NATIVE WILD FLOWERS 
I do not know if our brave Scarlet Cup of Canada has 
any floral relationship to an herb known in the Old Country 
as “Clary,”’* or by its local and descriptive name of “ Eye- 
bright.” It is an old-fashioned flower sometimes found in 
cottage gardens. I remember its curiously colored leaves 
and bracts attracted my notice when first I saw it in a 
neglected corner of a poor old woman’s garden. There 
were two varieties, one with the dull veiny leaves bordered 
with purple, as if the leaves had been dipped into some 
logwood dye; the other with a full pink. I forget, in the 
long lapse of time since I saw the plants, if the flower itself 
was pretty or partook of the same tint of color as the 
foliage, but the great marvel consisted in the black oval 
seeds, not very large, about the size of the seed of the sage. 
This wonderful seed, Nannie Prime told me, gave the name 
to the plant “ Eye-bright,” though, she added, “ the learned 
gardener folk do call it ‘Clary.’ If any dust or motes, or 
any bad humors, are in the eye, and one of these seeds be 
put into the corner of the eye, it will gather it all round 
itself and clear the precious sight; and this is why folks 
do give it the name of ‘ Eye-bright.’ Sure, Miss, the Lord 
gave this little seed for a cure for us poor folk, and no 
doubt the whole plant is good for other complaints, as 
many of our harbs be if we did but use them right.” We 
know of no especial healing virtue contained in the seed or 
leaves of our beautiful Scarlet Cup; but it charms the eye 
and delights us, and that is God’s gift also. There seems 
to be no actual void, no space unfilled, in God’s creation. 
Something fills up all vacancies, either in vegetable or 
animal life; unseen organisms, too subtle and too fine to 
* Salvia Sclarea of the Sage Family. 
43 
