The Work Of Nature In The Months.

( lower is divided being ahvays narrower than the rest . Formerly this family was considered to possess medicinal properties , ancl was called by the Dutch " Honour aud Praise" ; one of the species used to be eaten with is aud sold

salads and oven now gathered for this purpose in Scotland ; it is however very pungent , so much so indeed as to have earned its Flemish name " Beekpmigen" or Mouth-smart . The Annual Meadow-grass and the

Ivyleaved Snap-dragon still retain their HoAVers , the latter pretty little creeper making the hedgeroAV bright Avith its tiny purple blossoms . Another little late-stayer is the favourite of our younger days , the Common

Fumitory ( French " Fume-de-Terre " ; Northcountry , " Earth-smoke" ) , all names bestowed on account of its peculiar s mell , Avhich hoAvever Is not that of smoke . Kentish children call this pretty little lant "Wax-dolls . " The

Japaneseacp , cording to Thunberg , use it medicinaUy , whilst our OAVU ancestors held it in great repute iu cutaneous disorders . Clare speaks of its use as a cosmetic : —

' And Fumitory too ... . AVhose red and purple mottled floAvers Are cropped by maids ill weeding hours , To boil in water , milk , and Avhey , For washes on a holiday , To make their beauty fair and sleek , And scare the tan from summer's cheek

And oft the dame Avill feel inclined , As childhood's memory comes to mind , To turn her hook away aud spare The blooms it loved to gather there . "

Ancl so we may go on , even in this Alveary month , filling some empty corners of our brain ; Avell for us if AVC do , for Ave know Avhat a family poet has said about ' idle hands , " and assuredly the same is hue of idle brains , for " Nature abhors a vacuum . " Do Ave not find the princile

p carried out in her OAVU work ? Where is 'he piece of land , neglected by the hand ° » man , that we do not find presently covered Avith vegetation of some sort , if even it be only Avith the stems of the irrepressible and ever-recurring Nettle ?

Insi gnificant though it may be , Ave are te mpted to add a word or two about our Poor old friend , culled from a recent article oi Mr . J } avid Fitzgerald ' s on " Basque and

other Legends , " in which he incidentally mentions the cure for consumption , revealed by the Scottish mermaid : —• " Would they but drink Nettles in March And muggins in May , Sae mony braw maidens

Wadna gang till clay . " In the German legends the Tree-Woman says : — " Valerian eat and Burnet-root ; So shall the sickness reach you not . "

Whilst the less communicative Tree-Dwarf of the Orisons was beguiled to disclose a specific against the plague : — "I know it well , Boar-Wort ancl Pimpernel !

But I ' m not going it you to tell ! " By the above-mentioned muggins Ave are to understand Mug-Avort and by Boar-Wort either Southernwood or Carline Thistle . The hedgerows may IIOAV be getting

more bare of leaves , but this only brings into greater prominence the rich stores of beautiful berries . Like bunches of Coral hang the lovely beads of the Honeysuckle or Woodbine , which is the Caprifole or Goatleaf of Spenser ancl Shakspeare ;

similar names prevail for it amongst the French and Italians , Ghevre-feuille , Caprifoglio . This fruit , which is very insipid , is probably consumed solely by birds and children . One peculiarity Ave ought to notice in passing is , that all climbing

plants folloAv an universal laAV in their seemingly careless twisting—every species of the same plant foUowing in the same unvarying direction , whether it be to right or left ; most of the British climbers follow tho apparent course of the sun , from left

to right . The berries of the Bryonies , both Avhite and black are equally beautiful , if more loosely hung . The stem of these plants is slight ,

yet" Now climbing high Avith random maze , O ' er elm , ancl ash , and alder strays ; Aud round each trunk a network weaves Fantastic . " These berries are poisonous , but the black tuberous root of the latter species is useful , being sometimes employed as a stimulating