les hither! For the old folk, aged men and
countrywomen, have for the most part forgotten, if they ever knew, the
plants and herbs in the hedges they had frequented from childhood. Some
few, of course, they can tell you; but the majority are as unknown to
them, except by sight, as, the ferns of New Zealand or the heaths of the
Cape. Since books came about, since the railways and science destroyed
superstition, the lore of herbs has in great measure decayed and been
lost. The names of many of the commonest herbs are quite forgotten--they
are weeds, and nothing more. But here these things are preserved; in
London, the centre of civilisation and science, is a garden which
restores the ancient knowledge of the monks and the witches of the
villages.

Thus, on entering to-day, the first plant which I observed is
hellebore--a not very common wild herb perhaps, but found in places, and
a traditionary use of which is still talked of in the country, a use
which I must forbear to mention. What would the sturdy mowers whom I
once watched cutting their way steadily through the tall grass in June
say, could they see here the black knapweed cultivated as a garden
treasure? Its hard woody head with purple florets lifted high above the
ground, was greatly disliked by them, as, too, the blue scabious, and
indeed most other flowers. The stalks of such plants were so much harder
to mow than the grass.

Feathery yarrow sprays, which spring up by the wayside and wherever the
foot of man passes, as at the gateway, are here. White and lilac-tinted
yarrow flowers grow so thickly along the roads round London as often to
form a border between the footpath and the bushes of the hedge.
Dandelions lift their yellow heads, classified and cultivated--the same
dandelions whose brilliant colour is admired and imitated by artists,
and whose prepared roots are still in use in country places to improve
the flavour of coffee.

Groundsel, despised groundsel--the weed which cumbers the garden patch,
and is hastily destroyed, is here fully recognised. These
harebells--they have flowered a little earlier than in their wild
state--how many scenes they recall to memory! We found them on the tops
of the glorious Downs when the wheat was ripe in the plains and the
earth beneath seemed all golden. Some, too, concealed themselves on the
pastures behind those bunches of tough grass the cattle left untouched.
And even in cold November, when the mist lifted, while th