02 WILD ELOWEB8 OE 



in a distilled water, or in an ointment, shall do 

 the deed for you in all hot diseases; and shall do 

 it I. Safely. II. Speedily." 



The second flower that now meets the eye in shel- 

 tered spots about the hedges, is the Red Dead Nettle 

 (Lamium purpurewii) , which, with its roseate corolla 

 concealing the brilliant scarlet anthers under its pro- 

 tecting hood, well deserves a close examination. Then 

 there is the Daisy, timorously peeping here and there 

 on the grass-plot, as if reminding us that bad as 

 things in general look, Iwpe is not quite extinct. And 

 last of all, somewhere or other, the Prickly Furze 

 (TTlex Europceus), with its bright yellow clusters 

 often glazed with the hoar frost, and daring a touch 

 from any intruding finger, marks with one remanet 

 of beauty the else desolate and cheerless waste. 



" It is bristled with thorns, I confess, 



But so is the much flattered Hose ; 

 Is the sweetbriar lauded the less 



Because among prickles it grows ? 

 'Twere to cut off an epigram's point, 



Or disfurnish a knight of his spurs, 

 If we foolishly wish'd to disjoint 



Its arms from the lance-bearing Furze." 



Such is the dictum of Horace Smith, and we hope 

 therefore that no person will wish the Furze or G-orse 

 a thorn less, except stern Destiny insert one in his 

 fingers or toes. "We well remember a rougli gym- 

 nastic game among boys which used to be called 

 " Stocking Gorse" and consisted in placing the un- 

 fortunate personification of the stocker upon his back, 

 when his legs were twirled over his head and forcibly 

 struck upon the ground, till " hold, enough !" was 

 the cry. As in the present day the Gorse has suffered 



