92 FAMILIAR WILD FLOWERS. 



give a lengthy catalogue of ills that may be remedied by 

 due application of the flowers, roots, or leaves of the 

 plant. A distillation from the blossoms adds to beauty, or 

 restores it when lost; an ointment made from the flowers 

 removes all spots, wrinkles, and other blemishes : "The 

 leaves are good in wounds, and the flowers take away 

 trembling." Its potent effects under various forms of pre- 

 paration may also be exerted on " vertigo, false apparitions, 

 phrensies, falling sickness, palsies, convulsions, cramps, 

 pains in the nerves," and many another sad infirmity 

 in the list of fleshly woes. We can only conclude, as we 

 look around, that the herb must either have sadly lost its 

 efficacy in these later days, or men their faith in its 

 powers, for the tide of human misery rolls on as though 

 the cowslips no longer dotted in their thousands the 

 verdant meadows, or the breezy slopes of the rolling downs. 

 Any health-giving properties they possess will probably 

 rather be found in the search for them than in any more 

 formal application. 



