WELD OR DYER'S WEED. 80 ~o 



^ 



yellow, and with undivided glossy leaves. Petals, three, four, *_ - 

 or five. In the days before aniline colours this plant was much 

 used by dyers, and cultivated for their purposes. It yields a 

 beautiful yellow dye, and its juice is also used in the prepara- 

 tion of the artist's colour called Dutch pink. It is a common 

 wayside plant in England and in Ireland, more rare in Scotland, 

 and flowers from June to September. 



The name is from the Latin, Resedo, to appease, from these 

 plants being formerly considered as sedatives. 



Borage (Borago offidnalis). 



This is a plant one may find on rubbish heaps and waste 

 ground anywhere near the habitations of man, for it is not, 

 strictly speaking, a native, though thoroughly well-established 

 here. An old adage runs : " I, Borage, always bring courage," 

 and it was supposed to brace up the heart for great enterprises. 

 It was therefore widely cultivated in old gardens, and has sur- 

 vived to this day in the grounds of old houses, where it has 

 frequently made its escape, or surplus plants have been thrown 

 out upon the rubbish heaps. Instead of allowing itself to go 

 the way of garden refuse, it has taken hold of the ground there, 

 multiplied and brightened the place with its beauty. 



Every part of the plant, except the corolla, bristles with short 

 stiff hairs. It has an erect juicy stem, and rough, lance- 

 shaped leaves, the radical ones on long footstalks, those on the 

 stem stalkless and clasping their support. The sepals are five 

 in number, long and narrow, cohering by their bases. The 

 corolla is of the form technically known as rotate, that is, with 

 the petals joined at their lower parts to a short tube, from the 

 top of which five pointed lobes radiate. It is coloured a most 

 brilliant and beautiful blue, such as is rarely seen in flowers. 

 There is a pale yellow ovary that secretes honey, and around 

 it, attached to the throat of the corolla-tube, are the five united 



