§ty The Scented Qarden fj£ 



effectuall to ease the paines of the Goute, and such-like 

 diseases, to be used outwardly, which is thus : Having 

 filled a glasse with the flowers, and being well stopped, 

 set it for a moneth's space in an Ants hill, and after, 

 being drayned cleare, set it by to use.' 



It is interesting to remember that a little over a hundred 

 years ago the lily of the valley was a comparatively 

 common wild plant near London. Philip Miller, writing 

 in 1807, gives the following as the places where it was 

 to be found : 



' In Britain, near London on Hampstead Heath, but 

 now sparingly, since the trees have been destroyed ; in 

 Lord Mansfield's wood near the Spaniard ; between 

 Shooter's-hill and Woolwich ; Norwood abundantly, 

 where I have frequently seen large patches with very few 

 flowers and no berries ; Bushy-heath, Cashioberry in 

 Hertfordshire ; near Chiselhurst in Kent ; near Lee in 

 Essex ; Woburn in Bedfordshire, whence the markets 

 in London are generally supplied with the flowers. 

 Whichwood forest in Oxfordshire, and in Beechwood, 

 near Stokenchurch ; White-wood, near Gamlingay in 

 Cambridgeshire ; Norfolk ; Buddon and Okeley woods 

 in Leicestershire ; King's Cliff in Northamptonshire ; 

 Kendal in Westmoreland ; County of Durham ; Ingle- 

 borough in Yorkshire ; Scotland.' 



We have a piece of waste shady ground in our little 

 garden, which we have planted with lilies of the valley, 

 Solomon's seal, and bluebells (which are all in flower at 

 the same time), ferns and foxgloves. The most sweetly 

 scented of the wild geraniums, ' herb robert ' (our only 

 wild flower called after Robin Hood), sows itself plenti- 

 fully and is more or less (principally less !) diligently 



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