Page:Aesthetic Papers.djvu/235

Rh heather of the Highlands of Scotland. Not, indeed, in its appearance: in that particular it faintly resembles the yellow broom, the Spartium, so prettily celebrated by Mary Howitt in her juvenile sketches of natural history:—

The wood-wax, however, has found no favor in this vicinity. It is annually burned to the ground, in utter detestation; yet, phœnix-like, it springs from its ashes; and, by the height of summer, it laughs from the midst of its yellow flowers at all the efforts that have been made to destroy it. In England, this plant is useful in the arts; it is employed with woad, the Isatis tinctoria, another plant, to give a green color to woollen cloth. The wood-wax affords a yellow dye, the woad a blue coloring matter; and the admixture of the products of both plants produces a very fair green. The cheapness of indigo will always prevent the New England farmers from growing the Isatis for its blue color; otherwise we might hope for a market for the wood-wax; for, where the one is employed, the other becomes necessary. In former times, the Genista obtained some celebrity as a medical plant; but, on this head, I suppose that we must conclude with the naturalist of Almondsbury, that the mild assuasives of our forefathers are unequal to contention with the abused constitutions of these days.

Second among obnoxious intruders stands the white-weed. This plant is as great a nuisance in our mowing ground as the wood-wax in our pastures. Some fields are so infested as to present at haying-time the appearance of a waving ocean of white blossoms. I am not aware of any remedy for the evil, save the application of a more vigorous agriculture.

These foreigners seem to have chosen this vicinity as their favorite place of abode. There is a tradition, that they were introduced as garden ornaments, and that they have strayed away from the flower-border, and sought in the fields and pastures the wild liberty they so much love. It is somewhat