food material for the production of the 

 flower was stored in the underground 

 stem during the preceding season. 

 Thus the green leaf is not needed early 

 in the growth of the plant. 



The adult leaf is kidney-shaped, 

 smooth, and five to nine lobed. When 

 fully grown they are often more than 

 six inches in diameter. The leaf-stalk, 

 which may be over one foot in length, 



and the radiating veins vary in color 

 from yellowish to orange. Few leaves 

 are more beautiful and graceful than 

 these, both during their development 

 and when fully mature. 



It is said that the Indians formerly 

 used the juice of this plant as a dye, 

 and thus it is sometimes called red In 

 dian paint and red puccoon. 



TANSY CAKES. 



Ti IT ANY of our garden herbs still in 

 /Y\ common use for purposes of 

 \. seasoning are in reality British 

 plants, says Longman's Maga 

 zine. Among them may be mentioned 

 mint and marjoram and thyme and 

 calamint, all of which may be found in 

 their native haunts. Fennel is abun 

 dant on sea cliffs in many places in the 

 south of England. Wild hyssop is per 

 fectly naturalized on the picturesque 

 ruins of Beaulieu Abbey and wild balm 

 used to be found within the ancient 

 walls of Portchester castle. The 

 garden parsley was formerly abundant 

 on the shingly beach at Hurst castle, 

 where it used to be gathered for 

 domestic purposes. One native herb, 

 however, much in use among our fore 

 fathers is now seldom seen in kitchen 

 gardens we mean Tanacetum vulgare, 

 the common tansy, the dull yellow 

 flowers of which are often conspicuous 

 by the side of streams. The young 

 leaves and juice of this plant were for 

 merly employed to give color and 



flavor to puddings, which were known 

 as tansy cakes, or tansy puddings. 



In mediseval times the use of these 

 cakes was specially associated with the 

 season of Easter and it is interesting to 

 notice that in the diet rolls of St. 

 Swithin's monastery at Winchester, 

 which belong to the end of the fifteenth 

 century, we come across the entry 

 " tansey tarte." It has been said that 

 the use of tansy cakes at this season 

 was to strengthen the digestion after 

 what an old writer calls "the idle con 

 ceit of eating fish and pulse for forty 

 days in Lent," and it is certain that 

 this was the virtue attributed to the 

 plant by the old herbalists. " The herb 

 fried with eggswhichis calleda 'tansy,' " 

 says Culpepper, "helps to digest and 

 carry away those bad humors that 

 trouble the stomach." It seems more 

 probable that the custom of eatingtansy 

 cakes at Easter time was associated 

 with the teaching of that festival, the 

 name "tansy" being a corruption of a 

 Greek word meaning "immortality." 



THE PARTRIDGE CALL. 



Shrill and shy from the dusk they cry, 



Faintly from over the hill; 

 Out of the gray where shadows lie, 

 Out of the gold where sheaves are 



high, 

 Covey to covey, call and reply, 



Plaintively, shy and shrill. 



Dies the day, and from far away 



Under the evening star 

 Dies the echo as dies the day, 

 Droops with the dew in the new-mown 



hay, 

 Sinks and sleeps in the scent of May, 



Dreamily, faint and far. 

 Frank Saville in the Pall Mall Magazine. 



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