152 THE LIFE OF THE FIELDS. 



of the pulp mixed with cream. They say it is effica- 

 cious. They call it " silgreen." In old English sin- 

 green means evergreen. Silgreen and singreen seem 

 close congeners. Possibly sil or sin may be translated 

 " through " as much as " ever," for the leaf of the plant 

 is thick, and green all through, if broken like a tough 

 cake. I think I would rather use it than the tobacco 

 juice which the mowers and reapers are now so fond 

 of applying to the cuts they frequently get. They 

 appear to have quite forsaken the ancient herbal 

 remedies, as the sickle-herb, knotted figwort, and so 

 on. Tobacco juice does not seem a nice thing for a 

 bleeding wound ; probably it gets well rather in spite 

 of it than because of it. 



If any one wanted a tonic in old farmhouses, it 

 used to be the custom, and till quite lately, to put 

 a nail in sherry, making an iron wine, which was 

 believed to be very restorative. Now, one of the 

 recent additions to the wine merchants' lists is a 

 fiherry from Australia, Tintara, which is recommended 

 on account of its having been extracted from grapes 

 growing on an ironstone soil So the old things come 

 up again in another form. There are scores of iron 

 tonics of various kinds sold in the shops ; possibly the 

 nail in sherry was almost as good. Those who did not 

 care to purchase sherry, put their nail in cider. A few 

 odd names of plants may yet be heard among the 

 labourers,such as"loving-andrews" for the blue meadow 

 geranium; "loggerums" for the hard knapweed, and also 

 for the scabious ; " Saturday night's pepper " for the 

 spurge, which grows wild in gardens ; and there is a 

 weed called " good-neighbour," but as to which it is I 



