56 GARDEN FLOWERS. 



valuable to our manufacturers in their coloui'- 

 ing preparations. Sometimes the fruits of the 

 common berberry are of a yellow colour, and 

 occasionally they ai'e purple in hue. 



That pretty little border flower, the Venus's 

 looking-glass, (Ccanjycmiila speculum^) with its 

 white or purple circular blossoms, is very com- 

 mon. From its shape, hke that of the ancient 

 mirror, this flower derived its familiar name ; 

 and as the astronomical sign of Venus (9) was 

 a figure of the old mirror, and the handle by 

 which it was held, so the flower bears, too, the 

 name of the fabled goddess. The root of this 

 plant, like those of most other species of cam- 

 2)a)iula, contains a milky juice. The flower 

 grows very freely in the cornfields of southern 

 Europe, and is veiy common in France and 

 Italy, though on the former lands it is not 

 usually quite so large as we see it in our gar- 

 dens. A new species of Venus's looking-glass 

 {^Campanula Lorei) has lately been introduced 

 into the English nursery grounds. The flower 

 is called in France la doucette, and it was for- 

 merly known in this country as the corn-pink 

 and corn-gilliflower. 



Some of the more hardy kinds of that sin- 

 gular flower the fig-marigold, are, by the end 

 of the month, glittering on the stone or rock- 

 work of the garden, and are the heralds of the 

 hundreds, which shall, as the season advances, 

 put forth their starry flowers. This handsome 

 tribe has been brought to us from the Cape 

 of Good Hope, and with its singular beauty 



