.SOME FLOWEE LEGENDS' 



BY 



EDWARD TYRRELL, TORONTO. 



I 



"\HIS is the time for holidays, when 

 many of your reacfers will have the 

 opportunity of taking a month or 

 two months' rest and recreation. There is 

 pleasure in the anticipation of a good holi- 

 day. I remember as if it were yesterday 

 when I was an apprentice in London, the 

 proprietor of the house I was in made it a 

 rule that every one of his employes (and 

 there were about one hundred and sixty of 

 us) before going on their holidays should 

 go into his office and see him before leaving. 

 His kind remarks as to our work, and the 

 desire to be remembered to our parents or 

 relatives, and the hope that we would spend 

 a pleasant outing and return refreshed and 

 strengthened was very encouraging. To 

 many he would say, " Where are you going 

 for a holiday and a rest from business? 

 The mind is often better rested by reading, 

 allow me to give you this book," and he 

 would select one from a large supply he al- 

 ways kept in his room, and it would be a 

 good one, not a goody goody tract, but by a 

 standard author. Those of us who have 

 one or more of these books, money cannot 

 buy them. I echo his words to those tak- 

 ing their holidays, " take a number of books 

 with you." What friends you can have, 

 how much information they will give! If 

 you are ignorant they will not laugh at you, 

 if you mistake them they do not get of- 

 fended. A favorite writer says : "I 

 have friends whose society is extremely 

 agreeable to m'e, they are of all ages and of 

 every country, they have distinguished them- 

 selves both in the cabinet and in the field, 

 they relate to me the events of past ages, 

 and reveal to me the secrets of nature. 

 Some, by their variety, drive away my cares 



and exhilerate my spirits, and others teach 

 me how to live, and how to die. In return 

 for all their services they only ask me to ac- 

 commodate them in some corner of my hum- 

 ble habitation." It is good advice, try it, 

 you will be helped as I have been. 



My notes this month are on the House 

 Leek (Sempervivium), commin in Europe, 

 called Fous or Fousts in Scotland ; Poor 

 Leaf and Hen and Chickens in De- 

 vonshire ; in other places House Leek 

 and Jupiter's Beard. The leaves, cut 

 or bruised, and applied to burns or 

 stings of bees or wasps afford im- 

 mediate reli'ef. They are a beneficial ap- 

 plication to ulcers and sores, and are es- 

 teemed for fevers. In early times, so it is 

 recorded, by growing them on the roofs of 

 houses they would keep the lightning off, 

 and in confirmation of this belief Charle- 

 mange issued an edict for their general cul- 

 ture in these words : " Let everyone have 

 the Jupiter's beard on his house to keep off 

 the lightning." 



Lilium candidum (white lily). The com- 

 mon white lily is one of the oldest and no- 

 blest as well as commonest flowers of the 

 garden, more especially in England. It be- 

 longs to a family of plants that has no poor 

 relations. Poets from Homer down have 

 sung its praises side by side with the rose 

 and violet, for its beauty and stateliness, the 

 snowy whiteness of its flowers and its fra- 

 grance as to be quite without a rival. It has 

 been claimed as an emblem by nearly a hun- 

 dred saints. It is a native of the country 

 called the Levant, and as the Levant includes 

 Palestine, it is by no means proper to con- 

 sider this as the " Lily of the Field " refer- 

 red to bv our Lord in his sermon on the 



''This article was written for our August Number. — Eiutor. 



