8 
THE LANGUAGE OF FLOWERS. 
g-reen and its clusters of cerulean blossoms, each with an eye 
like a tiny gold stud set round with turquoises. 
There is more than one version of the story which assigns the 
rnm“ Plantagenet to the Latin appellation of the 
commonly 
•'WMF1 ^'ss Pratt, in her charming little work, the 
™ Flowers o the Year," - is that the name was assumed 
hL t Matilda, the 
ughty Empress of Germany, who, having placed a sprio- of 
Jlr", s battle, acquired the sut- 
name, and bequeathed it to his descendants. Perchance, before 
engaging m the contest, he had lain down among the fragrant 
sukedf seem ill 
suited to accompany the horrors of war." 
lan?w 7 Mag-Sedge, called in Scot- 
and Wa er-Skeggs, and in France La Flambe aquatique; and 
he purple Fleur de Luce, ox, more properly, Fleur de Louis, 
bleTof Slaving been chosen as the heraldic em- 
hX ^nd '' ’ 
In June, the Poppy now begins to flush the ocean of golden 
green corn-stalks, like the red coral seen through translucent, 
sun-hghted waters, but we shall not dwell upon that at present. 
^ ^ coLonly 
ed IS a beautiful object by the wayside and amid the bursting 
ears, that begin to bend with the weight of the swelling grain : 
and there too, is the more deeply tinted Com Blue-bottle, which 
the Scotch people term " Blue-bonnet "-not so formidable an 
object as those “blue-bonnets" which, in “the good (?) old 
times were wont to appear, somewhat too suddenly and fre¬ 
quently for English comfort and safety, “ over the border." And 
t ere, too, are the pink Scabious, and the purely white Bladder 
Campion, and the little creeping Fumitory, or, as our French 
neighbours say. Fume de terre (smoke of the earth), because it 
spreads like smoke over the face of the landscape. One of the 
popular names of this plant is “Bloody Man’s Thumb " and 
