Borage.
The Borage (Borago officinalis), though widely distributed, is by no means a common plant; and though mentioned by several old writers, must be considered as but a doubtful native. The generic name has been corrupted from two Latin words, cor, the heart, and ago, I act, from a belief, as old as the time of Pliny, in its exhilarating effects; hence the old saying, Ego borago gaudia semper ago, “I borage give always courage.” The borage, like the comfrey and forget-me-not, belongs to the order Boraginaceæ, and, in common with most of the species of that order, is marked by the gyrate or scorpoid arrangement of its flowers, the stem being coiled round like the mainspring of a watch. It may be met with occasionally in the ornament of the past—its large and striking-looking stellate (Latin, stella, a star) flowers, and the general growth of the plant, being admirably adapted to the purposes of design. As an example we may instance the MS. Hours of Henry VII. in the British Museum, where the borage is introduced upon a golden ground on one of the pages. Drawings of this plant will be found in E. B. 1114; M. B. 217; T. N. O. 98; and P. F. 36.
In studying the application of natural vegetable forms to the various requirements of ornamental art—such, for instance, as the employment of bold, vigorous plants to stone or wood carving, and the more graceful and delicate growths to such fabrics as muslin and lace—we speedily find that in some cases we are unable to treat the whole of the plant we have selected for our purpose, owing to the limitations placed upon us by the requirements of the work, the exigencies of manufacture, or the nature of the materials in which our design is to be embodied. In some cases the flowers are too small in detail, or in the general mass, to accord well from the ornamentist’s point of view with the foliage of the plant; the white bryony (Bryonia dioica), for instance, though excellently adapted for muslins, could not in its flowering stage be satisfactorily treated for stonework on this account, though the foliage by itself is admirably suited for such purpose. In other instances we find the case reversed, the flower being large and beautiful in form, and the leaves unsuited, either from their insignificant size or want of beauty, to the purpose of the ornamentist; thus, while the leaves of the stonecrop (Sedum acre) are, from their minuteness, scarcely available for the purposes of design, the stellate flower is exceedingly beautiful in form, and admirably adapted for diapering and many other uses, when isolated from the rest of the plant. Where both leaf and flower are from their beauty and relative scale equally adapted for art-treatment, we are still, when circumstances require it, quite justified in employing either the one or the other by itself: where a monochrome arrangement is necessary, the leaves alone may, for example, be used; where a central radiate form, the flower may be introduced. The rosette or patera, so freely introduced both in ancient and mediæval art, is an example of this use of isolated floral forms.
The Bramble or Blackberry (Rubus fruticosus), a more familiar plant than the last, has, so far as we are aware, been but little used in ornamental art, though the Rubus idæus, or wild raspberry, may occasionally be seen in MSS. of the sixteenth century. The generic name is highly expressive of the prickly nature of the plant, being derived from an old Celtic verb, reub, to lacerate or tear away; while its English name, bramble, attests its indigenous nature, descending as it does from the Anglo-Saxon name for it, bremel. The stems, ordinarily of a pale purple colour and with a grey bloom upon them, are pentangular in section, the numerous prickles almost entirely confined to the ridges formed by the angles, and not occurring in the intermediate furrows; the leaves generally with five deeply serrated leaflets, a rich green on the upper surface, and covered with close white down on the lower; the petals of the blossom varying from pure white or delicate pink to a deep red; and the fruit of a rich crimson, so intense in colour as to appear almost black. The mode of growth
Blackberry.
admirably fits it for the service of the designer, the leaves being very ornamental in form, and the long trailing stems admitting of great freedom of curve, while for its use in decorative art a further great recommendation exists in the power of representing the plant under several phases of growth without violating natural truth, as at one and the same time we find the opening bud, the fully-expanded flower, and the fruit of all sizes and stages of development, varying in colour from green, light red, and crimson, to deep purplish black in its progress to maturity. We thus gain great variety of form, and also, when admissible, of colour. The bramble appears to be of especial value in ornament where large surfaces require to be covered by forms at once suitable in scale, interesting in their details, and varied in their character; hence it would seem admirably adapted to muslins and lace, though, so far as we have had opportunity of observation, it has not been thus employed. Reliable drawings of the blackberry will be found in W. H. H., Plate E, Fig. 1.; in T. N. O. 51; G. O. 96; and P. F. 57.
