WILD FLOWERS WORTH NOTICE.
 
 PLATE I. 
 
 BUTTERCUP. Ranunculus lulbosus. TRAVELLERS' JOY. Clematis Vitalba. 
 
 WOOD ANEMONE. Anemone nemorosa. PHEASANT'S EYE. Adonis autumnalis. 
 GLOBE FLOWER. Trollius Europaevs. COLUMBINE. Aquilegia Vulgaris.
 
 FOR THEIR BEAUTY 
 
 ASSOCIATIONS 
 
 OR USES 
 
 MRS LANKESTER 
 
 AUTHOR OF "BRITISH FERNS" 
 
 WITH 104 COLOURED FIGURES 
 FROM DRA WINGS B YJ. E. SO WERE Y 
 
 LONDON MDCCCXCVI 
 
 JAMES SHIELLS & CO.
 
 Previous Editions piiblished 
 elsewhere.
 
 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
 
 vi PREFACE. 
 
 associated with them, in order to increase the interest with 
 which they may be regarded. 
 Longfellow well says 
 
 " Wondrous truths, and manifold as wondrous, 
 
 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 mistletoe 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 Henslovv 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 Hitcham, 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 artisans 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 artisan 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 T 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 8^. It can, however, be taken in 
 83 Parts at $s. 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 'js. 6</., %s. 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 flowerets. 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 Raniatcnlacece 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. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 PAGE 
 
 ORDER i. RANUNCULACE/E. 
 
 ORDER 5. CISTACE/E. 
 
 Ranunculus bulhosus 
 
 
 i 
 
 Helianthemum vulgare 
 
 
 22 
 
 Clematis Vitalba 
 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 
 Anemone nemorosa 
 
 
 3 
 
 ORDER 6. VIOLACE.E. 
 
 Adonis autumnalis 
 
 
 4 
 
 Viola odorata 
 
 
 22 
 
 Trollius Europaeus 
 
 
 5 
 
 Viola tricolor 
 
 t< 
 
 24 
 
 Aquilegia vulgaris 
 
 
 6 
 
 
 
 
 Aconitum Napellus 
 
 
 7 
 
 ORDER 7. DROSERACE^E. 
 
 Caltha Palustris 
 
 
 8 
 
 Drosera rotundifolia . . 
 
 
 26 
 
 rT>r-,T-T M\7>/r DU a? Ar*T? a? 
 
 Parnassia palustris . . 
 
 
 37 
 
 Nymphaea alba . . . . 10 
 
 Nupliar lutea . . . . . . 12 
 
 ORDER 3. PAPAVERACE^i. 
 
 Papaver Argemone . . . . 13 
 Glaucium luteum . . . . 15 
 
 ORDER 4. CRUCIFER^E. 
 
 Isatis tinctoria . . . . . . 17 
 
 18 
 .. 19 
 
 Draba verna 
 Nasturtium officinale 
 
 ORDER 8.-CARYOPHYLLACE^. 
 
 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. HYPER ICACE^E. 
 Hypericum calycinum . . 35 
 
 PAGE 
 
 ORDER 12. GERANIACE^E. 
 
 Geranium sanguineum . . 38 
 
 Geranium Robertianum . . 39 
 Oxalis Acetosella . . . . 41 
 
 Subdivision II. CALYCIFLOR^E. 
 
 ORDER 13. LEGUMINOS^E. 
 
 Ulex Europseus . . . . 42 
 
 Ononis spinosa . . . . 45 
 
 Trifolium fragiferum . . . . 46 
 
 Lathyrus aphaca . . . . 53 
 
 ORDER 14. ROSACE^E. 
 
 Rosa Canina . . . . . . 47 
 
 Rosa spinosissima . . . . 52 
 
 Potentilla reptans . . . . 54 
 
 ORDER 15. ONAGRACE^E. 
 
 Epilobium angustifolium . . 55 
 CEnothera biennis . . . . 56 
 
 ORDER 16. LYTHRACE^E. 
 Lythrum Salicaria . . . . 58 
 
 ORDER 17. CUCURBITACE.E. 
 Bryonia dioica . . . . . . 59 
 
 ORDER 18. CRASSULACE^E. 
 Sempervivum Tectorum . . 60 
 
 ORDER 19. SAXIFRAGACE/E. 
 
 Saxifraga Hirculus . . . . 61 
 Chrysosplenium alternifolium 63 
 
 ORDER 20. UMBELLIFER.E. 
 
