good representative of the very large order of plants known botanically
as the _Umbelliferæ_. The whole of the plants of this order, as the name
implies, have their flowers growing in umbels, that is to say, all the
flower-stalks start from one point on the stem, and radiate from the
common centre. Many of the _Umbelliferæ_, as the parsley, carrot,
fennel, and celery, must be familiar to our readers, though they may not
have noticed particularly this umbellate mode of flowering. Several of
the species are exceedingly poisonous: of these we may instance the
hemlock, the water-dropwort, and the present plant. With very few
exceptions, the flowers of the whole of the plants of this order are
either white or yellow. The fool’s parsley is so called from a slight
resemblance which the plant bears to the common parsley of the
kitchen-garden. Though the differences are not difficult to detect--the
flowers, for instance, of the fool’s parsley being white, and those of
garden-parsley yellow; the leaves of the first giving a disagreeable
odour when bruised, and those of the second a rich aromatic scent--the
want of a little circumspection has frequently led to serious and even
fatal results. The plant is the more dangerous from its being rarely met
with except on cultivated ground. The generic name, _Æthusa_, is given
to it in allusion to its acrid nature, being derived from a Greek word
signifying to burn, while _cynapium_ means dog’s parsley. Though as yet
we have said nothing but evil of it, it is but just to add in its
favour that, ornamentally, it is a very desirable plant for insertion in
our list, the leaves, flower-buds, and general growth being very
graceful, and well suited for the decoration of any delicate fabric. For
illustrations of the plant we would refer you to F. L. vol. i. 18; S. C.
8; S. B. 139. It will be found in flower during July and August.
The GROUND-IVY (_Nepeta glechoma_), the subject of our next two
illustrations, is so commonly distributed throughout Britain, that there
can be but little need of our dwelling at any great length upon a
description of it, though, from its habit of trailing on the ground and
among the roots of larger plants, it is not so conspicuous to the eye as
many others. Its English name, ground-ivy, refers to its slight
resemblance in mode of growth to the common ivy, though in every other
respect they are very dissimilar, the ground-ivy having rounded or
reniform leaves growing in pairs up the stem, the flowers large and of a
brilliant colour, tubular and bisymmetrical, while in the ivy the leaves
terminate in an acute point, and spring singly from the stem, the
flowers small, pale green, multisymmetrical in form, and composed of
five distinct petals. The generic name, _Nepeta_, is derived from
_nepa_, a scorpion, from an old belief that the bite of the scorpion was
rendered harmless if treated by means of a recipe of which a preparation
of our present plant was the leading ingredient. The flower of the
ground-ivy, though generally of a deep purplish blue, may sometimes be
met with of a pure white. This variation from a given colour to white is
comparatively not uncommon in many of our wild plants, though more
especially noticeable in
[Illustration: _Ground-Ivy._]
plants of normally blue or purple flowers: thus the purple foxglove,
blue Jacob’s ladder, pink herb-robert, purple snapdragon, blue harebell,
and many others, are occasionally to be found with white blossoms. The
ground-ivy, from its abundance, and also from its past and present
medicinal use, may be met with in the works of various authors under a
great choice of synonyms: of these alehoof is the most common; others,
almost equally familiar, being creep-by-ground and cat’s-foot. When not
in flower the general appearance of the marsh pennywort (_Hydrocotyle
vulgaris_) is, to a casual observer, not altogether unlike that of the
ground-ivy; but the pennywort is only met with on swampy ground, the
leaves are peltate or shield-like, the stalk rising from the centre of
the under side of the leaf, as we see it in the more familiar garden
nasturtium (_Tropæolum majus_), differing in these respects from the
ground-ivy. When in blossom, the contrast between the greenish-yellow
flower of the pennywort and the deep purple of the flowers of the
ground-ivy is too marked to permit of any chance of error. The only
examples of the use of the ground-ivy
[Illustration: _Ground-Ivy._]
with which we are acquainted in the ornament of the past are in a small
spandrel in one of the doorways at Rheims Cathedral, and on some of the
flooring tiles from the ruins of the Abbey of Chertsey, Surrey. In the
latter case the leaves are four in number, in a cruciform arrangement
within a quatrefoil--a very simple yet true and effective treatment of
the plant; for as the leaves grow, as we have already mentioned, in
pairs, and as each pair of leaves is placed upon the stem at right
angles to the pairs immediately above and beneath it, the effect
produced in looking down upon the plant is necessarily cruciform in
character. A great variety of these Chertsey tiles may be seen in the
South Kensington Museum: though very simple in design, they afford
excellent examples of the true application of the principles which
should govern the introduction of natural forms, and are well worthy of
the attention of the student of decorative art. In both these cases,
Rheims and Chertsey, the leaves alone are employed, as the flowers, from
their intricacy of detail and position upon the plant, would require the
aid of colour to bring them out with due effect; hence, while the
ground-ivy, during its period of flowering, is admirably adapted for
surface decoration, muslins, wall-papers, and many other such-like
purposes, it is but ill suited to relief-work in stone or wood. Refer to
S. B. 172; E. B. 1055; F. L. vol. ii. 44; M. B. 28, for illustrations of
the natural growth of the ground-ivy.
