YELLOW AND ORANGE WILD FLOWERS 



plant. They believed that the dew which accumulated 

 upon this plant during the night preceding St. John's 

 Day, the twenty-fourth of July, possessed peculiar 

 qualities that would preserve failing eyesight. Parts 

 of the plant furnished them with a family cure-all for 

 various bodily ailments, but it was most highly esteemed 

 as a remedy for wounds and bruises, a purpose for 

 which it is still being used. A preparation formerly 

 called "balm of the warrior's wound" is made by 

 reducing the tops to a pulp in olive oil. When crushed 

 the leaves have an agreeable odour, somewhat like 

 balsam. The juice is acrid, and has a bitter taste. 

 In rural England and Germany windows and doors 

 were decorated with St. John's-wort on the eve of 

 St. John's Day, with the supposition that it would pre- 

 vent the entrance of evil spirits. German women 

 wore it in an amulet about their necks, and in Scotland 

 it was carried about in the pockets as a guard against 

 witchcraft. In Europe there is a popular notion that 

 its presence averts destruction by lightning. The 

 smooth, slender and much branched, leafy stalk rises 

 from one to two feet in height, and has many barren 

 shoots at its base. The thin-textured, oblong or linear 

 leaves have a rounding point, and are arranged in 

 opposite pairs. The edges are entire, and the under 

 surface is often spotted with tiny black specks. Between 

 the conspicuous ribbings, the texture is thickly dotted 

 with very fine specks that, when held to the light, 

 show transparently, exactly as if they had been pricked 

 with a needle point. The light green calyx has four 



146 



