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diff --git a/old/60050-0.txt b/old/60050-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 98a7a64..0000000 --- a/old/60050-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,8190 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Book of Herbs, by Rosalind Northcote - - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - - - - -Title: The Book of Herbs - - -Author: Rosalind Northcote - - - -Release Date: August 3, 2019 [eBook #60050] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - - -***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BOOK OF HERBS*** - - -E-text prepared by Turgut Dincer, Harry Lamé, and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from page images generously made -available by Internet Archive (https://archive.org) - - - -Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this - file which includes the original illustrations. - See 60050-h.htm or 60050-h.zip: - (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/60050/60050-h/60050-h.htm) - or - (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/60050/60050-h.zip) - - - Images of the original pages are available through - Internet Archive. See - https://archive.org/details/bookofherbs00nort - - -Transcriber’s note: - - Text printed between _underscores_ represents italic text. - - Superscripted text is represented by ^{text} (i.e., a caret - character followed by the superscripted character(s) enclosed - by curly brackets). - - Small capitals have been replaced with ALL CAPITALS. - - Some characters might not display properly in this UTF-8 - text file (e.g., empty squares). If so, the reader should - consult the html version or the original page images noted - above. - - A detailed Transcriber’s Note is at the end of this text. - - - - - -Handbooks of Practical Gardening--XII - -Edited by Harry Roberts - -THE BOOK OF HERBS - - -[Illustration: JOHN PARKINSON - -(_From the statue erected by Mr. H. Thompson at Sefton Park, -Liverpool_)] - - -THE BOOK OF HERBS - -by - -LADY ROSALIND NORTHCOTE - - -[Illustration] - - - - - - -John Lane: The Bodley Head -London and New York. MCMIII - -Turnbull & Spears, Printers, Edinburgh - - - - -CONTENTS - - - PAGE - - HISTORY OF THE CRIES OF LONDON xi - - INTRODUCTION 1 - - OF THE CHIEF HERBS USED IN THE PRESENT TIME 7 - - Anise -- Balm -- Sweet Basil and Bush Basil -- Borage -- Bugloss - -- Burnet -- Caraway -- Celery -- Chervil -- Ciboules, Chiboules - or Chibbals -- Cives, or Chives, or Seives -- Coriander -- Cumin - -- Cresses -- Dandelion -- Dill -- Endive -- Fennel -- Goat’s - Beard -- Horse-Radish -- Hyssop -- Lamb’s Lettuce or Corn Salad - -- Marjoram -- Mint -- Mustard -- Parsley -- Sage -- Savory -- - Sorrel -- Tarragon -- Thyme -- Viper’s Grass or Scorzonera -- - Wood-Sorrel. - - OF HERBS CHIEFLY USED IN THE PAST 47 - - Alexanders -- Angelica -- Blites -- Bloodwort -- Buck’s-horne -- - Camomile -- Cardoons -- Clary -- Dittander -- Elecampane -- - Fenugreek -- Good King Henry -- Herb-Patience -- Horehound -- - Lady’s-smock -- Langdebeefe -- Liquorice -- Lovage -- Mallow -- - Marigold -- Pennyroyal -- Purslane -- Ram-ciches -- Rampion -- - Rocambole -- Rocket -- London Rocket -- Stonecrop -- Saffron -- - Samphire -- Skirrets -- Smallage -- Sweet Cicely -- Tansy -- - Thistle. - - OF HERBS USED IN DECORATIONS, IN HERALDRY, AND FOR ORNAMENT AND - PERFUMES 102 - - Bergamot -- Costmary -- Germander -- Gilliflower -- Lavender -- - Lavender Cotton -- Meadow-Sweet -- Rosemary -- Rue -- - Southernwood -- Wood-ruff -- Wormwood -- Bay. - - OF THE GROWING OF HERBS 145 - - OF HERBS IN MEDICINE 158 - - OF HERBS AND MAGIC 175 - - OF HERBS AND BEASTS 188 - - TUSSER’S LIST 201 - - AUTHORS REFERRED TO 207 - - INDEX OF PLANTS 209 - - - - -LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS - - - PAGE - - 1. JOHN PARKINSON (from the statue erected at Sefton Park, - Liverpool, by Mr H. Thompson) _Frontispiece_ - - 2. INITIAL LETTERS FROM TURNER’S “HERBAL” _To face page_ 16 - - 3. SWEET CICELY AND OTHER HERBS „ „ 22 - - 4. POT MARJORAM (from a drawing by Ethel Roskruge) „ „ 32 - - 5. THE LAVENDER WALK AT STRATHFIELDSAYE (Photograph - by F. Mason Good) „ „ 40 - - 6. ANGELICA „ „ 48 - - 7. A FIELD OF ENGLISH RHUBARB AT MESSRS STAFFORD ALLEN - & SONS, AMPTHILL „ „ 60 - - 8. TITLE-PAGE OF GERARD’S “HERBAL” „ „ 86 - - 9. THE ARMS OF SAFFRON WALDEN „ „ 100 - - 10. OLD STILLS AT MR HOOPER’S, COVENT GARDEN „ „ 102 - - 11. BERGAMOT „ „ 120 - - 12. ROSEMARY „ „ 130 - - 13. PLANTATION OF LAVENDER AT MESSRS STAFFORD ALLEN & - SONS, AMPTHILL „ „ 150 - - 14. CHELSEA PHYSIC GARDEN „ „ 158 - - 15. PLANTATION OF POPPIES (_P. Somniferum_) AT MESSRS - STAFFORD ALLEN & SONS, AMPTHILL „ „ 166 - - 16. PLANTATION OF ACONITE AT MESSRS STAFFORD ALLEN & - SONS, AMPTHILL „ „ 172 - - 17. RAMPION „ „ 180 - - 18. FENNEL (Photograph by Dr Banfield Vivian) „ „ 194 - - - - -HISTORY OF THE CRIES OF LONDON - - - Here’s fine rosemary, sage and thyme. - Come, buy my ground ivy. - Here’s featherfew, gilliflowers and rue. - Come, buy my knotted marjoram, ho! - Come, buy my mint, my fine green mint. - Here’s fine lavender for your cloaths, - Here’s parseley and winter savory, - And heartsease which all do choose. - Here’s balm and hyssop and cinquefoil, - All fine herbs it is well known. - Let none despise the merry, merry cries - Of famous London Town. - - Here’s penny royal and marygolds. - Come, buy my nettle-tops. - Here’s water-cresses and scurvy grass, - Come buy my sage of virtue, ho! - Come, buy my wormwood and mugworts. - Here’s all fine herbs of every sort. - Here’s southernwood that’s very good. - Dandelion and houseleek. - Here’s dragon’s tongue and wood sorrel, - With bear’s-foot and horehound. - Let none despise the merry, merry cries - Of famous London Town. - - _Roxburghe Ballads._ - - - - -THE BOOK OF HERBS - - - - -INTRODUCTION - - -What is a Herb? I have heard many definitions, but never one that -satisfied the questioner, and shall, therefore, take warning by the -failures of others and make no attempt to define the word here. It is, -however, fairly safe to say generally that a herb is a plant, green, and -aromatic and fit to eat, but it is impossible to deny that there are -several undoubted herbs that are not aromatic, a few more grey than -green, and one or two unpalatable, if not unwholesome. So no more space -shall be devoted to discussing their “nature,” but I will endeavour to -present individual ones to the reader as clearly as possible, in order -that from their collective properties he may form his own idea of a -herb. The objection may be raised that several plants included in this -book are outside the subject. To answer this, I would point out that the -boundaries of a herb-garden are indefinite, and that the old writers’ -views of them were liberal. Besides this, every garden must have an -outside hedge or wall, and if this imaginary herb-garden has a row of -elder bushes on the East, barberry trees on the West, some bay trees on -the South, and a stray willow or so on the North, who can say that they -are inappropriately placed? The bay and barberry hold an undisputable -position, and the other trees have each an interesting history in -folk-lore, magic and medicine. Herbs have been used in all countries and -from the earliest times, but I have confined myself, as a rule, to those -spoken of by British authors, and used in the British Isles, though not -scrupling to quote foreign beliefs or customs where they give weight or -completeness to our own or our forefathers’ practices, or are themselves -of much interest. We have forgotten much that would be profitable to us. - -Mr Dillon, writing in the _Nineteenth Century_, April, 1894, on “A -Neglected Sense”--the sense of smell--describes a Japanese game, the -object of which was that while one of the players burned certain kinds -of incense or fragrant woods, singly or in combination, the others -ventured opinions from the odours arising, and recorded their -conjectures by means of specially marked counters on a board. The -delicate equipment for it included a silver, open-worked brazier; a -spatula, on which the incense was taken up, also of silver, sometimes -delicately inlaid with enamel; and silver-framed mica plates (about one -inch square), on which the incense had been heated, were set to cool on -“a number of medallions, mother-of-pearl, each in the shape of a -chrysanthemum flower or of a maple leaf.” - -Both Mr Dillon and Miss Lambert (_Nineteenth Century_, May 1880) -attribute the importance early attached to odours to religious reasons. -He says that it was believed that the gods, being spirits, neither -required nor desired solid offerings, but that the ethereal nature of -the ascending fragrance was gratifying and sustaining to them. Miss -Lambert quotes an account of the tribes of Florida “setting on the tops -of the trees, as offerings to the sun, skins of deer filled with the -best fruits of the country, crowned with flowers and sweet herbs.” Among -the Aztecs of Mexico the festival of the goddess of flowers, Coatlicue, -was kept by Xochenanqui, or traders in flowers. Offerings of “curiously -woven garlands” were made, and it was “forbidden to everyone to smell -the flowers of which they were composed before their dedication to the -goddess.” The Tahitians had the idea that “the scent was the spirit of -the offering and corresponded to the spirit of man,” and therefore they -laid sweet-scented offerings before their dead till burial, believing -that the spirit still hovered near. These instances show clearly the -high regard in which delicate odours were once held. - -Herbs and flowers were early used in rites and ceremonies of the Church. -Miss Lambert quotes from a poem of Fortunatus, Bishop of Poitiers. “When -winter binds the earth with ice, all the glory of the field perishes -with its flowers. But in the spring-time when the Lord overcame Hell, -bright grass shoots up and buds come forth.... Gather these first-fruits -and you bear them to the churches and wreath the altars with them till -they glow with colour. The golden crocus is mingled with the purple -violet, dazzling scarlet is relieved by gleaming white, deep blue blends -with green.... One triumphs in its radiant beauty, another conquers by -its sweet perfume; gems and incense bow before them.” In England, the -flowers for the Church were grown under the special care of the -Sacristan, and as early as the ninth century there was a “gardina -sacristæ” at Winchester.[1] Miss Amherst gives a most careful -description of the several gardens into which the whole monastery -enclosures were often divided, and herbs were specially grown in the -kitchen-garden and in the Infirmarian’s garden, the latter, of course, -being devoted to herbs for healing. Many herbs were introduced by the -Romans, among them Coriander, Chervil, Cumin, Featherfew, Fennel, -Lovage, Mallow, Mint, Parsley, Rue and Mustard. Some of these are -supposed to have died out after the Romans withdrew from England and -have been re-introduced, but it is certain that they have been for a -very long time cultivated in England. I cannot refrain from referring to -a miracle, an account of which is quoted by Miss Amherst from Dugdale’s -“Monasticon” (vol. i. p. 473, new ed.), which was wrought at the tomb of -St Etheldreda:-- - -A “servant to a certain priest was gathering herbs in the garden on the -Lord’s Day, when the wood in her hand, and with which she desired to -pluck the herbs unlawfully, so firmly adhered (to her hand) that no man -could pluck it out for the space of five years.” At the end of this time -she was miraculously healed at the tomb, which was much revered by the -people. - -Banks and benches of mould, fronted with stone or brick, and planted on -the top with sweet-smelling herbs, were made in all fifteenth-century -gardens. Later, again, Bacon recommends alleys to be planted with “those -which perfume the air most delightfully being trodden upon and -crushed... to have the pleasure when you walk or tread.” In his “Pastime -of Pleasure” (1554) Stephen Hawes speaks of:-- - - In divers knottes of marveylous greatnes - Rampande lyons, stode by wonderfully - Made all of herbes, with dulset sweetnes - With many dragons, of marveylous likenes - Of divers floures, made full craftely. - -More modern still is the delightful notion of a sun-dial made of herbs -and flowers, that will mark the time of day by the opening and closing -of their blossoms. Linnæus had such a dial, with each plant so placed -that at each successive hour a flower should open or fold up. Ingram[2] -gives an appropriate list for this purpose, beginning with Goats’ Beard, -which he says opens at 3 A.M. and shuts at 9 A.M., and ending with -Chickweed whose stars are not disclosed till 9.15 A.M., when they -display themselves for exactly twelve hours. Andrew Marvell wrote these -pretty lines on this device:-- - - How well the skilful gardener drew - Of flow’rs and herbs this dial new; - Where, from above the milder sun, - Does through a fragrant zodiack run, - And, as it works, th’ industrious bee - Computes its time as well as we! - How could such sweet and wholesome hours - Be reckon’d but with herbs and flow’rs! - - _The Garden._ - -The _Quarterly_ for June 1842 quotes this charming description of a -garden in which herbs were not disregarded. “Quaint devices of all kinds -are found here. Here is a sun-dial of flowers arranged according to the -time of day at which they open and close. Here are peacocks and lions in -livery of Lincoln green. Here are berceaux and harbours, and covered -alley and enclosures containing the primest of the carnations and cloves -in set order, and miniature canals that carry down a stream of pure -water to the fish ponds below.... From thence (the shrubbery) winds a -path, the deliciæ of the garden, planted with such herbs as yield their -perfume when trodden upon and crushed.... It were tedious to follow up -the long shady path not broad enough for more than two--the lovers’ -walk.” The reviewer himself continues in a less sentimental strain, and -his observations make a very proper introduction to a book on Herbs. - -“The olitory or herb-garden is a part of our horticulture now -comparatively neglected, and yet once the culture and culling of simples -was as much a part of female education as the preserving and tying down -of ‘rasps and apricocks.’ There was not a Lady Bountiful in the kingdom -but made her dill-tea and diet-drink from herbs of her own planting; and -there is a neatness and prettiness about our thyme, and sage, and mint -and marjoram, that might yet, we think, transfer them from the patronage -of the blue serge to that of the white muslin apron. Lavender and -rosemary, and rue, the feathery fennel, and the bright blue borage, are -all pretty bushes in their way, and might have a due place assigned to -them by the hand of beauty and taste. A strip for a little herbary -half-way between the flower and vegetable garden would form a very -appropriate transition stratum and might be the means, by being more -under the eye of the mistress, of recovering to our soups and salads -some of the comparatively neglected herbs of tarragon, and French -sorrel, and purslane, and chervil, and dill, and clary, and others whose -place is now nowhere to be found but in the pages of the old herbalists. -This little plot should be laid out, of course, in a simple, geometric -pattern; and having tried the experiment, we can boldly pronounce on its -success. We recommend the idea to the consideration of our -lady-gardeners.” - - [1] “History of Gardening in England.” - - [2] “Flora Symbolica.” - - - - -CHAPTER I - -OF THE CHIEF HERBS USED IN THE PRESENT TIME - - J’ai des bouquets pour tous les goûts; - Venez choisir dans ma corbeille: - De plusieurs les parfums sont doux, - De tous, la vertu sans pareille. - - J’ai des _soucis_ pour les galoux; - La _rose_ pour l’amant fidèle; - De _l’éllebore_ pour les tous - Et pour l’amitié l’immortelle. - - _La petite Corbeille de fleurs._ - - Herbs, too, she knew, and well of each could speak - That in her garden sip’d the silv’ry dew; - Where no vain flow’r disclos’d a gaudy streak; - But herbs for use, and physic, not a few, - Of grey renown within those borders grew; - The tufted basil, pun-provoking thyme, - Fresh baum, and mary-gold of cheerful hue; - The lowly gill,[3] that never dares to climb; - And more I fain would sing, disdaining here to rhyme. - - Yet euphrasy[4] may not be left unsung, - That gives dim eyes to wander leagues around; - And pungent radish, biting infant’s tongue; - And plantain ribb’d, that heals the reaper’s wound; - And marj’ram sweet, in shepherd’s posie found; - And lavender, whose spikes of azure bloom - Shall be, ere-while, in arid bundles bound - To lurk amidst the labours of her loom, - And crown her kerchiefs clean with mickle rare perfume. - - _The Schoolmistress._--SHENSTONE. - - -John Evelyn once wrote an essay called “Acetaria: a Discourse of -Sallets,” and dedicated it to Lord Somers, the President of the Royal -Society. The Dedication is highly laudatory and somewhat grandiloquent, -comparing the Royal Society to King Solomon’s Temple, and declaring it -established for the acquirement of “solid and useful knowledge by the -_Investigation_ of _Causes_, _Principles_, _Energies_, _Powers_ and -_Effects_ of Bodies and _Things visible_; and to improve them for the -Good and Benefit of Mankind.... And now, _My Lord_, I expect some will -wonder what my Meaning is, to usher in a _Trifle_ with so much -magnificence, and end at last in a fine _Receipt_ for the _dressing_ of -a _Sallet_ with an handful of Pot-herbs! But yet, my Lord, this Subject -as low and despicable as it appears challenges a Part of _Natural -History_; and the Greatest Princes have thought it no disgrace, not only -to make it their _Diversion_, but their _Care_, and to promote and -encourage it in the midst of their weightiest Affairs.” This -disquisition casts an unlooked-for air of dignity over the Salad-bowl! -The discourse itself is very practical, and begins with the _Furniture_ -and _Materials_ of which a Salad may be composed. Eighty-two items are -mentioned, but all cannot be called strictly in order, as Oranges, -Turnips, Rosemary, and Judas Tree flowers, and Mushrooms are amongst -them! - -In the table at the end of this list Evelyn, “by the assistance of Mr -_London_, His Majesty’s Principal Gardener, reduced them to a competent -number, not exceeding thirty-five,” though he suggests that this may be -“vary’d and enlarg’d by selections from the foregoing list.” - -The essay finishes with philosophical reasoning on the subject of -vegetarianism. History is called upon to furnish examples of sages, of -all times, favourably inclined to it, but Noah is allowed to differ on -account of the “humidity of the atmosphere” after the Deluge, which must -have necessitated a generous diet. Most people would think thirty-five -different kinds a liberal allowance for salad herbs alone, but -Abercrombie, writing in 1822, gives forty-four, and it is worthy of -notice, that within the last eighty years, ox-eye daisy, yarrow, -lady’s-smock, primrose and plantain were counted among them. - -In this chapter, the herbs mentioned are those chiefly used nowadays; in -the next chapter, these that were favourites _au temps jadis_. It is a -difficult line to draw, for the popularity of many of them is, like -themselves, evergreen, but I have tried to put in the second chapter -those that have passed the zenith of their fame, though they may still -ride high in public estimation. - - [3] Ground-ivy. - - [4] Eye-bright. - - -ANISE (_Pimpinella Anisum_). - - His chimney side - Could boast no gammon, salted well and dried - And hook’d behind him; but sufficient store - Of bundled anise and a cheese it bore. - - _The Salad._ Trans. from “Virgil.”