272 WILD FLOWERS. 



" No flower 'mid the garden fairer grows 

 Than the sweet lily of the lowly vale, 

 The queen of flowers."* 



It is the common lily of the valley ; the very gem of 

 English flowers, which once grew in such abundance 

 on Hampstead Heath, and which still blossoms alike 

 in our sunny, and in our shady, woods, as well as in 

 our gardens, and our winter forcing-houses. 



Very beautiful, also, are the Solomon's seals (Gon- 

 valldria verticilldta, multifldra, and polygonatum), 

 from the grand play of light and shade thrown on 

 the varied and effective curve which outlines their 

 delicate green leaves. 



The first- named of these, the narrow-leaved 

 Solomon's seal, is very rare in Britain, occurring 

 only in certain districts of Scotland ; the second, or 

 common Solomon's seal, is so frequent in our shrub- 

 beries and coppices as to render any description of 

 it needless ; and the third, the angular Solomon's 

 seal, is, like the first, a rare plant, found only in 

 Yorkshire, Kent, and Somersetshire. It has green 

 flowers, and is smaller in all its parts than the 

 0. multifldra, from which it is readily distinguished 

 by the fragrance of its blossom. 



* Keats. 



