154 JOURNAL. 



florets of lily of the valley, and very fragrant. Both these parasites 

 are considered by the natives as emollients, and are applied to 

 wounds. 



I soon found myself beyond my own knowledge of plants, and 

 therefore took a large handful to a neighbour, reputed to be skilful 

 in their properties ; and, as I went in, thought on the beautiful passage 

 in the " Faithful Shepherdess," where Chlorine apostrophises the sim- 

 ples she has been gathering. 



" Oh, you sons of earth, 

 You only brood, unto whose happy birth 

 Virtue was given ; holding more of nature 

 Than man, her first-born and most perfect creature ; 

 Let me adore you ! You, that only can 

 Help or kill nature, drawing out the span 

 Of life and breath, e'en to the end of time ; 

 You, that these hands did crop long before prime 

 Of day, give me your names, and next your hidden powers." * 



And, first, the culen, whose virtues I have mentioned before, and 

 which I now learned was also a charm against witchcraft. The litri, 

 the leaves of which blister the hands, nay, so acrid is the plant, that 

 persons but passing by, have their faces swelled by it, and it is dan- 

 gerous to sleep in its shade. Nevertheless, a drink made from its 

 berries, is considered wholesome : the wood is hard as iron, and is 

 used for plough-shares. The algarobilla, a pretty small acacia, yields 

 a black dye, and common writing-ink is made from it. Quilo, a small 

 flowering trailing shrub., the flower is greenish-white, succeeded by a 

 berry, or rather seed, enclosed in a fleshy cup, divided into five seg- 

 ments, and exposing the seed ; the whole berry is of the size of a 

 currant, and of a pleasant sub-acid taste : the roots, when boiled, are 

 used to restore grey hair to its original colour. The floripondio, 

 {Datura Arborea,) whose beautiful funnel-shaped flower, milk white, 

 ten inches long and four broad, smells sweet as the sun goes down. 

 Some beautiful varieties of lady's slipper, [Calceolarea,) romarillo or 



* See " Faithful Shepherdess," Act II., for these, and the next thirty-seven lines, for a 

 delightful descriptive catalogue of some of our English simples. 