 Shim Angustifolium . . . . 62 
 
 Hydrocotyle vulgaris . . . . 64 
 
 Eryngium maritimum . . .. 64 
 
 Crithmum maritimum . . 66 
 
 ORDER 21. RUBIACE^E. 
 Galium Assarine . . . . 67 
 
 Subdivision III. COROLLIFLOR^E. 
 
 ORDER 22. LORANTHACE^E. 
 Viscunt album . . . . . . 69 
 
 ORDER 23. CAPRIFOLIACE^E. 
 
 Sambucus nigra . . . . 73 
 
 Lonicera Periclymenum . . 74 
 
 ORDER 24. GALIACE^E. 
 Galium verum . . . . . . 76 
 
 ORDER 25. DIPSACE^E. 
 Dipsacus Fullonum . . . . 77 
 
 ORDER 26. COMPOSITE. 
 
 Bellis perennis . . 79 
 
 Cichorium Intybus 82 
 
 Aster Tripolium 83 
 
 Inula Helenium 84 
 
 Anthemis nobilis 85 
 
 ORDER 27. CAMPANULACE.E. 
 Campanula rotundifolia . . 86 
 
 ORDER 28. ERICACEAE. 
 Vaccinium Myrtillus . . . . 88
 
 SYSTEMATIC CHAPTER OF CONTENTS, xix 
 
 Erica Tetralix .. 
 Calluna vulgaris 
 
 90 
 
 ORDER 29. AQUIFOLACE^. 
 Ilex aquifolium . . . . 92 
 
 ORDER 30. GENTIANACE^E. 
 
 GentSana verna . . . . 94 
 
 Menyanthes trifoliata . . . . 95 
 
 ORDER 31. CONVOLVU- 
 LACE^E. 
 
 Convolvulus sepium 
 Convolvulus Soldanella 
 
 ORDER 32. BORAGINACE^E. 
 
 Echium vulgare . . , . 98 
 
 Myosotispalustris .. .. 99 
 
 ORDER 33. SOLANACE^E. 
 
 Hyoscyamus niger 
 Atropa Belladonna 
 Solanum Dulcamara 
 
 104 
 107 
 
 ORDER 34. SCROPHULARI- 
 ACEM. 
 
 Veronica Chamsedrys . . 108 
 
 Antirrhinum maj us .. .. no 
 Verbascum Thapsus .. .. in 
 
 ORDER 35. LABIATE. 
 Scutellaria Galericulata .. 113 
 Nepeta Glechoma .. .. 114 
 
 ORDER 36. LENTIBULACLE. 
 Utricularia vulgaris .. .. 115 
 
 ORDER 37. PRIMULACE.E. 
 Glaux maritima .. 116 
 
 Primula vulgaris 
 Primula officinalis 
 Lysimachia nummularia 
 Anagallis arvensis 
 
 116 
 117 
 119 
 119 
 
 ORDER 38. PLANTAGINACE^E. 
 Plantago major . . . . 120 
 
 Subdivision IV. MONOCHLAMYDE^E. 
 
 ORDER 39. EUPHORBIACffi. 
 Euphorbia Peplis . . . . 122 
 
 ORDER 40.-CALLITRICHACE^E. 
 Callitriche verna . . . . 123 
 
 ORDER 41. URTICACE^G. 
 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^E. 
 
 Orchis mascula . . . . 128 
 
 Orchis rnilitaris . . . . 129 
 
 Ophrys apifera 130 
 
 Ophrys muscifera . . . . 131 
 
 ORDER 45. IRIDACE^E. 
 Iris Pseudacorus . . .. 132 
 
 ORDER 46. AMARYLLIDACE^. 
 Narcissus Pseudonarcissus . . 134 
 
 ORDER 47. LILIACEyE. 
 
 Hyacinthus nonscriptus . . 136 
 
 Muscari racemosum . . . . 137 
 
 Scilla verna . . . . . . 138 
 
 Fritillaria meleagris . . . . 138 
 
 Lilium Martagon . . . . 139 
 
 Colchicum autumnale . . . . 140 
 
 ORDER 48. ALISMACE^E. 
 
 Butomus umbellatus . . . . 142 
 Sagittaria sagittifolia . . . . 143 
 
 ORDER 49. ARACE^E. 
 Arum maculatum . . . . 144 
 
 ORDER so.-CYPERACE^E. 
 
 Eriophorum Angustifo'iium . . 146 
 Scirpus lacustris . . . . 147 
 
 Acorns Calamus . . . . 149
 
 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. 
 
 B
 
 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. Pceonia, 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 AUTUMN A LIS. 
 
