32 WILD FLOWERS. 



grass, (Draba verna.) Its little flowers are 

 cross-shaped, its stem about two inches high, 

 with a small circle of slender leaves around its 

 base. Each individual plant is so very small, 

 that flower and foliage might all be hidden by 

 a shilling piece, but it grows in patches, and is 

 therefore conspicuous above the low green moss, 

 which so often protects its roots. The old 

 writers on herbs commended it as a cure for 

 whitlows, and it was also called nail wort. The 

 Swede is interested in observing this plant, for 

 he waits for its appearance to sow his barle}', 

 as he judges that, when its flower opens, the 

 spring is sufficiently advanced to favour the 

 germination of his seedj. 



A small flower which blooms throughout the 

 summer, begins to blossom in March. Perhaps 

 few but botanists, would call it a flower ; most 

 persons would speak of it as a weed, yet like 

 all the works of Him who made it, its structure 

 is beautiful when seen through a magnifying 

 power. It is familiarly known by the name of 

 shepherd's purse, (Capsella bursa pastoris,^ on 

 account of the little heart-shaped seed-vessels, 

 which are closely set upon its stem, and some- 

 what resemble the old-fashioned purses. It may 

 easily be known by these pouches, and is also 

 commonly called pick-jjurse. Insignificant as 

 the plant seems, it appears to have attracted 

 some notice in the olden times, for it was called 

 shepherd's scrip, case weed, St. James's wort ; 

 and its name of " poor man's parmacetic,'* would 

 suggest the idea that it was deemed of some 



