104 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[.June 13: 
but too often as objects of simple beauty, and disregarded as 
tliemes for “ wonder, love, and praise !” We step with in- 
difference, too, upon plants, and stones, and fragments of 
wood—all full of deep instruction ! We have seen them day 
after day, and are weary of looking at them. 
The masses of dead fern that still cover the ground in some 
wild woodland spots add beauty to the scene. The rich green 
mosses glow among the crisp brown foliage; once tall and 
graceful, waving with every breeze,—now lying crushed and 
sapless on the ground, like the leaves that mingle with it! 
It is beautiful, and instructive too, to see through the stems 
of trees, the relics of summer loveliness, while the bursting 
beauties of spring are again returning to us; there is such 
quiet thoughtfulness in a woodland scene, and so many 
objects of affecting interest to attract us. Here and there 
an old mossy stump catches the eye, rising from among the 
beds of leaves and fern; a young seedling tree springing up 
gaily beside it, to beautify and enrich the earth for a time, 
and then perish for ever; a deep-green shady spruce fir 
stands in an opening, clothed with its broad waving boughs; 
and a rich snowy May-bush decorates the scene with its 
fragrant clusters. These and a thousand beauties besides 
delight us in wood scenery. Trees are endless sources of 
enjoyment; they are beautiful in their youthful vigour, and 
still more beautiful in their decay. The old, gnarled, hollow 
stem, with its few straggling boughs still green, is a study to 
the eye, and a deep teacher to the heart, as it stands sternly, 
yet affeetingly, before us. It tells us, that “ the strong shall 
be as tow;” and that “if a man live many years, and rejoice 
in them all, yet let him remember the days of darkness, for 
they shall he many." 
Let us take warning by the trees of the wood! Our glory 
and streugth will as surely and as utterly depart from us as 
from the beautiful ruin before us ; for in this world of sin 
and sorrow “ all is vanity.” We may send out our “ boughs 
unto the sea,” and our “ branches unto the river,” but unless 
the Lord God of Hosts “ turn us again," and cause His 
“ face to shine” upon us, we shall not “ be saved.” Let us 
remember this ! 
WILD FLOWERS. 
JUNE. 
May, poetically speaking, and according to the literature 
of our time, is the month of flowers ; but certain it is that in 
reality rosy June far outstrips her fair predecessor in the num¬ 
ber, the variety, and the gaiety of her floral productions. With 
May come the early flowers—the firstlings of summer time ; 
but June unfolds the more matured beauties of Flora, in all 
their gorgeous colouring and variety of forms ; and although 
the earlier gems are all the more welcome for their early 
coming, they are eclipsed entirely by the bright array by 
which they are succeeded, and which at once claim our un¬ 
qualified admiration. 
Already are the hedge-rows and the waste way-side banks 
gaily adorned with wild Dog-roses, which will be of equal in¬ 
terest to the ordinary observer, whether they agree or disagree 
with the particular specific characters assigned to Rom canina. 
We shall not venture upon the utterly impracticable project 
of detailing the various forms which the Dog-rose assumes, 
and which some botanists consider as species, while others 
reduce them to the subordinate rank of varieties; for we are 
well aware that no one has done much to elucidate the 
metamorphoses of Rosa, without pricking his fingers to very 
little purpose. The bright and showy blossoms of the liedge- 
fow roses add quite a charm to our country walks, for there 
are few objects at once so truly beautiful and so conspicuous 
in the summer landscape. The flowers when they fade give 
place to the well known rose-hips, which the reader will 
connect with many pleasing incidents of scliool-boy wander¬ 
ings. Nor is it the scliool-boy alone who relishes this wild 
fruit; for many of the songsters that cheer us in sylvan 
solitudes, and add such a charm to the enjoyment of natural 
scenery, are chiefly supported throughout the early part of 
the winter by the way-side rose-hips. They ore also used in 
the preparation of conserves, although not'nearly so much 
so now as in days of yore ; for they were greatly esteemed by 
the “ cooks and gentlemen” of Queen Elizabeth's time. To 
the gardener the wild Dog-rose serves an important purpose ; 
he finds that the fine hybrid and other delicate varieties of 
roses grow weakly when on their own roots, and he accord¬ 
ingly calls in the aid of the robust plant of the hedge-rows 
upon which to bud his favourite kinds ; and this is the plant 
universally used for that purpose, the tall clean shoots of 
one year’s growth being chosen. The leaves of the Dog-rose 
are frequently spotted with a small parasitic fungus, Credo 
rosae, of an orange colour ; and another fungoid production 
sometimes distorts and swells the bases of the young 
branches. The branches are sometimes ornamented with 
what are familiarly known as “ Ilobin Red-breast’s Pin- 
eushions,” the production of an insect.* Various kinds of 
our wild roses throw off a fragrance from their leaves, espe¬ 
cially in the evenings, when they are moist with dew; but 
the one especially gifted with this property is the true Sweet 
Briar, or Eglantine of the poets; the Rosa rubiginosa of 
botanists, which although chieily abundant in the South of 
England is more or less found all over the country, and may¬ 
be frequently observed blooming in beauty beside the door 
of the way-side cottage. 
