Ladyday to Whitsunday 
Stinking Hellebore. In Yorkshire — I think in the Holder- 
nesse district — auriculas goby the odd name of Wrecklesses, 
but what it means I do not know, nor even if I spell it rightly. 
Alchemilla, or Lady’s Mantle is also sometimes called Bear’s- 
foot ; Padelion is a curious old English name for this. It is 
curious that in the Greek, Latin, Italian, and Spanish, Lion’s- 
foot is its name, while in French, German, and Dutch it 
has both names of Lion’s-foot and Ladies’ Mantle, a corrup- 
tion of Our Lady’s Mantle being one of the many plants 
associated with the Mother of our Lord. 
It is rather nice the way in which the Bear’s-ears, and 
indeed all the flowers in this old kitchen-garden, are hail- 
fellow-well-met with the vegetables. I suppose it is owing 
to the old fancy that plants affected each other for good 
and evil, and nice plants gave of their virtues to their 
neighbours, and were in consequence often planted side by 
side. I have heard that in America, in Virginia, the old- 
fashioned way of planting vegetables with flower-borders 
round them in enclosed gardens has died out, and the 
present American gardener prefers flowers and vegetables 
grown quite apart. I don’t think it can be so pretty. 
But there is nothing new under the sun. This would 
seem to have been the custom in the days of Henri IV. 
of France, since the Seigneur du Pradel, called the “ Father 
of Agriculture,” describes kitchen-gardens, called le potager , 
as apart from le bouquetier , for flowers, le medecinal for 
the herbalist’s benefit, the old-time Physick Garden, and 
le fruictier or orchard. 
To-day Boy and I saw a tiny crimson spider. I like the 
old Scotch name for a spider — Ettercap. It seems to be 
quite gone out of use, at least here. In Jamieson’s 
Dictionary I find a cross-grained, evil-disposed person 
used to be called an Ettercap or Capper. It is curious the 
derivation, from the Anglo-Saxon Attercappe, meaning “cup- 
ful of venom.” Leyden, the old Border poet, wrote a 
curious poem called “ The Lay of the Ettercap,” in which 
he makes allusion to Ritson, the antiquary, as 
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