 ADONIS AUTUMN ALIS 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, Trollius Europtzus, 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 anotner 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. 
 
 MONK'S-HOOD. Aconitum Napellus. MARSH MARIGOLD. Caltha Paltistrvs. 
 WHITE WATER LILY. Nymphaea Alba. YELLOW WATER-LILY. Nuphar Lvtea. 
 HORN-POPPY. Qlaucium luteum. PRICKLY POPPY. Papaver Argemone.
 
 THE MARSH MARIGOLD. 9 
 
 Belonging as it does to the order Ranunculaceae 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 chaliced 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 M WILD FLOWERS. 
 
 THE WHITE WATER-LILY. 
 
 NYMPffsEA ALBA. 
 
 THIS plant belongs to another natural order or family 
 Nymphaeaceae, 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. , 1 1 
 
 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 srnell 
 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 tannin 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 Nymphaeacese 
 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.
 
 1 4 WILD FLOWERS. 
 
 The stamens are distinct and numerous. The fruit is 
 a capsule opening in valves ; the seeds albuminous, 
 and containing a fixed oil. Papaver Argemone, the 
 Pale Poppy, or Prickly Poppy, is not so common as 
 the Cor^n 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. Rhceas; the Long-headed Poppy, P. Dubinin ; 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 /*. 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. 
 GLA UCE UM L UTE UM. 
 
 Tins 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 Ttfais, 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. Isatis tinctoria. WHITLOW-GRASS. Drdba Verna. 
 
 WATER-CRESS. Nasturtium officinale. ROCK ROSE. Helianthemwm Vulgare. 
 SWEET VIOLET. Viola odorata. HEART'S EASE. Viola 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 
 Cruciferae. It is very likely to be confounded with a 
 poisonous plant with which it grows, the Fool's Cress, 
 as it is called (Sium nodifloruiri). 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 
 in 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 Cistaceae. 
 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. Vtilgare,'\s 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 A TA. 
 
 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 Violaceas, 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 Droseracese, and is now 
 known to be nearly related to the curious plant 
 Dionaea, 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 rotundifolia, GRASS OF PARNASSUS. ParnassiapaUxtris. 
 
 CLOVE PINK. Dianthu* Caryophyllus. RED CAMPION. Lychnis diurna. 
 
 FLAX. Linum usitatissimum. ST. JOHN'S WORT, Hypericum Calycinum.
 
 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 dairy for that purpose. 
 This is the plant of which Burton, in his ' Anatomic 
 of Melancholy,' says " that Bernardus Ponottus prefers 
 his herba sol is 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. 
 DIANTIIUS CAR YOPHYLLUS. 
 
 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 Caryophyllacese, 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 D I URN A. 
 
 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. 31 
 
 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 US1TA TISSIMUM. 
 
 ONE of the most valuable of our native plants is 
 the Flax Plant L inum 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, with 
 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. 
 ALTHAEA OFFICINALIS. 
 
 THIS species is also a Malvaceous plant, but belongs 
 to a different genus. Marsh Mallow Althcca Officina- 
 lis, is a common European plant, and is often found in 
 marshes, especially near the sea, in great abundance.
 
 PLATE V. 
 
 TREE MALLOW. Lavatera arborea. MUSK MALLOW. Malva moschata. 
 
 MARSH MALLOW. Althaea officinalis. RED CRANE'S-BILL. Geranium sanguinewn, 
 HERB ROBERT. Geranium Robertianum. WOOD SORRELL. Oxalis 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 
 Hypericacese. 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
 
 36 WILD FLOWERS. 
 
 Ireland. This species ofSt. 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 Pcrforatum, 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 
 
 D&inonum. It was at one time worn about the person 
 in Scotland as a protection against witchcraft and 
 enchantment. 
 
 GRASS OF PARNASSUS. 
 PARNASSIA PALUSTR1S. 
 
 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 Droseracece ; 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 Geraniaceae ; 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 Geraniaceae, 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. 
 
 Tins 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 1 
 
 THE WOOD SORREL. 
 OX A LI S ACETOSELLA. 
 
 THE Wood Sorrel, Oxalis Acetosella, belongs to the 
 same family as the Geranium Geraniaceae. 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 EUROPMUS. 
 
 Tins 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- 
 neeus 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 ot 
 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 SPJNOSA. 
 
 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. 
 
 EST HARROW. Ononis Spinosa. 
 ELLOW VETCHLING. Lathyrits aphaca. 
 ILLOW HERB. Epilobium angustifolium. 
 
