BEAUTY OF COMMONER WILD-FLOWERS 413 



flowers can surpass the grace and beauty of its 

 slender, star-like blossoms of purest white ! For 

 decorative purposes, it is a most adaptable flower, 

 its sprays, when mingled with other wild-flowers, 

 giving an effect of extreme elegance and lightness. 

 I not long ago was witness to what an extent it 

 can be utilized for decorations, being present at a 

 wedding in a country church which had been 

 adorned with nothing else. The effect was sin- 

 gularly beautiful and light ; masses of the tall 

 white flowers lined both sides of the aisle up to 

 the altar-rails, which were similarly decorated a 

 truly fitting adornment for a bridal ! The meadow- 

 sweet can be also used in the same manner as 

 the cow parsley, but its perfume is apt to be 

 somewhat overpowering, and is said to be very 

 deleterious in a close room, and to have proved 

 the cause of illness when kept in a bedroom. 



There grows amid the herbage of the chalky 

 downlands a small and unpretentious little flower, 

 yet in former days held in no small repute, having 

 been used to form garlands during Rogation 

 Week, and thence called Rogation flower, but 

 nowadays better known as the milkwort. During 

 the months of May and June it blooms freely in 

 masses of the purest sapphire blue. Of all our 

 wild-flowers, this is, perhaps, one of the most 

 exquisite. Although most commonly of a blue 

 colour, it may be found in shades of pale lavender, 

 steel-gray, white, and pink. It is impossible to 

 accurately describe the exact colour of the blue 



