128 FAMILIAR WILD FLOWERS. 



sonnet on the Spring, we find them referred to as " lilies, 

 whiter than the snow." 



In the wild state its blossoms are rarely succeeded by 

 the fruit, but it produces it readily under cultivation. This 

 fruit is a rather large berry, something in size between a fine 

 black-currant and a small cherry, and of a brilliant red. 

 " They write that the water of the flowers of Lyllie conuall, 

 distilled with good strong wine, and drunken in the quantitie 

 of a sponefull, restoreth speech to them that are fallen into 

 the apoplexie, and that it is good for them that have the 

 paulsie and gout. The same water, as they say, does 

 strengthen the memorie, and restoreth it again to his 

 natural! vigor when through sickness it is diminished." 

 Another old writer tells us to take the flowers and put them 

 in a glass, and place it in an ant-hill. At the end of a 

 month "you shall find a liquor that appeaseth the paine 

 and grief of the gout, being outwardly applied, which is 

 commended to be most excellent." 