 STRAWBERRY CLOVER. Trifoliumfragi 
 
 GORSE. Ulex Europaevs. 
 
 EVENING PRIMROSE. Oenothera biennis
 
 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 
 

 
 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. 
 
 RLE LOOSE-STRIFE. Lythrum salicaria. CREEPING CiNQUEFOiL. Potent-ilia reptai 
 i-ROSE. Bonn canina. BURNET ROSE. Rosa Spinosissima, 
 
 D BRYONY. Bryonia Dioica. HOUSE LEEK. Sempervivum tectorum.
 
 COMMON DOG ROSS. 5* 
 
 " 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 VETCHLING. 53 
 
 THE YELLOW VETCHLING, OR YELLOW PEA. 
 LATHY RUS APHACA. 
 
 TlIIS 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 LatJiyrns 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.
 
 WILLOW-HERB. 55 
 
 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 BlENNIS 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. $? 
 
 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 (Enotkera, 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 vvhorled, 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 Commnnis, 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, Semperuivum Tectorum; so named 
 from its tenacity of life ; from semper and vivo, always 
 living. The little plant known by this name belongs 
 to the family Crassulacea^. 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, that 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 5. 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, 6". Nodiflomm> is, however, more frequently 
 mistaken, and is therefore called Fool's Water-cress. 
 
 THE GOLDEN SAXIFRAGE. 
 CHRYSOPLENIUM ALTERNI FOLIUM. 
 
 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. 
 ERYNGIUM MAR1TIMUM. 
 
 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 VIM. 
 
 \J 
 
 IARSH SAXIFRAGE. Saxifraga Xirculus. GOLDEN SAXIFRAGE. [ 
 
 fATER PARSNIP. Sium Angustifolium . MARSH PENNYWORT. Hydrocotyle Vulgaris. 
 
 EA HOLLY. Eryngium Maritimum. 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 
 a g> by Robert Buxton, an apothecary. There is also 
 another British species, E, Campestre, called by John 
 Ray Friar's Goose. 
 
 THE SAMPHIRE. 
 CRITHMUM MARITIMUM. 
 
 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
 
 GOOS-G&ASS. 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: stand still. 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. 
 VI SCUM 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 tihe general law that the radicle or root of the 
 leniforyo shoots downwards, and the plumule upwards ; 
 ifor 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 ithat 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 times, 
 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, Viscum Album. ELDER. Sambitcvs Nigra. 
 
 HONEYSUCKLE. LoniceraPericlymenum. YELLOW BEDSTRAW. GaUum Verum. 
 GOOSE-GRASS. Galium Assarine. TEAZLE. Dipsacus 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 S. 
 Ebulus y or Dwarf Elder, a rare plant, is the other. 
 
 HONEYSUCKLE, OR WOODBINE. 
 LONICERA PERICLY ENUM. 
 
 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
 
 HONE Y SUCKLE. 7 5 
 
 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,t\\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. Periclymeiium ; 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 eveiy 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 Vennn 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
 
 7 8 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 Selenium. 
 DAISY. Bellis Perennis. 
 
 SEA ASTER. Aster Tripolium. 
 CHAMOMILE. Anthemis Nobilis. 
 HAREBELL. Campanula JRotundifolia.
 
 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 Composite, 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
 
 80 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 flovvres 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 
 
 G
 
 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 Capugin," 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 TRI 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
 
 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 Campanulaceas. 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. 87 
 
 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. Vaccinwm Myrtillus. HEATH. Erica Tetratix. 
 HEATHER. Calluna Vulgaris. HOLLY. Ilex Aquifolivm. 
 
 SPRING GENTIAN. Gentiana Verna. BUCKBEAN. Menyanthes Trifoliata.
 
 HE A TH. 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 Whortle- 
 berry or Cowberry, V. Vitis-idtza. 
 
 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 Callnna 
 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 Callnna 
 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 Hie 
 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 
 
 conslitute 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, 
 On 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 AQU I FOLIUM. 
 
 THIS plant belongs to the small natural family 
 Aquifoliaceae, and is the only British representative of 
 the family. It seems hafdly 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 Abroad, 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. 
 
 GENT1ANA 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 Gentianaceae. 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.
 
 9<5 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 Convolvulus, 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. 
 
 REAT BINDWEED. Convolvulus Sepium 
 <ULL-CAP. Scutellaria Oalenculata. 
 PER'S BUQLOSS. Echium Vulgare. 
 
 SEA BINDWEED. Convolvulus Soldanellc 
 GROUND IVY. Nepeta Glechoma. 
 FORGET-ME-NOT. Myosotis palustrii.
 
