
4
76
xvi
5
132
vi
3
53
vi
3
53
ii
4
12
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(JO-
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Shooting.
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THAMES (THE). See Up the '
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Benson.
WILD FLOWERS. See Lankester
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WOMAN. See Cresswell.
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able to pick up a fl^pFlHf|i||9HKfU|{ R find his curiosity ex-
good fourpenny- worth W S^^^Ow8*^iiS cited and his interest
of pleasant informa- I H|ll^^KS^*|ffiKikj| in tne .world about
tion. It is conducted ^jHji^'^'^r^^^^n^J him taking the form
and contributed to by CySB ^JpSDWICJtEjy ^TaBa ^ a ' lltle study of
expert naturalists, who WS^rirfrr mrtr<r(f\r(rrrFjiflB} some branch of the
are cheerful compa- Wi^Ql^CEiKJlSOiffl K sort of knowledge that
nions, as all good na- 'MW| .vArm ,, , 5 ^ as w n his readiest
turalists are ; technical Rnm A flOpW 1 ^ J*K%fl 01 W|W attention. For when
general reader feel JSHfcB-^ n .^JsJJJSnt ^ e ''ghiful, and the en-
that they are in ear- *^^S B '^SEV7S^iOVE^^^^S thusiasm it excites so
nest, and are not in- ^^\\l/// ^k^^^ ff, Sranr S ellu ' De an< ^ well-di-
sulting him by writing ^8^-^^-JB^K ^Wy reeled, these enthu-
down to his compre- ^3filiBlB^^^^^MtEB I s ' asnis are contagious,
hension, but natural l|jME3M The fault is not with
enough and direct KtaOjjkjg II i tse ^- hut with the
enough intheirrecords Mw Bf3*j| public, if this little
of facts, their ques- jjKJMH Rfl^jwl ma g azme be not in
tioning and answering t^K^BIHHHHii^MII^^OTiA favour with a very
each other concerning r^F]Q m ai!!iKiai^^m.JSiStim larg ,? c ' rcle / read-
curiosities of nature. '^JBl^^ T'T'flygj^g^.jSL^^jpy ers." Examiner.
London: HARDWICKE & BOGUE, 192, Piccadilly, W.
J. OGDEN AND CO., PRINTERS, 1/2, ST. JOHN STREET, B.C.
i S