CHAPTER XX 



WHITE VARIETIES OF BRITISH PLANTS 



THERE is a strange fascination associated with 

 the discovery of white blossoms of flowers 

 usually coloured. Sometimes, as with white heather, 

 an accession of good fortune is commonly supposed to 

 attend it. But, apart from the superstitions of the 

 vulgar, the interest among botanists and lovers of our 

 native flora in finding a white specimen of a blue or 

 purple flower is well known. It is specially noticeable 

 in the writings of the old herbalists, who, after the 

 manner of their age, are always on the look-out for 

 freaks and anomalies. Not infrequently, indeed, they 

 treat as distinct species the white varieties of such 

 plants as the sweet-scented violet and the nettle-leaved 

 bell-flowers. Thus John Gerard, speaking of the white 

 " hather," says : " There is another kinde that differeth 

 not from the precedent, saving that this plant bringeth 

 forth floures as white as snow, wherein consisteth the 

 difference : wherefore we may call it Dwarfe Heath 

 with white floures," and he mentions that this species 

 " groweth upon the downes neere unto Gravesend." 

 Writing on Prunella or self-heal, a purple-flowered 

 labiate, common in our pastures and on wayside wastes 

 in summer-time, and formerly much used in village 

 medicine, Gerard gives a separate woodcut of the white- 

 flowering variety, and adds : "I have found some 



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