FEBRUAEY. 23 



herald of the flowers. It is not, strictly speaking, 

 a wild plant ; but it lias, for so man}- centuries, 

 established itself in many orchards and green 

 lanes, that it is commonly enumerated among 

 British flowers. A lane near Newport, in the 

 Isle of Wight, is so full of its pure white blos- 

 soms, that it is well-known as Snow-drop lane. 



The red dead nettle (Lamimn purjnirewti) 

 is common on sheltered hedge-banks in Feb- 

 rnaiy. Its leaves are of a dull green, slightly 

 tinged with purple, and its reddish purple 

 flowers are not beautiful. It is an old re- 

 medy for stopping the effusion of blood, and 

 a very good one. This plant is in blossom 

 all the summer, until October, throughout 

 England ; though it is little noticed by any, 

 but those who, in taking cognizance of the 

 flowers, omit not the humblest. Its foliage has 

 some little similarity to those stinging plants, 

 the true nettles; and this and the other species 

 are termed dead, or blind-nettles, because they 

 have not the venomous powers of their neigh- 

 bours, the stinging-nettles. 



The daudelion, {Leontodon Taraxacum,) "the 

 Sunflower of the Spring," as Elliott calls it, 

 illumines the moors and pastures of the early 

 year, and holds a store of honey for the bee, 

 and those other insects which soon will glitter 

 " with wings of sunbeams," across our path. 

 The dandelion root is a medicine used in 

 England, but still more generally in France and 

 Germany. The leaves arc sold in the markets 

 of the former country for salad, and, atGottingen, 



