FLOWERING PLANTS OF THE GREEN LANES. 243 



The St. John's Wort (Hypericum perforatum) is a 

 pretty plant, with delicate, heart-shaped green 

 leaves, that seem, when held between the eye and the 

 light, as if they were thickly punctured all over. 

 The yellow flowers, tinged with red, and having the 

 tips of the petals dotted with black, and the thick 

 brush-like clusters of stamens inside them, lead to 

 its easy recognition. Indeed most people know this 

 plant, for it is exceedingly common, especially in our 

 shady lanes and on calcareous soils. Few of our 

 native plants have so many associations connected 

 with them as the St John's Wort. It is one of the 

 oldest and most credited of " vulneraries," and you 

 will find few herbs whose virtues are so persistently 

 believed in by herbalists as this, except it be 

 perhaps the Yarrow, or " thousand-leaf " (Achillea 

 millefolium} whose fine leaves cover the hedge-bank 

 in many places, from the centre of which there 

 springs an umbel-like cluster of greyish-white 

 flowers. The yarrow gives out a peculiar and not 

 unpleasant odour, when crushed, somewhat re- 

 sembling that of southernwood. But to return to 

 the St. John's wort there are many English 

 species, the commonest of which is that we have just 

 named. It was one of the flowers gathered by our 

 ancestors for the purpose of throwing on the bonfires 

 which were kindled on St John's eve. On the 

 continent it is still considered to act as a charm 

 against evil spirits, &c., and at one time it was worn 

 in Scotland as a protection against witchcraft. 



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