Note 1870 — Chapter VI · PASTORAL LIFE.

I cannot resist the temptation to introduce in this place the picture in miniature of a Greek landscape from the picturesque and beautiful journal of Dr. Sibthorpe: “We dined under a rock, from whose side descended a purling spring among violets, primroses, and the starry hyacinth, mixed with black Silyrium and different coloured orches. The flowering ash hung from the sides of the mountain, under the shade of which bloomed saxifrages, and the snowy Isopyrum, with the Campanula Pyramidalis; this latter plant is now called χαρισονη; it yields abundance of a sweet milky fluid, and was said to promote a secretion of milk, a quality first attributed to it under the doctrine of signatures. Our guide made nose-gays of the fragrant leaves of the Fraxinella; the common nettle was not forgotten as a pot-herb, but the Imperatoria seemed to be the favourite salad. Among the shrubs I noticed our gooseberry-tree, and the Cellis Australis grew wild among the rocks.” Walp. Mem. i. 63.