THE GREAT WILLOW-HERB— continued. 
as from the bruised leaves or shoots. This sweet but slightly acidulous smell 
suggests, we are told by Messrs. Britten and Holland, a Gooseberry Pie in Suffolk, a 
Gooseberry Pudding in Sussex, a Cherry-pie in Dorset, and a Plum-pudding in Cheshire ; 
but it is more universally compared to boiled, stewed, or otherwise cooked apples. 
Thus Apple-pie is a very general name, and Richard Jefferies, in his “ Round about a 
great estate,” says of it — 
“The country folk call it the sod-apple, and say the leaves crushed in the fingers have something of the scent of apple-pie.” 
This too is the signification of the very general and pretty name Codlins and Cream , 
for a coddling apple was originally an unripe one that required cooking to make 
it fit to eat, to coddle meaning to boil or stew lightly. 
In Guernsey the rosy four-petalled flower suggests a Stock, so that, as this 
species grows commonly by streams or ditches in moist meadows and not on 
sea-cliffs, it is there known as Violette de prdi , the Meadow Stock. 
As in the case of the Rose-bay so also in this species there is a very beautiful 
white-flowered variety. We remember finding considerable masses of it, with the 
common pink form, some years ago beside the estuary of the Thames between 
Leigh and Southend. As the filaments, anthers, and styles in these forms retain 
their pink colour they are very effective. 
In a wild state the Great Willow-herb is not particular as to sub-soil and seems 
at least equally luxuriant in stagnant waters with Phragmiles or the Loosestrifes as by 
the sides of slowly-running streams. A broad mass of its dense leafage bearing 
aloft a sheet of its bright flowers is often a beautiful object beside some half-choked 
pond ; but perhaps the plant is likely to be even more appreciated when a few 
plants occur here and there beside the brook that meanders through the meadows, 
mingling its deep rose-coloured flowers with the creamy masses of the Meadow- 
sweet or the rigid candelabra of the Figwort, or amid a tangle of Yellow Vetchling 
and Purple Vetch. 
It is too coarse-growing a plant for ordinary garden cultivation, and, like most 
of its congeners, is too luxuriant in its underground extension to be safely so 
employed ; but if planted by the pond-side to break the line of bank it is not 
only in its element but is a distinct addition to the charming possibilities of 
water-side vegetation. 
