80 ARALIACE^ 



1. MoscHATEL (Addxa). 



Tuberous Moschatel (A. moschaUllina). — Leaves from the root on 



very long foot-stalks, twice ternate, lobed, and cut ; stem-leaves 2, small and 



ternate ; root white, fleshy, toothed, creeping and perennial. It is pleasant 



when spring is just coming on, to stroll away to the hedge-banks and inhale 



the odour of green leaves, and primroses, and violets, and to look for the 



Moschatel, which will need looking for among the dried leaves of last year, 



and the budding leaves of this. Bishop Mant describes the place in which 



we may find it ; — 



' ' There in the hollow lane, whose sides 

 The native rock o'erarching hides, 

 While from its moss-green tissures well 

 The trickling drops, the Moschatel 

 Peep'd meekly from her rocky bed." 



It has been said by another poet that — 



" Adoxa loves the green-wood shade ;" 



and it is usually in some shady nook of wood or hedge-bank that we find the 

 delicate little flower. The foliage is of pale green, and the hue of the flower 

 resembles that of the leaf, but is somewhat more yellow. The blossoms grow 

 in terminal heads of five each, the upper one with four petals and eight 

 stamens ; the four flowers surrounding it having five petals and ten stamens 

 each : the stamens are remarkable for being inserted in pairs, and for bearing 

 one-celled anthers. 



We vised, in early days, to call this " G-ood-Friday Flower ;" for, whether 

 that day fell late or early in spring, this plant would be in blossom, as it is 

 so from the latter end of March till the middle of May. It has several rustic 

 names, as G-lory-less, Bulbous Fumitory, Hollow-root, and Musk Crowfoot. 

 The musky odour to which it owes its last name is most perceptible in the 

 evening, a circumstance which, the author has remarked, seems common to 

 all those of our wild flowers which smell of musk, and which is more distinctly 

 observable in some others, as the Musky Heron's-bill, and the Musk Mallow. 

 The French call the flower Moscatelline, the Germans Bisamkrdutchen ; the 

 Dutch term it Muskuskruid, and the Italians, Spaniards, and Portuguese, 

 Moscatelina. It seems common among bushes and trees in most European 

 countries, and is the Desmeriiri of the Danes, and the Desmansort of the Swedes. 

 Sir William Hooker remarks that it is not unfrequent at a great elevation, 

 and even near the tops of the Highland mountains. The following lines were 

 written by Mr. F. A. Paley, for this volume : — 



"Thk First Sppjng Flowers. 



"When dreary March has pass'd away, " Here liounteous Nature loves to fling 



Give me by sunny bank to stray ; The treasures of the opening spring, 



A bank whose southern aspect gleams Where no rude wanderer hastes to tear 



From morn to eve with spring's first beams, The first form'd flow'ret of the year, 



Secured from frost and breezes keen. But every plant that cheers my eyes, 



By sombre yew's impervious screen, Unharm'd, yet not unnoticed dies. 

 Or back'd by woodland's sheltering shade — Now, peering from its leafy bed, 



A peaceful and a lonely glade, The earliest primrose rear'd its head, 



And sloping to a streamlet's side, With violet buds, a fearless few. 



Where heard, not seen, the waters glide. Full many a week ere buds were due. 