GROUNDSEL, though a plant exceedingly likely to be overlooked, is on
that account the more deserving of a place in our list, as it really
possesses qualities which fully entitle it to the consideration of the
student of ornamental art, the general growth of a good specimen being
very vigorous and characteristic, and the variety of beautiful forms
seen in the leaves a further recommendation. The botanical name is
_Senecio vulgaris_. _Senecio_ is derived from _senex_, an old man, in
allusion to the grey heads of seed-down which succeed the blossoms. The
groundsel may be met with abundantly almost everywhere, and may at all
times of the year be found in flower. Drawings of the plant may be seen
in E. B. 749; F. L. vol. i. 61; P. F. 2.
The HAREBELL (_Campanula rotundifolia_). This graceful little plant may
generally be found in profusion on dry and hilly pastures and heaths,
though by no means in such localities exclusively, as the roadside
hedge-bank is another favourite spot. There are ten species indigenous
to England, most of them of great beauty and adaptability to
art-requirements: of these we may in particular mention the _C.
hederacea_, the ivy-leaved campanula, a little plant by no means
uncommon in moist shady pastures and swampy low-lying ground. The
present species is abundant everywhere throughout Europe and Northern
Asia. The Canterbury bell (_C. medium_) is an allied and familiar garden
species.
[Illustration: _Harebell._]
The generic name, _Campanula_, means a little bell, and from the shape
of the corolla is aptly applied to these plants. _Rotundifolia_, meaning
round-leaved, seems at first sight a misnomer, as the leaves most easily
visible on a cursory glance at the plant are thin and strap-shaped. The
lower leaves of the plant, however, are rounded in form; and, as we
study the foliage, we shall see a delicate ascending gradation of form,
from the rounded leaves at the lower end of the stem, to the thin,
almost grass-like leaves of the upper part. Drawings of the harebell
will be found in T. N. O. 80; P. F. 12.
The HAZEL-NUT (_Corylus avellana_) is so familiar a shrub that any
lengthened description of it must be needless, or, to quote our old
writer, Gerarde: “Our hedge-nut, or hazel-nut tree, which is very well
knowne, and therefore needeth not any description, whereof there are
also sundry sorts, some great, some little, as also one that is in our
gardens, which is very
[Illustration: _Nut._]
great, bigger than any filberd, and yet a kinde of hedge-nut; this then
that hath beene said shall suffice for hedge-nuts.” The smaller twigs of
the hazel afford an excellent charcoal for artistic purposes, and the
long straight shoots, thrown up with such rapidity and vigour, are
largely employed in the manufacture of the crates in which earthenware
is packed--a use for which their size and flexibility combined with
great strength admirably fit them, as the rods, when the wood is still
green, may be bent almost double before they will give way. There is a
pleasing appropriateness in its English name, hazel-nut, derived from
the Anglo-Saxon _haesel_, a hat, and _hnut_, a nut or ball, which we
notice and appreciate when we see the fruit in its natural state,
surrounded by the foliaceous and cap-like partial envelope formed by the
scales of the involucre. The generic name also, _Corylus_, refers to
this peculiarity of growth, being derived from a Greek word signifying a
covering for the head. The natural order to which the hazel belongs
includes several trees of great value to man, either on account of their
timber or their fruit--such, for example, as the beech, Spanish
chestnut, and the oak; and in the olden time, when a belief in the use
of the divining-rod, as an indicator of subterranean springs, was
common, the mystic virtue was sought in the forked twigs of the hazel.