 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. 
 CONVOL VUL US 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 VOLGA RE. 
 
 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 
 pric 1 dy 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. 
 MYOSO TIS PA L US TR IS. 
 
 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 
 Boraginaceae, 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, it will 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 call it 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, which 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. 103 
 
 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 Solanacese, 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. Hyoscyamuu Niger. DEADLY NIGHTSHADE. Atropa Belladonna. 
 
 IGHTSHADE. Solanum Dulcamara. GERMANDER SPEEDWELL. Veronica Chamaedrys 
 MAPDRAGON. Antirrhinum Majus. GREAT MULLEIN. Verlascum Thapsus.
 
 DEADLY NIGHTSHADE, I OS 
 
 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 Solanumsas 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.
 
 108 WILD FLOWERS. 
 
 GERMANDER SPEEDWELL. 
 VERONICA CHAM^DRYS. 
 
 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 Chamcedrys, 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 MAJUS. 
 
 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. 
 VERBASC UM THA PS US. 
 
 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. 1 1 3 
 
 COMMON SKULL-CAP. 
 SCUTELLAKIA GALERICULATA. 
 
 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 Scutella, 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 G-LECHOMA. 
 
 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, 
 LABIATVE. 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.
 
 JSLA bDER- WOR T. 1 1 5 
 
 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 vesicles 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 vesicles, 
 we find them filled with water; gradually air becomes 
 generated in the vesicles, 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 vesicles, 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. 
 
 1 2
 
 II 6 WILD FLOWERS. 
 
 SEA MILKWORT. 
 GLAUX MARITIMA. 
 
 SEA MlLKWORT is common on nearly every sea-coast. 
 It belongs to the family Primulaceae, and is conspic- 
 uous from its rose-coloured tiny flowers, 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- 
 laceae. 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 Bulgaria. MILK-WORT. Glaux Maritima. 
 PRIMROSE. Primula Vulgaris. SEA COWSLIP. Primula Officinalis. 
 
 MONEYWORT. Lysimachia Nummularia. PIMPERNEL. Anagallis 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
 
 118 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 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
 
 MONEYWORT. 1 19 
 
 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. 
 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." 
 
 Tins 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. 
 PL AN TAG 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. Plantago Major. PURPLE SPURGE. Euphorbia Peplis. 
 WATER STAR-WORT. CallitricheVerna. COMMON NETTLE. Urtica, Dioica. 
 BLACK BRYONY. Tamus Communis. WATER SOLDIER. Stratiotes Aloides.
 
 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 species 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 
 Euphorbiaceae. 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. 12$ 
 
 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. 
 CALLITR1CHE VERNA. 
 
 THIS is the representative of the only genus of Water 
 Star-worts Callitrichaceae 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. 
 URT2CA 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 Romney 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. 127 
 
 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 
 Hydrocharidacese.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 Dioscoreaceoe, 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. 
 
 EARLY ORCHIS. Orchis Mascula. 
 BEE ORCHIS. Ophrys Apifera. 
 YELLOW IRIS. Iris Pseudacorus. 
 
 MAN ORCHIS. Orchis Militaris. 
 F LY ORCHIS Ophrys Muscifera . 
 DAFFODIL. Narcissus Pseudonarcissux.
 

 
 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 Orchises ; all of them are 
 pretty and attractive, and one, A. Conopsea, has a 
 fragrant, agreeable scent. 
 
 BEE ORCHIS. 
 OPHRYS A PI PER A. 
 
 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 
 Orchises 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. 131 
 
 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 acis powerfully. 
 Withering mentions a case where it was given to some 
 gwine 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 riot 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 thejfe/r 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 
 A ve 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, /. Pseudacorus and I. 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 stupefied 
 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. "
 
 130 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 Cam- 
 panula 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 
 Hyacintlius Nonscriptus is not the true Hyacinth of 
 ancient Greek story ; that is supposed to have been a
 
 PLATE XVII. 
 
 WILD HYACINTH. Hyacinthus Nonscriptus. GRAPE HYACINTH. Muscari Racemosum. 
 SPRING SQUILL. Scilla Verna. TURK'S-CAP LILY. LMum Martagon. 
 
 SNAKESHEAD LILY. Fritillaria Meleagris. MEADOW SAFFRON. Colchicum Autumnale
 
 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 Liliacese ; 
 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 liliaceous tribe of plants. 
 
 TURK'S-CAP LILY. 
 LILIUM MART AGON. 
 
