administered with considerable success ; which will not appear so very remarkable to those who are 
aware that its active principle, veratrine, is, as already observed, a constituent of the meadow saffron. 
White hellebore, as an internal medicine, is again fallen into disuse. It is however still employed exter- 
nally as a local stimulant ; and veratrine has been much lauded in the treatment of tic doloureux and various 
other anomalous painful affections of a chronic kind. 
For internal administration the dose must not exceed two grains ; and when used as a snuff, one pinch 
may be used every night, composed of four grains to about half a drachm of starch. 
Off. Prep. — Decoctum Veratri. L. 
Tinctura Yeratri albi. E. 
Unguentum Veratri. L. 
Unguentum Sulphuris comp. L. 
Poets have taken pleasure in painting gardens in all the brilliancy of imagination. See the garden of 
Alcionus, in Homer’s Odyssey ; those of Morgana, Alcina, and Armida, in the Italian poets : the gardens fair 
“ Of Hesperus and his daughters three 
Who sing about the golden tree 
and Proserpina’s garden, and the Bower of Bliss in Spenser’s Fairie Queene. The very mention of their 
names seems to embower one in leaves and blossoms. 
It is a matter of some taste to arrange a bouquet of flowers judiciously ; even in language, we have a 
finer idea of colours, when such are placed together as look well together in substance. Do we read of 
white, purple, red, and yellow flowers, they do not present to us so exquisite a picture, as if we read of 
yellow and purple, white and red. Their arrangement has been happily touched upon by some of our poets : 
“ Th’ Azores send 
Their jessamine ; her jessamine, remote 
Caffraria : foreigners from many lands, 
They form one social shade, as if convened 
By magic summons of th’ Orphean lyre. 
Yet just arrangement, rarely brought to pass 
But by a master’s hand, disposing well 
Drayton runs riot on the subject : a nymph ii 
“ Here damask-roses, white and red, 
Out of my lap first take I, 
Which still shall run along the thread ; 
My chiefest flower this make I. 
Amongst these roses in a row, 
Next place I pinks in plenty, 
These double-daisies then for show, 
And will not this be dainty ? 
The pretty pansy then I’ll tye 
Like stones some chain inchasing ; 
And next to them, their near ally, 
The purple violet placing. 
The curious choice clove July-flower, 
Whose kinds, hight the carnation, 
For sweetness of most sovereign power 
Shall help my wreath to fashion ; 
Whose sundry colours of one kind, 
First from one root derived, 
Them in their several suits I’ll bind, 
My garland so contrived : 
A course of cowslips then I’ll stick, 
And here and there (though sparely) 
The pleasant primrose down I’ll prick, 
“ So did the maidens with their various flowers 
Deck up their windows and make neat their bowers r 
Using such cunning as they did dispose 
The ruddy peony with the lighter rose, 
The gay diversities of leaf and flower, 
Must lend its aid t’ illustrate all their charms, 
And dress the regular, yet various scene. 
Plant behind plant aspiring, in the van 
The dwarfish ; in the rear retired, but still 
Sublime above the rest, the statelier stand. 
Couiper. 
his Muse’s Elysium says^ 
Like pearls which will show rarely ; 
Then with these marygolds I’ll make 
My garland somewhat swelling, 
These honeysuckles then I’ll take, 
Whose sweets shall help their smelling. 
The lily and the fleur-de-lis, 
For colour much contending, 
For that I them do only prize, 
They are but poor in scenting ; 
The daffodil most dainty is 
To match with these in meetness ; 
The columbine compared to this, 
All much alike for sweetness : 
These in their natures only are 
Fit to emboss the border, 
Therefore I’ll take especial care 
To place them in their order : 
Sweet-williams, campions, sops-in-wine. 
One by another neatly ; 
Thus have I made this wreath of mine, 
And finished it featly.” 
Drayton. 
I The monkshood with the bugloss, and entwine 
The white, the blue, the flesh-like columbine 
With pinks, sweet-williams ; that far off the eye 
i Could not the manner of their mixtures spy.” 
W. Browne.* 
Flora Domestica. 
