58 FAMILIAR WILD FLOWERS. 



Europe, but the strangeness of its growth and its quaint 

 appearance have led to its wide introduction, and it may 

 now abundantly be found throughout the country, its largo 

 rosettes of great fleshy leaves being prominent on many an 

 old roof in country districts. 



We write these lines in a district surrounded by great 

 swelling chalk downs that appear to cut it off in its 

 isolation from the rest of the world, and the whole district 

 is permeated with superstitious folk-lore ; one example of 

 this will suffice. We were struck with the beauty of 

 some flowering-stems of house-leek on a cottage wall, and, 

 not then knowing their occult power, were desirous of 

 plucking one or two of them, with a view to closer 

 examination, and a possible sketch. We at once found, 

 however, that this was a totally inadmissible idea. Two 

 heads of the flowers had, in spite of strong remonstrance, been 

 gathered the previous season, and before the year had run its 

 course a brother and an uncle had died. As the evil appeared 

 to descend upon the dwelling thus violated, we could only 

 bow to circumstances, and leave the household fetish alone. 



All the plants of the order have fleshy and succulent 

 leaves, but the orpine is easily distinguishable from most of 

 the others from the fact that while its leaves partake of the 

 fleshy character of all the other species of stonecrop, it has 

 flattened leaves, a peculiarity that is only shared by the 

 rose-root, or Sedum Rhodiola. The root-stock of the orpine is 

 perennial, rather large and swollen-looking, and containing 

 within itself a store of nutriment to maintain the plant 

 in the somewhat sterile places in which it may ordinarily 

 be found. The true home of the orpine is in the hedge- 

 banks and on waste ground sheltered by bushes, though 

 the beauty of its flowers and leaves often leads to its being 