 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
 
 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 ntumnale, 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 MMicinale" 
 
 FLOWERING RUSH. 
 BUTOMUS UMBELLATUS. 
 
 THIS is a peculiarly elegant plant, belonging to the 
 family Alismaceae. 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. 
 ^AGITTARIA SAG1TTIFOLIA, 
 
 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 distinct 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 MACULA7WM. 
 
 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 t >
 
 PLATE XVIII. 
 
 tttf 
 
 -OWERING RUSH. Butomus umbellatus. ARROW-HEAD. Sagittaria SagittifoUa. 
 
 JCKOO PINT. Arum Maculatum. SWEET FLAG. Acorns Calamus. 
 
 rrTON GRASS. Eriophorum Angustifolium. BULRUSH. Scirpus 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 
 
 L
 
 H6 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 ANGUSTIFOLIUM. 
 
 THE appearance of this pretty plant, which belongs to 
 the natural order Cyperacece, 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 Cyperacece ; 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, Typha 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. 
 ACORUS 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 
 
 IX 
 
 xvi 
 x 
 
 xii 
 xii 
 
 xiii 
 xv 
 xi 
 
 76 
 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 
 
 38 
 
 vii 
 
 5 
 
 59 
 
 XV 
 
 5 
 
 126 
 
 vii 
 
 S 
 
 59 
 
 xi 
 
 6 
 
 95 
 
 xii 
 
 5 
 
 98 
 
 xviii 
 
 6 
 
 147 
 
 vii 
 
 4 
 
 52 
 
 xviii 
 
 i 
 
 142 
 
 i 
 
 i 
 
 i 
 
 XV 
 
 3 
 
 132 
 
 xi 
 
 3 
 
 90 
 
 ii 
 
 2 
 
 8 
 
 X 
 
 6 
 
 86 
 
 iv 
 
 4 
 
 3 
 
 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 verna ... 
 
 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 
 
 xvi 
 
 6 
 
 134 
 
 X 
 
 5 
 
 79 
 
 xiii 
 
 2 
 
 104 
 
 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 
 
 S 
 
 146 
 
 viii 
 
 5 
 
 64 
 
 XV 
 
 2 
 
 122 
 
 vi 
 
 6 
 
 56 
 
 xviii 
 
 4 
 
 149 
 
 xvi 
 
 5 
 
 132 
 
 iv 
 
 5 
 
 31 
 
 xviii 
 
 i 
 
 142 
 
 xvi 
 
 4 
 
 131 
 
 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, 
 
 PLATE FIG. PAGE 
 
 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 
 
 V 
 
 4 
 
 38 
 
 V 
 
 5 
 
 39 
 
 V 
 
 4 
 
 38 
 
 xiii 
 
 4 
 
 108 
 
 ii 
 
 5 
 
 15 
 
 xiv 
 
 2 
 
 116 
 
 i 
 
 5 
 
 5 
 
 viii 
 
 2 
 
 63 
 
 ix 
 
 5 
 
 67 
 
 vi 
 
 4 
 
 42 
 
 xvii 
 
 2 
 
 137 
 
 iv 
 
 2 
 
 37 
 
 xii 
 
 I 
 
 96 
 
 xiii 
 
 6 
 
 in 
 
 xii 
 
 4 
 
 114 
 
 X 
 
 6 
 
 86 
 
 iii 
 
 6 
 
 24 
 
 xi 
 
 2 
 
 89 
 
 xi 
 
 3 
 
 90 
 
 iii 
 
 4 
 
 22 
 
 xiii 
 
 i 
 
 102 
 
 V 
 
 5 
 
 39 
 
 xiii 
 
 i 
 
 IO2 
 
 xi 
 
 4 
 
 92 
 
 viii 
 
 5 
 
 6 4 
 
 ix 
 
 3 
 
 74 
 
 ii 
 
 5 
 
 15 
 
 vii 
 
 6 
 
 66 
 
 vi 
 
 4 
 
 42 
 
 xvii 
 
 2 
 
 137 
 
 xvii 
 
 i 
 
 136 
 
 xvii 
 
 i 
 
 136 
 
 viii 
 
 4 
 
 64 
 
 xiii 
 
 i 
 
 IO2 
 
 iv 
 
 6 
 
 35 
 
 iv 
 
 6 
 
 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 
 Ly thrum 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 
 
