Modern farming practises, the ever-encroaching urban sprawl and pollution of one kind or another all have had a dramatic effect on wildlife in general, and wild flowers in particular, since the 1920’s when our set of the month for November was issued. Ironically, motor-way banks and verges have become a major haven for many species whose former habitats have been under pressure, but it was hedgerows along country lanes which the Co-op had in mind with their Wayside Flowers, lovely colour paintings of plants in bloom, some also with an inset close-up of the flower or seed, with a description, including some quaint medicinal uses on the grey backs which advertise “Anglian Mixture” and “Tyneal Plug” tobacco. Some, like Orache and Sneezewort, are unfamiliar to me, but then there’s buttercup, daisy, primrose and violet too, plus our old friend the dandelion whose name comes from the French “dent-de-lion” or “Lion’s tooth,” we are told on the card, although I did read somewhere that many of our Gallic neighbours still call its alternate name “pis-en-lit,” a reference to the plants diuretic properties, translated as “wet-the-bed.”