92 



The whimseys cf a coal mine soon appeared on its bank of dihris, and the black 

 smoke as if from a volcano swept over the landscape. The programme had offered 

 the temptation of a descent into a coal mine, but though some bright sparkling 

 eyes bore witness to the readiness for the adventure, there was some hesitation as 

 to the dirt, and when some miners came up the shaft, the practical necessity of 

 sticking a lighted candle in front of their hats became evident, and the fair visitors 

 decided to leave the carboniferous shades below unexplored, and contented them- 

 selves with looking down the shaft. 



A little higher up the hill on the right, passing through paths knee-deep in 

 fern, a large space of open boggy ground was found containing some rare and 

 interesting plants. The pretty little Bog Pimpernel (Anagallis tenclla) covered 

 the ground with its delicate pink striped blossoms and rosy tipped buds — 



Of fairer form and brighter hue 



Than many a flower that drinks the dew 



Amid the garden's brilliant show. 



The botanists went down on their knees with much enthusiasm to get good 



specimens, until one fair matronly student in science — a dean of the new order 



she should be — thought that kneeling on damp, boggy ground might possibly 



entail a visit to Buxton. The slender Scutellaria minor, or lesser Scull-cap, was 



the next discovered plant ; then the fresh pink blossoms of Pedicularis sylvatica 



were gathered ; and a sharp-eyed botanist detected the tiny flower of the marsh 



Pennywort, Hydrocotyle vulgaris, whose round pale green leaves sprinkled the 



whole surface of the ground. 



The next plants which excited enthusiasm were the marsh St. John's Wort, 

 Hypericum clodes, which is quite a rarity within the bounds of civilisation ; the 

 trailing St. John's Wort, H. humifusura ; and the beautiful bright orange flowered 

 upright St. John's Wort, H. pulchruni. Not to mention the divine virtue of 

 driving away devils, all sorts of medicinal virtues have been attributed to the St. 

 John's Worts, from time immemorial, and precious balsams and rare unguents 

 were made from them ; one of them, H. Androscemum, not uncommon in Hereford- 

 shire hedgerows and gardens, is called " Tutsans" from the French " toiite-saine," 

 or "Heal-all," but in our more pi'osaic modern terms it hath been cynically said 



forsooth. 



The herb St. John 

 Doth neither good nor hurt ; but that's all one ; 

 If they but conceive it doth, it doth I 



Many superstitions too are connected with them ; one of which at least deserves 



mention here. In Lower Saxony if maidens gather St. John's Wort on Midsummer 



night and hang it up in their bed-chambers, the fresh or withered appearance of 



the plant in the morning will show whether they are to become brides in the 



ensuing year — an idea which is thus happily translated from the German — 



The young maid stole through the cottage door, 

 And blushed as she caught the platit of power. 



Thou silver glow-worm, Oh I lend me thy light ! 

 I must gather the mystic St. John's Wort to night ; 

 The wonderful herb whose leaf will decide^ 

 If the coming year shall see me a bride I 