--COWPER. - -In Virgil’s time Anise evidently must have been used as a spice. It is a -graceful, umbelliferous plant, a native of Egypt, but the seeds will -ripen in August in England if it is planted in a warm and favourable -situation. Abercrombie[5] says “its chief use is to flavour soups, but -Loudon[6] includes it among confectionery herbs.” - - [5] “Every Man his own Gardener.” - - [6] “Encyclopædia of Gardening,” 1822. - - -BALM (_Melissa officinalis_). - - The several chairs of order look you scour - With juice of Balm and every precious flower. - - _Merry Wives of Windsor_, V. v. 65. - - Then Balm and Mint helps to make up - My chaplet. - - _The Muses Elysium._--DRAYTON. - - My garden grew Self-heal and Balm, - And Speedwell that’s blue for an hour, - Then blossoms again, O, grievous my pain, - I’m plundered of each flower. - - _Devonshire Song._ - -The lemon-scent of Balm makes it almost the most delicious of all herbs, -and it is for its fragrance that Shakespeare and Drayton have alluded to -it in these passages. In the song it is mentioned for another reason, -for the flowers here are used as emblems. The first verse describes a -garden of fair blossoms stolen, alas! from their owner. This verse of -the song shows she has planted flowers whose nature is to -console--Self-heal, Balm and the Speedwell, which, after every shock, -hasten to bloom again, but she is again bereft of her treasures, and -finally despairs and tells us that she grows naught but weeds and the -symbols of desolation. There was once a “restorative cordial” called -Carmelite water, which enjoyed a great reputation, and which was -composed of the spirit of Balm, Angelica root, lemon-peel and nutmeg. In -the early part of the last century, Balm wine was made, and was -described as being “light and agreeable,” but now Balm is seldom used, -except when claret-cup is improved by its flavour. A most curious legend -is told by Aubrey[7] of the Wandering Jew, the scene being on the -Staffordshire moors. “One Whitsun evening, overcome with thirst, he -knocked at the door of a Staffordshire cottager, and craved of him a cup -of small beer. The cottager, who was wasted with a lingering -consumption, asked him in, and gave him the desired refreshment. After -finishing the beer, Ahasuerus asked his host the nature of the disease -he was suffering from, and being told that the doctors had given him up, -said, ‘Friend, I will tell thee what thou shalt do.’ He then told him to -go into the garden the next morning on rising, and gather three Balm -leaves, and to put them into a cup of small beer. He was to drink as -often as he needed, and refill the cup when it was empty, and put in -fresh Balm leaves every fourth day, and, ‘before twelve days shall be -past, thy disease shall be cured and thy body altered.’ So saying, and -declining to eat, he departed and was never seen again. But the cottager -gathered his Balm-leaves, followed the prescription of the Wandering -Jew, and before twelve days were passed was a new man.” - - [7] “Miscellanies.” - - -SWEET BASIL (_Ocymum basilium_) AND BUSH BASIL (_O. minimum_). - - Madonna, wherefore hast thou sent to me - Sweet basil and mignonette? - Embleming love and health which never yet - In the same wreath might be. - - _To Emilia Viviani._--SHELLEY. - -Basil is beloved of the poets, and the story of Isabella and the -Basil-pot keeps the plant in memory, where it is itself never, or very -rarely, seen. The opening lines of Drayton’s pretty poem beginning with -Claia’s speech:-- - - Here damask roses, white and red, - Out of my lap first take I-- - -are well known, and it is a pity that the whole of it is not oftener -quoted. Two maidens make rival chaplets, and then examine the store of -simples just gathered by a hermit. Claia chooses her flowers for beauty, -Lelipa hers for scent, and Clarinax, the hermit, plucks his for their -“virtue” in medicine. Lelipa says:-- - - A chaplet, me, of herbs I’ll make, - Than which, though yours be braver, - Yet this of mine, I’ll undertake, - Shall not be short in favour. - With Basil then I will begin, - Whose scent is wondrous pleasing. - -and a goodly number of sweet-herbs follows. - -Parkinson[8] says of it, “The ordinary Basill is in a manner wholly -spent to make sweete, or washing waters, among other sweet herbes, yet -sometimes it is put into nosegays. The Physicall properties are to -procure a cheerfull and merry hearte, whereunto the seede is chiefly -used in powder.” With such “physicall properties” Basil is too much -neglected nowadays. He also refers to the extraordinary but very general -idea that it bred scorpions. “Let me, before I leave, relate unto you a -pleasant passage between Francisius Marchio, as Advocate of the State of -_Genoa_ sent in embassage to the Duke of Milan, and the said Duke, who, -refusing to heare his message or to agree unto the conditions proposed, -brought an handfull of Basill and offered it to him, who, demanding of -him what he meant thereby, answered him, that the properties of that -hearbe was, that being gently handled, it gave a pleasant smell, but -being hardly wrung and bruised, would breed scorpions, with which witty -answer the Duke was so pleased that he confirmed the conditions, and -sent him honourably home. It is also observed that scorpions doe much -rest and abide under these pots and vessells wherein Basill is planted.” -Culpepper,[9] too, had suspicions about it. “This is the herb which all -authors are together by the ears about and rail at one another (like -lawyers). Galen and Dioscorides hold it not fitting to be taken -inwardly, and Chrysippus rails at it with downright Billingsgate -rhetoric; Pliny and the Arabians defend it. Something is the matter, -this herb and rue will not grow together, no, nor near one another, and -we know rue is as great an enemy to poison as any that grows.” -Tusser[10] puts both Basils in his list of “strewing herbs,” and also -says:-- - - Fine basil desireth it may be her lot, - To grow as the gilliflower, trim in a pot; - That ladies and gentles, to whom ye do serve, - May help her, as needeth, poor life to preserve. - - _May’s Husbandry._ - -To which (in Mavor’s edition, 1812) is appended this prim note, “Garden -basil, if stroked, leaves a grateful smell on the hand, and the author -insinuates that it receives fresh life from being touched by a fair -lady.” Both basils are annuals, though Bush Basil may occasionally live -through the winter. They are small plants with oval leaves and white, -labiate flowers. A modern gardener writes that sweet basil has the -flavour of cloves, that it is always demanded by French cooks, and that -it is much used to flavour soups, and occasionally salads. M. de la -Quintinye,[11] director of the gardens to Louis XIV., shows that over -two hundred years ago French cooks were of the same mind about basil as -they are to-day; besides mentioning it for the uses just named, he adds, -“It is likewise used in ragouts, especially dry ones, for which reason -we take care to keep some for winter.” An Italian name for it is -_Bacia-Nicola_. - - [8] “Earthly Paradise,” 1629. - - [9] English Physitian, popularly known as Culpepper’s Herbal, 1652. - - [10] “Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry.” - - [11] The Complete Gardener. Trans. by T. Evelyn, 1693. - - -BORAGE (_Borago officinalis_). - - Here is sweet water, and borage for blending, - Comfort and courage to drink to your fill. - - N. HOPPER. - -This reference to Borage touches a long-lived belief-- - - I, borage, - Give courage-- - -briefly states one reason of its popularity, which has lasted ever since -Pliny praised the plant; besides this, it was supposed to exhilarate the -spirits and drive away melancholy. De Gubernatis[12] only found one -charge against it, amid universal praise, and this is in a Tuscan -_ninnerella_, a cradle song, where it is accused of frightening a baby! -But this evidence is absolutely unsupported by any tradition, and he -considers it worthless. Borage was sometimes called Bugloss by the old -writers.[13] In 1810 Dr Thornton calls it “one of the four grand cardiac -plants,” but shows a lamentable lack of faith himself. Dr Fernie[14] -finds that Borage has a “cucumber-like odour,” and that its reputed -powers of “refreshing” and “invigorating” are not all due to the -imagination; “The fresh juice,” he says, “affords thirty per cent. of -nitrate of potash. Thornton had already commented on the nitre it -contains, and to prove this he advises that the dried plant be thrown on -the fire, when it emits a sort of coruscation, with a slight -detonation.” Personal experience teaches that this is easier to observe -if the plant is set on fire and burned by itself. Borage might be grown -for the sake of its lovely blue flowers alone, and Parkinson gives it a -place in his “Earthly Paradise,” because, though it is “wholly in a -manner spent for Physicall properties or for the Pot, yet the -flowers have alwaies been interposed among the flowers of women’s -needle-work”--a practice which would add to the beauty of modern -embroidery. He adds that the flowers “of gentlewomen are candid -for comfits,” showing that they did not allow sentiment to soar -uncontrolled! Bees love borage, and it yields excellent honey, yet -another reason for growing it. In the early part of the nineteenth -century the young tops were still sometimes boiled for a pot-herb, but -in the present day, if used at all, it is put into claret-cup. Till -quite lately it was an ingredient in “cool tankards” of wine or cider. - - [12] _La Mythologie des Plantes._ - - [13] _Family Herbal_, 1810. - - [14] _Herbal Simples_, 1895. - - -BUGLOSS (_Anchusa officinalis_). - - So did the maidens with their various flowers - Deck up their windows, and make neat their bowers; - Using such cunning as they did dispose - The ruddy piny (peony) with the lighter rose, - The monkshood with the bugloss, and entwine - The white, the blue, the flesh-like columbine - With pinks, sweet williams. - - _Britannia’s Pastorals, Book II._--W. BROWNE. - - A spiny stem of bugloss flowers, - Deep blue upon the outer towers. - - _Winchester Castle._--N. HOPPER. - -Gerarde put Bugloss in one chapter, and Alkanet or Wild Bugloss in -another, but nowadays Bugloss or Alkanet are names for the same plant, -_Anchusa officinalis_. The drawings of his Bugloss resemble our Alkanet -much more closely than they do any other plant called Bugloss, such as -_Lycopsis arvensis_, small Bugloss, or _Echium vulgare_, Viper’s -Bugloss. The old herbalists, however, were most confusing on the -subject. They apply the name Bugloss alternately to _Borago officinalis_ -and to different varieties of _Anchusa_, and then speak of _Buglossum_ -as if it were a different species! Evelyn describes it as being “in -nature much like Borage but something more astringent,” and recommends -the flowers of both as a conserve, for they are “greatly restorative.” -As Hogg says that _Anchusa officinalis_ had formerly “a great reputation -as a cordial,” Evelyn’s description applies to this plant; we may take -it that this is the Bugloss he was thinking of. It is a good plant for a -“wild garden,” but has a great tendency to spread. I have found it -growing wild in Cornwall. Gerarde tells us that the roots of _Anchusa -Tinctoria_ were used to colour waters, syrups, and jellies, and then -follows a line of scandal--“The gentlewomen of France doe paint their -faces with these roots, as it is said.” Rouge is still made from -Alkanet. - - -BURNET (_Poterium Sanguisorba_). - - The even mead, that erst brought sweetly forth - The freckled Cowslip, Burnet and green Clover. - - _Henry V._, V. ii. 48. - -Burnet has “two little leives like unto the winges of birdes, standing -out as the bird setteth her winges out when she intendeth to flye.... -Y^{e} Duchmen call it Hergottes berdlen, that is God’s little berde, -because of the colour that it hath in the toppe.” This is Turner’s[15] -information. He has a pleasant style, and tells us out-of-the-way facts -or customs in a charming manner. Burnet is the first of the three plants -that Sir Francis Bacon desired to be set in alleys, “to perfume the air -most delightfully, being trodden upon and crushed.” The others were wild -thyme and water-mint. It was a Salad-herb, and has (like Borage) a -flavour of cucumber, but it has, most undeservedly, gone out of fashion. -The taste is “somewhat warm, and the leaves should be cut young, or else -they are apt to be tough. Culpepper and Parkinson advise that a few -leaves should be added to a cup of claret wine because” it is “a helpe -to make the heart merrie.” Canon Ellacombe[16] says it was “and still is -valued as a forage plant that will grow and keep fresh all the winter in -dry, barren pastures, thus giving food for sheep when other food was -scarce. It has occasionally been cultivated, but the result has not been -very satisfactory, except on very poor land, though, according to the -Woburn experiments, as reported by Sinclair, it contains a larger amount -of nutritive matter in the spring than most of the grasses. It has brown -flowers from which it is supposed to derive its name (Brunetto).” - - [15] Turner’s Herbal is beautifully illustrated; five initial letters - from it are here reproduced. - - [16] “Plant-lore and Garden-Craft of Shakespeare.” - -[Illustration: INITIAL LETTERS FROM TURNER’S “HERBAL”] - - -CARAWAY (_Carum carvi_). - - _Shallow._ Now, you shall see my orchard, where, in an arbour we will - eat a last year’s Pippin of my own grafting, with a dish of Caraways, - and so forth. - - _II. Henry IV._ v. 3. - -In Elizabethan days, Caraway Seeds were appreciated at dessert, and -Canon Ellacombe says that the custom of serving roast apples with a -little saucerful of Caraway Seed is still kept up at some of the London -livery dinners. It was the practice to put them among baked fruits or -into bread-cakes, and they were also “made into comfits.” In cakes and -comfits they are used to-day, and in Germany I have seen them served -with potatoes fried in slices. The roots were boiled and “eaten as -carrots,” and made a “very welcome and delightful dish to a great many,” -though some found them rather strong flavoured. “The[17] Duchemen call -it Mat kumell or Wishenkumel and the Freses, Hofcumine. It groweth in -great plentye in Freseland in the meadows there betweene Marienhoffe and -Werden, hard by the sea banke.” - - [17] “Turner’s Herbal,” 1538. - - -CELERY (_Apium graveolens_). - -This is quite without romance. The older herbalists did not know it and -Evelyn says: “Sellery... was formerly a stranger with us (nor very long -since in _Italy_ itself).... Nor is it a distinct _species_ of -_smallage_ or Macedonian Parsley, tho’ somewhat more hot and generous, -by its frequent transplanting, and thereby render’d sweeter scented.” -For its “high and grateful taste, it is ever plac’d in the middle of the -_grand sallet_, at our great men’s tables, and Proctor’s Feasts, as the -grace of the whole board.” But though Parkinson did not know the plant -under this name, he did see some of the first introduced into England, -and gives an interesting account of this introduction to “sweete Parsley -or sweet Smallage.... This resembles sweete Fennell.... The first that -ever I saw was in a Venetian Ambassador’s garden in the spittle yard, -near Bishop’s Gate Streete. The first year it is planted with us it is -sweete and pleasant, especially while it is young, but after it has -grown high and large hath a stronger taste of smallage, and so likewise -much more the following yeare. The Venetians used to prepare it for -meate many waies, both the herbe and roote eaten rawe, or boyled or -fryed to be eaten with meate, or the dry’d herb poudered and strewn upon -meate; but most usually either whited and so eaten raw with pepper and -oyle as a dainty sallet of itselfe, or a little boyled or stewed... the -taste of the herbe being a little warming, but the seede much more.” - - -CHERVIL (_Scandix Cerefolium_). - - Chibolles and Chervelles and ripe chiries manye. - - _Piers Plowman._ - -Chervil was much used by the French and Dutch “boyled or stewed in a -pipkin. De la Quintinye recommends it to give a ‘perfuming rellish’ to -the salad, and Evelyn says the ‘_Sweete_ (and as the _French_ call it -_Musque_) _Spanish_ Chervile,’ is the best and ought ‘never to be -wanting in our sallets,’ for it is ‘exceeding wholesome and charming to -the spirits.’... This (as likewise Spinach) is used in tarts and serves -alone for divers sauces.” - - -CIBOULES, CHIBOULES OR CHIBBALS (_Allium Ascalonium_). - - Acorns, plump as Chibbals. - - _The Gipsies Metamorphosed._--BEN JONSON. - -Ciboules are a small kind of onion; De la Quintinye says, “Onions -degenerated.” From the reference to them in _Piers Plowman_, they were -evidently in common use here in the time of Langlande. The French -gardener adds that they are “propagated only by seeds of the bignes of a -corn of ordinary gun-powder,” and Mr Britten identifies them with -Scallions or Shallot (_A. ascalonium_). - - -CIVES, OR CHIVES, OR SEIVES (_Allium Schænoprasum_). - - Straightways follow’d in - A case of small musicians, with a din - Of little Hautbois, whereon each one strives - To show his skill; they all were made of seives, - Excepting one, which puff’d the player’s face, - And was a Chibole, serving for the bass. - - _Britannia’s Pastorals_, Book III. - -Cives and Ciboules are often mentioned together, as in this account of -King Oberon’s feast. The leaves are green and hollow and look like -rushes _en miniature_, and would serve admirably for elfin Hautbois. -Miss Amherst[18] says that they are mentioned in a list of herbs (Sloane -MS., 1201) found “at the beginning of a book of cookery recipes, -fifteenth century.” She also tells us that when Kalm came to England -(May 1748) he noticed them among the vegetables most grown in the -nursery-gardens round London. They were “esteemed milder than onions,” -and of a “quick rellish,” but their fame has declined in the last -hundred years. Loudon says that the leaves are occasionally used to -flavour soup, salads and omelettes--unlike ciboules, the bulb is not -used--but the chief purpose for which I have heard them required is to -mix with the food for young guinea-fowls and chickens. - - [18] “History of Gardening in England.” - - -CORIANDER (_Coriandrum sativum_). - - And Coriander last to these succeeds - That hangs on slightest threads her trembling seeds. - - _The Salad._--COWPER. - -The chief interest attached to Coriander is that in the Book of Numbers, -xi. 7, Manna is compared to the seed. It was originally introduced from -the East, but is now naturalised in Essex and other places, where it has -long been cultivated for druggists and confectioners. The seeds are -quite round, like tiny balls, and Hogg remarks that they become fragrant -by drying, and the longer they are kept the more fragrant they become. -“If taken oute of measure it doth trouble a manne’s witt, with great -jeopardye of madnes.”[19] Nowadays one comes across them oftenest in -little round pink and white comfits for children. - - [19] Turner. - - -CUMIN (_Cuminum cyminum_). - - Cummin good for eyes, - The roses reigning the pride of May, - Sharp isope good for greene woundes remedies.