It is one of the very commonest plants in the tropics and in sub-tropical or warm, temperate countries. It is rather handsome, and has large reddish-green leaves and handsome spikes of flowers. It is said to be sometimes twelve feet high, but is usually only six or seven feet. The seeds are mottled or marbled, and have a distinct resemblance to a beetle when seen from above. It has been suggested that this protects them from birds, or enables the latter to recognize the seed, which is strongly medicinal. That, however, is at least doubtful, and certainly pigeons are exceedingly fond of the seeds and eat them in quantity. The oil is used for lighting, in making soap, and also in painting. Another characteristic Egyptian plant was the Leek, which with the onion and garlic seems to have been one of the very first to be brought into cultivation. Herodotus says that on the Great Pyramid there was an inscription saying that 1600 talents had been paid for onions, radishes, and garlic used by the workmen during its erection. The Jewish priests were forbidden to eat garlic, which (with cucumber) formed the dishes most regretted by the Israelites during their wanderings in the wilderness. The Shallot comes from Ascalon, where it will be remembered Richard the First defeated Saladin the Sultan, and where also Sir Sidney Smith defeated the Emperor Napoleon and made him miss his destiny. It was not brought to this country till 1548. Probably, therefore, Tennyson's Lady of Shalott lived somewhere else. Onions and leeks are of course popular in this country, and especially in Wales, where the latter has been the badge of the Welsh since they gained a victory over the Saxons in the sixth century. They wore it as a badge on that occasion by an order of St. David. But in warmer countries onions and garlic are much more important, where they have flavoured almost every dish since the days of Nestor's banquet to Machaon in Asia, and of the Emperor Nero in Italy, until our own days. But the subject is so inexhaustible, depending as it does upon man's powers of invention and his tendency to weird superstitions, that we must close this chapter and also the book. And we will end by asking the reader to think sometimes of all these many and various ways in which plants help and interest man. It is not merely because our life depends upon them. Everything that we eat has been produced by plant life and plant work. Tea, coffee, cocoa, and wine are pleasant because plants have produced some essence which is found useful and agreeable by mankind. Even water would be tasteless and unwholesome were it not for the minute diatoms and other microscopic vegetables in it. But those who take an interest in flowers and leaves _for themselves_, find that they need never spend a dull hour in the country. There is so much to see and to find out, even in the commonest weed or the tiniest floweret.