 8 4 
 
 xvi 
 
 5 
 
 132 
 
 iii 
 
 i 
 
 17 
 
 xii 
 
 4 
 
 114 
 
 vi 
 
 3 
 
 53 
 
 V 
 
 i 
 
 32 
 
 V 
 
 i 
 
 32 
 
 vii 
 
 6 
 
 60 
 
 xvii 
 
 5 
 
 138 
 
 xvii 
 
 4 
 
 139 
 
 ii 
 
 3 
 
 10 
 
 xvii 
 
 4 
 
 139 
 
 iv 
 
 5 
 
 3 1 
 
 ix 
 
 3 
 
 74 
 
 xiv 
 
 5 
 
 119 
 
 vii 
 
 i 
 
 58 
 
 xviii 
 
 3 
 
 144 
 
 iv 
 
 4 
 
 3 
 
 xiv 
 
 5 
 
 119 
 
 vii 
 
 i 
 
 58 
 
 V 
 
 3 
 
 34 
 
 V 
 
 2 
 
 33 
 
 V 
 
 I 
 
 32 
 
 V 
 
 2 
 
 33 
 
 xvi 
 
 2 
 
 129 
 
 V 
 
 3 
 
 34 
 
 ii 
 
 2 
 
 8 
 
 viii 
 
 4 
 
 64 
 
 viii 
 
 I 
 
 61 
 
 xi 
 
 6 
 
 95 
 
 xvii 
 
 6 
 
 140 
 
 xi 
 
 6 
 
 95 
 
 xvi 
 
 2 
 
 129 
 
 ix 
 
 I 
 
 69 
 
 xiv 
 
 5 
 
 119 
 
 ii 
 
 i 
 
 7 
 
 xiii 
 
 6 
 
 in
 
 156 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Muscari racemosum 
 Musk Mallow 
 Myosotis palustris 
 
 Narcissus pseudonarcissus 
 Nasturtium officinale 
 Nepeta glechoma 
 Nettle, Common 
 Nightshade, Deadly 
 Nightshade, Woody 
 NupharLutea 
 Nymphaea alba 
 
 CEnothera biennis 
 Old Man's Beard 
 Ononis spinosa 
 Ophrys apifera 
 Ophrys muscifera 
 Orchis, Bee ... 
 Orchis, Early ... 
 Orchis, Fly ... 
 Orchis, Man or M ilitary 
 Orchis mascula 
 Orchis militaris 
 Oxalis acetosella 
 
 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 
 
 PLATE 
 
 FIG. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 xvii 
 
 2 
 
 137 
 
 V 
 
 xii 
 
 2 
 6 
 
 33 
 99 
 
 xvi 
 
 6 
 
 134 
 
 iii 
 
 3 
 
 19 
 
 xii 
 
 4 
 
 114 
 
 XV 
 
 4 
 
 124 
 
 xiii 
 
 2 
 
 104 
 
 xiii 
 
 3 
 
 107 
 
 ii 
 
 4 
 
 12 
 
 ii 
 
 3 
 
 10 
 
 vi 
 
 6 
 
 56 
 
 i 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 vi 
 
 I 
 
 45 
 
 xvi 
 
 3 
 
 130 
 
 xvi 
 
 4 
 
 131 
 
 xvi 
 xvi 
 
 3 
 
 i 
 
 130 
 128 
 
 xvi 
 
 4 
 
 131 
 
 xvi 
 xvi 
 
 2 
 
 I 
 
 129 
 
 128 
 
 xvi 
 
 V 
 
 2 
 
 6 
 
 129 
 
 ii 
 
 6 
 
 13 
 
 iv 
 
 2 
 
 37 
 
 iv 
 viii 
 
 2 
 3 
 
 37 
 62 
 
 vi 
 
 viii 
 
 3 
 4 
 
 53 
 64 
 
 i 
 xiv 
 
 4 
 6 
 
 4 
 119 
 
 XV 
 
 i 
 
 120 
 
 XV 
 
 i 
 
 120 
 
 xiv 
 
 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 
 
 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 
 
 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 Bindweed 
 
 PLATE 
 
 FIG. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 ii 
 
 6 
 
 13 
 
 ii 
 
 5 
 
 15 
 
 vii 
 
 2 
 
 54 
 
 ii 
 
 6 
 
 13 
 
 xiv 
 
 3 
 
 116 
 
 vi 
 
 6 
 
 56 
 
 xiv 
 
 4 
 
 117 
 
 xiv 
 
 3 
 
 116 
 
 vii 
 
 i 
 
 58 
 
 XV 
 
 2 
 
 122 
 
 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 
 
 xvii 
 
 6 
 
 140 
 
 xviii 
 
 2 
 
 H3 
 
 iv 
 
 6 
 
 35 
 
 ix 
 
 2 
 
 73 
 
 viii 
 
 6 
 
 66 
 
 viii 
 
 I 
 
 61 
 
 viii 
 
 2 
 
 63 
 
 viii 
 
 I 
 
 61 
 
 xvii 
 
 3 
 
 138 
 
 xviii 
 
 6 
 
 H7 
 
 xii 
 
 3 
 
 "3 
 
 X 
 
 2 
 
 83 
 
 xii 
 
 2 
 
 97
 
 158 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Sea Holly 
 
 Sea Milkwort ... 
 
