32 WILD, OR NATIVE FLOWERS. 



A\'e might say with the poet : 



'"T.vas pity nature brought ye forth 

 Merely to show your worth, 

 And lose ye quite ! 

 But ye have lovely leaves, where we 

 May read how soon things have 

 Their end, though ne'er so hrave ; 

 And after they have shown their pride. 

 Like you awhile they glide 



Into the grave." — Herrick. 



I do not know if our brave Scarlet Cup, of Canada, has any flora, 

 relationship to an herb known in the Old Country as " Clary " or by its 

 local and descriptive name of "Eye-bright." It is an old-fashioned 

 flower, sometimes found in cottage gardens. I remember its curious 

 coloured leaves and bracts attracted my notice where first I saw it, in a 

 neglected corner of a poor old woman's garden. There were two 

 varieties, one with the dull, veiny leaves, bordered with purple, as if the 

 leaves had been dipped into some logwood dye, the other with a full 

 pink. I forget, in the long lapse of time since I saw the plants, if the 

 flower itself was pretty, or partook of the same tint of colour as the foliage, 

 but the great marvel consisted in the black, oval seeds, not very large, 

 about the size of the seed of the Sage. This wonderful seed, Nannie 

 Prime told me, gave the name to the plant " Eye-bright," though, she 

 added, " the learned gardener folk do call it ' Clary.' If any dust or 

 motes, or any bad humors, are in the eye and one of these seeds be put 

 into the corner of the eye, it will gather it all round itself and clear the 

 precious sight ; and this is why folks do give it the name of ' Eye-bright.' 

 Sure, Miss, the Lord gave this little seed for a cure for us poor folk, and 

 no doubt the whole plant is good for other complaints, as many of our 

 harbs be, if we did but use 'them right." We know of no especial 

 healing virtue contained in the seed or leaves of our beautiful Scarlet 

 Cup ; but it charms the eye and delights us, and that is God's gift also. 

 There seems to be no actual void, no space unfilled in God's creation. 

 Something fills u[)jall vacancies, either in vegetable or animal life; 

 unseen organisms, too subtile and too fine to become visible to our 

 unassisted vision, have their existence though we behold them not. 



" I'ather of earth and heaven, all, all arc thine ; 



The boundless tribes in ocean, air and plain, 



And nothing lives, and moves, and breaths in vain. 

 Thou art their soul, the impulse is divine : 

 Nature lifts loud to Thee her happy voice, 



And calls her caverns to resound Thy praise ; 



Thy name is heard amid her pathless ways, 

 And e'en her senseless things in Thee rejoice." 



