152 



THE NATURALIST. 



it to be SO called because it grew in great abundance on the banks of the 

 Lys, a river rising in the north of France and joining the Escaut near 

 Ghent. While some think the Jieur is an Iris, others assert it to be the head 

 of a lance, and others even consider it to be designed for a bee, we think it 

 more probable that it represents the blossoming flag or the reed, placed, instead 

 of sceptre, in the hands of the early Frankish Kings at their proclamation. 

 Close at hand may be observed the wax-like drooping blossoms of Solomon's 

 Seal, Convallaria multijlora, so called because it was superstitiously supposed 

 that the wise King of Israel had stamped the plant with his seal, and thus 

 ^_ endowed it with extraordinary efficacy. This plant exhibits the peculiarity 

 of a subterranean stem, growing horizontally, as do also the Iris and some 

 other plants, and sending out rootlets as it runs "along, and is one of the 

 many versatilities in which Nature, never wearied of inventioQ, has indulged. 

 Loving the same moist neighbourhood, the scented Water-Mint, Mentha 

 liirsuta, as the old herbalists called it, and which was in great request by 

 dainty ladies of the Elizabethan age for the purpose of aromatising their 

 baths, spreads its perfumed beds of downy serrated leaves and close round 

 heads of silvery grey whorled blossoms. This plant belongs to the valuable 

 labiate-tribe, LahiatcB, which may be easily recognised by the tubuliform 

 calyx and monopetalous bilabiate corolla, square stems and opposite leaves, 

 replete with glandular receptacles of aromatic oil. 



Here, too, we may sometimes find the tall flower-spikes of the Marsh 

 Orchis, Orchis latifolia, the " long purples" in the fantastic garland of 

 " Ophelia;" and at its feet, dipping its graceful branches to the margin of 

 the stream beneath. Moneywort, Lysimachia nummularia, opens its smooth, 

 opposite shining leaves, decked towards the end of the stem at every joint 

 with large, bright yellow flowers. This pretty plant, which is as freely cried 

 through the streets of London under the name of " Creeping Jenny," as 

 . " Rose-a-Ruby," Flos adonis, was by the herb-women of East Cheap in the 

 days of Gerard, belongs to the primrose tribe, Primulacem, which have mono- 

 petalous corollas generally quinquefid, as is the calyx ; one style, and five 

 stamens. Amongst the tall plumed sedges another member of this family is 

 seen lighting up its whereabouts with the fine emerald green of its branched 

 stem and large terminal panicles of gamboge-coloured flowers. This is the 

 Great Yellow Loosestrife, Lysimachia vulgaris, which, while in beautiful 

 contact with it, its namesake the Spiked Purple Loosestrife, Lythrum 

 Salicaria, sends up its tall tapering spikes of purple flowers, from two to four 

 feet in altitude, received its name, according to Linnasus, from Lysimachuia 



