y;
"here is quite a new flower to me; is it not a beauty?" Indeed, it is
a lovely plant; it is the buckbean or marshtrefoil, and generally
grows in some boggy spot, such as this. Look at the three green
leaflets, like those of the common bean--hence one of the names of the
plant. Look again at the clusters of blossoms; some are not fully out,
and are of a lovely rose colour; others are quite out, and the flowers
covered with a white silken fringe. Bite a bit, and taste how bitter
it is; people often gather the roots and use them as a tonic medicine.
I think in some countries, as in Norway and in Germany, the leaves
have been used in the place of hops for brewing beer; about a couple
of ounces being equal to a couple of pounds of hops. The late Sir
William Hooker found the buckbean very plentiful in Iceland, and says
that where it occurs it is of great use to travellers over the
morasses, for they are aware that the thickly entangled roots make a
safe bed under the soft morass for them to pass over. Here is hairy
mint, nearly a foot high; do you dislike the smell? I think it
pleasant myself; it is not yet in flower, but will be so in about six
weeks' time. Holloa! Jack, what's the matter? "I have only tumbled
down, papa, amongst these nasty nettles, and got stung rather
sharply." That is interesting. Do you know how it is that nettles
sting? "Oh, papa," said Jack, pitifully, "you are like the man in the
fable who was giving a lecture to the drowning boy; the boy asked him
to get him first of all out of the water, and to give him the lecture
afterwards. Now, you should first tell me how to cure these nettle
stings, and I would then be more inclined to learn how it is that
nettles sting."

[Illustration: NETTLE.]

The pain will soon pass off, and I do not know that there is any
remedy. When at school, I was told to rub the stung part over with a
dock leaf, but I do not think this ever did it any good. Now, I want
you to pay particular attention; you know what we call "the dead
nettle"--I mean what plant I allude to; there is the red, white, and
yellow so-called dead nettles; you remember the shape of the flowers
of these three kinds. Look at the flowers of the real stinging
nettles; are they not extremely unlike? You see the small green
flowers in long branched clusters; how different from the lip-shaped
flower of the dead nettles.

[Illustration: DEAD NETTLE.]

There is some general resemblance, however, between the