[20] - -Cumin is also mentioned in the Bible by Isaiah; and also in the New -Testament, as one of the plants that were tithed. It is very seldom met -with, but the seeds have the same properties as caraway seeds. Gerarde -says it has “little jagged leaves, very finely cut into small parcels,” -and “spoky tufts” of red or purplish flowers. “The root is slender, -which perisheth when it hath ripened his seed,” and it delights in a hot -soil. He recommends it to be boyled together with wine and barley meale -“to the forme of a pultis” for a variety of ailments. In Germany the -seeds are put into bread and they figure in folklore. De Gubernatis says -it gave rise to a saying among the Greeks: “Le cumin symbolisait, chez -les Grecs, ce qui est petit. Des avares, ils disaient, qu’ils auraient -même partagé le cumin.” - - [20] _Muiopotmos._--Spenser. - - -CRESSES. - - Darting fish that on a summer morn - Adown the crystal dykes of Camelot, - Come slipping o’er their shadows on the sand.... - Betwixt the cressy islets, white in flower. - - _Geraint and Enid._ - - To purl o’er matted cress and ribbed sand, - Or dimple in the dark of rushy coves. - - _Ode to Memory._--TENNYSON. - - Valley lilies, whiter still - Than Leda’s love and cresses from the rill. - - _Endymion._ - - Cresses that grow where no man may them see. - - _Ibid._ - - I linger round my shingly bars, - I loiter round my cresses. - - _The Brook._--TENNYSON. - -Cresses have great powers of fascination for the poets, and “the cress -of the Herbalist is a noun of multitude,” says Dr Fernie. Of these now -cultivated, St Barbara’s Cress (_Barbarea vulgaris_) has the most -picturesque name, and is the least known. It was once grown for a winter -salad, but American Cress (_Erysimum præcox_) is more recommended for -winter and early spring. Indian Cress (_Tropæolum majus_), usually known -as nasturtium, is seldom counted a herb, although it is included in some -old gardening lists, for the sake of the pickle into which its unripe -fruits were made. Abercrombie adds that the flowers and young leaves are -used in salads, but this must be most rare in England; though, when once -in Brittany, I remember that the _bonne_ used to ornament the salad on -Sundays with an artistic decoration of scarlet and striped nasturtium -flowers. Garden Cress (_Lepidium sativum_), the tiny kind, associated in -one’s mind since nursery days with “mustard,” used to be known as -_Passerage_, as it was believed to drive away madness. Dr Fernie -continues, that the Greeks loved cress, and had a proverb, “Eat Cresses -and get wit.” They were much prized by our poor people, when pepper was -a luxury. “The Dutchmen[21] and others used to eate Cresses familiarly -with their butter and breade, as also stewed or boyled, either alone or -with other herbs, whereof they make a Hotch-Potch. We doe eate it mixed -with Lettuce and Purslane, or sometimes with Tarragon or Rocket with -oyle, vinegar, and a little salt, and in that manner it is very -savoury.” - -Water-Cress (_Nasturtium officinale_) is rich in mineral salts and is -valuable as food. The leaves remain “green when grown in the shade, but -become of a purple brown because of their iron, when exposed to the -sun,” says Dr Fernie. “It forms the chief ingredient of the _Sirop -Antiscorbutique_, given so successfully by the French faculty.” -“Water-Cress pottage” is a good remedy “to help head aches. Those that -would live in health may use it if they please, if they will not I -cannot help it.” This is Culpepper’s advice, but he relents even to -those too weak-minded to avail themselves of a cure, salutary but -unpalatable. “If they fancy not pottage they may eat the herb as a -sallet.” - - [21] Parkinson. - - -DANDELION (_Leontodon taraxacum_). - - Dandelion, with globe and down, - The schoolboy’s clock in every town, - Which the truant puffs amain, - To conjure lost hours back again. - - WILLIAM HOWITT. - -Dandelion leaves used to be boiled with lentils, and one recipe bids one -have them “chopped as pot-herbes, with a few Allisanders boyled in their -broth.” But generally they were regarded as a medicinal, rather than a -salad plant. Evelyn, however, includes them in his list, and says they -should be “macerated in several waters, to extract the Bitterness. It -was with this Homely Fare the _Good Wife Hecate_ entertain’d _Theseus_.” -A better way of “extracting the Bitterness” is to blanch the leaves, and -it has been advised to dig up plants from the road-sides in winter when -salad is scarce, and force them in pots like succory. He continues that -of late years “they have been sold in most _Herb Shops_ about _London_ -for being a wonderful Purifier of the Blood.” Culpepper, whose fiery -frankness it is impossible to resist quoting, manages on this subject to -get his knife into the doctors, as, to do him justice, he seldom loses -an opportunity of doing. “You see what virtues this common herb hath, -and this is the reason the French and Dutch so often eate them in the -spring, and now, if you look a little further, you may see plainly, -without a pair of spectacles, that foreign physicians are not so selfish -as ours are, but more communicative of the virtues of plants to people.” -The Irish used to call it Heart-Fever-Grass. The root, when roasted and -ground, has been substituted for coffee, and gave satisfaction to some -of those who drank it. Hogg relates a tale of woe from the island of -Minorca, how that once locusts devoured the harvest there, and the -inhabitants were forced to, and did subsist on this root, but does not -mention for what length of time. - -[Illustration: SWEET CICELY AND OTHER HERBS] - - -DILL (_Anethum graveolens_). - - The nightshade strews to work him ill, - Therewith her vervain and her dill. - - _Nymphidia._--DRAYTON. - - Here holy vervayne and here dill, - ’Gainst witchcraft much availing, - - _The Muses Elysium._ - - The wonder-working dill he gets not far from these. - - _Polyolbion._ Song xiii. - -Dill is supposed to have been derived from a Norse word “to dull,” -because the seeds were given to babies to make them sleep. Beyond this -innocent employment it was a factor in working spells of the blackest -magic! Dill is a graceful, umbelliferous plant--not at all suggestive of -Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde--and the seeds resemble caraway seeds in flavour, -but are smaller, flatter and lighter. There is _something_ mysterious -about it, because, besides being employed in spells by witches and -wizards, it was used by other people to resist spells cast by -traffickers in magic, and was equally powerful to do this! Dill is very -like fennel, but the leaves are shorter, smaller, and of a “stronger and -quicker taste. The leaves are used with Fish, though too strong for -everyone’s taste, and if added to ‘pickled Cowcumbers’ it ‘gives the -cold fruit a pretty, spicie taste.’” Evelyn also praises ‘_Gerckens -muriated_’ with the seeds of _Dill_, and Addison writes: “I am always -pleased with that particular time of the year which is proper for the -pickling of dill and cucumbers, but, alas! his cry, like the song of the -nightingale, is not heard above two months.”[22] - - [22] _Spectator_, xxv. 1. - - -ENDIVE (_Cichorium Endivia_). - - The Daisy, Butter-flow’r and Endive blue. - - _Pastorals._--GAY. - - There at no cost, on onions rank and red, - Or the curl’d endive’s bitter leaf, he fed. - - _The Salad._--COWPER. - -Endive is a plant of whose virtues our prosaic days have robbed us. Once -upon a time it could break all bonds and render the owner invisible, and -if a lover carried it about him, he could make the lady of his choice -believe that he possessed all the qualities she specially admired! -Folkard quotes three legends of it from Germany, one each from Austria -and Roumania, and an unmistakably Slav story--all of them of a romantic -character--and _we_ regard it as a salad herb! “There are three sorts: -Green-curled leaved; principal sort for main crops, white-curled leaved, -and broad Batavian” (Loudon). The green-curled leaved is the hardiest -and fittest for winter use. The Batavian is not good for salads, but is -specially in demand for stews and soups. All kinds must, of course, be -carefully blanched. Mrs Roundell[23] reminds one that endive is a -troublesome vegetable to cook, as it is apt to be crowded with insects. -The leaves should be all detached from the stem and carefully washed in -two or three salted waters. She also gives receipts for endive, dressed -as spinach, made into a purée or cooked alone. Parkinson said: “Endive -whited is much used in winter, as a sallet herbe with great delighte.” - -_Succory, Chicory, or Wild Endive_ may be mentioned as making an -excellent salad when forced and blanched, and it is popular in France, -where it is called _Barbe de Capucin_. Its great advantage is, as Loudon -says, that “when lettuce or garden-endive are scarce, chicory can always -be commanded by those who possess any of the most ordinary means of -forcing.” He adds that it has been much used as fodder for cattle, and -that the roots, dried and ground, are well known--only too well known, -“partly along with, and partly as a substitute for coffee.” - - [23] “Practical Cookery Book.” - - -FENNEL (_Fæniculum vulgare_). - - _Ophelia._ There’s fennel for you and columbines. - - _Hamlet_, iv. 5. - - Fenel is for flatterers, - An evil thing it is sure, - But I have alwaies meant truely - With constant heart most pure. - - _A Handfull of Pleasant Delightes._--C. ROBINSON. - - _Christopher._ No, my good lord. - _Count._ Your _good lord_! Oh! how this smells of fennel! - - _The Case Altered_, ii. 2.--BEN JONSON. - - “Hast thou ought in thy purse?” quod he. - “Any hote spices?” - “I have peper, pionies,” quod she, “and a pound garlike - A ferdyng worth of fenel-seed for fastyng dayes.” - - _Piers Plowman._ - - Oh! faded flowers of fennel, that will not bloom again - For any south wind’s calling, for any magic rain. - - _The Faun to his Shadow._--N. HOPPER. - - “Sow Fennel, sow Sorrow.”--_Proverb._ - -Few realise from how high an estate fennel has fallen. In Shakespeare’s -time we have the plainest evidence that it was the recognised emblem of -flattery. Ben Jonson’s allusion is almost as pointed as Robinson’s. It -is said that Ophelia’s flowers were all chosen for their significance, -so, perhaps, it was not by accident that she offers fennel to her -brother, in whose ears the cry must have been still ringing, - - “Choose we; Laertes shall be king!” - -with the echo:-- - - “Caps, hand, and tongues, applaud it to the clouds, - ‘Laertes shall be king, Laertes king!’” - -Nor was it only in our own land that Fennel had this significance, for -Canon Ellacombe quotes an Italian saying: “Dare Finocchio” (to give -fennel), meaning “to flatter.” As to the reason that fennel should be -connected with sorrow, the clue is lost, but the proverb is said still -to live in New England. The conversation which takes place in “Piers -Plowman,” between a priest and a poor woman, illustrates a use to which -fennel was put in earlier days. The poor got it, Miss Amherst says, “to -relieve the pangs of hunger on fasting days.” But it was by no means -despised by the rich, for “As much as eight and a half pounds of Fennel -seed was bought for the King’s Household (Edward I., 1281) for one -month’s supply.” She quotes from the Wardrobe Accounts. Our use either -of Common Fennel, or Sweet Fennel, or Finocchio is so limited that the -practice of Parkinson’s contemporaries shall be quoted. “Fenell is of -great use to trim up and strowe upon fish, as also to boyle or put among -fish of divers sorts, Cowcumbers pickled and other fruits, etc. The -rootes are used with Parsley rootes to be boyled in broths. The seed is -much used to put in Pippin pies and divers others such baked fruits, as -also into bread, to give it the better relish. The Sweet Cardus Fenell -being sent by Sir Henry Wotton to John Tradescante had likewise a large -direction with it how to dress it, for they used to white it after it -hath been transplanted for their uses, which by reason of sweetnesse by -nature, and the tendernesse by art, causeth it to be more delightfull to -the taste.” “Cardus Fenell” must have been Finocchio. - - -GOAT’S BEARD (_Tragopogon pratensis_). - - And goodly now the noon-tide hour, - When from his high meridian tower, - The sun looks down in majesty, - What time about the grassy lea - The Goat’s Beard, prompt his rise to hail - With broad expanded disk, in veil - Close mantling wraps his yellow head, - And goes, as peasants say, to bed. - - BP. MANT. - -The habits of Goat’s Beard, or as it is often called, -John-go-to-bed-at-noon, are indicated by the latter name. It is less -known as Joseph’s Flower, which Mr Friend[24] says “seems to owe its -origin to pictures in which the husband of Mary is represented as a -long-bearded old man,” but Gerarde gives the Low-Dutch name of his time, -“Josephe’s Bloemen,” and says “when these flowers be come to their full -maturity and ripeness, they grow into a downy blow-ball, like those of -the Dandelion, which is carried away by the winde.” Evelyn praises it, -and is indignant with the cunning of the seed-sellers. “Of late they -have Italianiz’d the name, and now generally call it _Salsifex_... to -disguise it, being a very common field herb, growing in most parts of -_England_, would have it thought (with many others) an Exotick.” He -does not give the full Latin name, so one cannot tell whether it is our -Salsify (_Tragopogon porrifolius_) that he means, or _T. pratensis_, the -variety once more generally cultivated. The latter seems the likeliest, -as its yellow flowers are far more common than the purple ones of -salsify. _T. porrifolius_ is extremely rare in a wild state, but _T. -pratensis_ grows in “medows and fertil pastures in most parts of -England.” _T. pratensis_ is never cultivated now, and “Salsify” applies -exclusively to Purple Goat’s Beard (_T. porrifolium_). The old -herbalists praised it very highly. - - [24] “Flowers and Flower-lore.” - - -HORSE-RADISH (_Cochlearia Armoracia_). - -Dr Fernie translates its botanical name, _Cochlearia_, from the shape of -the leaves, which resemble, he says, an old-fashioned spoon; _ar_, near; -_mor_, the sea, from its favourite locality. “For the most part it is -planted in gardens... yet have I found it wilde in Sundrie places... in -the field next unto a farme house leading to King’s land, where my very -good friend Master _Bredwell_, practitioner in Phisick, a learned and -diligent searcher of Samples, and Master _William Martin_, one of the -fellowship of Barbers and Chirugians, my deere and loving friend, in -company with him found it and gave me knowledge of the plant, where it -flourisheth to this day.... Divers think that this Horse-Radish is an -enemie to Vines, and that the hatred between them is so greate, that if -the roots hereof be planted neare to the Vine, it bendeth backward from -it, as not willing to have fellowship with it.... Old writers ascribe -this enmitie to the vine and Brassica, our Colewortes.” Both he and -Parkinson think, that in transferring the “enmitie” from the cabbage to -the horse-radish, the “Ancients” have been mistranslated. The Dutch -called it Merretich; the French, Grand Raifort; the English, locally, -Red Cole. Evelyn calls it an “excellent, universal Condiment,” and says -that first steeped in water, then grated and tempered with vinegar, in -which a little sugar has been dissolved, it supplies “Mustard to the -Sallet, and serving likewise for any Dish besides.” - - -HYSSOP (_Hyssopus officinalis_). - - Hyssop, as an herb most prime, - Here is my wreath bestowing. - - _Muses Elysium._--DRAYTON. - - _Iago._ “Our bodies are our gardeners; so that if we will plant - nettles, or sow lettuce, set hyssop and weed up thyme... why the power - and corrigible authority of this lies in our wills.” - - _Othello_, i. 3. - -Parkinson opens his “Theatre of Plants” with the words: “From a Paradise -of pleasant Flowers, I am fallen (_Adam_ like) to a world of Profitable -Herbs and Plants... and first of the Hisopes.... Among other uses, the -golden hyssop was of so pleasant a colour, that it provoked every -gentlewoman to wear them in their heads and on their arms with as much -delight as many fine flowers can give.” It is a hardy, evergreen shrub, -with a strong aromatic odour. The flowers are blue, and appear more or -less from June till October. The _Ussopos_ of Dioscorides was named from -_azob_, a holy herb, because it was used for cleansing sacred places, -and this is interesting when one thinks of Scriptural allusions to the -plant, although the hyssop of the Bible is most probably not our hyssop. -The identity of that plant has occasioned much divergence of opinion, -and a decision, beyond reach of criticism, has not yet been reached. -Mazes were sometimes planted with “Marjoram and such like, or Isope and -Time. It may eyther be sette with Isope and Time or with Winter Savory -and Time, for these endure all the Winter thorowe greene.”[25] - -It was more often used for “Broths and Decoctions” than for salads, but -the tops and flowers were sometimes powdered and strewn on the top of -one. It is not much used nowadays, but I once saw an excitable Welsh -cook seize on a huge bunch of “dear Hyssop” with exclamations of joy. In -the East, “some plants diverted fascination by their smell,”[26] and -hyssop was one of these, and as a protection against the Evil Eye, was -hung up in houses. - - [25] “Art of Gardening,” Hill, 1563. - - [26] Friend. - - -LAMB’S LETTUCE or CORN SALAD (_Valeriana Locusta_). - -Lamb’s Lettuce is variously known as _mâche_, _doucette_, _salade de -chanoine_, _poule-grasse_, and was formerly called “Salade de Prêter, -for their being generally eaten in Lent.” It is a small plant, with -“whitish-greene, long or narrow round-pointed leaves... and tufts of -small bleake blue flowers.” In corn-fields it grows wild, but Gerarde -says, “since it hath growne in use among the French and Dutch strangers -in England, it hath been sowen in gardens as a salad herbe,” and adds -that among winter and early spring salads “it is none of the worst.” The -fact of its being “recognised” at a comparatively late date, by the -English, and even then through the practices of the French, perhaps -accounts for the lack of English “pet” names, conspicuous beside the -number bestowed on it on the other side of the Channel. De la Quintinye -is not in accord with his countrymen on the subject, for he calls it a -“wild and rusticall Salad, because, indeed, it is seldom brought before -any Noble Company.” Despite this disparaging remark, it is still a -favourite in France, and it is surprising that a salad plant that stands -cold so well should not be more cultivated in this country. Lettuce is -so much more recognised as a vegetable than a herb that it will not be -mentioned here. - - -MARJORAM (_Origanum_). - - _Lafeu._ ’Twas a good lady, ’twas a good lady. We may pick a thousand - salads ere we light on such another herb. - - _Clown._ Indeed, Sir, she was the Sweet Marjoram of the Salad, or - rather the herb of grace. - - _All’s Well that Ends Well_, iv. 5. - - Not all the ointments brought from Delos’ Isle, - Nor that of quinces, nor of marjoram, - That ever from the Isle of Coös came, - Nor these, nor any else, though ne’er so rare, - Could with this place for sweetest smells compare. - - _Britannia’s Pastorals._ - - O, bind them posies of pleasant flowers, - Of marjoram, mint and rue. - - _Devonshire Song._ - -The scent of marjoram used to be very highly prized, and in some -countries the plant is the symbol of honour. Dr Fernie says _Origanum_ -means in Greek the “joy of the mountains,” so charming a name one wishes -it could be more often used. Among[27] the Greeks, if it grew on the -grave it augured the happiness of the departed; “May many flowers grow -on this newly-built tomb” (is the prayer once offered); “not the -dried-up Bramble, or the red flower loved by goats; but Violets and -Marjoram, and the Narcissus growing in water, and around thee may all -Roses grow.” - -Parkinson writes it was “put in nosegays, and in the windows of houses, -as also in sweete pouders, sweete bags, and sweete washing waters.... -Our daintiest women doe put it to still among their sweet herbes.” -Pusser mentions it among his “herbs for strewing,” and in some recipes -for _pot pourri_ it is still included. _Origanum vulgare_ grows wild, -and the dry leaves are made into a tea “which is extremely grateful.” -The different kinds of marjoram are now chiefly used for soups and -stuffings. Isaac Walton gives instructions for dressing a pike, and -directs that among the accessories should be sweet marjoram, thyme, a -little winter savoury and some pickled oysters! - - [27] Friend. - -[Illustration: POT MARJORAM] - - -MINT (_Mentha_). - - The neighb’ring nymphs each in her turn... - Some running through the meadows with them bring - Cowslips and mint. - - _Britannia’s Pastorals_, book i. - - In strewing of these herbs... with bounteous hands and free, - The healthful balm and mint from their full laps do fly. - - _Polyolbion_, Song xv. - - Sunflowers and marigolds and mint beset us, - Moths white as stitchwort that had left its stem, - ... Loyal as sunflowers we will not swerve us, - We’ll make the mints remembered spices serve us - For autumn as in spring. - - N. HOPPER. - -“Mint,” says De la Quintinye, “is called in French Balm,” which sounds -rather confusing; but Evelyn says it is the “Curled Mint, _M. Sativa -Crispa_,” that goes by this name. Mint was also called “Menthe de Notre -Dame,” and in Italy, “Erba Santa Maria,” and in Germany, “Frauen Münze,” -though this name is also applied to costmary. This herb used to be -strewn in churches. All the various kinds of it were thought to be good -against the biting of serpents, sea-scorpions, and mad dogs, but -violently antagonistic to the healing processes of wounds. “They are -extreme bad for wounded people, and they say a wounded man that eats -Mints, his wound will never be cured, and that is a long day! But they -are good to be put into Baths.”[28] The “gentler tops of Orange Mint” -(_Mentha citrata_?) are recommended “mixed with a Salad or eaten alone, -with the juyce of Orange and a little Sugar.” - -The mint we commonly use is _Mentha Viridis_ or Spear Mint. “Divers -have held for true, that Cheeses will not corrupt, if they be either -rubbed over withe the juyce or a decoction of Mints, or they laid among -them.” It has been said, too, that an infusion of mint will prevent the -rapid curdling of milk. Being dried, mint was much used to put with -pennyroyal into puddings, and also among “pease that are boyled for -pottage.” The last is one of the few uses that survives. Parkinson -complains of all sorts of mints, that once planted in a garden they are -difficult to get rid of! - -_Cat Mint, or Nep_ (_Nepeta Cataria_) is eaten in Tansies. “According to -Hoffman the root of the Cat Mint, if chewed, will make the most gentle -person fierce and quarrelsome.”