CHAPTER XI 



COLOUR IN THE HERB-GARDEN 



' Farewell, dear flowers ; sweetly your time ye spent, 

 Fit while ye lived for smell or ornament, 

 And after death for cures." 



What is a Herb ? I have always thought Lady 

 Rosahnd Northcote's definition a good one : 

 ' Speaking generally, a Herb is a plant, green and 

 aromatic, and fit to eat ; but it is impossible to 

 deny that there are several undoubted Herbs that 

 are not aromatic — a few more grey than green, and 

 one or two unpalatable, if not unwholesome.' 

 Gerarde's Herbal was divided into three books : 

 The first treated of * Grasses, Rushes, Corn, Flags, 

 Bulbous or Onion-rooted plants ' ; the second of 

 * all sorts of Herbes for meat, medicine, or sweete- 

 smelling use ' ; the third ' hath trees, shrubs, bushes, 

 fruit-bearing plants — Rosins, Gums, Roses, Heath 

 Mosses, Mushrooms, Corall, and their several 



105 14 



