TIIROAT-WORT. 301 



hand of superstition to toucli : so that wc can nei- 

 ther embellish our liistory of this plant by tlie re- 

 marks of the poets nor the wonders of the credulous. 

 We shall therefore make a present of this neglected 

 plant to the artist who may be disposed to paint a 

 bower for Ariel ; for had it been known in this 

 country in the time of our great dramatic bard, we 

 feel satisfied that his fine imagination would have 

 seated this aerial being on a bank beneath the um- 

 belliferous branches of these azure flowers. 



The Blue Throat-wort has been so much neg- 

 lected by the British florists that it is rarely to be 

 found on the English parterre, although we learn 

 from Parkinson that it was introduced to this coun- 

 try previous to the year 1640, and it is a perennial 

 plant sufficiently hardy to endure our winters, par- 

 ticularly when planted in a dry soil. It grows na- 

 turally in stony situations in Italy, and in some 

 shady places in the Levant. IMonsieur Desfon- 

 taines found it in Barbary, where it grew in the 

 rocky fissures of Mount Atlas. 



Miller observed, as long back as 1752, that 

 " these plants thrive better on old walls, when by 

 accident they have arisen from seeds ; so their 

 seeds, when ripe, may be scattered on such walls 

 as are old, or where there is earth lodged sufficient 

 to receive the seeds ; where the plants will come up 

 and resist the cold much better^ and continue longer 