[29] - -_Pepper Mint_ is still retained, as is Spear Mint, in the British -Pharmacopœia. “The leaves have an intensely pungent aromatic taste -resembling that of pepper, and accompanied with a peculiar sensation of -coldness” (Thornton). - - [28] Culpepper. - - [29] Folkard. - - -MUSTARD (_Sinapis_). - - _Bottom._ Your name, I beseech you, sir? - - _Mustardseed._ Mustardseed. - - _Bottom._ Good Master Mustardseed, I know your patience well: that - same cowardly, giant-like ox-beef hath devoured many a gentleman of - your house: I promise you your kindred hath made my eyes water ere - now. I desire your more acquaintance, good Master Mustardseed. - - _Midsummer-Night’s Dream_, iii. 1. - -In 1664 Evelyn wrote that mustard is of “incomparable effect to quicken -and revive the Spirits, strengthening the Memory and expelling -Heaviness.... In _Italy_, in making _Mustard_, they mingle _Lemon_ and -_Orange_ Peels with the seeds.” In England the best mustard came from -Tewkesbury. It is a curious instance of the instability of fashion that -only twenty-four years before Evelyn made these remarks, Parkinson -wrote: “Our ancient forefathers, even the better sort, in the most -simple, and as I may say the more healthful age of the world, were not -sparing in the use thereof... but nowadayes it is seldom used by the -successors, being accounted the clownes sauce, and therefore not fit for -their tables; but is transferred either to the meyny or meaner sort, who -therefore reap the benefit thereof.” He adds it is “of good use, being -fresh for Epilepticke persons... if it be applyed both inwardly and -outwardly.” There were some drawbacks to being sick or sorry in the -“good old days.” It was customary in Italy to keep the mustard in balls -till it was wanted, and these balls were made up with honey or vinegar -and a little cinnamon added. When the mustard was required, the ball was -“relented” with a little more vinegar. Canon Ellacombe says: “Balls were -the form in which Mustard was usually sold, till Mrs Clements of Durham, -in the last century, invented the method of dressing mustard flour like -wheat flour and made her fortune with Durham Mustard!” We cultivate -_Sinapis nigra_ for its seed and _Sinapis alba_ as a small salad herb. - - -PARSLEY (_Petroselinum sativum_). - - The tender tops of Parsley next he culls, - Then the old rue bush shudders as he pulls. - - _The Salad._ - - Quinces and Peris ciryppe (syrup) with parcely rotes, - Right so begyn your mele. - - RUSSELL’S _Boke of Nature_. - - Fat colworts and comforting perseline, - Cold lettuce and refreshing rosmarine. - - _Muiopotmos._--SPENSER. - -Parsley has the “curious botanic history that no one can tell what is -its native country. Probably the plant has been so altered by -cultivation as to have lost all likeness to its original self.”[30] -Superstitions connected with it are myriad, and Folkard gives two Greek -sayings that are interesting. It was the custom among them to border the -garden with parsley and rue, and from this arose an idiom, when any -undertaking was talked of, but not begun, “Oh! we are only at the -Parsley and Rue.” Parsley was used, too, to strew on graves, and hence -came a saying “to be in need of parsley,” signifying to be at death’s -door. Mr Friend quotes an English adage that “Fried parsley will bring a -man to his saddle and a woman to her grave,” but says that he has heard -no reason given for this strange and apparently pointless dictum. -Plutarch tells of a panic created in a Greek force, marching against the -enemy, by their suddenly meeting some mules laden with parsley, which -the soldiers looked upon as an evil omen; and W. Jones, in his “Crowns -and Coronations,” says, “Timoleon nearly caused a mutiny in his army -because he chose his crown to be of parsley, when his soldiers wished it -to be of the pine or pitch tree.” In many parts of England it is -considered unlucky, and I quote from a paper read before the Devon and -Exeter Gardeners’ Association in 1897. “It is one of the longest seeds -to lie in the ground before germinating; it has been said to go to the -Devil and back again nine times before it comes up. And many people have -a great objection to planting parsley, saying if you do there will sure -to be a death in the Family within twelve months.” It is only fair to -add that this delightful lapse into folk-lore comes in the midst of most -excellent and practical advice for its cultivation. “Quite recently (in -1883) a gentleman, living near Southampton, told his gardener to sow -some Parsley seed. The man, however, refused, saying that it would be a -bad day’s work to him if ever he brought Parsley seed into the house. He -said that he would not mind bringing a plant or two and throwing them -down, that his master might pick them up if he chose, but he would not -bring them to him for anything.”[31] - -The “earliest known, really original work on gardening, written in -English,” is, Miss Amherst says, “a treatise in verse,” by Mayster Ion -Gardener. It consists of a prologue and eight divisions, and one of -these is devoted to “Perselye” alone. The manuscript in the Library of -Trinity College, Cambridge, that she quotes from, was written about -1440, but it is thought that the poem is older. Parsley was “much used -in all sortes of meates, both boyled, roasted and fryed, stewed, etc., -and being green it serveth to lay upon sundry meates. It is also shred -and stopped into powdered beefe.... The roots are put into broth, or -boyled or stewed with a legge of Mutton... and are of a very good -rellish, but the roots must be young and of the first year’s -growth.”[32] - -The seeds of parsley were sometimes put into cheese to flavour it, and -Timbs (“Things not generally Known”) tells this anecdote: “Charlemagne -once ate cheese mixed with parsley seeds at a bishop’s palace, and liked -it so much that ever after he had two cases of such cheese sent yearly -to Aix-la-Chapelle.” - -In the edition of Tusser’s “Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry,” -edited by Mavor, it is noted, “Skim-milk cheese, however, might be -advantageously mixed with seeds, as is the practice in Holland.” Though -not strictly relevant, these lines taken by Mrs Milne-Home (“Stray -Leaves from a Border-Garden”) from the family records of the Earls of -Marchmont, must find place. They were written by a boy of eight or nine, -on the occasion of his elder brother’s birthday. - - This day from parsley-bed, I’m sure, - Was dug my elder brother, Moore, - Had Papa dug me up before him, - So many now would not adore him, - But hang it! he’s but onely one - And if he trips off, I’m Sr John. - -_Horse-radish_ was treated here as a seasoning, but _radish_ is counted -among vegetables proper. - - [30] Plant Lore and Garden Craft of Shakespeare. - - [31] Friend. - - [32] Parkinson. - - -SAGE (_Salvia officinalis_). - - Sage is for sustenance - That should man’s life sustaine, - For I do stil lie languishing - Continually in paine, - And shall doe still until I die, - Except thou favour show, - My paine and all my grievous smart, - Ful wel you do it know. - - _Handful of Pleasant Delights._ - - And then againe he turneth to his playe, - To spoyle the pleasures of the Paradise, - The wholesome saulge and lavender still gray. - - _Muiopotmos._--SPENSER. - -Sage is one of those sympathetic plants that feel the fortunes of their -owners; and Mr Friend says that a Buckinghamshire farmer told him his -recent personal experience. “At one time he was doing badly, and the -Sage began to wither, but, as soon as the tide turned, the plant began -to thrive again.” Most of the Continental names of the plant are like -the botanical one of _Salvia_, from “_Salvo_,” to save or heal, and its -high reputation in medicine lasted for ages. The Arabians valued it, and -the medical school of Salerno summed up its surpassing merits in the -line, _Cur morietur homo cui Salvia crescit in horto?_ (How can a man -die who grows sage in his garden?) Perhaps this originated the English -saying:-- - - He that would live for aye - Must eat Sage in May. - -Parkinson mentions that it is “Much used of many in the month of May -fasting,” with butter and parsley, and is “held of most” to conduce to -health. “It healeth the pricking of the fishe called in Latine -_pastinaca marina_, whych is like unto a flath, with venomous prickes, -about his tayle. It maketh hayre blacke; it is good for woundis.”[33] -The “Grete Herball” contains a remedy for Lethargy or Forgetfulness, -which consists of making a decoction “of tutsan, of smalage and of -sauge,” and bathing the back of the head with it. - -Pepys notes that in a little churchyard between Gosport and Southampton -the custom prevailed of sowing the graves with sage. This is rather -curious, as it has never been one of the plants specially connected with -death. - -Evelyn sums up its “Noble Properties” thus: “In short ’tis a Plant -endu’d with so many and wonderful Properties, as that the assiduous use -of it is said to render Men _Immortal_. We cannot therefore but allow -the tender _Summities_ of the young Leaves, but principally the Flowers -in our Sallet; yet so as not to domineer.... ’Tis credibly affirmed, -that the _Dutch_ for some time drove a very lucrative Trade with the -dry’d Leves of what is called _Sage of Vertue_ and _Guernsey Sage_.... -Both the Chineses and Japaneses are great admirers of that sort of Sage, -and so far prefer it to their own Tea... that for what _Sage_ they -purchase of the _Dutch_, they give triple the quantity of the choicest -_Tea_ in exchange.” - -“Frytures” (fritters) of Sage are described as having place at banquets -in the Middle Ages (Russell’s “Boke of Nurture”). Besides these other -uses the seeds of sage like parsley seeds were used to flavour cheese. -Gay refers to this:-- - - Marbled with Sage, - The hardening cheese she pressed, - -and to “Sage cheese,” too, and Timbs says, “The practice of mixing sage -and other herbs with cheese was common among the Romans.” - - [33] Turner. - - -SAVORY (_Satureia_). - - Some Camomile doth not amiss, - With Savoury and some tansy. - - _Muses Elysium._ - - Here’s flowers for you, - Hot Lavender, Mints, Savory, Marjoram. - - _Winter’s Tale_, iv. 4. - - Sound savorie, and bazil, hartie-hale, - Fat Colwortes and comforting Perseline, - Cold Lettuce and refreshing Rosmarine. - - _Muiopotmos._ - -Savory, satureia, was once supposed to belong to the satyrs. “Mercury -claims the dominion over this herb. Keep it dry by you all the year, if -you love yourself and your ease, and it is a hundred pounds to a penny -if you do not.” Culpepper follows this advice with a long list of -ailments, for all of which this herb is an excellent remedy. Summer -savory (_S. hortensis_) and winter savory (_S. Montana_) are the only -kinds considered in England as a rule, though Gerarde further mentions -“a stranger,” which, “because it groweth plentifully upon the rough -cliffs of the Tyrrhenian Sea in Italie, called Saint Julian rocke,” is -named after the saint, _Satureia Sancti Juliani_. In other countries -summer savory used to be strewn upon the dishes as we strew parsley, and -served with peas or beans; rice, wheat and sometimes the dried herb was -“boyled among pease to make pottage.” Winter savory used to be dried and -powdered and mixed with grated bread, “to breade their meate, be it fish -or flesh, to give it a quicker rellish.” Here Parkinson breaks off to -deliver a severe reproof to “this delicate age of ours, which is not -pleased with anything almost that is not pleasant to the palate,” and -therefore neglects many viands which would be of great benefit. Both -savories are occasionally used more or less in the way he suggests, -winter savory being the favourite. In Cotton’s sequel to the “Complete -Angler,” a “handful of sliced horse-radish-root, with a handsome little -faggot of rosemary, thyme and winter savoury” is recommended in the -directions for “dressing a trout.” One of the virtues attributed to both -savories by the old herbalists is still agreed to by some gardeners: “A -shoot of it rubbed on wasp or bee stings instantly gives relief.” - - -SORREL (_Rumex_). - - Simplest growth of Meadow-sweet or Sorrel - Such as the summer-sleepy Dryads weave. - - _Swinburne._ - - Cresses that grow where no man may them see, - And sorrel, untorn by the dew-claw’d stag; - Pipes will I fashion of the syrinx flag. - - _Endymion._ - - There flourish’d starwort and the branching beet - The sorrel acid and the mallow sweet. - - _The Salad._ - - Here curling sorrel that again - We use in hot diseases - The medicinable mallow here... - - _Muses Elysium._ - -Sorrel and mallow seem to have been associates anciently, perhaps -because it was thought that the virtues of the one would counterbalance -those of the other. “From May to August the meadows are often ruddy with -the sorrel, the red leaves of which point out the graves of the Irish -rebels who fell at Tara Hill in the ‘Ninety-eight,’ the local tradition -asserting that the plants sprang from the patriots’ blood.”[34] The -Spaniards used to call sorrel, Agrelles and Azeda, and the French -Aigrette and Surelle. In England it used to be “eaten in manner of a -Spinach tart or eaten as meate,” and the French and Dutch still do, I -believe, and at anyrate did quite lately, use it as spinach. Sorrel was -often added by them to herb-patience when that was used as a pot-herb, -and was said to give it an excellent flavour. The same recipe has been -tried and approved in England as well as (a little) sorrel cooked with -turnip-tops or spinach; the former of these dishes is said to be good -and the second certainly is. Evelyn thought that sorrel imparted “so -grateful a quickeness to the salad that it should never be left out,” -and De la Quintinye says that in France besides being mixed in salads it -is generally used in Bouillons or thin Broths. Of the two kinds, Garden -Sorrel, _Rumex Acetosa_, and French Sorrel, _R. Scutatus_, either may be -used indifferently in cooking, though some people decidedly prefer the -French kind. Mrs Roundell says that sorrel carefully prepared can be -cooked in any of the ways recommended for spinach, but that it should be -cooked as soon as it is picked, and if this is impossible must be -revived in water before being cooked. - - [34] Folkard. - -[Illustration: THE LAVENDER WALK AT STRATHFIELDSAYE] - - -TARRAGON (_Artemisia Dracunculus_). - -“Tarragon is cherished in gardens.... Ruellius and such others have -reported many strange tales hereof scarce worth the noting, saying that -the seede of flaxe put into a radish roote or sea onion, and so set, -doth bring forth this herbe Tarragon.” This idea was apparently still -current though discredited by the less superstitious in Gerarde’s time. -Parkinson mentions a great dispute between ancient herbalists as to the -identity of the flower called Chysocoma by Dioscorides. After quoting -various opinions and depreciating some of them he approves the decision -of Molinaus that Tarragon was the plant. He describes it “in leaves... -like unto the ordinary long-leafed Hisope... of the colour of _Cyperus_, -of a taste not unpleasant which is somewhat austere with the -sweetnesse.” It is a native of Siberia, but has long been cultivated in -France, and the name is a corruption of the French _Esdragon_ and means -“Little Dragon.” Though no reason for this war-like title is obvious, -the name is practically the same in several other countries. The leaves -were good pickled, and it is altogether a fine aromatic herb for soups -and salads. Vinegars for salads and sauce used often in earlier days to -be “aromatized” by steeping in them rosemary, gilliflowers, barberries -and so forth, but the only herb used for this purpose at the present -time is tarragon. Tarragon vinegar can still be easily obtained. “The -volatile essential oil of tarragon is chemically identical with that of -anise” (Fernie). - - -Thyme (_Thymus vulgaris_). - - The bees on the bells of thyme - - * * * * * - - Were as silent as ever old Timolus was - Listening to my sweet pipings. - - _Pan’s Music_--SHELLEY. - - In my garden grew plenty of thyme, - It would flourish by night and by day, - O’er the wall came a lad, he took all that I had, - And stole my thyme away. - - O! And I was a damsel so fair, - But fairer I wished to appear, - So I washed me in milk, and I dressed me in silk, - And put the sweet thyme in my hair. - - _Devonshire Songs._ - - Beneath your feet, - Thyme that for all your bruising smells more sweet. - - N. HOPPER. - - Some from the fen bring reeds, wild thyme from downs, - Some from a grove, the bay that poets crowns. - - _Br. Pastorals_, book ii. - - Here, dancing feet fall still, - Here, where wild thyme and sea-pinks brave wild weather. - - N. HOPPER. - - O! Cupid was that saucy boy, - Who furrows deeply drew. - He broke soil, destroyed the soil - Of wild thyme wet with dew. - Before his feet, the field was sweet - With flowers and grasses green, - Behind, turn’d down, and bare and brown - By Cupid’s coulter keen. - - _Devonshire Songs._ - -“Among the Greeks, thyme denoted graceful elegance of the Attic style,” -and was besides an emblem of activity. “‘To smell of Thyme’ was -therefore an expression of praise, applied to those whose style was -admirable” (Folkard). In the days of chivalry, when activity was a -virtue very highly rated, ladies used “to embroider their knightly -lovers’ scarves with the figure of a bee hovering about a sprig of -thyme.”[35] In the south of France wild thyme or _Ferigoule_ is a symbol -of advanced Republicanism, and tufts of it were sent with the summons to -a meeting to members of a society holding those views. Gerarde, in his -writings, plainly shows that he and his contemporaries did _not_ -indiscriminately call all plants “herbs,” but distinguished them with -thought and care. “_Ælianus_ seemeth to number wild time among the -floures. _Dionysius Junior_ (saith he) comming into the city Locris in -Italy, possessed most of the houses of the city, and did strew them with -roses, wild time and other such kinds of floures. Yet Virgil, in the -Second Eclogue of his Bucolicks doth most manifestly testifie that wilde -Time is an herbe.” Here he translates:-- - - Thestilis, for mower’s tyr’d with parching heate, - Garlike, wild Time, strong smelling herbs doth beate. - -Modern opinion confirms the view that _Thymus capitatus_ was the thyme -of the ancients. The affection of bees for thyme has often been noticed, -and the “fine flavour to the honey of Mount Hymettus”[36] is said to be -due to this plant. Evelyn speaks of it as having “a most agreeable -_odor_,” and a “considerable quantity being frequently, by the -Hollanders, brought from _Maltha_, and other places in the _Streights_, -who sell it at home, and in _Flanders_ for strewing amongst the -_Sallets_ and Ragouts; and call it _All-Sauce_.” Gerarde divides the -garden thyme (_T. vulgaris_) and Wild Thyme or Mother of Thyme (_T. -serpyllum_) into two chapters, but Parkinson takes them together and -describes eleven kinds, including Lemmon Thyme, which has the “sent of a -Pomecitron or Lemmon”; and “Guilded or embrodered Tyme,” whose leaves -have “a variable mixture of green and yellow.” Abercrombie’s information -is always given in a concentrated form. “An ever-green, sweet-scented, -fine-flavoured, aromatic, under-shrub, young tops used for various -kitchen purposes.” - - [35] “Flora Symbolica.” _Ingram._ - - [36] Hogg, “The Vegetable Kingdom and its Products.” - - -VIPER’S GRASS or SCORZONERA (_Scorzonera Hispanica_). - -The virtues of this herb were known, but not much regarded, before -“Monardus,[37] a famous physician in _Sivell_,” published a book in -which was “set downe that a Moore, a bond-slave, did help those that -were bitten of that venomous beast or Viper... which they of Catalonia, -where they breed in abundance, call in their language _Escuersos_ (from -whence _Scorsonera_ is derived), with the juice of the herb, and the -root given them to eate,” and states that this would effect a cure when -other well-authorised remedies failed. “The rootes hereof, being -preserved with sugar, as I have done often, doe eate almost as delicate -as the Eringus roote.” Evelyn is loud in its praise. It is “a very -sweete and pleasant _Sallet_, being laid to soak out the Bitterness, -then peel’d may be eaten raw or _condited_; but, best of all, stew’d -with _Marrow_, _Spice_, _Wine_.... They likewise may bake, fry or boil -them; a more excellent Root there is hardly growing.” As “Spanish -Salsify” it is much recommended by other writers. - - [37] _Parkinson._ - - -WOOD-SORREL (_Oxalis Acetosella_). - - Who from the tumps with bright green masses clad, - Plucks the Wood-Sorrel with its light green leaves, - Heart shaped and triply folded; and its root - Creeping like beaded coral. - - CHARLOTTE SMITH. - -The Wood-Sorrel has many pretty names: Alleluia, Hearts, _Pain de -Coucou_, _Oseille de Bûcheron_; in Italy, _Juliola_. Wood-Sorrel is a -plant of considerable interest. It has put forward strong claims to be -identified with St Patrick’s shamrock, and it has been painted, Mr -Friend says, “in the foreground of