Mullein

“ Here they congregate in happy companies while the sunshine and goldenrod are as bright as their feathers, and cling to the swaying slender stems that furnish an abundant harvest, daintily lunching upon the fluffy seeds of thistle blossoms, pecking at the mullein-stalks, and swinging airily among the asters and Michaelmas daisies; or, when snow covers the same field with a glistening crust, above which the brown stalks offer only a meagre dinner, the same birds, now sombrely clad in winter feathers, cling to the swaying stems with cheerful fortitude. ”

“ In the department of Vienne the bonfire was kindled by the oldest man, and before the dance round the flames began it was the custom to pass across them a great bunch of mullein (bouillon blanc) and a branch of walnut, which next morning before sunrise were fastened over the door of the chief cattle-shed.481 A similar custom prevailed in the neighbouring department of Deux-Sèvres ”

“ Great mullein (V. Thapsus, L.) was “common” in Cutler’s time. The moth-mullein (V. Blattaria, L.) he only knew “by roadsides in Lynn” (l. c., p. 419) . Other plants referable to this list of naturalized weeds are “wild sorrel,” p. 42; Polygonum Persicaria, p. 43; St. John’s wort, speedwell, chickweed, male fluellin, cat-mint, and clot-bur, p. 44 ”

“ Considerable pains is required every year to keep on hand even fairly well-grown specimens of mullein. Knotgrass, which thrives with abuse and seems to enjoy trampling by feet, was grown with difficulty in the plots. ”

“ I saw one whose top rose above the edge of a rock, and so much of it was turned white and dry; but the lower part of its raceme was still yellow. Some of the white species seemed to have started 104 again as if for another spring. They had sprung up freshly a foot or more, and were budded to blossom, fresh and green. And sometimes on the same stem were old and dry and white downy flowers, and fresh green blossom-buds not yet expanded. I saw there some pale blue asters still bright, and the mullein leaves still large and green, one green to its top. ”

“ Year by year the mulleins hold their own and no more. Any particular field may have more or less, but in the long run the average for a district is about the same. Some of the seeds are poor and thin. These scarcely sprout. Others spring up into thin-skinned plants, and the first frost nips them. Still others lack the woolly coating in its finest abundance, and the browsing animals eat these. Others lack power to put out a wide-ranging root supply and the first drought kills these. Still others fail to send up a vigorous stem and the passing animal knocks them over and they die. ”

“ The great star-thistles run to seed unchecked by the scythe, and the belled cerinthia and the glaucous-leaved tall yellow mulleins seem to thrive heartily on the barren soil. Boggy ground alternates with patches of dry stony earth, and in early summer every little pool of water affords sustenance to coarse-scented white water-lilies, and clumps of the yellow iris that are over-shadowed by masses of tall graceful reeds. ”

“ So many quite common plants decline to live in it in its natural state, that one’s gratitude goes out all the more to the few that are willing to put up with us as we are. Foremost amongst such obliging vegetables stand the mulleins, and foremost amongst the mulleins stands that really noble person, Verbascum olympicum. If it has a fault it is that it is too good-natured, and too vigorous. ”

“ I observed some mulleins growing on the western slope of the sandy railroad embankment, in as warm a place as can easily be found, where the heat was reflected from the sand oppressively at 3 o’clock p. m. this hot day; yet the green and living leaves felt rather cool than otherwise to the hand, but the dead ones at the root were quite warm. The living plant thus preserves a cool temperature in the hottest exposure, as if it kept a cellar below, from which cooling liquors were drawn up.
Yarrow is now in full bloom, and elder, and a small many-headed white daisy like a small whiteweed. ”

“ Under the ledge of the inner reef, if you get there before the sun is too far to the westward, so that your eyes are not blinded by its dazzling, golden light, you will see, as you drop your line for the yellow and purple mullet which swim deep down over the fine coral sand, some of the strangest shaped, most fantastically, and yet beautifully coloured rock fish imaginable. ”

