212 OUR ROCK-GARDEN 



title, chikouryeh. The Greeks adopted the name 

 they found in use in Egypt, and the Romans 

 followed suit ; we find Horace, for instance, writing 

 of the cichorea. 1 



This lady's-mantle that we have incidentally 

 referred to the Alchemilla vulgaris of the botanist 

 is a very attractive little plant. It is by no means 

 showy. It will not, poppy-like, compel us to see it 

 whether we will or no : it, in fact, needs looking for. 

 The flowers are in clusters, small though, and of a 

 yellowish-green, but the foliage is very richly cut, 

 and we gladly, year after year, give it a welcome in 

 our rock-garden. Its generic name is bestowed 

 upon it from its association with alchemy, it being 

 held in bygone days of potent influence, the pos- 

 sessor of great and mystical virtues. 



The reference to possible fodder plants reminds 

 us of our noble clumps of comfrey. The various 

 species of Symphytum are great lovers of moisture, 

 and the fact must be by no means overlooked if we 

 would grow them successfully. The common com- 

 frey the 5. officinale is abundant in most country 

 districts, growing luxuriantly by the sides of streams, 

 and attaining to a height of some three or four feet. 



1 A striking similarity is seen in the names by which it is 

 now known throughout Europe, it being in France chicoree, 

 in Italy the cicorea, in Portugal chicoria, in Spain achicoria, 

 in Germany the chicorie, in Denmark the cicorie, while the 

 Swede calls it cikorie, the Dutchman knows it as cichorei, 

 while even the distant Russ recognises it as the tsikorei, 