 Sempervivum Tectorum 
 
 Sium angustifolium 
 
 Skull-cap, Common 
 
 Snakeshead Lily 
 
 Snapdragon ... 
 
 Solarium 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 ... 
 Utricularia vulgaris 
 
 Vaccinium Myrtillus 
 Verbascum Thapsus 
 Veronica Chamaedrys ... 
 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 
 
 n3 
 
 xvii 
 
 5 
 
 138 
 
 xiii 
 
 5 
 
 IIO 
 
 xiii 
 
 3 
 
 107 
 
 V 
 
 6 
 
 4i 
 
 xiii 
 
 4 
 
 1 08 
 
 xi 
 
 5 
 
 94 
 
 xvii 
 
 3 
 
 138 
 
 XV 
 
 2 
 
 122 
 
 xvii 
 
 3 
 
 138 
 
 XV 
 
 3 
 
 I2 3 
 
 XV 
 
 6 
 
 127 
 
 vi 
 
 2 
 
 46 
 
 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 
 
 139 
 
 vi 
 
 4 
 
 42 
 
 XV 
 
 4 
 
 124 
 
 xiv 
 
 i 
 
 "5 
 
 xi 
 
 i 
 
 88 
 
 xiii 
 
 6 
 
 in 
 
 xiii 
 
 4 
 
 108 
 
 \i 
 
 3 
 
 53 
 
 iii 
 
 5 
 
 22 
 
 iii 
 
 6 
 
 24 
 
 iii 
 
 5 
 
 22
 
 INDEX. 159 
 
 Viper's Bugloss 
 
 PLATE 
 
 xii 
 
 FIG. 
 
 5 
 
 PAGE 
 9 8 
 
 Virgin's Bower 
 
 i 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 Viscum Album 
 
 ix 
 
 I 
 
 6 9 
 
 Water- cress ... 
 
 iii 
 
 3 
 
 19 
 
 Water Flag ... 
 
 xvi 
 
 5 
 
 132 
 
 Water Lily, White 
 
 ii 
 
 3 
 
 10 
 
 Water Lily, Yellow 
 
 ii 
 
 4 
 
 12 
 
 Water Parsnip 
 
 viii 
 
 3 
 
 62 
 
 Water Soldier 
 
 XV 
 
 6 
 
 127 
 
 Water Star wort 
 
 XV 
 
 3 
 
 123 
 
 Way-bread 
 
 XV 
 
 i 
 
 I2O 
 
 White Water Lily 
 
 ii 
 
 3 
 
 10 
 
 Whitlow Grass 
 
 iii 
 
 2 
 
 IS 
 
 Whortleberry, Black ... 
 
 xi 
 
 I 
 
 88 
 
 Wild Bryony ... 
 
 vii 
 
 5 
 
 59 
 
 Wild Hyacinth 
 
 xvii 
 
 i 
 
 136 
 
 Willow Herb 
 
 vi 
 
 5 
 
 55 
 
 Wind Flower ... 
 
 i 
 
 3 
 
 3 
 
 Woad, Dyer's 
 
 iii 
 
 i 
 
 '7 
 
 Wolfs-bane ... 
 
 ii 
 
 i 
 
 7 
 
 Wood Anemone 
 
 i 
 
 3 
 
 3 
 
 Woodbine 
 
 ix 
 
 3 
 
 74 
 
 Wood-sorrel ... 
 
 V 
 
 6 
 
 4i 
 
 Woody Nightshade 
 
 xiii 
 
 3 
 
 107 
 
 Yellow Bedstraw 
 
 ix 
 
 4 
 
 76 
 
 Yellow Flag ... 
 
 xvi 
 
 5 
 
 132 
 
 Yellow Pea ... 
 
 vi 
 
 3 
 
 53 
 
 Yellow Vetchling 
 
 vi 
 
 3 
 
 53 
 
 Yellow Water Lily 
 
 ... ... ii 
 
 4 
 
 12 
 
 RICHARD CI.AY & SONS, LIMITED, LONDON & DUNGAY.