Wild Flowers as They Grow 



sorts of endearing names have been found for it. 

 It is Robin, or Robin i' th' Hedge, or, more fondly. 

 Little Red Robin ; sometimes it is felt to be the 

 complement of the robin, and so it becomes Jenny 

 Wren, or Wren Flower ; sometimes, again, it is 

 honoured by the name of that evergreen country- 

 side hero, Robin Hood, at other times it is Redbreast 

 or, most aptly. Red Shanks, because of its long red 

 stalks. When its hue is most striking and the leaves 

 and stalks are ahke dyed with crimson stain it 

 becomes Dragon's Blood, or Bloodwort, or even 

 more suggestively. Death-come-quickly. How it 

 became Herb Robert can now be only a matter of 

 tradition, so far back do we find the name. Prosaic 

 folk assert that Robert is a corruption of Rob-wort, 

 the red plant ; but one would rather receive the old 

 belief that it keeps alive for us to-day the memory 

 of that Abbot of Molesne, the founder of the great 

 Cistercian Order, St. Robert, whose dedicated day 

 is April 24th. The story goes that he performed 

 miracles of heaUng by means of this plant. Others 



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