THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[August 29. 
330 
as horses. Both are now in much finer condition than when 
they came. They were rather restless for a few weeks, after 
first coming from the fell; hut they seem now perfectly 
happy, and when out in the field, they return to the.stable 
of their own accord to avoid rains, heat, or flies. Their lood 
in winter is each a stone of turnips three times a day; the 
turnips being shred, and boiled with chopped wheat straw, a 
little hay-, a handful of salt, and a double handlul ot Indian 
meal, or somewhat more of bran. They may have, besides, 
to amuse themselves with, a few raw turnips, and two or 
three handfuls of hay per day. 
“ Harbiet Martineau.” 
NATIVE WILD FLOWERS. 
AUGUST. 
By the beginning of August, the wild roses have almost 
entirely faded from the hedgerows, although a stray bush 
here and there still retains somewhat of its blooming beauty. 
No sooner, however, do the roses—so conspicuous in the 
summer landscape—begin to fade than another highly in¬ 
teresting family of rosaceous shrubs begin to put forth their 
scarcely less beautiful though less highly-coloured blossoms, 
and continue to adorn the hedgerows throughout the autumn 
months. This tribe is the brambles, a family which, in one 
way or other, find interest with every body. The poets sing of 
the beauty of their “ satin-threaded flowers,” the schoolboy is 
nowhere so delighted as in the midst of a bramble-brake ; the 
mountain shepherd seeks the fruit of the mountain brambles 
as his only luxury; the artist admires the thorny shrub as one 
of the most successful beautifiers of nature,—covering with 
its long leafy stems the old ruinous wayside walls and stony 
hedgebanks with, a fresh and flowery verdure; and the 
botanist—ah! no family of plants delight to distraction so 
well as the ever-changing Ilnbi. The fruit, called black¬ 
berries in England, hut better known under their genuine 
name of brambles in Scotland, meet with very general appro¬ 
bation ; and although the schoolboy gets the chief credit of 
enjoying this free and simple fruit of nature’s garden, yet 
the hungry botanist seldom lingers in the thorny brake 
without indulging in gastronomic as well as botanic philo¬ 
sophy. The supposed species of Bubus have been greatly 
extended of late ; but we fear a proposal to lead the Cottage 
Gardeners through the thorny mazes of the genus which 
have been created by botanical authors would not meet with 
a very grateful reception ; and we shall therefore only allude 
to one or two of the more familiar and easily known and 
distinguished species. The Bubus frnticosus may be con¬ 
sidered the popular representative of the host of so called 
species distinguished by botanists, which afford the bramble- 
berries or blackberies, a fruit which will be perfectly familiar 
to every reader, and which is sometimes used economically 
in the making of tarts and preserves. Jeremy Taylor, in 
allusion to the practice which prevails in some districts of 
binding down the sods on newly covered graves by the young 
shoots of the bramble, remarks : “ The autumn, with its 
fruits, prepares disorders for us; and the winter’s cold 
turns them into sharp diseases ; and the spring brings 
flowers to strew upon our hearse; and the summer gives 
green turf and brambles to bind upon our graves." B. ulceus 
is the origin of our garden raspberry, and a capital fruit it 
is, even in its wild condition in the woods. The alpine 
B. Gham.cm.orus, or Cloudberry, although a small plant, 
affords large and juicy berries, called Avrons by the moun¬ 
tain shepherds. 
The highly ornamental family of St. Johnsworts ( Hype¬ 
ricum.) produce their profusion of yellow blossoms during 
the last and present months, being generally found in woods, 
thickets, and bushy places. H. pulchrum occurs on heaths, 
and H. humifusum on old pastures ; but H. elodes seeks the 
humid margin of the stream. One of the species has its 
I leaves curiously perforated with small transparencies, hence 
I it is called H. perforatum. This is the “ balm of the warrior’s 
! wound ; ” and in allusion to the profusion of its flowers we 
j have the following lines :— 
“ Hypericum, all bloom, so thick a swarm 
Of flowers, like flies, clothing its slender rods 
That scarce a leaf appears.” 
There are in all twelve wild species of Hypericum, but two 
of them are considered to be only naturalized plants. One 
of these, II. calycinum , may he familiar to many of our 
readers as a frequent ornament of the shrubbery. 
