80 OUR ROCK-GARDEN 



heath, foure miles from London, in great abund- 

 ance," but the ever-growing metropolis has long 

 since filled up this intervening space, and any 

 search for May lilies in this direction is now a 

 quite hopeless quest. The flower is a good deal 

 forced by the florists in these latter days, but these 

 larger blossoms, with the sickly green attendant 

 foliage, lack the charm of those grown naturally, 

 and, possessing a noble mass of them in a sheltered 

 corner, we are well content to wait until such time 

 as Nature gives the impulse, and the fragrant 

 blossoms peep forth from the sheathing and pro- 

 tecting leaves, to be followed in turn by the crimson 

 berries. 



Our ancestors held the flowers a specific for "the 

 paine and griefe of the goute," a decoction of them 

 being outwardly applied. This one mediaeval 

 enthusiast declared to be " most excellent," while 

 another calls it aqua aurea golden water ; others 

 distilled the flowers with wine, for the restoration 

 of speech "vnto those that have the dum palsie 

 and that are fallen into the apoplexie " ; while the 

 flowers being dried and burnt, either by the fume 

 or the scattering of their ashes, were of magical 

 potency to drive from the dwelling all evil spirits. 



To the Nature-loving wanderers far away from 

 home the sight of some well-remembered plant of 

 the old home is a great delight. Sometimes one 

 encounters specimens that are only strongly re- 



