' ■■-J',,/ ■ ' '■ ■'" ■' ■•■■ "'■■■" '""'*'-'• ■■•'■'; ■■ . ■ 



JUNE WILD FLOWERS. 13 



side. The leaves are uae^ as a substitute for 

 tea and for h ps, and possess some narcotic 

 properties. »' 



The Oxalis Stricta, "with yellow flowers, in 

 ploughed fields, and the Oxalis acetosella, 

 with white and purple flowers, in the woods, 

 may almost be called our sensitive plants ; 

 they shut up their leaves and go to sleep at 

 night, and on the approach of rain. These 

 plants are used in Europe to give an acid 

 flavour to soup. Oxalic Acid and Salt of Sorrel 

 were formerly made from them ; now they are 

 made from sugar. 



Linnaeus, whose enthusiasm for flowers was 

 such that he went down upon his knees and 

 thanked God that he had lived to see a furze 

 bush in full flower, has given his name to our 

 lovely twin-flower (Linna^a Borealis) which is 

 now in uU bloom ; the flowers are twins upon 

 one stj.1 from which they hang as roseate 

 bells ; the interior of the corolla is filled with 

 tlown, and the flowers strew the earth with 

 lavish profuseness and scent the air all around. 

 I have often be«jn led to the discovery of these 

 flowers from their rich perfume. In the month 

 of June, the llagwort, a composite flower with 

 yellow heads, and about one-and-a-half to two 

 feet high, abounds in wet places by the side 

 of running streams. The Anemone, so fam- 

 ous in English song, is principally represented 

 by the Anemone Pennsylvanica ; it grows in 



