68 IVILD, OR NATIVE FLOWERS. 



plants are remarkable for the bitter, viscid, milky juices with which they 

 abound. 



We know nothing in medicine, experimentally, of this tribe of 

 native plants : but I believe they are supposed to contain poisonous 

 properties of a narcotic nature, as is the case with most vegetables 

 containing acrid milky juices. 



It would add greatly to the value of botanical books, if a few words 

 as to the poisonous character of native plants were inserted. 



'\\'lLLOW-HERB — EfilohiiDn (ui^^iistifoliiii/i, (L.) 



This handsome, showy plant, with its tall wand-like stem, and 

 abundant blossoms of reddish lilac, adorns old neglected fallow-lands 

 that have been run over by bush fires, and open swampy spots, where it 

 covers the unsightly ground with its bright colours and drooping stems, 

 which are often borne down by the weight of their blossoms and fair 

 buds. It often shares these waste places with the White Everlasting, 

 Afitentiojia margaiitacea. Wild Red-Raspberry, Blackberry, and the Fire- 

 weed : with a variety of smaller plants that take possession of the virgin 

 soil, there to perfect their flowers and fruit, while at the same time their 

 abundant foliage serves to cover the confusion caused by charred and 

 blackened trunks and branches of prostrate trees. Over all these the 

 graceful Willow-herb waves its flowery spikes and long willowy leaves. 

 All through the months of Jul}-, August and September it blooms 

 on, while later in the season its silky-plumed seeds fill the air, as they 

 wing their way to other wild spots equally favourable for their growth and 

 development. 



The mid-ribs of the leaves are white, or rosy red, as also are the 

 wand-like stems and branches. The terminal naked buds are of a deep 

 crimson ; the seed-pod long, and opening lengthwise to allow the seeds to 

 float off on the breeze by means of their silky sails. 



The Willow-herb is cultivated in gardens in England, where it is 

 known by the name of French Willow. I remember seeing it in 

 almost a wild state, in a pictures(iue old garden in Suffolk, where it 

 grew to the height of seven or eight feet, the long flowery wand-like 

 stems drooping over the margin of a fish-pond, where, beneath the 

 shadow of a big old \\'illow, I used to sit and feed the silver-scaled Carp, 

 which were so fearless that they came and fed upon the crumbs that I threw 

 into the water. It was a pleasant spot, with the flowers, and the fish, and 

 the old Willow tree. 



