"Borage and hellebore fill two scenes -
Sovereign plants to purge the veins
Of melancholy, and cheer the heart
Of those black fumes which make it smart."
Such are the antidotes for madness prescribed by Burton in his "Anatomie of Melancholy." But like most medicines, so the homeopaths have taught us, the plant that heals may also poison; and the coarse, thick rootstock of this hellebore sometimes does deadly work. The shining plaited leaves, put forth so early in the spring they are especially tempting to grazing cattle on that account, are too well known by most animals, however, to be touched by them - precisely the end desired, of course, by the hellebore, nightshade, aconite, cyclamen, Jamestown weed, and a host of others that resort, for protection, to the low trick of mixing poisonous chemicals with their cellular juices. Pliny told how the horses, oxen, and swine of his day were killed by eating the foliage of the black hellebore. Flies, which visit the dirty, yellowish-green flowers in abundance, must cross-fertilize them, as the anthers mature before the stigmas are ready to receive pollen. Apparently the visitors suffer no ill effects from the nectar. We nave just seen how the green arrow-arum bores a hole in the mud and plants its own seeds in autumn. The hellebore uses its auger in the spring, when we find the stout, shining, solid tool above ground with the early skunk-cabbage.
STAR OF BETHLEHEM; TEN O'CLOCK
(Ornithogalum umbellatum) Lily family
Flowers - Opening in the sunshine, white within, greenish on the outside, veined, borne on slender pedicels in an erect, loose cluster. Perianth of 6 narrowly oblong divisions, 1/2 in. long or over, or about twice as long as the flattened stamens; style short, 3-sided. Scape: Slender, 4 to 12 in. high, with narrow, blade-like bracts above. Leaves: Narrow, grass-like with white midvein, fleshy, all from coated, egg-shaped bulb. Preferred Habitat - Moist, grassy meadows, old lawns. Flowering Season - May-June. Distribution - Escaped from gardens from Massachusetts to Virginia.
The finding of these exquisite little flowers, growing wild among the lush grass of a meadow not far from some old homestead where their ancestors, with crocuses and grape hyacinths, once brightened the lawn in early spring, makes one long to start a Parkinson Society instantly. Some school children not far from New York, receiving their inspiration from Mrs. Ewing's little book, "Mary's Meadow," have spread the gospel of beauty, like the true missionaries they are, by systematically planting in lanes and fields sweet violets, golden coreopsis, hardy poppies, blue corn-flowers, Japanese roses, orange day-lilies, larkspurs, and many other charming garden flowers that need only the slightest encouragement to run wild. Immense quantities of seed, that go to loss in every garden, might so easily be sprinkled at large on our walks. Nearly all the beautiful hardy perennials cultivated here grow in Nature's garden in Europe or Asia, and will do so in America if they are but given the chance. The Star of Bethlehem is a case in point. Several members of the large group of charming spring flowers to which it belongs grow in such abundance in the Old World that for centuries the bulbs have furnished food to the omnivorous Italian and Asiatic peasants. If we cannot spare offsets from the garden, and will wait a few years for seeds to bear, the rich, light loam of our grassy meadows, too, will be streaked with a Milky Way of floral stars, as they are in Italy.
The Greek generic name of the Star of Bethlehem, meaning "bird's milk" (a popular folk expression in Europe for some marvellous thing) was applied by Linnaeus because of the flower's likeness to the wonderful star in the East which guided the Wise Men to the manger where Jesus lay.
STAR-GRASS; COLIC-ROOT
(Aletris farinosa) Lily family
Flowers - Small, oblong-tubular, pure white or yellowish, about 1/4 in. long, set obliquely in a long, wand-like, spiked raceme, at the end of a slender scape 2 to 3 ft. tall. Perianth somewhat bell-shaped, 6-pointed, rough or mealy outside; 6 stamens, inserted below each point; style 3-cleft at tip. (A Southern form or distinct species (?) has yellower, fragrant flowers.) Leaves: >From the base, lance-shaped, 2 to 6 in. long, thin, pale yellowish green, in a spreading cluster. Preferred Habitat - Dry soil; roadsides; open, grassy, sandy woods. Flowering Season - May-July. Distribution - From Ontario and the Mississippi eastward to the Atlantic.
Herb gatherers have searched far and wide for this plant's bitter, fibrous root, because of its supposed medicinal virtues. What decoctions have not men swallowed from babyhood to old age to get relief from griping colic! In partial shade, colonies of the tufted yellow-green leaves send up from the center gradually lengthening spikes of bloom that may finally attain over a foot in length. The plant is not unknown in borders of men's gardens. The Greek word (aletron = meal) from which its generic title is derived, refers to the rough, granular surface of the little oblong white flower.
WILD SPIKENARD; FALSE SOLOMON'S SEAL; SOLOMON'S ZIG-ZAG
(Vagnera racemosa; Smilacina racemosa of Gray)
Lily-of-the-Valley family