NATURE NEAR LONDON 25E 



so often marks the site of its growth on the noble 

 slopes of the hills, and along the sward-grown fosse 

 of ancient earthworks, but it is wild thyme, and 

 that is enough. From this bed of varieties of 

 thyme there rises up a pleasant odour which attracts 

 the bees. Bees and humble-bees, indeed, buzz 

 everywhere, but they are much too busily occupied 

 to notice you or me. 



Is there any difference in the taste of London 

 honey and in that of the country ? From the 

 immense quantity of garden flowers about the 

 metropolis it would seem possible for a distinct 

 flavour, not perhaps preferable, to be imparted. 

 Lavender, of which old housewives were so fond, 

 and which is still the best of preservatives, conies 

 next, and self-heal is just coming out in flower; 

 the reapers have, I believe, forgotten its former use 

 in curing the gashes sometimes inflicted by the 

 reaphook. The reaping-machine has banished 

 such memories from the stubble. Nightshades 

 border on the potato, the flowers of both almost 

 exactly alike ; poison and food growing side by side 

 and of the same species. 



There are tales still told in the villages of this 

 deadly and enchanted mandragora ; the lads some- 

 times go to the churchyards to search for it. 

 Plantains and docks, wild spurge, hops climbing 

 up a dead fir tree, a well-chosen pole for them 



