300 LANGUAGE OF FLOWERS. 
preparation which will kill the strongest man in 
twelve hours. Several of the Champignons of 
this country also are very dangerous ; some of 
them contain so acrid a liquid, that a single drop 
will blister the tongue : yet the Russians, daring 
their long Lent, subsist almost entirely on 
Champignons; and by the French they are es- 
teemed a great delicacy. People ought, however, 
to be very suspicious of them, and to steep before 
they eat them in boiling water. This process 
deprives them at once of their smell and dange- 
rous properties, if they are not of a wholesome 
sort. 
Sympathy, Thrift. This plant is mentioned by 
Pliny under the name of Statice, derived from a 
Greek word, which signifies making to stop, as 
this plant, by growing in sandy situations, is found 
to retain and stop the movement of the sands and 
to bind them together by its roots. Thrift is 
chiefly employed in gardens, for borders. It is 
found on every part of our coasts, where its favou- 
rite soil seems to be a marine mud or 002*3, mixed 
with the shingles of the sea-beach, and on this 
account, as well as from its grassy leaves, it is 
generally called the Sea-Pink. Phillips says, 
