Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 427: Volume 17, New Series, March 6, 1852Various
General
Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 427: Volume 17, New Series, March 6, 1852
Various
Periodicals
The structure of the daisy has been noticed in a former paper, and its
appearance needs no description. But there is one other flower which I
meet with that must not escape us, and that is that noble plant, the
butter-bur (_Tussilago petasites_), named from a Greek word signifying a
broad covering. Its leaves, the largest produced by any British plant,
are sometimes from two to three feet across, and form a shelter for
poultry and small animals from the rain. It is a composite flower of the
sub-order _Tubulifloreae_. The large club-shaped bunch of flower comes
before the leaves are more than partially developed, and are of a
pale-purple tint, and of a most delicious fragrance, not unlike the
heliotrope. When these die off, the magnificent leaves form quite a
beautiful object in the landscape. Artists are fond of introducing them
into the foreground of their sketches, and very ornamental they are; but
they should be careful not to place them where nature never designed
they should grow, among dry hill and rock scenery, or on the
sea-coast--for they are only to be found growing in moist and shadowed
places, and usually in the vicinity of a brook, to which they form a
very apposite adornment.--But here we are at home, and there stands
Fanny at my door with her load of treasure, George having trotted her
home by a shorter cut than that which I had followed; and unless Jack or
Sam can honour me with their company the next time I go flower-picking,
I shall surely, as the Scotch say, 'ride upon shanks naiggie.'
AN EVENING IN WESTMINSTER.
In a drizzly afternoon at the close of January, we met by appointment at
a house in Westminster with a gentleman, who had kindly undertaken to
introduce us to a very remarkable institution in that part of the
metropolis. A walk of a few minutes through the plashy streets brought
us to a wide gateway, like the entrance to a brassfounder's yard. We
soon found ourselves in a narrow court, encumbered with building
materials and surrounded with plain brick structures, which appeared to
have either been recently erected, or to be undergoing some changes
designed to adapt them to new purposes. Everything looked plain and
homely, even to rudeness; but we, nevertheless, knew well that a heart
of humanity and noble intention beat under the rough exterior of the
place.
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