pictures by the old Italian painters, -notably Fra Angelico.” For the explanation of the names: “It is called -by the Apothecaries in their shoppes _Alleluia_ and _Lugula_, the one -because about that time it is in flower, when _Alleluja_ in antient -times was wont to be sung in the Churches; the other came corruptly from -_Juliola_, as they of Calabria in Naples doe call it.” By the “Alleluja -sung in the churches,” Parkinson means the Psalms, from Psalm cxiii. to -Psalm cxvii. (and including these two), for they end with “Hallelujah,” -and were specially appointed to be sung between Easter and Whitsuntide. - -“It is called Cuckowbreade, either because the Cuckowes delight to feed -thereon, or that it beginneth to flower when the Cuckow beginneth to -utter her voyce.” Another name was Stubwort, from its habit of growing -over old “stubs” or stumps of trees, and in Wales it was called Fairy -Bells, because people thought that the music which called the elves to -“moonlight dance and revelry” came from the swinging of the tiny bells. -The Latin name is a reminder that oxalic acid is obtained from this -plant. - -As Evelyn includes it amongst his salad herbs, I mention it here, though -feeling bound to add that anyone must be a monster who could regard the -graceful leaves and trembling, delicately-veined bells of this plant, -full of poetry, with any other sentiment than that of passive -admiration! - - - - -CHAPTER II - -OF HERBS CHIEFLY USED IN THE PAST - - The wyfe of Bath was so wery, she had no wyl to walk; - She toke the Priores by the honde, “Madam, wol ye stalk - Pryvely into the garden to se the herbis growe?” - . . . And forth on they wend - Passing forth softly into the herbery. - - _Prologue to Beryn_--URRY’S Edition. - - -ALEXANDERS (_Smyrnum Olusatrium_). - -Alexanders, Allisanders, the black Pot-herb or Wild Horse-Parsley, as it -is variously called, grows naturally near the sea, and has often been -seen growing wild near old buildings. The Italians call it _Herba -Alexandrina_, according to some writers, because it was supposed -originally to have come from Alexandria; according to others, because -its[38] old name was _Petroselinum Alexandrinum_, or _Alexandrina_, -“so-called of _Alexander_, the finder thereof.” The leaves are “cut into -many parcells like those of Smallage,” but are larger; the seeds have an -“aromaticall and spicy smell”; the root is like a little radish and good -to be eaten, and if broken or cut “there issueth a juice that quickly -waxeth thicke, having in it a sharpe bitterness, like in taste unto -Myrrh.” The upper parts of the roots (being the tenderest) and leaves -were used in broth; the young tops make an “excellent Vernal Pottage,” -and may be eaten as salad, by themselves or “in composition in the -Spring, or, if they be blanched, in the Winter.” They were chiefly -recommended for the time of Lent, in a day when Lent was more strictly -kept than it is now, because they are supposed to go well with fish. -Alexanders resemble celery, by which it has been almost entirely -supplanted, and if desired as food should be sown every year, for though -it continues to grow, it produces nothing fit for the table after the -second year. Pliny says it should be “digged or delved over once or -twice, yea, and at any time from the blowing of the western wind -Favonius in Februarie, until the later Equinox in September be past.” -The reference to Favonius reminds one of those lines of exquisite -freshness translated from Leonidas. - - ’Tis time to sail--the swallow’s note is heard! - Who chattering down the soft west wind is come. - The fields are all a-flower, the waves are dumb, - Which ersts the winnowing blast of winter stirred. - - Loose cable, friend, and bid your anchor rise, - Crowd all your canvas at Priapus’ hest, - Who tells you from your harbours, “Now, ’twere best, - Sailor, to sail upon your merchandise.” - - [38] Britten, “Dictionary of English Plant-Names.” - -[Illustration: ANGELICA] - - -ANGELICA (_Archangelica officinalis_). - - Contagious aire, ingendring pestilence, - Infects not those that in their mouths have ta’en, - Angelica that happy Counterbane, - Sent down from heav’n by some celestial scout, - As well the name and nature both avow’t. - - _Du Bartas_--SYLVESTER’S TRANSLATION, 1641. - - And Master-wort, whose name Dominion wears, - With her, who an Angelick Title bears. - - _Of Plants_, book ii.--COWLEY. - -As these lines declare, Angelica was believed to have sprung from a -heavenly origin, and greatly were its powers revered. Parkinson says, -“All Christian nations likewise in their appellations hereof follow the -Latine name as near as their Dialect will permit, onely in Sussex -they call the wilde Kinde Kex, and the weavers wind their yarne on the -dead stalkes.” The Laplanders crowned their poets with it, believing -that the odour inspired them, and they also thought that the use of it -“strengthens life.” The roots hung round the neck “are available against -witchcraft and inchantments,” so Gerarde says, and thereby makes a -concession to popular superstition, which he very rarely does. A piece -of the root held in the mouth drives away infection of pestilence, and -is good against all poisons, mad dogs or venomous beasts! Parkinson puts -it first and foremost in a list of specially excellent medicinal herbs -that he makes “for the profit and use of Country Gentlewomen and -others,” and writes: “The whole plante, both leafe, roote, and seede is -of an excellent comfortable sent, savour and taste.” No wonder with such -powers that it gained its name. Angelica comes into a remedy for a wound -from an _arquebusade_ or arquebuse, called _Eau d’Arquebusade_, which -was first mentioned by Phillippe de Comines in his account of the battle -of Morat, 1476. “The French still prepare it very carefully from a great -number of aromatic herbs. In England, where it is the _Aqua Vulneria_ of -the Pharmacopœias, the formula is: Dried mint, angelica tops and -wormwood, angelica seeds, oil of juniper and spirit of rosemary -distilled with rectified spirit and water (Timbs).” It must be borne in -mind that Timbs wrote some time ago, and that the knowledge of modern -French scientists, like that of our own, has increased since then. - -Although it is of no value in medicine (it is next to none when -cultivated) our garden angelica also grows wild, and can be safely -eaten. Gerarde is amusing on this point. He says it grows in an “Island -in the North called Island (Iceland?). It is eaten of the inhabitants, -the barke being pilled off, as we understand by some that have travelled -into Island, who were sometimes compelled to eate hereof for want of -other food; and they report that it hath a good and pleasant taste _to -them that are hungry_.” The last words are significant! Formerly, the -leaf-stalks were blanched, and eaten as celery is, but now they are -chiefly used, candied, for dessert. The art of candying seems to have -been brought closer to perfection abroad than at home in Turner’s time, -for he says: “The rootes are now condited in Danske, for a friend of -mine in London, called Maister Aleyne, a merchant man, who hath ventured -over to Danske, sent me a little vessel of these, well condited with -honey, very excellent good. Wherefore they that would have anye Angelica -maye speake to the Marchauntes of Danske, who can provide them enough.” -The fruit is used to flavour _Chartreuse_ and other “cordials.” - - -BLITES (_Blitum_). - -Dr Prior confirms Evelyn, in calling _Bonus Henricus_ Blites, but the -older herbalists seem to have given this name to another plant of the -same tribe, the _Chenopodiaceæ_, because they treat of _Blites_ and -_Bonus Henricus_ in separate chapters. Parkinson is very uncomplimentary -to them. “Blitum are of the species Amaranthum, Flower Gentle. They are -used as arrach, eyther boyled of itself or stewed, which they call -Loblolly.... It is altogether insipid and without taste. The -unsavouriness whereof hath in many countries grown into a proverb, or -by-word, to call dull, slow or lazy persons by that name.” The context -points to the nickname coming from “Blites,” but no such term of -reproach now exists, though the contemptuous _sobriquet_ “Loblolly-boy” -is sometimes seen in old-fashioned nautical novels. Blites were said to -be hurtful to the eyes, a belief that draws a scathing remark from -Gerarde, “I have heard many old wives say to their servants, ‘Gather no -Blites to put in my pottage, for they are not good for the eyesight’; -whence they had those words I know not, it may be of some doctor that -never went to school.” Culpepper mentions that wild blites “the fishes -are delighted with, and it is a good and usual bait, for fishes will -bite fast enough at them if you have but wit enough to catch when they -bite.” Altogether this insipid vegetable gives scope for a good many -sharp things to be said. - -_Blitum capitatum_, usually known as strawberry-spinach, is sometimes -grown in flower gardens. - - -BLOODWORT (_Lapathum Sanguineum_). - -The modern Latin name for this dock is _Rumex Sanguineus_, but Gesner -had a more imposing title, _Sanguis draconis herba_ (Dragon’s blood -plant). These names are, of course, derived from the crimson colour of -its veins, and are the finest thing about it. The little notice it does -get is not unmixed praise. “Among the sorts of pot-herbes, Blood-worte -hath always been accounted a principall one, although I _doe not see any -great reason therein_.” This is Parkinson’s opinion, but the italics are -mine. - - -BUCK’S-HORNE (_Senebiera Coronopus_). - - As true as steel, - As Plantage to the moon. - - _Troilus and Cressida_, iii. 2. - - And plantain ribb’d that heals the reaper’s wound, - And marg’ram sweet, in shepherds’ posies found. - - _The School-Mistress._--SHENSTONE. - -Buck’s-horne is distinct from Buckshorn Plantain (_Plantago Coronopus_), -but it is the latter which is chiefly interesting, and which is meant -here. In Evelyn’s day the Latin name was _Cornu Cervinum_, and other -names are _Herba Stella_, Herb Ivy and _Corne de Cerf_. Some kinds of -plantain were considered good for wounds, but the saying that “plantage” -is true to the moon is hard to solve. Buck’s-horne is a plant that has -gone altogether out of fashion. In 1577 Hill wrote, “What care and skil -is required in the sowing and ordering of the Buck’s-horne, Strawberries -and Mustardseede,”--and how odd it looks now to see it coupled with the -two other names, as a cherished object to spend pains upon! Le Quintinye -says that the leaves, when tender, were used in “Sallad Furnitures... -and the little Birds are very greedy of them.” It used to be held -profitable for agues if “the rootes, with the rest of the herb,” were -hung about the necke, “as nine to men and seven to women and children, -but this as many other are idle amulets of no worth or value... yet, -since, it hath been reported to me for a certaintie that the leaves of -Buck’shorne Plantane laid to their sides that have an ague, will -suddenly ease the fit, as if it had been done by witcherie; the leaves -and rootes also beaten with some bay salt and applied to the wrestes, -worketh the same effects, which I hold to be more reasonable and -proper.” Parkinson is very ready to lay down the law as to the limits of -empiricism. He is very severe about a superstition connected with -Mugwort, but though the same tradition exists of plantain, and (under -Mugwort) he quotes Mizaldus as mentioning it, he says nothing about this -folly here. Aubrey, however, gives an account of it in his -“Miscellanies.” “The last summer, on the day of St John Baptist, I -accidently was walking in the pasture behind Montague House; it was -twelve o’clock. I saw there about two or three and twenty young women, -most of them well habited, on their knees, very busie, as if they had -been weeding. I could not presently learn what the matter was; at last a -young man told me that they were looking for a coal under the root of a -plantain, to put under their heads that night, and they should dream -who would be their husbands. It was to be found that day and hour.” -This miraculous “coal” also preserved the wearer from all sorts of -diseases. - - -CAMOMILE (_Anthemis nobilis_). - - Diana! - Have I (to make thee crowns) been gathering still, - Fair-cheek’d Eteria’s yellow camomile? - - _Br. Pastorals._ - - Flowers of the field and windflowers springing glad - --In airs Sicilian, and the golden bough - Of sacred Plato, shining in its worth. - . . . With phlox of Phœdimas and chamomile, - The crinkled ox-eye of Antagoras. - - _Trans. from Meleager._ - - The healthful balm and mint from their full laps do fly, - The scentful camomile. - - _Polyolbion_, Song xv. - - _Falstaff._ Though the Camomile the more it is trodden on the faster - it grows, yet youth the more it is wasted the sooner it wears.--_I. - Henry IV._ ii. 4. - -The camomile is dedicated to St Anne, mother of the Virgin Mary, and Mr -Friend thinks that the Latin name of wild camomile, _Matricaria_, comes -from a “fanciful derivation” of this word, from _mater_ and _cara_, or -“Beloved Mother.” The name camomile itself is derived from a Greek word -meaning “earth-apples,” and its pleasant, refreshing smell is rather -like that of ripe apples. The Spaniards call it _Manzanilla_, “a little -apple.” It was grown “both for pleasure and profit, both inward and -outward diseases, both for the sicke and the sound,” and was “planted of -the rootes in alleys, in walks, and on banks to sit on, for that the -more it is trodden upon and pressed down in dry weather, the closer it -groweth and the better it will thrive.” This was a common belief in -earlier days, as Falstaff’s remark shows. - -Culpepper is as trenchant as usual on the subject. “Nichersor, saith -the Egyptians, dedicated it to the sun, because it cured agues, and they -were like enough to do it, for they were the arrantest apes in their -religion I have ever read of.” Why his indignation is so much excited is -not clear, but probably it is because Agues (being watery diseases) were -under the moon, and therefore they should have dedicated a herb that -cured agues to the Moon. However, he holds to the view that camomile is -good for all agues, although it is an herb of the sun--who has nothing -to do with such diseases, as a rule. Turner criticises Amatus Lusitanus -with some shrewdness. This writer, who had apparently taken upon him to -teach “Spanyardes, Italians, Frenchmen and Germans the name of Herbes in -their tongues, writeth that Camomile is commonlye knowne,” and with this -bald statement contented himself. “Wherefore it is lykely he knoweth -nether of both [kinds of Camomile]. Wherefore he had done better to have -sayde, ‘I do knowe nether of both, then thus shortly to passe by them.’ -Camomile is still officinal, and is used for fomentations. ‘If taken -internally it should be infused with cold water, as heat dissipates the -oil.’” - -_Feverfew_ is so nearly related to camomile that it may be mentioned -here. Indeed some writers call it “a Wild Camomile,” and give it -_Matricaria Parthenum_ for a Latin name. Most botanists, however, place -it “in the genus _Pyrethrum_.” Mr Britten calls it _Pyrethrum -Parthenium_. “Feverfew” comes from “febrifuge,” for it was supposed to -have wonderful power to drive away fevers and agues; and it is still a -favourite remedy with village people. Nora Hopper brings it in among the -fairies:-- - - There’s many feet on the moor to-night, - And they fall so light as they turn and pass, - So light and true, that they shake no dew, - From the featherfew and the Hungry-Grass. - - _The Fairy Music._ - - -CARDOONS (_Cynara Cardunculus_). - -This plant is also called Spanish Cardoon or Cardoon of Tours. It is a -kind of artichoke “which becomes a truly gigantic herbaceous vegetable. -The tender stalks of the inner leaves are sometimes blanched and stewed, -or used in soups and salads”; but it is much less used in England than -on the Continent. Cardoons are said to yield a good yellow dye. - - -CLARY (_Salvia Sclarea_). - - Percely, clarey and eke sage, - And all other herbage. - - JOHN GARDENER. - -“Clary, or more properly Clear-eyes,” which indicates one of its -supposed chief virtues plainly enough. Wild Clary was called _Oculus -Christi_, and was even more valued than the garden kind. Clary was once -“used for making wine, which resembles Frontignac, and is remarkable for -its narcotic qualities.”[39] It was also added to “Ale and Beere in -these Northern regions (I think the Netherlands are meant here) to make -it the more heady.” The young plant itself was eaten, and an approved -way of dressing it was to put it in an omelette “made up with cream, -fried in sweet butter” and eaten with sugar and the juice of oranges or -lemons. It is now sometimes used to season soups, and Hogg tells us that -it was used “in Austria as a perfume; in confectionery, and to the -jellies of fruits, it communicates the flavour of pine-apple.” The -herbalists speak of a plant called Yellow Clary or “Jupiter’s Distaff,” -and Mr Britten suggests that this was _Phlomus fruticosa_. - - [39] Timbs. - - -DITTANDER (_Lepidium Latifolium_). - -Dittander or Pepperwort grows wild in a few places in England, but was -once cultivated. It was sometimes used as “a sauce or sallet to meate, -but is too hot, bitter and strong for everyone’s taste.” These qualities -have gained it the names of Poor Man’s Pepper, and from Tusser, Garden -Ginger. Culpepper’s opinion is briefly expressed: “Here is another -martial herb for you, make much of it.” It is so “hot and fiery sharpe” -that it is said to raise a blister on the hand of anyone who holds it -for a while, and _therefore_ (on homœopathic principles) it was -recommended “to take away marks, scarres... and the marks of burning -with fire or Iron.” - - -ELECAMPANE (_Inula Helenium_). - - Elecampane, the beauteous Helen’s flower, - Mingles among the rest her silver store. - - RAPIN. - -“Some think it took the name from the teares of _Helen_, from whence it -sprang, which is a fable; others that she had her hands full of this -herbe when _Paris_ carried her away; others say it was so called because -Helen first found it available against the bitings and stingings of -venomous beasts; and others thinke that it tooke the name from the -Island Helena, where the best was found to grow.” Parkinson gives a wide -choice for opinions on the origin of Elecampane, the two first “fables” -are very picturesque. The radiant gold of the flowers would be gorgeous -but beautiful, in a loose bunch, in a meadow, though in-doors they would -be apt to look big and glaring. Gerarde speaks of them being “in their -braverie in June and July,” and adds that the root “is marvellous good -for many things.” Since the days of Helen the fairies have laid hold of -the plant, and another name for it (in Denmark) is Elf-Dock. Elecampane -has had a great reputation since the days of Pliny, and was considered -specially good for coughs, asthma and shortness of breath. Elecampane -lozenges were much recommended, and the root was candied and eaten as a -sweetmeat till comparatively lately. It is said to have antiseptic -qualities, and according to Dr Fernie has been used in Spain as a -surgical dressing. - - -FENUGREEK (_Trigonella fœnum græcum_). - -Fenugreek “hath many leaves, but three alwayes set together on a -foot-stalke, almost round at the ends, a little dented about the sides, -greene above and grayish underneath; from the joynts with the leaves -come forth white flowers, and after them, crooked, flattish long hornes, -small pointed, with yellowish cornered seedes within them.” This -description is very exact, and, indeed, the conspicuous horn-like pods, -singularly large for the size of the plant, are its most marked -characteristic. Turner says: “This herbe is called in Greek Keratitis, -y^{t} is horned, aigō keros y^{t} is gotes horne, and ŏ onkeros, that is -cows horne.” Fenugreek was a Favourite of the “antients,” and Folkard -gives an account of a festival held by Antiochus Epiphanus, the Syrian -king, of which one feature was a procession, where boys carried golden -dishes containing frankincense, myrrh and saffron, and two hundred -women, out of golden watering-pots, sprinkled perfume on the assembled -guests. All who went to watch the games in the gymnasium were anointed -with some perfume from fifteen gold dishes, which held saffron, -amaracus, lilies, cinnamon, spikenard, fenugreek, etc. In England it was -used for more prosaic purposes, “Galen and others say that they were -eaten as Lupines, and the Egyptians and others eate the seedes yet to -this day as Pulse or meate.” The herb, he continues, he has never heard -of as being used in England, because it was very little grown, but the -seed was used in medicine. Gerarde gives us one of its pleasantest -preparations as a drug. In old diseases of the chest, without a fever, -fat dates are to be boiled with it, with a great quantitie of honey. In -1868 Rhind[40] writes that the seeds are no longer given in medicine, -and but rarely used in “fomentations and cataplasms.” Since that date, I -should imagine, it is even more rarely used. Fenugreek was at one time -prescribed by veterinary surgeons for horses. - - [40] “History of the Vegetable Kingdom.” - - -GOOD KING HENRY (_Chenopodium Bonus Henricus_). - -This plant is otherwise known as Fat Hen, Shoemaker’s Heels, English -Mercury, or as Evelyn says, Blite. He begins with praise: “The Tops may -be eaten as Sparagus or sodden in Pottage, and as a very salubrious -Esculent. There is both a white and red, much us’d in Spain and Italy”; -but he finishes lamely for all his praise: “’tis insipid enough.” -Gerarde says: “It is called of the Germans _Guter Heinrick_, of a -certaine good qualitie it hath,” and its name is much the most -interesting thing about it. Various writers have tried to attach it to -our successive kings of that name, with a want of ingenuousness and -ingenuity equally deplorable. Grimm[41] traces it back till he finds -that this was one of the many plants appropriated to Heinz or -Heinrich--the “household goblin,” who plays tricks on the maids or helps -them with their work, and asks no more than a bowl of cream set -over-night for his reward--who, in fact, holds much the same place as -our Robin Goodfellow holds here. - - [41] Teutonic Mythology. - - -HERB-PATIENCE (_Rumex Patienta_). - - Sequestered leafy glades, - That through the dimness of their twilight show - Large dock-leaves, spiral fox-gloves, or the glow - Of the wild cat’s-eyes, or the silvery stems - Of delicate birch trees, in long grass which hems - A little brook. - - _Calidore_--KEATS. - - La _tulipe_ est pour la fierté, - Pour le malheur la _patience_. - - _La Petite Corbeille._ - - The Herb-Patience does not grow in every man’s garden. - - _Proverb._ - -Herb-Patience was also called Patience-Dock or Monk’s Rhubarb. The -French call Water-Dock, _Patience d’eau_ and _Parelle des Marais_, so -the name of the quality that is, in nursery rhyme, a “virtue,” and a -“grace,” clings to this dock! Parkinson compares it unfavourably with -Bastard Rhubarb, though he says the root is often used in “diet beere”; -but Gerarde calls it an “excellent, wholesome pot-herbe,” and relates a -tale, in which responsibilities are treated with such delightful -airiness that it must be repeated here. He begins by saying that he -himself is “no graduate, but a country scholler,” but hopes his “good -meaning will be well taken, considering I doe my best, not doubting but -some of greater learning will perfect that which I have begun, according -to my small skill, especially the ice being broken unto him and the wood -rough-hewed to his hands.” Nevertheless, he (who dictates on these -matters, to a great extent, through his Herbal) thinks that the learned -may gain occasionally from his knowledge. “One _John Bennet_, a -chirurgion, of Maidstone in Kent, a man as slenderly learned as -myselfe,” undertook to cure a butcher’s boy of an ague. “He promised him -a medicine, and for want of one for the present (he himselfe confessed -unto me) he tooke out of his garden three or four leaves of this plant” -and administered them in ale, with entire success. “Whose blunt attempt -may set an edge upon some sharper wit and greater judgment in the -faculties of plants.” Any anticipation that his experiment might lead to -disaster does not seem to have troubled him! The root of Patience-Dock -“boiled in the water of _Carduus Benedictus_” was also given at a -venture for an ague, and this experiment was tried by “a worshipfull -gentlewoman, mistresse Anne Wylbraham, upon divers of her poore -Neighbours, with good success.” Mistress Anne Wylbraham must have been a -woman of temerity! - -Garden-patience used to be a good deal cultivated as spinach, but is now -very much ignored, partly because few people know how to cook it. The -leaves should be used early in the spring while they are still tender, -and the flavour will be very much improved if about a fourth part of -common sorrel is added to them. This way of dressing patience-dock was -very popular in Sweden, and is described as “forming an excellent -spinach dish.” Patience is sometimes spoken of as “passions,” but this -name properly belongs to _Polygonum Bistorta_, the leaves of which were -the principal ingredient in a herb-pudding, formerly eaten on Good -Friday in the North of England. Parkinson also speaks in this chapter of -the “true rhubarb of Rhapontick,” which has “leaves of sad or -dark-greene colour... of a fine tart or sourish taste, much more -pleasant than the garden or wood sorrell.” Dr Thornton, however, says -that Parkinson was mistaken, and that the first seeds of true rhubarb -were sent “by the great Boerhaave to our famous gardener, Miller, in -1759”--more than a hundred years later. Very soon after Miller had it, -rhubarb was cultivated in many parts of England and in certain -localities in Scotland. - -[Illustration: A FIELD OF ENGLISH RHUBARB] - - -HOREHOUND (_Marrubium vulgare_). - - Here hore-hound ’gainst the mad dog’s ill - By biting, never failing. - - _Muses Elysium._ - - Pale hore-hound, which he holds of most especiall use. - - _Polyolbion_, Song xiii. - -Folkard says that horehound is one of the five plants stated by the -Mishna to be the “bitter herbs,” which the Jews were ordered to take for -the Feast of the Passover, the other four being coriander, horse-radish, -lettuce and nettle. The name _Marrubium_ is supposed to come from the -Hebrew _Marrob_, a bitter juice. De Gubernatis writes that horehound was -once regarded as a “contre-poison magique,” but very little is said -about it on the whole, and it is an uninteresting plant to look at, and -much like many others of the labiate tribe. Long ago the Apothecaries -sold “sirop of horehound” for “old coughs” and kindred disorders, and -horehound tea and candied horehound are still made to relieve the same -troubles. Candied horehound is made by boiling down the fresh leaves and -adding sugar to the juice thus extracted, and then again boiling the -juice till it has become thick enough to pour into little cases made of -paper. - - -LADY’S-SMOCK (_Cardamine pratensis_). - - Then comes Daffodil beside - Our ladye’s smock at our Ladye-tide. - - _An Early Calendar of English Flowers._ - - When daisies pied and violets blue - And lady-smocks all silver white - And cuckoo-buds of yellow hue - Do paint the meadows with delight. - - _Love’s Labour Lost_, v. 2. - - And some to grace the show, - Of lady-smocks do rob the neighbouring mead. - Wherewith their looser locks most curiously they braid. - - _Polyolbion_, Song xx. - - And now and then among, of eglantine a spray, - By which again a course of lady-smocks they lay. - - Song xv. - - The honeysuckle round the porch has wov’n its wavy bowers, - And by the meadow-trenches blow the faint, sweet cuckoo flowers, - And the wild march-marigold shines like fire on swamps and hollows - gray. - - _The May Queen._--TENNYSON. - -“Cuckoo-flower” is a name laid claim to by many flowers, and authorities -differ as to which one Shakespeare meant by it. Certainly not the plant -under discussion, which is the one we most generally call Cuckoo-flower -to-day, for there can be no doubt that this is the “lady’s-smocks” of -the line above,--letting alone the fact that the “cuckoo-buds” in the -song being of “yellow hue” put the idea out of court. Lord Tennyson’s -lines point equally clearly to the _Cardamine pratensis_. Lady’s-smock -is said to be a corruption of “Our Lady’s Smock,” and to be one of the -plants dedicated to the Virgin, because it comes into blossom about -Ladytide; though as a matter of fact the flower is seldom seen so early. -It is remarkable how many attentions this graceful, but humble and -scentless flower has received; and besides all the poets Isaac Walton -mentions it twice: “Look! down at the bottom of the hill there, in that -meadow, chequered with water-lilies and lady-smocks.”[42] And later: -“Looking on the hills, I could behold them spotted with wood and -groves--looking down in the meadow, could see there a boy gathering -lilies and lady’s-smocks, and there, a girl cropping culverkeys and -cowslips, all to make garlands suitable to this present month of May.” -It is difficult to be positive about culverkeys. Columbines, bluebells, -primroses and an orchis have all been called by this name at different -times. The primrose is cut out of the question here by its colour, for -in the poem which has been quoted a little while before Davors sings of -“azure culverkeys.” The columbine is rarely found in a wild state and -flowers later in the year, the orchis is hardly “azure,” so on the whole -it looks as if the likeliest flower would be the wild hyacinth. To -return to the lady’s-smocks, Gerarde says they are of “a blushing, white -colour,” and like the “white sweet-john.” In the seventeenth century -their titles were various and he gives some of them, and in doing so he -shows an ingenuous, very pleasing clinging to the names familiar to his -youth. “In English, cuckowe flowers, in Northfolke, Canterbury bells, at -Namptwich in Cheshire, where I had my beginning, ladiesmocks which hath -given me cause to christen it after my country fashion.” Parkinson finds -that “these herbes are seldom used eyther as sauce or sallet or in -physick, but more for pleasure to decke up the garlands of the -country-people, yet divers have reported them to be as affectuall in the -scorbute or scurvy as the water-cresses.” The plant was regarded as an -excellent remedy for these evils by the inhabitants of those northern -countries where salted fish and flesh are largely eaten. The leaves are -slightly pungent and somewhat bitter; and in the early part of the -nineteenth century it was regarded as an ordinary salad herb, so that -its reputation in that respect must have risen since Parkinson’s days. - - [42] Complete Angler. - - -LANGDEBEEFE (_Helminthia echoides_). - -Langdebeefe is mentioned with scanty praise. “The leaves are onely used -in all places that I knew or ever could learne, for an herbe for the pot -among others.” It is difficult to be absolutely certain as to the -identity of the plant, for Gerarde places it with Bugloss, and -Parkinson, among the Hawkweeds. Mr Britten says, however, that both -writers referred to _Helminthia echoides_, but that _Echium vulgare_, -Viper’s Bugloss, is the plant that Turner called Langdebeefe, and -Viper’s Bugloss is still called Langdebeefe in Central France. Near -Paris, however, _Langue de bœuf_ means _Anchusa Italica_. “The leaves,” -says Gerarde, “are like the rough tongue of an oxe or cow, whereof it -took its name,” and he gives another instance of the _insouciance_ of -contemporary physicians. They “put them both into all kindes of -medicines indifferently, which are of force and vertue to drive away -sorrow and pensiveness of the minde, and to comfort and strengthen the -heart.” “Both” refers to Bugloss and “little wilde Buglosse,” which he -has just informed us grows upon “the drie ditch bankes about -Pickadilla.” Times change! - - -LIQUORICE (_Glycyrrhiza glabra_). - -Gerarde describes two kinds of Liquorice: the first has “woody -branches... beset with leaves of an overworne greene colour, and small -blew floures of the colour of an English Hyacinth.” From the peculiar -shape and roughness of the seed-pods it was distinguished by the name of -“Hedge-hogge Licorice.” This kind was very little used. Common Liquorice -resembles it very closely, but has less peculiar seed-vessels. - -The cultivation of _licorish_ in England began about the year of Queen -Elizabeth’s reign, and it has been much grown at Pontefract (whence -Pontefract lozenges are named), Worksop, Godalming and Mitcham. It must -have been once an extremely profitable crop. “There hath been made from -fifty Pound to an hundred Pound of an Acre, as some affirm.” The caution -expressed in the last three words is rather nice. “I. W.,” the author of -this bit of information (he gives no other signature), published his -book in 1681, and was evidently of a very patriotic disposition. He is -indignant that “although our English Liquorice exceeds any Foreign -whatsoever,” yet we “yearly buy of other Nations,” and Parkinson is of -much the same opinion: “The root grown in England is of a fame more -weake, sweete taste, yet far more pleasing to us than Licorice that is -brought us from beyond Sea,” which is stronger and more bitter. A later -writer prefers English roots on the ground that those imported are often -“mouldy and spoiled.” “With the juice of Licorice, Ginger and other -spices there is made a certaine bread or cakes called Gingerbread, which -is very good against the cough.” It is not the light in which -Gingerbread is usually looked upon. Liquorice administered in many ways -was a great remedy against coughs. Boiled in faire water, with -Maiden-haire and Figges, it made a “good ptisane drinke for them that -have any dry cough,” and the “juice of Licoris, artificially made with -Hyssoppe water,” was recommended against shortness of breath. Extract of -Liquorice is to be found in the Pharmacopœia, and it is imported as -“Spanish juice.” The extract must be made from the _dried_ root, or else -it will not be so bright when it is strained. Dr Fernie says that -Liquorice is added to porter and stout to give thickness and blackness. - - -LOVAGE (_Ligusticum Scoticum_). - -Mr Britten says: In Lyte and other early works, this [name] is applied -to _Levisticum officinale_, but in modern British books it is assigned -to _Ligusticum Scoticum_. It grows wild near the sea-shore in Scotland -and Northumberland. Lovage “has many long and great stalkes of large, -winged leaves, divided into many parts, ... and with the leaves come -forth towards the toppes, long branches, bearing at their toppes large -umbells of yellow flowers. The whole plant and every part of it smelleth -somewhat strongly and aromatically, and of an hot, sharpe, biting -taste. The _Germans_ and other Nations in times past used both the roote -and seede instead of Pepper to season their meates and brothes, and -found them as comfortable and warming.”[43] Turner mentions Lovage -amongst his medical herbs and Culpepper says: “It is an herb of the Sun, -under the sign Taurus. If Saturn offend the throat... this is your -cure.” - - [43] Parkinson. - - -MALLOW (_Malva_). - - With many a curve my banks I fret, - By many a field and fallow - And many a fair by foreland set, - With willow, weed and mallow. - - _The Brook._--TENNYSON. - - The spring is at the door, - She bears a golden store, - Her maund with yellow daffodils runneth o’er. - - * * * * * - - After her footsteps follow - The mullein and the mallow, - She scatters golden powder on the sallow. - - _Spring Song._--N. HOPPER. - -Parkinson praises mallows both for beauty and virtue. “The double ones, -which for their Bravery are entertained everywhere into every -Countrywoman’s garden. The Venice Mallow is called Good-night-at-noone, -though the flowers close so quickly that you shall hardly see a flower -blowne up in the day-time after 9 A.M.” Some medical advice follows, in -which “All sorts of Mallowes” are praised. “Those that are of most use -are most common. The rest are but _taken upon credit_.” The last remark -comes quite casually, and apparently those that were “but taken upon -credit,” would be comprehended in the “all sorts” and administered -without hesitation. French Mallows (_Malva crispa_) is most highly -recommended as an excellent pot-herb! indeed all wild mallows may be -used in that capacity, and the Romans are said to have considered them a -delicacy. - -Marsh Mallow (_Althæa officinalis_) has very soothing qualities, and -was, and is, much used by country people for inflammation outwardly and -inwardly. It contains a great deal of mucilage, in the root -particularly. Timbs says: “Dr Sir John Floyer mentions a posset (hot -milk curdled by some infusion) in which althœa roots are boiled”; and it -must have been a “comforting” one. In France, the young tops and leaves -are used in spring salads. “Many of the poorer inhabitants of Syria, -especially the Fellahs, the Greeks, and the Armenians, subsist for weeks -on herbs, of which the Marsh Mallow is one of the most common. When -boiled first, and then fried with onions and butter, they are said to -form a palatable dish, and in times of scarcity, consequent upon the -failure of the crops, all classes may be seen striving with eagerness to -obtain the much desired plant, which fortunately grows in great -abundance.”[44] In Job xxx. 3, 4 we read: “For want and famine they were -solitary, fleeing into the wilderness in former time desolate and waste. -Who cut up mallows by the bushes.” Smith’s “Dictionary of the Bible,” -however, casts doubt on this mallow being a mallow at all, and though -admitting that it would be quite possible, decides that the evidence -points most clearly to _Atriplex Halimus_. - -Gerarde says the Tree Mallow “approacheth nearer the substance and -nature of wood than any of the others; wherewith the people of Olbia and -Narbone in France doe make hedges, to sever or divide their gardens and -vineyards which continueth long;” and these hedges must have been a -beautiful sight when in flower. - -The Hollyhock, of course, belongs to this tribe, and was once -apparently eaten as a pot-herb, and found to be an inferior one. It has -been put to other uses, for Hogg says that the stalks contain a fibre, -“from which a good strong cloth has been manufactured, and in the year -1821 about 280 acres of land near Flint in Wales were planted with the -Common Holyhock, with the view of converting the fibre to the same uses -as hemp or flax.” It was also discovered in the process of manufacture, -that the plant “yields a blue dye, equal in beauty and permanence to -that of the best indigo.” This experiment however successful in results, -cannot have been justified from a commercial point of view, and was not -often repeated, and there is now no trace of its having been ever tried. - -In other languages, the Hollyhock has very pretty names; “in low Dutch, -it was called _Winter Rosen_, and in French, _Rose d’outremer_.” - - [44] Hogg. - - -MARIGOLD (_Calendula Officinalis_). - - Hark! hark! the lark at heaven’s gate sings - And Phœbus ’gins to rise, - His steeds to water at those springs - On chalic’d flowers that lies; - And winking Mary-buds begin - To ope their golden eyes. - - _Cymbeline_, ii. 3. - - The marigold that goes to bed wi’ the sun, - And with him rises weeping. - - _Winter’s Tale_, iv. 3. - - The purple Violets and Marigolds - Shall, as a carpet, hang upon thy grave - While summer days do last. - - _Pericles_, iv. 1. - - Marigolds on death-beds blowing. - - _Two Noble Kinsmen._ Introd. Song. - - The Marigold observes the sun, - More than my subjects me have done. - So shuts the marigold her leaves - At the departure of the sun; - So from the honeysuckle sheaves - The bee goes when the day is done. - - _Br. Pastorals_, book iii. - - But, maiden, see the day is waxen old, - And ’gins to shut in with the marigold. - - _Br. Pastorals_, book i. - - Open afresh your round of starry folds - Ye ardent marigolds! - Dry up the moisture from your golden lids - For great Apollo bids - That in these days your praises should be sung. - I stood tiptoe, etc.