“ When the ebb of tide commences, the mullet begin to retire, and when they discover that their egress is obstructed, their attempts to effect a passage are both constant and curious—now running down the nets, trying for a broken mesh by which to force an aperture—now with a bold spring endeavouring to clear the buoy-ropes, and, even after repeated failures, leaping at it again and again. The last effort is directed to the bottom, but there the heavy stones resist every attempt to dislodge them, and deserted by the treacherous water, the mullet are left upon the bare sands. ”

“ The mullet is found in great plenty on several of our sandy coasts, and, in particular, haunts those small bays that have influxes of fresh water; they are very cunning, and when surrounded with a net, the whole shoal frequently escapes by leaping over it; for when one takes the lead, the others are sure to follow.
They come in great shoals into the rivers with the tide during the summer, and keep rooting, like hogs, in the sand or mud, leaving their traces in the form of large round holes ”

“ They stand for the most part about three spans high in their grass slippers. Their noses are even flatter than the noses of the Mullabruks. Their teeth stand out somewhat, giving their small faces a cunning mouse-look, which never changes. Their eyes are round and thin-lidded, and almost as colourless as glass. Yet behind their glassiness seems to be set a gleam, like a far and tiny taper shining, so that they are perfectly visible in the dark, or even dusk. Thus may they be seen, a horde of them together in the evening gloom of the forest when they go Mulgar-hunting. ”

“ There is nothing narrow or binding about the word "mulligan"; mulligan can be made of anything. It all depended on what we had! On this stove I made some very acceptable mulligan out of young turnip-tops (they had been brought to the camp when very small seedlings, from a farmer's field where one of our boys had been working, and transplanted in the prison-yard,—I only used the outside leaves, and let them go on growing) , potatoes (stolen from the guards' garden) , oxo cubes (sent in a parcel) , oyster biscuits (also sent in a parcel) , salt and pepper, and water. ”

“ Later as he passed through the gardens, a white oleander blossom fell, and he picked it up and drew it through his coat.
Shadows of palm and palmetto stretched westward across the white shell road, striping his path; early sunlight crinkled the lagoon; the little wild ducks steered fearlessly inshore, peering up at him with bright golden-irised eyes; mullet jumped heavily, tumbling back into the water with splashes that echoed through the morning stillness. ”

“ To produce the intensity of this red colour, fishermen scale the red mullet immediately before its death, a process by which the red pigment cells or chromatophores are excited to expand; fishes which are allowed to die in the water show little red, and therefore red mullets caught by the trawl are less valuable than those obtained in a trammel-net, by which the majority are secured alive. All the species are esteemed as food; but none equals the European species, which was held in exaggerated esteem by the gourmands of Rome. ”

“ The average mule has got more sense than the average horse has got. What’s more, every mule has got something that no horse ever had—and that’s imagination. Why, I know of an instance when a mule was killed by the power of his own imagination.
“It happened forty years ago when I was a young shaver, on my uncle’s farm up the Tennessee River. My uncle owned an old gray mule. He had the mule on pasture in a ten-acre lot. ”

“ A very pretty story concerning the Mullen is attributed to the American Indian, but in some regards it seems to be a variant of the Scandinavian Tree of Life myth. It appears that the Great Spirit of the red men lived at the top of a high tree whose branches reached to the heavens; as no mortal could attain to this high attitude, a spirit of the woods, in the guise of a beautiful maiden, took pity upon the people and so fashioning a ladder from the stems of the wild grape vine, she fastened it to a star. ”

“ Red Mullet.—This fish is called the woodcock of the sea. It is so choice in its food, that, like that bird, it is cooked without drawing. It is in prime season during the heats of summer, and is therefore difficult to obtain fresh. When the red mullet is first [107] taken out of the water, it is of an exquisite rose-colour, varying in lighter tints. When dead, and some time out of water, it assumes a brownish tinge; as it becomes more stale, the colour grows paler. Redness of the gills is in this, as in most other fish, a criterion of freshness. ”

