Flowers of Mystery 435 



it, for it is said to be poisonous in its contact to some 

 folks, and virulently poisonous to eat — though I 

 am sure no one ever wanted to eat it. The colo- 

 nists even brought it over from England, when we 

 had here such lovely native plants. It seldom 

 flowers. Old New England names for it are Love- 

 in-a-huddle and Seven Sisters ; not over significant, 

 but of interest, as folk-names always are. 



I join with Dr. Forbes Watson in finding the 

 Nigella uncanny. It has a half-spidery look, that 

 seems ungracious in a flower. Its names are curi- 

 ous : Love-in-a-mist, Love-in-a-puzzle, Love-in-a- 

 tangle, Puzzle-love, Devil-in-a-bush, Katherine- 

 flowers — another of the many allusions to St. 

 Katherine and her wheel ; and the persistent styles 

 do resemble the spokes of a wheel. A name given 

 it in a cottage garden in Wayland was Blue Spider- 

 flower, which seems more suited than that of Spider- 

 wort for the Tradescantia. Spiderwort, like all 

 " three-cornered ' flowers, is a flower of mystery ; 

 and so little cared for to-day that it is almost ex- 

 tinct in our gardens, save where it persists in out- 

 of-the-way spots. A splendid clump of it is here 

 shown, which grows still in the Worcester garden 

 I so loved in my childhood. In this plant the 

 old imagined tracings of spider's legs in the leaves 

 can scarce be seen. With the fanciful notion of 

 " like curing like " ever found in old medical recipes, 

 Gerarde savs, vaguely, the leaves are good for 

 " the Bite of that Great Spider," a creature also of 

 mystery. 



Perhaps if the clear blue flowers kept open 