--KEATS. - - The marigold above, t’ adorn the arched bar, - The double daisy, thrift, the button batchelor, - Sweet William, sops-in-wine, the campion. - - _Polyolbion_, Song xv. - - The crimson darnel flower, the blue bottle and _gold_. - Which though esteemed but weeds, yet for their dainty hues - And for their scent not ill, they for this purpose choose. - - _Ibid._ - - The yellow kingcup Flora then assigned. - To be the badges of a jealous mind, - The orange-tawny marigold. - - _Br. Pastorals._ - -The Marigold has enjoyed great and lasting popularity, and though the -flower does not charm by its loveliness, the indomitable courage, with -which, after even a sharp frost, it lifts up its hanging head, and shows -a cheerful countenance, leads one to feel for it affection and respect. -In the end of January (1903) here in Devon there were some flowers and -opening buds, though ten days before the ice bore for skating. The Latin -name refers to its reputed habit of blossoming on the first days of -every month in the year, and in a fairly mild winter this is no -exaggeration. Marigolds are dedicated to the Virgin, but this fact is -not supposed to have had anything to do with the giving of their name, -which had probably been bestowed on them before the Festivals in her -honour were kept in England, “Though doubtless,” says Mr Friend, “the -name of Mary had much to do with the alterations in the name of -Marigold, which may be noticed in its history.” There is an idea that -they were appropriated to her because they were in flower at all of her -Festivals; but on this notion other authorities throw doubt. In ancient -days Marigolds were often called Golds, or Goules, or Ruddes; in -Provence, a name for them was “_Gauche-fer_[45] (left-hand iron) -probably from its brilliant disc, suggestive of a shield worn on the -left arm.” Chaucer describes Jealousy as wearing this flower: “Jealousy -that werede of yelwe guides a garland”; and Browne calls the -“orange-tawny marigold” its badge. - -There was a very strong belief that the flowers followed the sun, and -many allusions are made to this; amongst them, two melancholy lines -which are said to have been drawn from some “Meditations” by Charles I., -written at Carisbrooke Castle. - - “The marigold observes the sun, - More than my subjects me have done.” - -Shakespeare refers often to this idea, and the flower was obviously “to -earlier writers the emblem of constancy in affection and sympathy in joy -and sorrow, though it was also the emblem of the fawning courtier who -could only shine when everything is bright.” (Canon Ellacombe). -Marigolds have figured in heraldry, for Marguerite of Valois, -grandmother of Henri IV., chose for her armorial device a marigold -turning towards the sun, with the motto, _Je ne veux suivre que lui -seul_. About the fifteenth century the Marigold was called _Souvenir_, -and ladies wore posies of marigolds and heartsease mingled, that is, a -bunch of “happiness stored in recollections,” a very pretty allegorical -meaning. But it has been the symbol of memories anything but happy, for -curiously enough, this sun’s flower means Grief in the language of -flowers, and in many countries is connected with the idea of death. This -thought occurs in Pericles and in the song in “Two noble Kinsmen.” In -America, one name for them is death-flowers, because there is a -tradition that they “sprang upon ground stained by the life-blood of -these unfortunate Mexicans who fell victims to the love of gold and -arrogant cruelty of the early Spanish settlers in America.”[46] However, -to restore the balance of happiness, one learns that to dream of -Marigolds augurs wealth, prosperity, success, and a rich and happy -marriage! In Fuller’s “Antheologia, or the Speech of Flowers”--a most -amusing tale--the Marigold occupies a prominent place. The scene opens -with a dispute in the Flowers’ Parliament between the Tulip and the -Rose. “Whilst this was passing in the _Upper House of Flowers_, no less -were the transactions in the _Lower House_ of the _Herbs_; where there -was a general acclamation against _Wormwood_. Wormwood’s friends were -casually absent that day, making merry at an entertainment, her enemies -(let not that sex be angry for making Wormwood feminine) appeared in -full body and made so great a noise, as if some mouths had two tongues -in them.” Wormwood and the Tulip were eventually both cast out of the -garden, and lying by the roadside addressed themselves to a passing Wild -Boar, telling him of a hole in the hedge, by which he may creep into the -garden and revenge them, and amuse himself by destroying the flowers. At -the moment he enters, “Thrift, a Flower-Herb, was just courting Marigold -as follows: ‘Mistress of all Flowers that grow on Earth, give me leave -to profess my sincerest affections to you.... I have taken signal notice -of your accomplishments, and among other rare qualities, particularly -of this, your loyalty and faithfulness to the Sun, ... but we all know -the many and sovereign virtues in your leaves, the _Herb Generall_ in -all pottage.” He then proceeds to praise himself, “I am no gamester to -shake away with a quaking hand what a more fixed hand did gain and -acquire. I am none of those who in vanity of clothes bury my quick -estate as in a winding sheet.” The Marigold demurely hung her head and -replied, “I am tempted to have a good opinion of myself, to which all -people are prone, and we women most of all, if we may believe your -opinions of us, which herein I am afraid are too true.” But she is not -deceived by his flattery. “The plain truth is you love me not for -myself, but for your advantage. It is _Golden_ the arrear of my _name_, -which maketh _Thrift_ to be my suitor. How often and how unworthily have -you tendered your affections even to a _Penny royal_ itself, had she not -scorned to be courted by you. But I commend the girl that she knew her -own worth, though it was but a _penny_, yet it is a _Royal_ one, and -therefore not a match for every base _Suitor_, but knew how to value -herself; and give me leave to tell you that _Matches_ founded on -_Covetousness_ never succeed.” At this point in her spirited reply the -Boar approached. “There is no such teacher as extremity; necessity hath -found out more Arts than ever ingenuity invented. The Wall Gillyflower -ran up to the top of the Wall of the Garden, where it hath grown ever -since, and will never descend till it hath good security for its own -safety.” Other thrilling scenes follow, and finally the Boar is put an -end to by the gardener and “a _Guard_ of Dogs.” - -Marigolds stood as a standard of comparison, and Isaac Walton uses the -common saying, “As yellow as a Marigold.” Among the various titles of -different kinds of Marigold Gerarde gives the oddest, for he calls one -variety Jackanapes-on-horseback; Fuller calls it the “Herb-Generall of -all pottage,” and it was much esteemed in this capacity. Gay says: - - Fair is the gillyflour, for gardens sweet, - Fair is the marigold, for pottage meet. - - _The Squabble._ - -“The yellow leaves of the flowers are dried and kept throughout -Dutchland against winter, to put into broths, in physical potions, and -for divers other purposes in such quantity that in some Grocers or Spice -Sellers houses are to be found barrels filled with them and retailed by -the penny more or less, insomuch that no broths are well made without -Marigolds.” One is reminded of the childish heroine in Miss Edgeworth’s -charming story “Simple Susan” and how she added the petals of Marigolds, -as the last touch, to the broth she had made for her invalid mother! -Parkinson observes that the flowers “green or dryed are often used in -possets, broths and drinks as a comforter to the heart and spirits,” and -that Syrup and Conserve are made of the fresh flowers; also “the flowers -of Marigold pickt clean from the heads and pickled up against winter -make an excellent Sallet when no flowers are to be had in a garden, -which Sallet is nowadays in the highest esteem with Gentles and Ladies -of the greatest note.” There is a tone of patronage in this last remark -which is rather irritating. “Some used to make their heyre yellow with -the floure of this herbe,” says Turner, and severely censures the -impiousness of such an act. A hundred years ago, according to -Abercromby, the flowers were chiefly used to flavour broth and to -adulterate Saffron, but they must be even less employed now than then. - -Dr Fernie says that the flowers of Marigold were much used by American -surgeons during the Civil War, in treating wounds, and with admirable -results. “_Calendula_ owes its introduction and first use altogether to -homœopathic practice, as signally valuable for healing wounds, ulcers, -burns, and other breaches of the skin surface.” Personal experience -leads me to suggest that it is an excellent household remedy. - -THE CORN MARIGOLD (_Chrysanthemum segetum_) used to be called Guildes, -and it was once so rampant that a law was passed by the Scottish -Parliament to fine negligent farmers who allowed it to overrun their -lands. Hence the old Scots saying-- - - The Gordon, the Guild, and the Watercraw - Are the three worst ills the Moray ever saw. - - [45] Ingram, “Flora Symbolica.” - - [46] Folkard. - - -PENNYROYAL (_Mentha pulegium_). - - Peniriall is to print your love, - So deep within my heart, - That when you look this nosegay on - My pain you may impart, - And when that you have read the same, - Consider wel my woe. - Think ye then how to recompense - Even him that loves you so. - A Handful of Pleasant Delites. - - C. ROBINSON. - - Then balm and mint helps to make up - My chapter, and for trial, - Costmary, that so likes the cup, - And next it, pennyroyal. - - _Muses’ Elysium._ - - Lavender, Corn-rose, Pennyroyal sate, - And that which cats[47] esteem so delicate - After a while slow-pac’d with much ado, - Ground pine, with her short legs, crept hither too. - - _Of Plants_, book ii.--COWLEY. - -In France, Italy, and Spain, the children make a _crêche de noël_ at -Christmas time; that is, they make a shed with stones and moss, and -surround it with evergreens powdered with flour and cotton-wool, to make -a little landscape. In and about this shed are placed the _gens de la -crêche_; little earthen figures representing the Holy Family, and the -Three Kings with their camels, and the Shepherds with their flocks, the -sheep being disposed among the miniature rocks and bushes. On Christmas -eve, or else sometimes on Twelfth Night, I think, these are saluted with -the music of pipes and carol singing. De Gubernatis says that the -children of Sicily always put pennyroyal amongst the green things in -their _crêches_, and believe that exactly at midnight it bursts into -flower for Christmas Day. - -Other names for it are Pulioll Royal and Pudding-grasse, “and in the -west parts, as about _Exeter_, Organs.” It is still called organs in the -“West parts,” and organ-tea used to be a favourite drink to take out to -the harvesters. In Italy pennyroyal is a protection against the Evil -Eye, and in Sicily, they tie it to the branches of the fig-tree, -thinking that this will prevent the figs falling before they are ripe. -It is there also offered to husbands and wives who are in the habit of -“falling out” with each other. “The Ancients said that it causeth Sheepe -and Goates to bleate when they are eating of it.” To produce all those -wonderful effects, it must have a great deal of magic about it. Gerarde -says it grows “in the Common neare London, called Miles End, about the -holes and ponds thereof in sundry places, from whence poore women bring -plentie to sell in London markets.” Would that it could be found at -“Miles End” now! He gives in passing a sidelight on the comfort in -travelling, in the good old days: “If you have when you are at the sea -Penny Royal in great quantitie, drie and cast it into corrupt water, it -helpeth it much, neither will it hurt them that drinke thereof.” This -inevitable state of things, in making a voyage, is faced with -philosophic calm. “A Garland of Pennie Royal made and worne on the head -is good against headache and giddiness.” - - [47] Cat-mint. - - -PURSLANE (_Portulaca_). - - The worts, the purslane and the mess - Of water-cress. - - _Thanksgiving._--HERRICK. - -De la Quintinye thought Purslane “one of the prettiest _plants_ in a -_kitchen-garden_, the _red_ or _golden_ being the most agreeable to the -eye and the more delicate and difficult to raise than the green. The -thick stalks of Purslain that is to run to seed, are good to pickle in -Salt and Vinegar for Winter Sallads.” I do not agree with him; the -leaves are pretty enough, but thick, fleshy, and of no special charm. -The graceful Coriander or the lace-like leaves of Sweet Cicely are far -more to be admired. But even Purslane, which looks quite prosaic, was -mixed up with magic long ago, for strewn about a bed, it used[48] “in -olden times to be considered a protection against evil spirits.” Among a -vast number of diseases, for all of which it is highly recommended, -“blastings by lightening, or planets, and for burning of gunpowder” are -named and Turner says, “It helpeth the teeth when they are an edged,” so -it had many uses! - -Evelyn finds that “familiarly eaten alone with Oyl and Vinegar,” -moderation should be used, but remarks that it is eminently moist and -cooling “especially the golden,” and is “generally entertained in all -our sallets. Some eate of it cold, after it has been boiled, which Dr -Muffit would have in wine for nourishment.” Not a tempting dish, by the -sound of it! The Purslanes are found from the Cape of Good Hope and -South America to the “frozen regions of the North.” The root of one -variety _Leuisia redeviva_, called Tobacco root (because it has the -smell of tobacco when cooked), has great nutritive qualities. It is a -native of North America, and is boiled and eaten by the Indians, and on -long journeys it is of special use, “two or three ounces a day being -quite sufficient for a man, even while undergoing great fatigue.” -(Hogg.) - - [48] Folkard. - - -RAM-CICHES (_Cicer Arietinum_). - -Ram-ciches, Ramshead, or Chick Pea, gains the two first names from the -curious shape of the seed pods which are “puffed up as it were with -winde in which do lie two, or at the most three seeds, small towards the -end, with one sharp corner, not much unlike to a Ram’s head.” Turner -says that the plant is very ill for newe fallowed ground and that “it -killeth all herbes and most and sounest of all other ground thistel,” -which seems a loss one could survive. According to Parkinson the seeds -are “boyled and stewed as the most dainty kind of Pease there are, by -the Spaniards,” and he adds that in his own opinion, “they are of a very -good relish and doe nourish much.” They are still eaten and appreciated -by the country people in the south of France and Spain. Like Borage, -Ram-ciches is particularly interesting to students of chemistry; for it -is said that “in very hot weather the leaves sparkle with very small -tears of a viscous and very limpid liquid, extremely acid, and which has -been discovered to be oxalic acid in its pure state.”[49] - - [49] Hogg. - - -RAMPION (_Campanula Rapunculus_). - - The Citrons, which our soil not easily doth afford, - The Rampions rare as that. - - _Polyolbion Song_, xv. - -De Gubernatis tells a most curious story from Calabria almost exactly -that of Cupid and Psyche, but it begins by saying that the maiden, -wandering alone in the fields, uprooted a rampion, and so discovered a -stair-case leading to a palace in the depths of the earth. - -One of Grimm’s fairy tales is called after the heroine, _Rapunzel_ -(Rampion), for she was given this plant’s name, and the whole plot hangs -on Rampions being stolen from a magician’s garden. There is an Italian -tradition that the possession of a rampion (as that of strawberries, -cherries, or red shoes), would excite quarrels among children, which -would sometimes go as far as “murder.” Even in a land of quick passions -and southern blood, it can hardly be thought that this tradition had -much ground to spring from, and I have not heard of it as existing -further north. Parkinson says that the roots may be eaten as salad or -“boyled and stewed with butter and oyle, and some blacke or long pepper -cast on them.” The distilled water of the whole plant is excellent for -the complexion, and “maketh the face very splendent.” Evelyn thought -Rampions “much more nourishing” than Radishes, and they are said to have -a “pleasant, nutty flavour”; in the winter the leaves as well as the -roots make a nice salad. Even if it is not grown for use, it might well, -with its graceful spires of purple bells, be put for ornament in -shrubberies. Parkinson has said of Honesty, that “some eate the young -rootes before they runne up to flower, as Rampions are eaten with -vinegar and oyle”; but Evelyn warns us _apropos_ of this very plant -(with others) how cautiously the advice of the Ancient Authors should be -taken by the sallet gatherer (Parkinson was probably quoting from the -“Ancients” when he said this); “for however it may have been in their -countries, in England _Radix Lunaria_ is accounted among the deadly -poisons!” One cannot help wondering if Parkinson or Gerarde ever knew -those hardy individuals they allude to as “some,” and who tried the -experiment! - - -ROCAMBOLE (_Allium Scorodoprasum_). - -Rocambole is a kind of garlic, but milder in flavour, and it is a native -of Denmark. De la Quintinye seems to confuse it with Shallots (_Allium -ascalonium_), as he writes of “Shallots or Rocamboles, otherwise Spanish -Garlick.” Evelyn, speaking of Garlic as impossible--one cannot help -feeling with a smothered wistfulness--says: “To be sure, ’tis not fit -for Ladies’ Palates, nor those who court them, farther than to permit a -light touch in the Dish, with a _Clove_ thereof, much better supplied by -the gentler _Rocambole_.” - - -ROCKET (_Eruca sativa_). - -Various plants claim the name of Rocket, but it was _Eruca sativa_ that -was used as a salad herb. Parkinson explains the Italian name _Ruchetta_ -and _Rucola Gentile_ thus: “This Rocket Gentle, so-called from the -_Italians_, who by that title of Gentle understand anything that maketh -one quicke and ready to jest, to play.” It is certainly not specially -gentle in the ordinary sense of the words, for it has leaves “like those -of Turneps, but not neere so great nor rough”; and if eaten alone, “it -causeth head-ache and heateth too much.” It is, however, good in Salads -of Lettuce, Purslane, “and such cold herbes,” and Turner observes that -“some use the sede for sauce, the whiche that it may last the longer, -they knede it with milke or vinegre, and make it into little cakes.” It -has a strong peculiar smell, and is no longer used in England; though -Loudon says that in some places on the Continent it makes “an agreeable -addition to cresses and mustard in early spring.” Culpepper found that -the common wild Rocket was hurtful used alone, as it has too much heat, -but to “hot and choleric persons it is less harmful” (one would have -imagined that it would have been the other way) and “for such we may -say, a little doth but a little harm, for angry Mars rules them, and he -sometimes will be rusty when he meets with fools.” This is altogether a -dark saying, but it gives little encouragement to those who would make -trial of Rocket. - - -LONDON ROCKET (_Sisymbrium Irio_). - -This plant gained its name in a singular way. It is said to have first -appeared in London in the spring following the Great Fire, “when young -Rockets were seen everywhere springing up among the ruins, where they -increased so marvellously that in the summer the enormous crop crowding -over the surface of London created the greatest astonishment and -wonder.”