The size of the leaves and the striking character of the fruit alike
combine to render it a plant admirably fitted for the purposes of
ornamental art, though the only example of its use, so far as we are
aware, may be seen in a hollow moulding in the cathedral at Winchester,
where, upon a continuous scroll running along the centre of the
moulding, both foliage and fruit are introduced. The leaves are deeply
serrated, and the nuts grow in clusters of two, three, or four, the
general treatment being very naturalistic. Among the many extraordinary
remedies in use by our ancestors, hazel-nuts occupied a place, being
employed in complaints affecting the chest, though, even then, when
scarcely any reputed remedy seems to have been thought too fanciful and
absurd, some appear to have ventured to doubt the efficacy of the
medicine, bringing down upon themselves the scathing rebuke of the
faculty, as we find in the following extract from an old medical work,
where, after the setting forth of the benefits to be derived from the
use of the hazel as a remedial agent, he goes on to say:--“And if this
be true, as it is, then why should the vulgar so familiarly affirm that
eating nuts causeth shortness of breath? than which nothing is falser.
For how can that which strengthens the lungs cause shortness of breath?
I confess the opinion is far older than I am; I know tradition was a
friend to error before, but never that he was the father of slander; or
are men’s tongues so given to slandering one another, that they must
slander nuts too to keep their tongues in use? And so thus have I made
an apology for nuts, which cannot speak for themselves.” For
illustrations of the growth of the nut, see W. H. H., Plate B, Fig. 1;
T. N. O. 127.
Our next illustration is derived from the HAWTHORN, WHITETHORN, or MAY
(_Cratægus oxycantha_), a plant familiar to every one, from its being so
extensively used for hedgerows; its strength, closeness of growth, and
spiny character, admirably adapting it to the purpose. The wood is very
hard, and will take a high polish; the generic name, _Cratægus_, from a
Greek word signifying strength, being an allusion to this characteristic
of the plant. Its use as a hedgerow plant in England dates, according to
Sowerby, from the time of the Romans, and of this there can be but
little doubt, as its most common name--hawthorn--is, literally,
the hedge-thorn, from the Saxon word _hage_. The second
name--white-thorn--has been given to it in contradistinction to the
black-thorn (_Prunus spinosa_), a somewhat similar, and, in a wild
state, almost equally common plant; the
[Illustration: _Hawthorn._]
stems of the latter being very dark in colour, while in the hawthorn or
white-thorn they are comparatively light. The third name, May, has
obvious reference to the time of flowering. The leaves of the plant are
exceedingly varied in form, affording a great choice for the selection
of the ornamentist; some being very simple in character, while others
are deeply cut, and very rich and beautiful in outline. A permanent
variety may be occasionally met with, in which the leaves, instead of
being of the ordinary deep and bluish green, are in addition irregularly
blotched with varying and intermingling tones of yellow. The flowers
also of the hawthorn are subject to considerable variation in colour:
the typical state is a pure milky white; but owing to the nature of the
soil in which the plant is found, the blossoms may occasionally be seen
varying from a pale pink to almost crimson. The berries, also, though
generally of a deep crimson colour, are sometimes of an intensely golden
yellow. An old writer, Culpepper, in his “British Herbal,” a treatise
partly astrological and partly medicinal, having first stated that the
plant is under the dominion of Mars, thus defines the medicinal
properties of the hawthorn:--“The seeds in the berries, beaten to
powder, being drank in wine, are held singular good against the dropsy.
The seed, cleared from the down, bruised and boiled in wine, and drank,
is good for inward tormenting pains. If cloths and sponges be wet in the
distilled water, and applied to any place wherein thorns and splinters,
or the like, do abide in the flesh, it will notably draw them forth. And
thus you see the thorn gives a medicine for its own pricking, and so
doth almost everything else.”