The meadows and the margins of running streams arc 
now richly fragrant with the odoriferous Meadow-sweet 
(Spircea Ulmaria), aptly styled the Queen of the Meadows. 
The numerous creamy flowers are produced in cymes , and the 
Meadow Queen is a very conspicuous object indeed in the 
summer meadows, and well entitled to preside over the gay r 
assemblage of floral beauties with yvhich they are adorned. 
In low lying moist situations, where this plant occurs in 
great profusion, its scent is often quite overpowering during 
the blooming season, more especially in the evenings when 
the atmosphere is loaded with moisture. The author of the 
“ English Flora ” remarks, that “ the taste of the herbage, 
like the scent of the flowers, is aromatic, resembling the 
American Gaulthcria procimbens; nor is it unlike the flavour 
of orange-flower water; dried sloe leaves partake of this 
flavour (and are sometimes used in the adulteration of tea 
in this country); and hence we trace it to the perfume of 
green tea, and the delicious odour of the Chinese Oleafra- 
yrans, a plant in no respect allied to our Meadow-sweet.” In 
dry hilly pastimes and rocky places a near ally of the- Mea¬ 
dow-sweet will be found coming into blossom towards the 
end of the month—we mean the Spircea Jilipcndula, or com¬ 
mon Dropwort, which, notwithstanding its name, is by no 
means a common plant in this country, and becomes particu¬ 
larly rare when we seek for it towards the north. The flowers 
of this species ore even more beautiful, and scarcely less 
showy, than those of the former plant; and a variety with 
double flowers often forms a very ornamental object in the 
herbaceous border. The leaves, also, are exceedingly ele¬ 
gant, of a dark green hue, and beautifully pinnate, being 
chiefly radical, or springing from the root, only a few small 
ones clothing the stems. The roots are very curiously beaded 
with hard swellings, and although the whole plant is power¬ 
fully astringent, Linnreus remarks that the dried knobs of 
the roots, beaten or ground into meal, afford no despicable 
substitute for bread. 
In hedges and fences the common Elder (Sambucus nigra) 
now unfolds its cymose clusters of cream-coloured and faintly 
scented flowers, which soon give place to the blackberries. 
Smith remarks, “ It may be observed that our uncertain sum¬ 
mer is established by the time the Elder is in full flower, 
and entirely gone when its hemes are ripe. These berries 
make a useful and agreeable rob, of a slightly purgative qua¬ 
lity, and very good for catarrhs, sore throats, &c. The inner 
bark is more actively cathartic, and is thought beneficial, in 
rustic ointments and cataplasms, for burns. The (hied 
flowers serve for fomentations, and make a fragrant but debi¬ 
litating tea, useful perhaps in acute inflammations, but not to 
be persisted in habitually. An infusion of the leaves proves 
fatal to the various insects which thrive on blighted or deli¬ 
cate plants; nor do many of this tribe, in the caterpillar 
state, thrive upon them. Cattle scarcely touch them, and 
the mole is driven away by then- scent. Both the varieties 
have usually whitish berries, of a less disagreeable flavour 
than the recent black ones; but the latter are best for me¬ 
dical use. A wine is often made of them, to be taken warm, 
with spices and sugar; and they are said frequently to enter 
into the composition of a less innocent beverage, artificial or 
adulterated port.” In moist shady grounds, by the margins 
* Rhodites rosa or Hose Gall Fly. The mossy swelling or gall it causes 
is also called Bedeguar. It protects the larrte of this insect. 