“ Mullet.—The red mullet, again, makes very little demand upon dexterity, nothing being requisite beyond a fair division, longitudinally, into 2 parts, if the fish be too large for one. The so-called liver, usually just visible under the opening of the gill, is a most precious morsel, and must fairly be apportioned, whilst the head itself presents much pretty picking, the brain not being the least. Small red mullet, however, besides being superior in quality to the large, have the advantage of forming just sufficient for a single portion. ”

“ The body is covered with large thin scales. The form of the head is peculiar; its anterior profile slopes downwards to the small mouth, which has very small and feeble teeth, and from which two cylindrical barbels are suspended. These organs of touch are generally laid backwards and hidden in a groove between the branches of the lower jaw, but can be erected and called into action independently. About forty different species of red mullets are known, chiefly from the tropical and subtropical parts of the Indo-Pacific ocean. ”

“ We have had great trouble with our mules for want of grass, and the poor things wandered miles, and we lost some few, and had difficulty in getting the others. After long consultations we decided to divide, eleven of us to bring on the mules and take the valley of the Tulare for our route; the rest of the company under Henry Mallory going up in the barque Hector for thirty dollars each, as our mules are utterly broken down, and we want to get them through to San Francisco if we can. ”

“ Once again the herd came towards me, and I saw that I was not mistaken, but that a mule really was among them, a mule of a delicate light brown color, with dark back-stripe, and which I thought had the biggest head and the longest ears I had ever seen. Mules are more suitable for rough mountain-riding than horses, are surer-footed, and less likely to fall into abysses—a fact worth consideration. To be sure they are obstinate, and I have known a mule be beaten half to death rather than take another step, not because it was overladen or the way was hard, but simply because it would not. ”

“ The bush broke, causing the mule to fall back forcibly against the inner bank, with myself sandwiched between the adamantine wall of the mountain and the well-shod heels of the mule. The animal, being as much scared as myself, started up the trail at a gallop. I had saved my life but lost my mule. I have no taste for overtaking runaway mules on a steep and interminable up-grade. It is a taste which must be acquired. But then, of course, the mule would turn after his first alarm and tear down to the stable. ”

“ Buffon speaks of a shell, the diameter of which was equal to that of a carriage-wheel, and which was used for a mill-stone.
Changing Colors in a Dying Mullet.
The mullet is a fish that was much esteemed by the ancients. The Italians have a proverb which says: "He who catches a mullet is a fool if he eats it and does not sell it"—owing to the high price which the fish commanded. When it is dying, it changes its colors in a very singular manner until it is lifeless. ”

“ Red mullet is only prime during the warm weather, and is best done en papillote. It may also be done en caisse aux fines herbes, à l’italienne, and à là Cardinale, but in no way is it so good as en papillote.
Mullet should never be drawn; it is sufficient to take out the gills, as the liver and trail are the best parts of the fish. When we know that Apicius spent £60,000 to vary the taste of sauces, we can well believe that a sum of £240 was given in the olden time, at Rome, for three mullets of a large size. ”

“ It takes the large one so long to find enough to eat, when the grass is scanty, that he has not time enough for rest and recuperation. I often found them leaving camp, in the morning, quite as hungry and discouraged as they were when we halted the previous evening. With the small mule it is different. He gets enough to eat, quick, and has time to rest and refresh himself. The Spanish or Mexican mule, however, is better as a pack animal, than for a team. They are vicious, hard to break, and two-thirds of them kick. ”

“ The rivers and rivulets are plentifully stocked with excellent fish; the principal of which are, mullets, crocroes, pike, eels, suck-fish, and cray-fish, with which the tables of the [36] inhabitants, especially those on the plantations, are well furnished; and much amusement is afforded to good anglers.
The mullet is of the shape of the sea-fish of the same name, and is often caught in the rivers of half a pound or more in weight; they are very fat and full of roe when in season, and are a great dainty. ”