CHAPTER VI 



The unexpected springing-up of plants in most unlikely places 

 The botany of a London stable-yard Distributing 

 agency of birds The Adonis-flower Our various violets 

 The sweet violet as a medicinal herb A flower 

 beloved of the poets Miss North's u Recollections of 

 a Happy Life " Broom The fragrant wallflower The 

 erratic spelling of our forefathers Stone-crop Blake's 

 " Compleat Gardener's Practice " Snapdragons Toad- 

 flaxes Curious competition statistics Saxifrages 

 London-pride Moisture-loving plants Grass of Par- 

 nassus Sarracenia Moneywort, the reputed healer of 

 one hundred diseases Various un-grasslike grasses of 

 popular nomenclature Loosestrife The cinquefoil and 

 its allies Ground ivy. 



THE way plants unexpectedly spring up is 

 often very curious. We saw some little 

 time ago a very interesting record of a botanical 

 "find" in Whitehall, of all places. The Commis- 

 sioners of Woods and Forests pulled down a house 

 on the eastern side of the street, as the site was 

 required for some improvements that were pro- 

 jected. It had no garden attached to it, the only 

 open space being a paved stable-yard, and on the 



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