190 GARDEN FLOWERS. 



is very similar to our common winter flower, 

 except that its blossoms are purple. 



Many superstitions were connected by the 

 ancients with the Christmas rose. In their 

 dread of the presence and power of demons, 

 they had a number of charms, which they con- 

 sidered effectual in guarding them from ill, and 

 when the winter covered the ground with the 

 white flowers of the hellebore, they strewed 

 them over their floors, that thus they might 

 hallow their dwelUngs ; and so they introduced 

 a real evil into their homes, instead of an 

 imaginary one, for the perfume of this lAant is 

 highly injurious to health. When the ancients 

 bronght in these roses, and scattered them thus, 

 they sung aloud hymns of praise to their pagan 

 deities — the gods whom their own hands had 

 made, while they entreated their aid, to keep 

 them from the devices of evil men. The root 

 of this plant was formerly powdered and taken 

 as snuff, and the ancient Gauls are said to have 

 been accustomed to dip their arrows in the 

 herb. All the species of hellebore contain an 

 energetic medicinal principle. 



The moist climate of our island agrees well 

 ■with the evergreens. Enabled, as they are, by 

 a peculiar structure, to withstand a moderate 

 proportion of heat and drought, yet the hot and 

 dry summers of the greater part of the conti- 

 nent of Europe are unfixvourable to them. The 

 thick tough leaves of the evergreen shrubs and 

 trees, are covered with a harder cuticle or skin 

 than those cf most other plants ; and are also 



