206 
LANGUAGE OF FLOWERS. 
Lent, subsist almost entirely on Champig¬ 
nons ; and by the French they are esteemed 
a great delicacy. People ought, however, to 
be very suspicious of them, and to steep 
before they eat them in boiling water. This 
process deprives them at once of their smell 
and dangerous properties, if they are not of 
a wholesome sort. 
Sympathy, Thrift. This plant is mentioned by 
Pliny, under the name of Statice, derived from 
a Greek word, which signifies making to 
stop, as this plant, by growing in sandy situ¬ 
ations, is found to retain and stop the move¬ 
ment of the sands and to bind them together 
by its roots. Thrift is chiefly employed in 
gardens for borders. It is found on every 
part of our coasts, -where its favourite soil 
seems to be a marine mud or ooze, mixed 
with the shingles of the sea-beach, and on 
this account, as well as from its grassy leaves, 
it is generally called the Sea Pink. Phillips 
says that he has seen it so abundant on a 
little common between Lancing and Worth¬ 
ing, in Sussex, as to form a complete green 
turf in winter, enamelling the ground from 
