RUINS, WALLS, AND WASTE PLACES. 83 



ascribed to it, and its names were various. It was 

 "the poor man's parmacetie," the Saint James's 

 Wort, Caseweed of our ancestors. It will be found 

 in bloom during the whole of the summer months in 

 fields and gardens, as well as waste places. 



It is on old walls or rocky protuberances that we 

 must look for the little "Whitlow Grass (Draba 

 verna). Its stem is not above two or three inches 

 high, and grows out of a circle of slender leaves. As 

 early as February it shows its small cross-shaped 

 white flowers above the lowly moss. Old writers 

 called it nail herb, and the juice, when mixed with 

 milk, was thought to cure that painful swelling known 

 as a whitlow. 



Out of the crevices of the wall the purplish or lilac- 

 tinted flowers of the Ivy-leaved Toadflax (Lina- 

 ria cymbalaria) creep in profusion. The thick round- 

 shaped leaves are tinted with purple on the under 

 side. 



If the wall is of limestone, the pretty ferns Ruta 

 miiraria, Maidenhair Spleenwort, and the Polypodies 

 will be i'ound close at hand. 



Early in the year we may look for the yellow 

 Sweet-scented Wallflower (C/ieirdnflats clieiri). It 



