BALM. 



about the chalk quarries at Compton and Wanborough, as 

 we learn from a paper on the " Flora of Godalming," kindly 

 sent to us by the Author, J. D. Salmon, Esq., M.B.S. It 

 may easily be overlooked in such rural places, for 



" The humble bee 

 Seems sipping honey from the purple flower ;" — 



Favourite Field Flowers. 



and we pass on, not thinking that we have just glanced 

 upon so singular an effort of Nature in the vegetable 

 kingdom. How often do we miss, in our journey through 

 life, things of the greatest interest and most remarkable 

 peculiarity, by prepossession of the mind with an object 

 differing from the present unperceived reality ! 



BALM {Melissa officinalis). — PLEASANTRY. 



The generic name Melissa (MeX/o-o-a) was no doubt given 

 to this because it is pre-eminently a bee plant, an especial 

 favourite with that ever active and industrious insect. Its 

 flowers abound in honey, as others in the Natural Order 

 Labiata^. Its fresh leaves have the agreeable flavour of 

 lemon. This fragrance is evanescent and not to be perceived 

 in the dried i)lant. It used to be thought much of as a 

 strengthener of the nerves, and as giving relief to the hy- 

 pochondriac. An infusion of its leaves is now valued as a 

 pleasant and cheering tea in the heat of the summer. 



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