Flowers of Mystery 
437 
tipped, and set in a cup-shaped calyx an inch 
long, which was bigger than the flower itself. The 
plant stood two or three feet high, and the sweet- 
scented flowers were in whorls of five or six on a 
stem. It is a good example of my assertion that 
the old flowers had queerer shapes than modern ones, 
and were made of queer materials ; the calyx of this 
Shell flower is of such singular quality and fibre. 
The Dog-tooth Violet always had to me a sickly 
look, but its leaves give it its special offensiveness ; 
all spotted leaves, or flower petals which showed the 
slightest resemblance to the markings of a snake or 
lizard, always filled me with dislike. Among them 
I included Lungwort (Pulmonaria), a flower which 
seems suddenly to have disappeared from many 
gardens, even old-fashioned ones, just as it has dis- 
appeared from medicine. Not a gardener could be 
found in our public parks in New York who had 
ever seen it, or knew it, though there is in Prospect 
Park a well-filled and noteworthy “ Old-fashioned 
Garden.” Let me add, in passing, that nothing in 
the entire park system— greenhouses, water gardens, 
Italian gardens — affords such delight to the public 
as this old-fashioned garden. 
The changing blue and pink flowers of the Lung- 
wort, somewhat characteristic of its family, are curious 
also. This plant was also known by the singular 
name of Joseph-and-Mary ; the pink flowers being 
the emblem of Joseph ; the blue of the Blessed Vir- 
gin Mary. Lady’s-tears was an allied name, from a 
legend that the Virgin Mary’s tears fell on the 
leaves, causing the white spots to grow in them, 
