54 THE BOOK OF THE OPEN AIR 



the inside, although they axe blackish plant, at once distinguished by its 



in one square and of a violet colour four large pointed leaves " set one 



in an other ; insomuch that every against another in manner of a Burgun- 



leafe seemeth to be the feather of a dian crosse or True-love knot," many 



Ginny hen, whereof it took his name." virtues were attributed. The great 



The plant may still be seen, where it Italian physician of the sixteenth cen- 



has flourished for centuries, in the tury, Matthiolus, tells us that " some 



Magdalen meadows at Oxford, and that have laid long in a lingering 



in a few other localities ; but in many sickness, and others that by witch- 



of its old haunts it has now entirely craft were become half foolish, by 



disappeared. The same, however, can- taking a dram of the seeds or berries 



not be said of the curious, almost un- hereof in powder every day for twenty 



canny, Herb Paris (Paris quadrifolia), days together, were restored to their 



still growing where Ray found it at former health." If the herb possesses 



Black Notley in Essex, and where Gil- these virtues, then, as old Nicho- 



bert White found it at Selborne, las Culpeper says, it is " fit to be 



and not uncommon in many of our nourished in every good woman's 



Hampshire woods. To this singular garden." 



XI 



THE BEE MIND 



" Oh wonderful ! Hath the All- Wise Creator plac'd such Wisdom, such Curious Art, such 

 Fortitude and Foresight, so Polite a Government ... in Creatures so small as the Bees ! " 



JOSEPH WARDER. 



nr^HERE is no familiarizing the is of a strictly limited character. Of 



honey bee. I never take the this there have been fresh illustra- 



quilt off those glistening combs with- tions during swarming time. 

 out a slight feeling of awe it is as if By the side of the overcrowded 



one were opening the door of a cham- hive, out of which the old queen 



ber of mystery, stealing across the comes, with her great following, is 



threshold into a place unknown, darkly often an empty hive, admirably suited 



wonderful. But the mysteries of the to the new monarchyor republic- 



bee do not blind us to the plain fact for, despite tradition, it more nearly 



that her intelligence runs in grooves ; resembles a republic. Often, before 