Though to a certain extent foreign to our subject, we may perhaps be
permitted to say that, to the naturalist, as well as to the botanist and
the designer of ornamental art, the tree possesses considerable
attractions, the berries being the favourite fruit of many of our birds,
and the foliage being sometimes completely stripped by the larvæ of
various butterflies and moths, such as the small Ermine, the Brimstone
moth, and many others; while among the poets, Chaucer, Milton,
Shakspeare, Wordsworth, Goldsmith, Bampfylde, and Tennyson, have all
found in it a source of beauty and inspiration. It has also been one of
the favourite plants of the ornamentists, occurring very commonly in the
works of the Middle Ages. It would be both tedious and unnecessary to
give anything like an exhaustive catalogue of its use in past art: as
good examples out of many, we would merely cite its occurrence in a
finial in the Lady Chapel, Exeter; as a stone-diaper alternating with
oak, at Lincoln; in two fine spandrels, and a beautiful capital, very
full and rich in its wreathing, in the Chapter-house, Southwell. Other
examples occur in the cathedrals at Ely, Wells, and Winchester. Wherever
met with in ornamental art, the leaves and berries are the parts
selected: to the best of our knowledge the flowers have never, in any
instance, been introduced, no doubt from the fact of the minuteness and
delicacy of each individual blossom, and its habit of growing in
clusters, which, though extremely beautiful in nature, are, from their
intricacy of detail, unsuited to the purposes of the ornamentist.
Similarly, though the plant in its natural growth is often exceedingly
spiny, it is, in ornamental art, represented as almost or entirely
without this characteristic feature, as there would be a great practical
difficulty, in any kind of relief-work at least, in the satisfactory
introduction of forms so minute and fragile, yet requiring so high a
relief. Drawings of hawthorn will be found in P. F. 68; T. N. O. 52.
The HERB-ROBERT (_Geranium Robertianum_) is one of the numerous family
of cranesbills, so called from a supposed resemblance between the form
of the fruit and the bill of that bird, a resemblance also indicated in
the generic name, _Geranium_, derived
[Illustration: _Herb-Robert._]
from the Greek _geranos_, a crane. The herb-robert is one of the most
abundantly distributed plants of the genus, being met with throughout
the whole of Britain and in many other parts of the world, growing upon
all kinds of soils, and flourishing equally well upon hedge-banks, waste
ground, and old walls. Owing to the foliage turning a brilliant crimson
in autumn, the plant becomes very striking and conspicuous as the year
advances, a peculiarity which will greatly aid its identification by
those of our readers who are not acquainted with it. The flowers are of
a delicate pink colour, though they may occasionally be met with of a
pure white: this variety grows abundantly near Nutfield, in Surrey, for
instance. The whole of the cranesbill family will well repay the
attention and study of the ornamentist, the dove’s-foot cranesbill (_G.
molle_), and the blue meadow cranesbill (_G. pratense_), being
especially suited to the requirements of the designer. The latter is a
very striking plant, and when once seen cannot well be mistaken, each
flower being almost two inches in diameter, of a deep purple blue, and
veined with lines of reddish purple: the leaves also are very deeply
cut, and of a highly ornamental character. An illustration of the
ornamental treatment of the herb-robert may be seen in an elaborate
specimen of embroidery, last-century work, in the South Kensington
Museum; while drawings of the natural plant can be referred to in T. N.
O. 38; V. W. 412; F. L. vol. i. 52; P. F. 34.
HOLLY (_Ilex aquifolium_). This plant, from its association with winter,
should be one of those familiar to the student of ornamental art.
Drawings of it may be found in S. B. 184; W. H. H., Plate A, Fig. 4; P.
F. 27; G. O. 95. The holly is indigenous to most parts of Europe. Its
influence may be traced in the names of several places, as for example
Holmwood, near Dorking; the holly by old writers being also termed Holm
and Hulver. Though ordinarily met with as a hedgerow shrub, it will, if
allowed to grow, attain to no inconsiderable height--often thirty to
forty feet; while a particularly fine specimen at Claremont, in Surrey,
is a little over eighty feet high, and has a trunk six feet in
circumference. The growth is very slow, the timber close-grained and
hard, the annual layers of woody fibre being exceedingly compact. This
fineness of grain, its whiteness and its beauty when polished, render it
of great service in carving and inlay work. It has also been extensively
used in the place of box for wood-engraving, and for the blocks used for
engraving the patterns of calicoes and wall-papers. It would no doubt be
still more extensively used than it is did not its rarity render it so
costly, as, though holly bushes are plentiful enough, the owner of a
fine tree is generally loath to have it cut down. The chief use of the
holly is in the formation of hedges, as its formidable spines, evergreen
foliage, its slight attraction for insects, and closeness of growth, are
all valuable recommendations; we often thus meet with it in
old-fashioned gardens. “Is there under heaven a more glorious and
refreshing object of the kind than an impregnable hedge, of 160 feet in
length, 7 feet high, and 5 in diameter, which I can show in my poor
gardens at any time of the year, glittering with its armed and varnished
leaves? It mocks at the rudest assaults of the weather, beasts, or
hedge-breakers.” This hedge, the pride of John Evelyn’s garden, did not
prove so impregnable to the hedge-breaker as its owner fondly thought,
since one of the great amusements of the Czar Peter, during his stay
with Evelyn, was to trundle a wheelbarrow through it, to the ultimate
ruin of the hedge and the no small sorrow of its hospitable owner.
