GUELDER ROSE 29 



in too great quantity are not to be commended, for they 

 are said to be hard of digestion, yet if any one be so much 

 taken with them that he cannot refrain from them, let him 

 eat Raisons together with them, so that the moisture of the 

 one may qualifie the drynesse of the other." This clearly 

 is the philosophy of that popular dessert dish, almonds 

 and raisins, bane and antidote producing together a very 

 pleasant blend. 



Culpeper, we note, in his Astrologo-Botanical Discourse 

 on Herbs, edition of 168 1, flies so markedly in the face of 

 general belief as to specially prescribe nuts as a medicine 

 for pulmonary trouble. Conscious of his departure from 

 accepted practice he breaks out somewhat fiercely — " Why 

 should the vulgar so familiarly affirm that eating nuts 

 causeth shortness of breath, than which nothing can be 

 falser ? Or, how can that which strengthens the lungs 

 cause shortness of breath .'' I knew Tradition was a friend 

 to errors before, but never that he was the father of 

 slanders : or are men's tongues so given to slander one 

 another that they must slander nuts too, to keep their 

 tongues in use.' If any thing of the nut be stopping 'tis 

 the husks and shells, and nobody is so mad as to eat them, 

 and the red skin which covers the kernels, which you 

 may easily pull off. And thus have I made an apology for 

 nuts, which cannot speak for themselves." 



GUELDER ROSE (Viburnum Opulus) 



Beautiful alike in Summer and in Autumn, the guelder 

 rose must be by no means disregarded in our review of 

 Nature's pageantry. Seen in June it is a mass of creamy- 



