THE ST. JOHN^S WORT 
213 
CHAPTER XXIV. 
SL John's Wort — Large- flowered Species — Locality of 
some Riant s — Social Plants — Virtues formerly ascribed 
to Herbs — Eye-bright — Borage — Moon-wort — Rue, or 
Herb of Grace — Holy Herb — Enchanter' s N ightshade 
Milk-Thistle — Monk' s-Hood — Job's Tears — Love lies 
bleeding — Wild St, John's Wort — Customs formerly 
practised on the Vigil of Si. John — Customs still prac- 
tised in Greece and on the Continent- — Yellow Juice of 
St. John's Wort. 
Hypericum all bloom, so thick a swarm 
Of flowers, like flies, clothing its slender rods, 
That scarce a leaf appears. 
— Co-wper. 
We have several kinds of St. John’s wort in gardens and 
shrubberies — some brought from China, some from North 
America, others natives of the Azores and Madeira Is- 
lands; but none is more generally planted than the large- 
flowered St. John’s wort (Hypericum calycinum). It has, 
like the other kinds of this plant, flowers of a bnght- 
yellow colour, and has around its centre several bundles 
of stamens which resemble filaments of gold. This plant 
is a native of Britain, growing wild in several parts of 
Scotland, and near Cork, in Ireland. It requires but little 
care in culture, and is a very ornamental shrub among 
trees and bushes, bearing, after its blossoms have died 
away, a number of reddish-green berries, which, like the 
flowers, have rather an unpleasant odour, resembling that 
of rosin. 
But if we wander away over the heath, or by the mea- 
dow bank, or through wood or dingle, during the summer 
