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The Yellow Balsam.

In the thick and deep recess
Of a blooming wilderness,

Tangled weeds concealed from view,
What alone by sound we knew,
A bubbling, murmuring stream;
Unlit by glittering beam

Of the gorgeous sun above-
This delightful, cool alcove.

On the soft and moistened bank
Which the brooklet's waters drank,
'Mid the straggling weeds, there grew,
Pleasing to our searching view,
Yellow Balsam blossoms gay,
Scattered o'er in thick array,
With the shining scarlet spots
Which nature to this flower allots.

From "Favourite Field Flowers"

R. Tyas.

T

The Yellow Balsam.

MODERATION.

HIS is a very elegant plant, the only European species. It grows from one to two feet high with a thick succulent singlebranched stem, and has large flowers of a delicate yellow with a straight (or bent) spur at the base. The inner part of this spurred sepal is beautifully dotted with red; it is the shape of an extinguisher with the mouth oblique, bent over outwards, the extreme tip curved in the contrary direction like a shepherd's crook. The plant is pale green, and attracts attention at once from the delicate colouring and singular shape of the flowers. It is found growing in gardens in Lewisham, but more frequently in cottage gardens about Catford, on the road to Bromley, where it flowers luxuriantly. The writer, walking one bright sunny day in August from this part across the fields to Lower Sydenham, came to the clear running waters of a brook (a branch of the Ravensbourne, which flows through Lewisham and Deptford, where

it joins the Thames). It looked so pretty, and calm, and peaceful, that she turned and followed its course for some time, when, coming to a bend in the stream, she was surprised to find growing on a muddy little island some handsome plants of the Yellow happened some years ago. march of civilization in the shape of a row of houses, which are built not far from where the pretty Balsam flourished, the air has become less pure and the flower has disappeared from its former haunts.

Balsam; but this
Now, through the

As the seeds of this plant approach maturity the capsule or case acquires an extraordinary elastic power, and if touched, curls into a spiral form and spring with considerable force many feet from the plant, dropping the seeds in the way. The common English names of this plant, "Touch me not and "Quick in the hand," refer to this property, and well express the extreme irritability of its nature, which is common to the whole of the Balsam tribe of plants.

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The plant is very acrid, and few animals but goats will eat it. The "Touch me not" has been called by some writers the English Sen

sitive Plant. If you touch the flower it seems to shrink away from you, and if you place the ripe seed vessel in the hollow of the hand it opens suddenly with a little crackling sound, or like the pop of a cork, and darts away from contact with the hand. Others say that the WoodSorrel, Oxalis, with its tiny white flowers, delicately veined with purple, approaches the nearest of all our native growth to a Sensitive Plant, not only closing its petals and folding its bright green leaves at sunset and with every change of atmosphere, but even if the stalk be roughly or repeatedly struck. It is said to be the true Shamrock of Ireland, and is believed to be the little plant that was honoured by the touch of St. Patrick when he drew from the triple leaflet the illustration he sought for, in teaching his simple and ignorant hearers of the great doctrine of the Trinity, or a triune nature. The triple leaflets are frequently to be found in the sculptured ornaments of old Gothic churches and ecclesiastical buildings. The Wood-Sorrel is one among other flowers supposed in old times to have been growing on Calvary, and to have received the purple tints in its blossom from the drops of the Saviour's

blood. By old painters it is introduced in their pictures as growing at the foot of the Cross.

Another name for this plant is Cuckoo's Bread, and it used to be named by the monkish herbalists of olden time "Hallelujah," in consequence of its wonderful medicinal virtues. It grows wild in woods and shady places, but does not do well in a garden, it does far better in a flower saucer covered with a glass shade, and is a charming object when seen in a fern case in the window-it will blossom year after year, covering the space alloted to it with its delicate white flowers, called by the Welsh, Fairy Belis. The acidity of the leaves is very refreshing to a weary wayfarer; the acid is that called Oxalic, and if taken in large quantities is injurious; instances are not wanting in which an immoderate use of these leaves has caused pain and illness. In a suitable locality it grows so luxuriantly as to form quite a thick green carpet with its pretty, glossy leaves. The qualities of the Wood-Sorrel teach the use of moderation— a little is good, refreshing and beneficial to man when tired with a fatiguing walk, while to eat too many of the leaves is hurtful. All good

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