90 A TOUR ROUND MY GARDEN. 



gyrus; but other savants arose, and have decked it with the 

 name of symplokium. The membrane which covers the seeds 

 was at first called cridusium, then involucrum, then tegu- 

 mentum, then perisperangium; — I don't think they ever 

 thought of calling it a membrane. 



There is a species of fern called Ophioglossum, which had the 

 reputation of being a cure for the bite of serpents ; at a later 

 period it was proved to be of no avail against the bite of 

 serpents, but was excellent in promoting the growth of hairj 

 it is in reality good for nothing but to make mattrasses for 

 children, and form, by its decayed parts, earth in which larger 

 vegetables may grow. 



The learned, a long time ago, classed the ophioglosse, and 

 pronounced that it was an Osmond; but this fern has since 

 been unmasked by other men of science ; it has been turned 

 out from among the Osmonds as an intruder; it is now 

 nothing but a Bostrichium. 



Oh, kind Heaven ! hast thou permitted these learned ones 

 thus to persecute the plants which are spread over the earth, 

 and to annoy and weary those who do really love them to 

 such a degree as almost to make them hateful to them ? 



Behold in all parts of the grass, the margeline and the 

 white chickweed, which present to the little birds, all the 

 year round, a well-furnished table ; and, in order that they 

 may never want, the chickweed is endowed with a fecundity 

 that no other plant possesses : in the course of one year, the 

 chickweed has time to germinate, to shed its seed, and bear 

 others, seven or eight times. Seven or eight generations of 

 chickweed cover the earth every year : it occupies the field 

 naturally, and invades our gardens; it is almost impossible 

 to destroy it ; besides, of all the herbs naturally inhabiting 

 the earth, which dispute the soil with the usurpers we in- 

 troduce, the chickweed is that which injures our cultivation 

 the least ; one would say that it wished to be tolerated, it 

 scarcely has any hold on the earth, with its few fine slender 

 roots. 



It is a very curious thing to observe with what promptness 

 autochtonous plants, as the historians say, — that is to say, 

 aborigines of the soil, — ^return to the charge in gardens that 

 are neglected. 



