8^ LETTER V. 



with a brief account of a little natural order of wild 

 flowers, which we may dismiss without giving you 

 much more to learn. 



The old herbalists had a plant which they called 

 Tutscm (H.y])ericum); a corruption of the French Toute- 

 sain, which we might translate " Allheal" ; they also 

 named it Androsa^mum, which being translated signi- 

 fies " Mans-blood," an odd name, which originated in 

 the soft fruit staining the fingers red w^hen bruised, 

 and in a deep red colour being communicated by the 

 leaves to oily or spirituous medicines in which the 

 plant was often employed. This and others of a 

 similar kind are common in meadows, and bogs, 

 on heaths, in gi'oves and thickets, and by way-sides, 

 which they adorn with their bright yellow flowers. 

 The species which 1 have selected for examination is 

 a frequent inhabitant of shrubberies, but not a wild 

 plant; it is called "the tall" (H. elatum) ; if you 

 have it not at hand any other will do as well. 



Its leaves have netted veins, are of an oval figure, 

 are placed in opposite pairs round the stem, upon 

 which they are seated without any stalks. If you 

 rub them they emit a strong penetrating disagreeable 

 odour ; the cause of which you may discover by 

 holding them against the light. They will be seen to 

 be filled with transparent dots, crowded together and 

 so minute that you perhaps may require a magnifying 

 glass to discover them. It does not always happen 

 that these dots are very small ; on the contrary in 

 one of our wild species they are so large that the 

 leaves look as if bored full of holes, on which ac- 



