408 WILD FLOWERS OP 



set with hard bell-like capsules, and the juicy but 

 insipid Grood King Henry (CJienopodium Bonus Hen- 

 rictis), never perhaps much better than a chip in 

 porridge, and as neglected now as poor King HENRY 

 himself could be. Sometimes we see a farm house 

 made out of the spoils of a deserted abbey or priory, 

 while many shattered walls and arches yet remain 

 about it 



" Where the mouldering walls are seen 

 Hung with pellitory green." 



Nor are other plants of ruin slow to invade the inter- 

 stices of the broken-up fabric, where parsley and 

 willow-herb, ivy and honeysuckle, wild and garden- 

 flower mix in strange confusion, withered grass and 

 succulent stonecrop range together on the same ledge, 

 incongruous as would be the mixture of past and 

 present manners, and suggestive to the moralist of a 

 changed and ever changing scene. 



" Not always did that structure frown 



With ivy-crested brow ; 

 Nor were its walls with moss embrown'd, 

 Nor hung the lanky weeds around 



That fringe its ruins now." 



In the vicinity of such once inhabited spots the 

 sickly looking Wormwood is sure to be found, often 

 in great profusion, especially in Wales. I never saw 

 such a crop as actually lines the streets of the abject 

 city of St. David's, in Pembrokeshire, and all around 

 the high steps of its once hallowed cross, while Ver- 

 vain in the utmost profusion, White Horehound, and 

 golden-headed Tansy, are scattered about the ruins of 

 its college and palace. Mr. LEIGHTOIST says, in his 

 Flora of Shropshire, that " there is a tradition that 

 this plant was extensively employed medicinally during 



