DECEMBER 317 



in shape of the leaves to the human liver. This was 

 quite enough for professors of that primitive system of 

 medicine known as ' the doctrine of signatures ' to cause 

 the hepatica to be prescribed as a remedy for liver com- 

 plaint. Capricious ! I should think it was. I have seen 

 woods in the Maritime Alps full of its scattered stars 

 nay, I was lately in a Tweedside garden of which it 

 had taken absolute possession, sowing itself profusely 

 wherever the soil was not disturbed. In Ireland, too, it 

 flourishes like a dandelion, not only the single blue, pink, 

 and white, and the double red, all of which thrive with 

 some of my neighbours, but the double blue, which beats 

 most cultivators in England and Scotland. 



Not to be forgotten among the earliest flowers of the 

 year is the quaint little Dondia epipactis, a humble but 

 gay member of the great Umbellate family, to which our 

 carrots and parsnips, hemlock and samphire, belong. It 

 is one of those lowly growths whereof the longevity seems 

 to have no natural term. Let it but have a quiet corner, 

 free from ranker vegetation, and it will outlast the giant 

 oaks. 



I had well-nigh forgotten the winter heliotrope, which 

 is not a heliotrope but a coltsfoot (Tussilago fragrans), 

 all too seldom seen. Not for display, though the deli- 

 cately-tinted blossoms have much quiet loveliness, but 

 for its fragrance is this plant to be cherished. Cherished, 

 did I say ? It wants no coddling. Stick a few roots into 

 any waste sunny spot ; it will take speedy possession, and 

 reward you by perfuming the air of midwinter with the 

 summer scent of heliotrope. 



Among loftier plants there are a few more than most 



