WAYSIDE WEEDS. 201 



itself. If you ask why this Catch-fly closes in the day, 

 the answer is that a man does not wave his umbrella 

 unless he wants a cab. The plant is not fertilised 

 by bees and butterflies that flutter in the sunshine, but 

 by night-flying insects ; as soon as these are on the 

 wing the Silene spreads its corolla to attract them. 



The wild Verbena springs up on the garden path, 

 and in spite of your utmost vigilance the gardener 

 destroys the sacred herb. A neglected flower-bed is 

 soon grown over by the Heliotrope, a greyish annual, 

 which has neither the colour nor the perfume of the 

 cultivated plant. A still more disappointing plant is 

 the Amaranth, which grovels in the gutter. How 

 does it happen that this ignoble weed has appro- 

 priated the classic name ? Can this be the flower 

 which Pliny recommends for making wreaths and 

 garlands, the unfading Amaranth, praised by poets, 

 sung by bards ? It has been suggested that the real 

 Amaranth is Helichrysum orientate, Tournef, still 

 extensively cultivated in Provence for making funeral 

 wreaths. This is the flower which we call "ever- 

 lasting," French "Immortelle." The wild plant. 

 H. StcKchas D.C., from which this is supposed to be 

 derived, is almost common enough on the Eiviera to 

 be called a Wayside Weed. The flowers are of a 

 brilliant yellow, and this little Everlasting deserves its 

 Greek name, which interpreted means " Sun Gold." It 

 owes its attraction to the petaloid scarious phyllaries : 

 the leaf is linear, white beneath, with the edges rolled 

 back. The Italian, with an infelicitous appropriate- 

 ness, applies to these plants the name " mortorie." 



A downright Weed, a regular " Unkraut," as the 

 Germans say, with the full force of the pejorative 

 prefix, is the curious Arisarum mdgare (Figs. 75 and 



