144 WILD FLOWERS. 



tions were, however, but very secondary considera- 

 tions in the days when scorbutic affections the 

 natural result of the diet of our ancestors were 

 the scourge of the land ; and the country people 

 oracularly sang ; 



" Eate leekes in Lide [March] and ramsins in May, 

 And all the yeare after physitians may play." 



Without a thought of the share which the unduly 

 taxed digestion might have in the evils they de- 

 plored. 



In Kamschatka the ramson (A. ursinum} which 

 forms so beautiful an object, with its snowy flower, 

 silvery spathe, and broad dark leaf, in our fields 

 and waste places, is eagerly sought both by the Rus- 

 sians, and the natives, as a food and medicine; when 

 this plant appears above the snow they have a 

 hope of curing even the worst case of scurvy, and 

 other scorbutic affections. 



In our own country the " old wives " believe that 

 garlic will prevent eggs from being spoiled by 

 thunder ; while the Italians employ it in a very dif- 

 ferent way, namely, in the " language of flowers/' 

 in which it signifies, rejection ; this is referred to in 

 the popular triplet ; 



" II mio tesoro m'ha mandato un foglio 

 Sigillato con uno spicchio d'aglio, 

 E dentro stan scritto ; ' non ti voglio ! ' " 



I have already alluded to the pretty, but most 

 troublesome broad-leaved garlic, or ramsons, from the 

 abundance of which Ray considers the Island of 



