126 FAMILIAR WILD FLOWERS. 



first volume, they will readily agree with us that its 

 pure white clustering starry blossoms are very beautiful 

 in themselves, and have a full claim to be admired for 

 what they are, not scouted for what they fail to be. 

 Londoners will read with interest that in the time of Ray 

 the lily of the valley grew abundantly on Hampstead Heath. 

 In St. Leonard's Forest, near Horsham, in Sussex, where we 

 have seen it in great abundance, the local legend tells us 

 that the patron saint of the district St. Leonard waged 

 a mortal combat for many hours with a great and terrible 

 dragon. Though in the end victorious, the saintly dragon- 

 slayer by no means escaped scatheless, and these large masses 

 of snowy blossoms, scattered over the forest, sprang from 

 his blood, shed during that dread encounter. Any one who, 

 in this sceptical age, has doubts, can go and see the 

 flowers for himself. 



The lily of the valley is very common in some of our 

 English counties, very local or altogether wanting in 

 others, while in Ireland and Scotland it would appear to be 

 scarcely indigenous. It is sometimes called the May lily, 

 many of the old names of plants, as the pasque-flower, Lent 

 lily, St. John's wort, and numerous others, having reference 

 to the date of flowering. It is in France the Muguet de mai, 

 in Germany the Maiblnme. Its specific name, Majalis, or 

 Maialis, signifies " that which belongs to May;" hence the 

 old astrological books place the plant under the dominion of 

 Mercury, for Maia, the daughter of Atlas, was the mother 

 of Mercury or Hermes. It is also called convall-lily and 

 lily-constancy by the old herbalists, and in some parts of 

 the country its local name is ladder-to-heaven. Its spotless 

 purity of colour and lowly humility were probably the cause 

 of the bestowal of the last name, a name that has no 