Some plants, beautiful in themselves, possess an increased importance in the eyes of the followers of ornamental art, from their being used heraldically; such, for example, are the rose, the shamrock, the broom, and the thistle. Broom (Sarothamnus scoparius) is thus used as the badge of the Scottish clan Forbes, and, as all readers of history will remember, was also chosen as the device of the Plantagenets. A very good example of its use in past art—though scarcely, from its being found in a Tudor monument, having any heraldic meaning—will be seen in a glass quarry in Henry VII.’s Chapel. Sarothamnus is derived from two Greek verbs, signifying a shrub, and to sweep. The English name has the same force of meaning. In an old work we have consulted, the author deems it useless to go into a long account of the plant, so well known was it in his time from this domestic use:—“To spend time in writing a description hereof is altogether needless, it being so generally used by all the good housewives almost throughout this land to sweep their houses with, and, therefore, very well known to all sorts of people.” The broom may ordinarily be found on sandy commons, railway banks, and dry hillsides. The large yellow pea-shaped flowers appear in great profusion throughout May and June, and are succeeded in due course by the black seed-pods. The plant grows from three to six feet high, and when covered with its brilliant blossoms is a very striking object. Leaves very inconspicuous. Drawings of this very beautiful plant may be seen on referring to S. B. 121; E. B. 329; M. B. 89; F. L. vol. v. 31; S. C. 67; T. N. O. 49.
Bulbous Crowfoot. We have selected the present plant (Ranunculus bulbosus) as a good representative of the numerous species of plants familiarly termed buttercups, partly because it is the most striking in effect, partly because it is the one that will most readily be met with under ordinary circumstances; for while its fine flowers and beautifully-cut leaves render it singularly well suited to the purposes of ornament, the abundance of it in every meadow throughout the country places it within the reach of all who would desire to adapt it to any artistic purpose. From the commonness of the plant, and its general distribution throughout England, it has received many other names: goldknob, goldcup, baffiner, troil-flower, polt, kingcup, buttercup, butter-flower, cuckoo-bud, are all synonyms. The term Ranunculus is derived from rana, a frog, many of the species being found in wet, swampy places; while the specific name, bulbosus, alludes to the bulb-like swelling of the lower part of the stem in this particular species. The name crowfoot has been given to the plant from the radiating character of the segments of the leaf, spreading as they do like the divisions of a bird’s foot; while the use of the word buttercup points to the old belief that the rich yellowness of spring butter is owing to the eating of this plant by the cows; the effect must rather, however, be ascribed to the tender grass, as any one who will take the trouble to notice the fact will find that cows in a meadow will, as far as possible, avoid the buttercups. The leaves of the bulbous crowfoot, like, with one exception, those of the rest of the family, are very acrid, and will, if applied to the skin, speedily blister it. The plant will be found in flower throughout the spring and summer: a variety is sometimes met with having cream-coloured flowers. The crowfoot is one of the favourite plants in the ornament of the Decorated period of Gothic. Representations of the natural plant may be seen on consulting E. B. 35, or F. L. vol. i. 38; refer also to “Water Crowfoot” in the present work, page 84.
Celandine (Chelidonium majus). The Celandine, though, so far as we are aware, not to be met with in ornamental art, is a plant in every way fitted for the purposes of the designer, whether we consider the form of the flower, of the pods which succeed the blossoms, or the rich outline of the leaf. The inflorescence is umbellate (Lat. umbella, an umbrella), that is to say, all the flower-stalks start from the same point in the stem, as in the case of the hemlock, the cowslip, flowering rush, and many other plants. Chelidonium is derived from the Greek word chelidon, a swallow, from an old belief that the plant came into flower on the arrival of those birds, and withered when they took their departure; hence in old writings we frequently find the Celandine termed swallow-wort. The plant will commonly be found in waste places, and more especially near human habitations. It attains to a height of about two feet, and flowers throughout May, June, July, and August. Consult S. B. 95; E. B. 67; M. B. 263; S. C. 86, for drawings of the natural growth of the celandine.