186 WILD FLOWERS* 



The shepherd's spikenard (Conysa squarrosa) 

 is among our latest blooming wild flowers. It 

 has hairy leaves, and as its stem is often a yard 

 high, it is not likely to be overlooked on the 

 chalky or clayey pastures, where it abounds. 

 Its radiate, or star-shaped flowers are yellow, 

 and grow in clusters. It was, in former days, 

 hung up in rooms to drive away gnats and other 

 insects, and branches of it are still suspended 

 from the cottage ceiling in the French village, 

 for the same purpose. The spikenard is often 

 cultivated in gardens, and the strong odour of 

 camphire, which some exotic species emit, may 

 probably have suggested its name, as many 

 writers consider that camphor is the spikenard 

 of the ancient writers, and the substance alluded 

 to, under that name, in the Song of Solomon. 



And now, when few flowers appear, we are 

 glad to gather the second bloom of the purple 

 violet from under its broad canopy of leaves, 

 and to detect something like the spring odour 

 in its flowers. That pretty bright yellow flower, 

 with its pea-shaped blossoms, the hairy dwart 

 green weed, (Genista pilosa,) very generally 

 blooms, for the second time, on the gravelly or 

 sandy heath, during the latest months of the 

 year. Several kinds of crocus too appear late 

 in the autumn, and one species, the naked 

 flowering ci'ocus, (Crocus nudijlorus,^ does not 

 open its bright purple flowers until October, 

 when it may be found in the meadows of some 

 counties. How far any of the crocus tribe 

 may be considered as truly indigenous, is a 