A variety of holly having yellow berries is sometimes met with. Some
little while ago, a branch with bright orange-coloured berries was
exhibited at one of the meetings of the Linnæan Society, a scion of the
yellow-fruited variety having been grafted on a scarlet-berried stock,
with this curious result. The holly may also sometimes be met with
having variegated leaves, the normal dark glossy green being blotched
with a clear yellow or white. The lower leaves of the tree are edged
with sharp spines, while the upper branches have the foliage quite free
from these:--
“Below, a circling fence, its leaves are seen
Wrinkled and keen;
No grazing cattle, through their prickly round,
Can reach to wound;
But as they grow where nothing is to fear,
Smooth and unarmed the pointless leaves appear.”
SOUTHEY.
Ornamentally, the holly may be met with in a glass quarry in Brandeston
Church, Suffolk; also on a mediæval flooring-tile in the British Museum.
We are not aware of any other ancient examples of its use, though
doubtless those given do not exhaust the list. We trust, should another
edition be called for, to be able, by further investigation, to remedy
this shortcoming. The name holly is a corruption of holy, and alludes to
its connection with Christmas. In some of the old herbals it is written
“holy tree,” while in some countries this connection is rendered still
more emphatic, the German name being _Christdorn_, the Danish and
Swedish, _Christorn_.
The next subject we have chosen as an illustration of the adaptability
of our native plants to the purposes of the ornamentist is the HOP
(_Humulus lupulus_). Though we do not recall any example of its use in
the ornament of the past, except in one of the capitals at Southwell
Minster, it nevertheless appears to us a plant well deserving of a place
in our columns. Its climbing habit, the beauty of the leaves, and the
size of the cones, are all features which in an especial manner seem to
fit it for the service of the designer; and it appears curious that,
while so great a choice was at the disposal of the old carvers, they
practically left so large a field untouched. Our architecture, for
instance, abounds with details of oak, maple, and hawthorn; yet the nut
and the wild rose, plants at least as striking and as common, occur but
rarely, while the hop, bindweed, blackberry, and many others, seem to
have been almost entirely neglected. The hop is found in a truly wild
state in our hedgerows and copses, its weak stems,
[Illustration: _Hop_.]
powerless to support themselves, trailing a long distance, and running
up any tree or other support with which they may come in contact, and
wreathing it with their beautiful clusters of foliage and fruit. It is
also largely cultivated in England, France, Belgium, and Germany; its
tonic properties, and the fragrant bitter principle found in it,
chemically termed lupuline, being, it is almost needless to say,
utilised in the making of beer. It was thus first used in the reign of
Henry VIII., before that time the fresh top shoots of broom being
employed to give the desired bitterness. The young shoots are in some
parts of the country cooked and eaten like asparagus. Gerarde, writing
in the reign of Elizabeth, says, “The hop joyeth in a fat and fruitfull
ground, also it groweth amongst briers and thornes about the borders of
fields. The flowers are used to season beere or ale with, and too many
do cause bitternesse thereof, and are ill for the head. The manifold
vertues of hops do manifest argue the wholesomnesse of beere, for the
hops rather make it a physicall drinke to keep the body in health, than
an ordinary drinke for the quenching of our thirst.” The leaves of the
hop are sometimes heart-shaped, at others divided into three very
distinctly marked lobes, in either case the margins being deeply
serrate. The order to which the hop belongs includes many plants useful
to man, as, for instance, among several others, the hemp, mulberry, fig,
the _Urostigma elasticum_, yielding india-rubber, and the bread-fruit
tree.