293 A TOUK BOUND Ml GARDEN. 



flowers, and the as yet unopened cnps of flowers, of the 

 brightest red (Salvia f^lgens) ; others are of a softer red, its 

 blossoms clothed with a purple down {Salvia cardinalis); 

 this one {Salvia patens) spreads forth its flowers of so clear 

 and pure a blue, that every silk stuff, having any pretensions 

 to be blue, takes by the side of it a difierent colour, and 

 inclines to green, yellow, &c. 



I do not know whether, in the eyes of the partisans of the 

 school of Salerno, it is not exhibiting an immoderate love of 

 life, with a great desire to become a centenarian, to have so 

 many sage-plants around mej and yet I can safely affirm 

 that I have only been led to cultivate them by the splendour 

 of their hues. 



Sage and rue, uniting their powers, allow you to drink as 

 much as your inclination prompts you to take, without injury 

 to your brain. * 



Permit me, my friend, whilst we are on the subject, to 

 quote a few inore of the precepts of the school of Salerno. 



I do not know what walnuts can have done to the learned 

 doctors, but it is impossible to speak more disadvantageously 

 of a poor fruit than they do. The first walnut is good, thev 

 say ; the second is injurious, the third kills, t 



Do you remember the time when we did not take the 

 trouble to count them, when we laid siege with stones to the 

 great walnut-tree which partly shaded the courtyard of the 

 old house where we were educated? How the projectiles 

 hissed as they cut the leaves, and brought down the fruit in 

 showers ! How we picked them up, and how we ate the con- 

 quered ! 



Perhaps the danger of eating walnuts is in an inverse 

 sense, as it is in certain games, — when arrived at a certain 

 number of points, you win; but if you exceed that number, 

 you lose. The third nut, doubtless, only kills when you don't 

 eat a fourth; or perhaps this dangerous virtue ceases to 

 exist when the walnuts are stolen ! 



And do you remember all those games in which walnuts 

 so advantageously took the place of marbles, encouraged as 

 we were in these diversions by the example of the most 



' " Salvia cum ruta faciunt tibi pocula tuta." 



t ■■ Unlca nux prodest. 3ocet altera, tertia mors est." 



