264 



WILD FLOWERS. 



accompanying woodcut, is a popular remedy amongst 

 village children, for the sting of a bee, as is also the 

 S. media, or common chickweed. This last plant, 



which, regardless alike 

 of heat and cold, sun- 

 shine and storm, grows, 

 flowers, ripens, and 

 sows its seeds, the 

 whole year through,* 

 is a most excellent 

 and wholesome vege- 

 table, which, when 

 boiled, can scarcely 

 be distinguished from 

 spinach ; it is very 

 commonly used as a 

 "pot-herb/' in broth 

 and gruel ; though a 

 friend has described 

 to me the alarm she 

 once felt at having, in 

 her childish days of 

 experimenting, admi- 

 nistered some broth 



old woman, who was made violently ill by the 



* This circumstance may be perhaps accounted for, by the 

 curious manner in which, as the chill of night comes on, the 

 leaves fold together in pairs, enclosing the tender germ of the 

 young shoot at their axil; while the upper pair but one are 

 larger than the others, and sufficiently so to cover over the 

 last pair, and so to secure the end of the branch. 



