NATIVE WILD FLOWERS 



I do not know if our brave Scarlet Cup of Canada has 

 any floral relationship to an herb known in the Old Country 

 as " Clary,"* or by its local and descriptive name of " Eye- 

 bright." It is an old-fashioned flower sometimes found in 

 cottage gardens. I remember its curiously colored leaves 

 and bracts attracted my notice when first I saw it in a 

 neglected corner of a poor old woman's garden. There 

 were two varieties, one with the dull veiny leaves bordered 

 with purple, as if the leaves had been dipped in^o some 

 logwood dye; the other with a full pink. I forget, in the 

 long lapse of time since I saw the plants, if the flower itself 

 was pretty or partook of the same tint of color as the 

 foliage, but the great marvel consisted in the black oval 

 seeds, not very large, about the size of the seed of the sage. 

 This wonderful seed, Nannie Prime told me, gave the name 

 to the plant " Eye-bright," though, she added, " the learned 

 gardener folk do call it ' Clary.' If any dust or motes, or 

 any bad humors, are in the eye, and one of these seeds be 

 put into the corner of the eye, it will gather it all round 

 itself and clear the precious sight; and this is why folks 

 do give it the name of ' Eye-bright.' Sure, Miss, the Lord 

 gave this little seed for a cure for us poor folk, and no 

 doubt the whole plant is good for other complaints, as 

 many of our harbs be if we did but use them right." We 

 know of no especial healing virtue contained in the seed or 

 leaves of our beautiful Scarlet Cup; but it charms the eye 

 and delights us, and that is God's gift also. There seems 

 to be no actual void, no space unfilled, in God's creation. 

 Something fills up all vacancies, either in vegetable or 

 animal life; unseen organisms, too subtle and too fine to 



* Salvia Sclarea of the Sage Family. 



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