Stray Leaves from a Border Garden 
speckled with black, probably a thrush’s. I do like the 
quaint old Scotch names of throstle-cock for the thrush and 
storm-cock . There is something quite astonishing in the 
number of birds and nests after the terrible scarcity of both 
in places like France, for instance, where the peasants and, 
indeed, every one who can handle a gun makes a point of 
shooting down the poor little cockyolly birds. The wood- 
ruff is beginning to carpet the woodland with its soft green 
tufts and tiny white stars of flowers. I like the old legend 
that the woodruff was said to have been the Virgin’s bed. 
Hepatique Etoilee is the pretty French name; Sternleberkraut 
(Star Liverwort) and Waldmeister (King of the Woods) are 
the German names. Matri sylva was one of its old Latin 
names, which, I suppose, may be rendered Wood-mother. 
The Anglo-Saxon name was Wudrofe. 
A showy gold-coloured Doronicum is coming out along- 
side the Woodruff. It is a case of Una and the Lion — the 
harmless sweet innocence of little Matri sylva beside the 
bold Pantherbane, so called because it is such a violent 
poison. I have heard that in the Tyrol the hunters used to 
poison the wild beasts long ago with the juice of this plant, 
yet an old name for it was Woolfsbane Antidote, as it was 
said to be a cure for people poisoned by Monk’s-hood, and to 
be effectual against the “ Poysonous Bitings of Shrew Mice 
and Toads ! ” Its Arabian name of Doronicum is said to 
be derived from the Arabic Durungi , from its use by Arabian 
physicians, who in the days of King Richard the Lion Heart 
were supposed to be the cleverest people in the matter of 
medicine. A nice name for this flower is Goldenstars. 
Mort-aux-P anther es is . the French name. Gesner, the 
botanist, is said to have met his death experimenting with 
Doronicum as a medicine. I wonder if it were really this 
plant. Wallflowers of all colours are now in full bloom ; 
there is a deep purple one I much admire. In Palestine, I 
have been told, the wallflower is called “ Christ’s Blood 
Drops.” This name has also been given to the red anemone. 
The rhubarb plants are high and bushy now. I remember 
a little garden where an old cobbler had utilised the Rhubarb 
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