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could not refuse to answer, and his replies were noticeably lacking in intelligence. Vexed at having wasted her time, she turned to the friend who had introduced the officer and said, ‘Truly sir, you are like my gardener, who thought to do me a favour by bringing me this morning a pot of geraniums; but I tell you I sent the flowers away and told him never to bring them again. And why? Because the geranium is a flower well-clad in scarlet: so long as we look at it, it pleases the eye, but when we press it lightly it emits a disagreeable odour.’

Many Victorians, however, liked the scarlet geranium exactly because of its show of bright colour. Introduced from South Africa, along with numerous other varieties, it was grown everywhere, in fashionable parterres and homely window boxes – a cottage exotic. Miss Mary Mitford, the author of Our Village, a portrait of English rural life in the early nineteenth century, grew geraniums around a wire pyramid in a fine display. A tasteful dinner-party arrangement might include trailing geraniums and ferns cascading down from a bowl held aloft on a glass stem, or water-filled specimen glasses with sweet-scented geranium leaves floating on the top. The gift of an oak-leaf geranium would seal a friendship.

Oh! emblem of that steadfast mind,

Which, through the varying scenes of life,

By genuine piety refined,

Holds on its way ’midst noise and strife.

Though dark the impending tempest lour,

The path of duty it espies,

Calm ’midst the whirlwind and the shower,

Thankful when brighter hours arise.

Oh! could our darkened minds discern,

In thy sweet form this lesson plain,

Could we it practically learn,

Herb Robert would not bloom in vain.

ANON.

HAZEL

Reconciliation

Slender and resourceful, this ancient tree has served man since earliest times. It is fresh and green in the spring, its catkins a source of delight, then handsome in its autumn leaf, abundant with sweet hazelnuts.

The emblem of the hazel is ‘reconciliation’, a meaning that has its origins in the story of Apollo and Mercury, who first brought peace and harmony to the world. In ancient times, they observed the chaos in which man lived – without rules, religion or reason – and decided to descend to earth. Accompanied by his lyre, Apollo sang of love, and all who fought were reconciled. Mercury carried a hazel stick and touched each man with it, giving them the power of language and eloquence, the tools of diplomacy. In many depictions he is shown carrying his hazel staff, entwined with two serpents.

In Little Hazel, the King’s Messenger, a book for children written by Matilda Horsburgh in 1876, the heroine of the story, Hazel Hope, does good deeds and wins people’s hearts. The finest deed this ‘little nut-brown maid’ performs is to reconcile her great-uncle and his only son, who quarrelled many years ago about the son’s selfish ways. Matilda Horsburgh was a popular author whose stories delivered a strong moral message. She wrote another book that drew upon the language of flowers, Little Snowdrop and Her Golden Casket.

In Celtic legend the hazel has magical properties and the hazelnut is an emblem for wisdom. An old story describes the Well of Wisdom surrounded by hazel trees: as the nuts fall into the water, a salmon begins to feed on them, and as a result acquires all the wisdom of the world.

from DOMESTIC PEACE

Why should such gloomy silence reign,

And why is all the house so drear,

When neither danger, sickness, pain,

Nor death, nor want have entered here?

We are as many as we were

That other night, when all were gay

And full of hope, and free from care;

Yet is there something gone away.

’Twas Peace that flowed from heart to heart,

With looks and smiles that spoke of heaven,

And gave us language to impart

The blissful thoughts itself had given.

Domestic peace! best joy of earth,

When shall we all thy value learn?

White angel, to our sorrowing hearth,

Return – oh, graciously return!

ANNE BRONTË

HELIOTROPE

Devoted Affection

The name of this delicious flower is derived from