Flowers of Mystery 
435 
it, for it is said to be poisonous in its contact to some 
folks, and virulently poisonous to eat — though I 
am sure no one ever wanted to eat it. The colo- 
nists even brought it over from England, when we 
had here such lovely native plants. It seldom 
flowers. Old New England names for it are Love- 
in-a-huddle and Seven Sisters ; not over significant, 
but of interest, as folk-names always are. 
I join with Dr. Forbes Watson in finding the 
Nigella uncanny. It has a half-spidery look, that 
seems ungracious in a flower. Its names are curi- 
ous : Love-in-a-mist, Love-in-a-puzzle, Love-in--a- 
tangle, Puzzle-love, Devil-in-a-bush, Katherine- 
flowers — another of the many allusions to St. 
Katherine and her wheel ; and the persistent styles 
do resemble the spokes of a wheel. A name given 
it in a cottage garden in Wayland was Blue Spider- 
flower, which seems more suited than that of Spider- 
wort for the Tradescantia. Spiderwort, like all 
“three-cornered" flowers, is a flower of mystery; 
and so little cared for to-day that it is almost ex- 
tinct in our gardens, save where it persists in out- 
of-the-way spots. A splendid clump of it is here 
shown, which grows still in the Worcester garden 
I so loved in my childhood. In this plant the 
old imagined tracings of spider's legs in the leaves 
can scarce be seen. With the fanciful notion of 
“ like curing like ” ever found in old medical recipes, 
Gerarde says, vaguely, the leaves are good for 
“ the Bite of that Great Spider," a creature also of 
mystery. 
Perhaps if the clear blue flowers kept open 
