Wild Flowers as They Grow 



this reputed excellence there once passed current 

 the sa5dng, " You have more virtues than Betony," 

 when a particularly delicate comphment was in- 

 tended, or, " May you have more virtues than 

 Betony," when a warm benediction was given. 

 Most ridiculous superstitions grew up about it ; one 

 of very ancient date was that serpents would fight 

 and kiU each other if placed within a ring composed 

 of it ; and others declared that even the wild beasts 

 recognised its efficacy, and used it if wounded ! 



But let us leave tradition and turn direct to the 

 actual plant itself. Now, it is one of the ironies of 

 plant life that to-day not nineteen people out of 

 twenty who pass along the country lanes or traverse 

 the woodlands recognise the Betony when they see 

 it, though it is common enough. Its personality is 

 lost amid the host of rather uninteresting, purplish 

 or reddish weeds — the hedge stachys, the red dead 

 nettle, the galeopsis, the calamints and others — 

 which play such a large, if somewhat obscure, part 



in roadside vegetation. Even among so dull a group 



70 