One of the most beautiful of the August flowering plants 
is the Grass of Parnassus (Parnussia palustris), which occurs 
in the loveliest profusion on many of the northern hills and 
mountains, although it is by no moans so common in the 
south. 
July and August are the months for the flowering of the 
Dyer’s Rochet, Yellow Weld, or wild Mignonette {Bcseda 
luleola), which grows in extraordinary abundance on railway 
embankments, and on the rubbish heaps of old quarries ; in 
fact, wherever the turf is disturbed and the subsoil thrown 
up. It bears a remarkable similarity of appearance to the 
common garden Mignonette—the Reseda odvrata of bota¬ 
nists—styled by Cowper 
“ The fragrant weed—the Frenchman’s darling ; ” 
but the wild plant grows to a much greater size than the 
cultivated species; and, besides having long linear leaves 
whereby it may readily be recognised, it wants the agreeable 
odour of the garden favourite. Hooker and other writers 
mention that the Dyer’s Rochet is used in dyeing woollen 
stuffs yellow ; and the author of “Wild Flowers of the Year” 
says, “It has been used for dyeing, especially in France. 
The whole plant affords juice for this purpose, and its 
colour is good and permanent. The coloured paint, called 
by artists Dutch pink, is obtained from it.’’ Lightfoot states 
that the plant was in his day much used for dyeing both 
woollen and silk of a yellow colour ; the fresh herb shredded 
and boiled, or dried and reduced to a powder, being the ways 
of using it. The Base ltocliet {II. lutca) is a much raid 
species, but of no importance in an economical point of 
view, so far as we can learn. 
The Corn Marigold {Chrysanthemum segetum) is a very 
conspicuous golden field flower during the month of August, 
when it is generally in full bloom. According to our own 
observation, it is often more profuse in potato fields than in 
corn fields, and certainly more conspicuous when so cir¬ 
cumstanced. The Corn Marigold is not so very troublesome 
a farm pest in this country as to require a statutory enact¬ 
ment to enforce its eradication by the cultivator of the soil, 
as has been found necessary in Denmark; but it frequently 
occurs in tolerable abundance, especially in cold, wet, clayey 
land. Its peculiarity of distribution, however, renders it to 
some extent a local plant; for there arc some districts where 
it is particularly scarce, among which we may notice the 
neighbourhood of Edinburgh. 
There are a good few other plants of the Natural Order 
Composite which produce their flowers during the present 
month; and wo may notice one or two of the more interest 
ing. The common Chamomile {Anthemis nobilis) is a favour¬ 
ite cottage herb, the stomachic and tonic powers of which 
are “justly celebrated.” At many of the stations where this 
plant may bo found it is probably not indigenous, as its con¬ 
stant attendance at the cottage door gives it many oppor¬ 
tunities of being introduced to different parts of tire country 
where it may readily become naturalized. Several varieties 
are grown in gardens. Accordirrg to Hooker, the principal 
virtues of this plant are supposed to reside in tin; involucre, 
which contains an essential oil. Sir J. E. Smith says, 
“ Varieties with double flowers, whoso yellow tubular florets 
are entirely or partially transformed into white ligulate ones,, 
are common in gardens ; tire discoid variety, destitute ot 
rays, is more rare. The latter, perhaps, ought to be pre¬ 
ferred for medical use, the double white flowers being now j 
acknowledged to be weaker than those in a natural state, j 
Every part of the plant is intensely bitter, and gratetnlly ^ 
aromatic, especially the flowers.” The Sneezewort Yarrow 
( Achilleaptarmica) is a beautiful ornament of the ditch banks, j 
more especially in the north, although by no means uncommon 
anywhere; but the common Yarrow or Millfoil (A. millefolium) 
is even more abundant, occurring chiefly by the waysides. It | 
is said to cause bleeding at the nose if put up the nostrils ; 
hence one of the English names, Nose-bleed. The iamily 
of Knapweeds (Cmtaurca ) are exceedingly showy, more 
especially C. scabiosa, and C. cyaiius; indeed the latter is 
frequently grown in gardens as an ornamental annual. The 
stamens of some of the species have been observed to show j 
