SEPTEMBER 33 



Diseouerer and others of later time, to be a kinde of 

 Dragons not seene of any that haue written thereof. ; 

 which hath moued them to thinke it a feigned picture 

 likewise ; notwithstanding you shall receiue the descrip- 

 tion thereof as it hath come to my hands. The root 

 (saith my Author) is bulbous or Onion fashion, out- 

 wardly blacke ; from the which springs vp long leaues, 

 sharpe pointed, narrow, and of a fresh greene colour: in 

 the middest of which leaues rise vp naked or bare 

 stalkes, at the top whereof groweth a pleasant yellow 

 floure, stained with many small red spots here and there 

 confusedly cast abroad: and in the middest of the floure 

 thrusteth forth a long red tongue or stile, which in time 

 groweth to be the cod or seed-vessell, crooked or 

 wreathed, wherein is the seed. The virtues and tem- 

 perature are not to be spoken of, considering that we 

 assuredly persuade our seines that there are no such 

 plants, but meere fictions and deuices, as we terme 

 them, to giue his friend a gudgeon.' ' Giving his friend 

 a gudgeon' is apparently a Gerardian expression for 

 what we should now call in familiar language ' pulling 

 his leg.' 



I alluded before (page 132 of 'Pot-Pourri') to the 

 cultivation of the large Japanese Stonecrop {Sedum 

 spectabile) . I have grown to like it more and more, 

 because it is a very obliging plant, and will grow even 

 in shade, though the specimens are far finer if grown in 

 good soil and moved into a sunny place in July or 

 August. I always take this little trouble, and in Sep- 

 tember I have my reward. Many people will not 

 appreciate the great beauties of this plant because of 

 the colour of the flowers, which are of rather an inartis- 

 tic magenta-pink; but the insects do not find this so, 

 and the reason I grow so' much of it is that the bees 

 simply love it. The little hard-working honey-bee, the 



