THE HELIOTROPil! AND HOESE-CHESTNUT. 331 



sunflower, Bometimes called turnsole, which implies just the 

 Sume thing as heliotrope. But there is a trifling incon- 

 venience attached to this solution, which is, that the sun- 

 flower comes to us from Peru, and that in the time of Ovid 

 Peru was not known. 



If we seek for another flower to which to attribute the his- 

 tory of Clytie, that is another embarrassment, with the indica- 

 tion you have, that it is a flower which turns towards the sun. 



Point out to me any flower that does not turn towards the 

 sun. Put all you please into a chamber that has but one 

 opening, and you will see, not only their flowers, 'but their 

 leaves, nay, their stalks, seek the air, daylight, and the sun. 



The wild heliotrope which resembles the cultivated helio- 

 trope, excepting in the smell, is often sold under the pretence 

 that it has the quality of .curing warts, which is not true. 



This time I will not forget it; I will clear up the phe- 

 nomena of the fraxineUa. As soon as day disappears, I will 

 set fire to the inflammable air that surrounds it. In the mean- 

 while, here we are under the horse-chestnut-trees. Some bear 

 spikes of white flowers, others spikes of rose-coloured flowers. 

 The horse-chestnut-tree is originally from Constantinople, 

 whence it was sent into Austria in 1594, and brought to Paris 

 in 1613, by a M. Bachelier, the same who brought the ane- 

 mones, as I told you. 



Men, who in general render great worship to beauty, are, I 

 know not why, ashamed of this worship, and invent for that 

 which they think beautiful all sorts of moral and useful 

 qualities, often sufficiently apocryphal. On the other side, 

 there is nothing concerning which one part of mankind does 

 not seek to deceive the others. 



It was from these two united causes, no doubt, that attempts 

 were made to manufacture, but more particularly to sell, soap 

 made of the fruit of the horse-chestnut-tree. Then they 

 undertook to feed cattle upon it. The latter did, in the end, 

 eat it, but with great dislike, and after long and almost starv- 

 ing hesitation; they preferred hunger to death, but very little. 



The millepertuis for a long time was supposed to possess 

 the power of driving away demons j it is now-a-days satis- 

 fied with displaying some pretty clusters of yellow flowers, and 

 with presenting the singular appearance of leaves perforated 

 with an infinite number of little holes. 



