SEPTEMBER S FLOWERS 



Basin, and the rustic beauty who bathes her face in its 

 waters is safe from warts and freckles. 



ONE of the brightest small flowers of the day is eye- 

 bright, whose fresh look, as it grows in 

 A Herb clumps on chalk hills, seems to belie the 

 of Grace passing of Summer. The minute white 

 flowers are flecked with rose and purple, 

 and with one daring yellow spot for the eye's pupil. At 

 the least touch the plant comes up in the hand from 

 the down turf: for it is a parasite. Certainly it brightens 

 the pilgrim's eye, and deserves to be named from 

 Euphrosyne. It was with eyebright, according to 

 Milton, that the archangel, Michael, gave Adam a 

 seeing eye; and Culpeper said that if it were used 

 commonly as an eye-lotion, it would go far to ruin 

 the spectacle-makers. 



PERHAPS our most adventurous wild-flower is the 

 humble shepherd's purse, which blossoms 

 A all the year round, and seems to make its 



Vegetable fortune wherever it goes. Some of its 

 Adventurer country names enshrine the idea that it is 

 a roguish vagabond. The heart-shaped 

 pods gave it the tragic name, " Pick-your-mother's- 

 heart-out," and " Pick-purse," but a name to its credit 

 is " Poor Man's Parmecetie," hinting at healing virtues, 

 for which it was extolled highly by George Herbert in 

 his " Country Parson," as it yields a medicine " easy 

 for the parson's purse." It has followed civilization into 

 all temperate regions of the earth, to seize, in the spirit 

 which builds empires, every spot which man tills. 

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