

THE EYE FOR FLOWERS 



arum this strong objection occurs to me many 

 of the plants have plain leaves. Search any hedge 

 side or bottom, you find a considerable minority of 

 arum leaves quite plain. If the spotted leaves had 

 the better chance of success in the competition for 

 insect visits, the plain, by natural selection a 

 devout Darwinist will say must soon die out. 



The garden lungwort's petals show a notable 

 change in colour : they begin rose-coloured, turn 

 to azure, and end purple. The leaves give to both 

 plants the name pulmonaria, because they bear a 

 fanciful likeness to the lungs. In old England the 

 lungwort was important in leechcraft. Culpepper 

 does not mention this plant in his " English 

 Physitian," I think, but he has another " lungwort," 

 a spotted lichen. Both were sovereign remedy for 

 lung disease, because they looked like lungs. This 

 was one of the secrets of the odd " doctrine of 

 signatures " like cured like. It is possible that 

 to this day the doctrine, unknown, has influence 

 among the village grandams who hold by herbs. 

 The doctrine of signatures seems not, like the 

 charms against warts, and other features in village 

 life to-day, to date from Anglo-Saxon times. I 

 believe it is not mentioned in the leech books and 

 manuscripts before the Conquest. 



Star Time 



Judging by the tinkle of a sheep-bell in the dead 

 still evening air, the shepherd has moved his flock, 



61 



