“ All in ye Merrie Month of May ” 
The lanes are quite lovely now with Gorse and Sweetbriar 
(Pimpernel Rose !) and the red buds of the Golden Broom. 
In the Highlands I believe it is reckoned a love-charm, 
though how administered I do not know. It is in Ireland 
I think that it is called the Devil’s-flower, because of the 
legend that whenever, during the Flight into Egypt, the 
Holy Family took shelter beneath the branches, the Broom- 
tree betrayed their whereabouts by bursting into gorgeous 
bloom. There is an old saying — 
If you sweep the house with blossomed broom in May, 
You’ll sweep the head of the house away ; 
and another which declares that if the Broom is full of 
bloom there will be plenty corn. As to the virtues of heal- 
ing with which my old Herbal credits the Broom, they are 
endless, and since they deal with ailments like the King’s 
Evil, which would seem no longer to be known amongst us, 
there is small profit in chronicling them. 
May 17. — Rain and cold, and yet it is not very far off 
summertime ! The Blue Comfrey, of which I found a bit 
in flower to-day, is exactly a month later than last year. 
The pale grey-blue Cushion Iris is showing its pretty dwarf 
flowers and Solomon’s Seal is slowly coming out ; there are 
two delightful clumps of this last in the kitchen-garden, 
planted in circles that have been there for many years. It 
is no wonder there is such a bounteous supply of this plant, 
since in olden days it was supposed to have singular 
virtue : an infusion of it in wine sodders and “ glews 
together broken bones very speedily and strongly, though 
the bones be but slenderly and unhandsomely placed”; 
moreover, the root of Solomon’s Seale, says Gerarde, 
“ stamped while it is fresh and greene, and applied, taketh 
away in one night, or two at the most, any bruise, blacke 
or blew spots gotten by falls or women’s wilfulnesse in 
stumbling vpon their hasty husbands fists, or such like.” 
It was introduced into England a long time ago, before 
1597. The glory of the hyacinths is departed. I nearly 
broke my back to-day digging up all their roots (they 
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