Page images
PDF
EPUB

WILD FLOWERS

OF

THE YEAR.

"INSTRUCT US, LORD,

THOU FATHER OF THE SUNBEAM AND THE SOUL
E'EN BY THE SIMPLE SERMON OF A FLOWER
TO LIVE TO THEE."

LONDON:

THE RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY,

Instituted 1799.

1846.
391

[graphic][subsumed][merged small]

PREFACE.

IN giving some account of the Wild Flowers of each month, the author has selected those which are most common, and most likely to be known by name to the general reader. Το have enumerated each flower of each month, would have occupied so much space, as to render these few pages no more than a floral dictionary. The writer would regard the work as a little guide-book to the fields, and lanes, and woods; designed to direct the attention of the lover of country walks, to the lowly flowers, which he may be most likely to find in his path.

"For not to dwell at large, on things remote
From use, obscure and subtle; but to know
That which before us lies, in common life,
Is the chief wisdom."

The scientific name of each flower is added,

in order to assist any who may wish to study

Botany. The author however, is not one of

those

"Who allium call their onions and their leeks,"

and would rather recommend to the unscientific their simple English names. Many of these are connected with old times and old customs or convey some idea of the uses of the plants to which they belong. Our pretty English May, or Hawthorn, gains nothing by its Botanic name of Crataegus oxyacantha; nor can the expressive Day's-eye, bring to us a pleasanter idea, even by its Latin name of Bellis perennis.

JANUARY.

Flowers in garden-Primrose-Daisy-Winter Furze- Early
Grass-Chickweed-Holly-Mistletoe-Old customs

Page 15

« PreviousContinue »