[50] - - [50] Folkard. - - -SAFFRON (_Crocus sativus_). - - Nor Cyprus wild vine-flowers, nor that of Rhodes, - Nor Roses oil from Naples, Capua, - Saffron confected in Cilicia. - Nor that of Quinces, nor of Marjoram, - That ever from the Isle of Coös came, - Nor these, nor any else, though ne’er so rare - Could with this place for sweetest smells compare. - - _Br. Pastorals_, Book I. - - _Clown._ I must have Saffron to colour the Warden pies. - - _Winter’s Tale_, iv. 2. - - You set Saffron and there came up Wolf’s bane. (Saying to express an - action which has an unexpected result.) - -Saffron has been of great importance since the earliest days, and it is -mentioned in a beautiful passage of the Song of Solomon. “Thy plants are -an orchard of Pomegranates, with pleasant fruits, Camphire with -Spikenard, Spikenard and Saffron, Calamus and Cinnamon, with all trees -of Frankincense, Myrrh and Aloes, with all the chief spices,” iv. 13, -14. - -Canon Ellacombe says that the Arabic name, _Al Zahafaran_ was the -general name for all _Croci_, and extended to the _Colchicums_, which -were called Meadow Saffrons. It is pointed out by Mr Friend that, -further, the flower has given its name to a colour, and had given it in -the days of Homer, and he remarks how much more exactly the expression -“Saffron-robed” morning describes the particular tints seen sometimes -before sunrise (or at sunset) than any other words can do. Saffron -Walden in Essex, whose arms are given on page 101, and Saffron Hill in -London (which once formed part of the Bishop of Ely’s garden), are also -obviously named after it, and as is seen in the former case it has given -arms to a borough. As to its introduction into England Hakluyt writes -(1582): “It is reported at Saffron Walden that a pilgrim proposing to do -good to his country, stole a head of Saffron, and hid the same in his -Palmer’s Staffe, which he had made hollow before of purpose, and so he -brought the root into this realme with venture of his life, for if he -had been taken, by the law of the countrey from whence it came, he had -died for the fact” (“English Voyages,” vol. ii.). Canon Ellacombe thinks -that it was probably originally brought here in the days of the Romans, -and found “in a Pictorial Vocabulary of the fourteenth century, ‘Hic -Crocus, An^{ee} Safryn,’ so that I think the plant must have been in -cultivation in England at that time.” In the work of “Mayster Ion -Gardener,” written about 1440, one of the eight parts into which it is -divided is wholly devoted to a discourse, “Of the Kynde of Saferowne,” -which shows that Saffron must have been a good deal considered in his -day. The Charity Commission of 1481 mentions two Saffron-gardens; and in -the churchwarden’s accounts at Saffron Walden, in the second year of -Richard III.’s reign, there is an entry, “Payd to John Rede for pyking -of V unc Saffroni, xii.” The town accounts of Cambridge show that in -1531 Saffron was grown there; and at Barnwell in the next parish the -prior of Barnwell had ten acres. - -Some old wills, too, throw some light on the subject. In the will of -Alyce Sheyne of Sawstone, in 1527, “a rood of Saffron” is left to her -son. In 1530 (1533?) John Rede, also of Sawstone, leaves his godson a -“rood of Saffron in Church Field,” and William Hockison of Sawstone, -bequeathed in 1531, “to Joan, my wife, a rood of Saffron, and to my -maid, Marger, and my son, John, half an acre.” As may be easily inferred -from these legacies, Saffron was very largely grown at Sawstone, and the -two adjoining parishes, as well as at Saffron Walden. The first man to -introduce it into Saffron Walden to be cultivated on a really large -scale was Thomas Smith, Secretary of State to Edward VI., and in 1565, -it was grown in abundance. In 1557 Turner speaks of Saffron-growing, as -if this was very general, but it must be remembered that he started life -in Essex, farmed successively in Suffolk and Norfolk, and returned to -his native county to a farm at Fairstead, and having never moved very -far from the special home of the industry, he naturally took as an -ordinary proceeding, what would have been very unusual in other parts of -the country. It can never have been very widely cultivated; for Turner, -whose “Herbal” gives an immense deal of information, and who wrote when -the industry was in full swing, omits all mention of Saffron, though he -speaks of, and evidently knew Meadow Saffron. - -This is a strong sign that cultivation must have been confined to -certain localities, chiefly in the eastern counties, though in the west -it was grown at Hereford and surrounding districts to a very -considerable extent. I do not mean to imply that none was grown in -neighbouring counties, but the evidence is not easy to get, and I have -not gone deeply enough into the subject to find it, but the Saffron of -Hereford was famed. - -At Black Marston in Herefordshire, in 1506 and again in 1528, leave was -granted by the Prioress of Acornbury, to persons to cultivate Saffron -extensively. - -In 1582, in spite of a continued demand for it, the cultivation of -Saffron seems to have decreased, for Hakluyt writes in his “Remembrances -for Master S.” [what to observe in a journey he is about to undertake]. -“Saffron groweth in Syria.... But if a vent might be found, men would in -Essex (about Saffron Walden) and in Cambridgeshire, revive the trade for -the benefit of setting the poore on worke. So would they do in -Herefordshire by Wales, where the best of all Englande is, in which -place the soil yields the wilde “Saffron” commonly.” The soil there -still yields the wilde Saffron so commonly that at the present moment it -is regarded with disfavour, as being quite a drawback to some pasture -lands, but it is no longer grown there for commercial purposes. Neither -Gerarde (1596) nor Parkinson (1640) mention Saffron-growing as an -industry, but in 1681 “I. W.” gives directions for cultivating and -drying it. “English Saffron,” he says, “is esteemed the best in the -world; it’s a plant very suitable to our climate and soil.” At Saffron -Walden it continued to be grown for commerce for over two hundred years, -but has now been uncultivated in that locality for more than a century. -In Cambridgeshire, however, it flourished to a later date, and the last -Saffron grower in England was a man named Knot, who lived at Duxford in -Cambridgeshire, and who grew Saffron till the year 1816. - -This is Turner’s advice for cultivating it. - - When harvest is gone, - Then Saffron comes on. - A little of ground, - Brings Saffron a pound. - - The pleasure is fine, - The profit is thine. - Keep colour in drying, - Well used, worth buying. - -And also:-- - - Pare Suffron between the two St Mary’s days[51] - Or set or go shift it, that knoweth the ways... - In having but forty foot, workmanly dight - Take Saffron enough for a lord or a knight. - - _August’s Husbandry._ - -From old records it seems to have been grown in small patches of less -than an acre, and to have been a most profitable crop. “I. W.,” in his -directions says, for drying it, “a small kiln made of clay, and with a -very little Fire, and that with careful attendance,” is required. “Three -Pounds thereof moist usually making one of dry. One acre may bear from -seven to fifteen Pound, and hath been sold from 20s. a Pound to £5 a -Pound.” The last price sounds as if it existed only in his imagination, -and one cannot really think that it was given often! But on one -occasion, Timbs says, an even higher sum was reached, for when Queen -Elizabeth paid a visit to Saffron Walden, the Corporation paid five -guineas for one pound of Saffron to present to her. Though this was -exceptional, the usual prices for it were very high; and to show this, -and also the enormous amount that was used in cooking, Miss Amherst -quotes from some old accounts of the Monastery of Durham: “In 1531, half -a pound of ‘Crocus’ or Saffron was bought in July, the same quantity in -August and in November, a quarter of a pound in September, and a pound -and a half in October.” So much for the quantity; as to the price, a -merchant of Cambridgeshire charged them in 1539-1540 for 6½ lbs. Crocus, -£7, 8s. - -Saffron used to be much employed to colour and to flavour pies and -cakes, and it was this reason that Perdita sent the “Clown” to fetch -some, when she was making “Warden” (Pear) pies for the sheep-shearing. -Saffron cakes still prevail in Cornwall, and come over the border into -the next county, and a chemist, in Somerset, said quite lately, that -thirty years since, he used to sell quantities of Saffron at -Easter-time, but that much less is asked for now. It seems to have been -specially used in the materials for feasting at this season. Evelyn -tells us that the Germans made it into “little balls with honey, which -afterwards they dry and reduce to powder, and then sprinkle over salads” -for a “noble cordial.” For medicinal purposes Saffron is imported, for -in spite of “I. W.’s” praise, that grown in England is far from -equalling that of Greece and Asia Minor, though in any case it is only -now used as a colouring matter. The saying which survives, “So dear as -Saffron,” to express anything of worth, is a proof of how great its -value once was; and it is true that the plant was credited with powers -nothing short of miraculous. Perhaps Fuller tells us the most startling -news: “In a word, the Sovereign Power of genuine _Saffron_ is plainly -proved by the Antipathy of the _Crocodiles_ thereunto. For the -_Crocodile’s tears_ are never _true_ save when he is forced where -_Saffron_ groweth (whence he hath his name of γξοκό-ςτπλθ or the -Saffron-fearer) knowing himselfe to be all Poison, and it all -_Antidote_.” - -After this, Gerarde’s assertion that for those whom consumption has -brought “at death’s doore, and almost past breathing, that it bringeth -breath againe,” sounds moderate. On the doctrine of Signatures, Saffron -was prescribed for jaundice and measles, and it is also recommended to -be put into the drinking water of canaries when they are moulting. Irish -women are said to dye their sheets with Saffron, that it may give -strength to their limbs. Saffron has long been much esteemed as a dye, -and Ben Jonson tells us of this use for it in his days in lines that -literally rollick:-- - - Give us bacon, rinds of walnuts, - Shells of cockles and of small nuts, - Ribands, bells, and saffron’d linen, - All the world is ours to win in. - - _The Gipsies Metamorphosed._ - -Gerarde says: “The chives (stamens) steeped in water serve to illumine -or (as we say) limme pictures and imagerie,” and Canon Ellacombe quotes -from an eleventh century work, showing that it was employed for the same -purpose then. “If ye wish to decorate your work in some manner, take -tin, pure and finely scraped, melt it and wash it like gold, and apply -it with the same glue upon letters or other places which you wish to -ornament with gold or silver; and when you have polished it with a -tooth, take Saffron with which Silk is coloured, moistening it with -clear of egg without water; and when it has stood a night, on the -following day, cover with a pencil the places which you wish to gild, -the rest holding the place of silver.”--_Theophilus_, HENDRIE’S -Translation. - -Meadow-Saffron, or _Colchicum_, yields a drug still much prescribed, of -which Turner uttered a caution in 1568. He says it is a drug to -“isschew.” He warns those “syke in the goute” (for whom it was, and is, -a standard remedy) that much of it is “sterke poyson, and will strongell -a man and kill him in the space of one day.” Drugs must, indeed, have -been administered in heroic measures at that time--if he really ever -heard of such a case at first hand. It is from the corm, or bulb, of the -plant that _Colchicum_ is extracted. - - [51] July 22nd and August 15th. - -[Illustration: TITLE-PAGE OF GERARD’S “HERBAL”] - - -SAMPHIRE (_Crithium maritimum_). - - _Edgar._ Half way down - Hangs one that gathers Samphire, dreadful trade! - Methinks he seems no bigger than his head. - - _King Lear_, iv. 6. - -Samphire is St Peter’s Herb, and gains the distinction either because -it grows on sea-cliffs, and so is appropriate to the patron of -fishermen, or more probably, because it flourishes on rocks, and its -roots strike deep into the crevices. The French call it _Herbe de St -Pierre_ and _Pierce-Pierre_, from its peculiar way of growing; and the -Italians have the same name, but call it _Finocchio marino_ as well; and -this title, translated to Meer-finckell, was also the German and Dutch -name, according to Parkinson. It is strongly aromatic, “being of smell -delightfule and pleasant, and hath many fat and thicke leaves, somewhat -like those of the lesser Purslane... of a spicie taste, with a certaine -saltness.” Gerarde praises it pickled in salads. Edgar’s words show that -it must have been popular in Elizabethan days, and so it was for more -than a hundred years after as “the pleasantest Sauce”; and Evelyn -considered it preferable to “most of our hotter herbs,” and “long -wonder’d it has not long since been cultivated in the _Potagère_ as it -is in France. It groweth on the rocks that are often moistened, at the -least, if not overflowed with the sea water,” a verdict which tallies -with the saying that Samphire grows out of reach of the waves, but -within reach of the spray of every tide. I have found it growing in much -that position on rocks on the seashore in Cornwall. Two other kinds of -Samphire, Golden Samphire (_Inula Crithmifolia_) and Marsh Samphire -(_Salicornia Herbacea_), are sometimes sold as the true Samphire, but -neither of them have so good a flavour. - - -SKIRRETS (_Sium Sisarum_). - - The Skirret and the leek’s aspiring kind, - The noxious poppy-quencher of the mind. - - _The Salad._--COWPER. - -“This is that siser or skirret which _Tiberius_ the Emperour commanded -to be conveied unto him from Gelduba, a castle about the river of -Rhine,” and which delighted him so much “that he desired the same to be -brought unto him everye yeare out of Germanie.” Evelyn found them “hot -and moist... exceedingly wholesome, nourishing and delicate... and so -valued by the Emperor Tiberius that he accepted them for tribute”--a -point that Gerarde’s statement hardly brought out. “This excellent root -is seldom eaten raw, but being boil’d, stew’d, roasted under the Embers, -bak’d in Pies whole, slic’d or in Pulp, is very acceptable to all -Palates. ’Tis reported they were heretofore something bitter, see what -culture and education effects.” On the top of these congratulations, -perhaps it is unkind to say the reported bitterness has a very mythical -sound, for long before Evelyn’s time, the Dutch name for skirret was -Suycker wortelen (sugar root), and that Marcgrave has extracted “fine -white sugar, little inferior to that of the cane” from it. But from -Turner’s account there seems to have been formerly some confusion as to -the identity of the plant, and one claimant to the title was somewhat -bitter, so perhaps this was the cause of the remarks in _Acetaria_. In -Scotland, Skirrets were called Crummock. Though few people seem to have -appreciated them so much as did our ancestors, they were till lately -sometimes boiled and sent to the table, but are now hardly ever seen. - - -SMALLAGE (_Apium graveolens_). - -Smallage is merely wild celery, and all that is interesting about it is -Parkinson’s description of his first making acquaintance with sweet -smallage--our celery, which has been already quoted. He merely says of -ordinary smallage that it is “somewhat like Parsley, but greater, -greener and more bitter.” It grows wild in moist grounds, but is also -planted in gardens, and although “his evil taste and savour, doth cause -it not to be accepted unto meats as Parsley,” yet it has “many good -properties both for inward and outward diseases.” - - -STONECROP (_Sedum_). - -Stone-crop, Stone-hot, Prick-Madam or Trick-Madam is a _Sedum_, but -which _Sedum_ the old Herbalists called by these names is not absolutely -clear, it was probably _Sedum Telephium_ or _Sedum Album_. Evelyn speaks -of “Tripe-Madam, _Vermicularis Insipida_,” which seems to point to the -latter, as that used to be called Worm-grass. He says Tripe-madam is -“cooling and moist,” but there is another Stone-crop of as pernicious -qualities as the former are laudable, Wall-pepper, _Sedum Minus -Causticum_ (most likely our _Sedum Acre_). This is called by the French, -Tricque-Madame, and he cautions the “Sallet-Composer, if he be not -botanist sufficiently skilful” to distinguish them by the eye, to -“consult his palate,” and taste them before adding them to the other -ingredients. - - -SWEET CICELY (_Myrrhis odorata_). - -Sweet Cicely or Sweet Chervil was apparently less of a favourite than -its romantic name would seem to warrant, for I can find no traditions -concerning it. “Chervil” (of which this is a variety) says Gerarde, “is -thought to be so called because it delighteth to grow with many leaves, -or rather that it causeth joy and gladness.” There does not seem much -connection between these two interpretations. He continues that “the -name _Myrrhus_ is also called Myrrha, taken from his pleasant flavour of -Myrrh.” Sweet Cicely has a very pleasant flavour, with this peculiarity, -that the leaves taste exactly as if sugar had just been powdered over -them, but personally I have never been able to recognise myrrh in it. -It is a pretty plant, with “divers great and fair spread wing leaves, -very like and resembling the leaves of Hemlocke... but of sweet pleasant -and spice-hot taste. Put among herbes in a sallet it addeth a marvellous -good rellish to all the rest. Some commend the green seeds sliced and -put in a sallet of herbes. The rootes are eyther boyled and eaten with -oyle and vinegare or preserved or candid.” Sweet Cicely is very -attractive to bees, and was often “rubbed over the insides of the hives -before placing them before newly-cast swarms to induce them to enter,” -and in the North of England Hogg says the seeds are used to polish and -scent oak floors and furniture. - - -TANSY (_Tanacetum vulgare_). - - _Lelipa_--Then burnet shall bear up with this - Whose leaf I greatly fancy, - Some camomile doth not amiss - With savory and some tansy. - - _Muses’ Elysium._ - - The hot muscado oil, with milder maudlin cast - Strong tansey, fennel cool, they prodigally waste. - - _Polyolbion_, Song xv. - -The name Tansy comes from _Athanasia_, Immortality, because its flower -lasts so long, and it is dedicated to St Athanasius. It is connected -with various interesting old customs, and especially with some observed -at Easter time. Brand quotes several old rhymes in reference to this. - - Soone at Easter cometh Alleluya. - With butter, cheese and a tansay. - - From _Douce’s Collection of Carols_. - - On Easter Sunday be the pudding seen - To which the Tansey lends her sober green. - - _The Oxford Sausage._ - - Wherever any grassy turf is view’d, - It seems a tansie all with sugar strew’d. - - From _Shipman’s Poems_. - -The last lines occur in a description of the frost in 1654. None of -these quotations refer to the plant alone; but to that kind of cake or -fritter called taansie, and of which Tansy leaves formed an ingredient. -Tansy must be “eaten young, shred small with other herbes, or else, the -juiyce of it and other herbes, fit for the purpose beaten with egges and -fried into cakes (in Lent and in the Spring of the year) which are -usually called Tansies.” Though Parkinson speaks of their being eaten in -Lent (as they no doubt were), the special day that they were in demand -was Easter Day, and of this practice Culpepper has a good deal to say. -Tansies were then eaten as a remembrance of the bitter herbs eaten by -the Jews at the Passover. “Our Tansies at Easter have reference to the -bitter herbs, though at the same time ’twas always the fashion for a man -to have a gammon of bacon, to show himself to be no Jew.” This little -glimpse of an old practice comes from Selden’s _Table Talk_ and the idea -of taking this means to declare one’s self a Christian is really -delightful. I must quote again from Brand to show another very -extraordinary Easter Day custom. “Belithus, a ritualist of ancient -times, tells us that it was customary in some churches for the Bishops -and Archbishops themselves to play with the inferior clergy at -hand-ball, and this, as Durand asserts, even on Easter Day itself. Why -they should play at hand-ball at this time rather than any other game, -Bourne tells us he has not been able to discover; certain it is, -however, that the present custom of playing at that game on Easter -Holidays for a tansy-cake has been derived from thence.” Stool-ball was -apparently a most popular amusement and Lewis in his _English -Presbyterian Eloquence_ criticises the tenets of the Puritans, and -observes with disapproval that all games where there is “any hazard of -loss are strictly forbidden; not so much as a game of stool-ball for a -tansy is allowed.” From a collection of poems called “A Pleasant Grove -of New Fancies,” 1657, Brand extracts the following verses:-- - - At stool-ball, Lucia, let us play - For sugar, cakes and wine - Or for a tansey let us pay, - The loss be thine or mine. - - If thou, my dear, a winner be, - At trundling of the ball, - The wager thou shalt have and me, - And my misfortunes all. - -Let us hope that the stake was handsomer than it sounds! Brand quotes -another very curious practice in which Tansies have a share, once -existing in the North. On Easter Sunday, the young men of the village -would steal the buckles off the maidens’ shoes. On Easter Monday, the -young men’s shoes and buckles were taken off by the young women. On -Wednesday, they are redeemed by little pecuniary forfeits, out of which -an entertainment, called a Tansey Cake, is made, with dancing. One -cannot help wondering how this cheerful, if somewhat peculiar custom -originated! In course of time Tansies came to be eaten only about -Easter-time and the practice seems to have acquired at one period the -lustre almost of a religious rite in which superstition had a -considerable share. Coles (1656) and Culpepper (1652) rebel against this -and show with force and clearness the advantages of eating Tansies -throughout the spring. Coles ignores the ceremonial reasons and says -that the origin of eating it in the spring is because Tansy is very -wholesome after the salt fish consumed during Lent, and counteracts the -ill-effects which “the moist and cold constitution of winter” has made -on people... “though many understand it not and some simple people take -it for a matter of superstition to do so.” This shows plainly that the -idea of eating Tansies only at Easter, was pretty widely spread. -Culpepper as usual is more incisive. He first gives the same reason -that Coles does for eating Tansies in the spring; then: “At last the -world being over-run with Popery, a monster called superstition pecks up -his head, and... obscures the bright beams of knowledge by his dismal -looks; (physicians seeing the Pope and his imps, selfish, began to do so -too), and now, forsooth, Tansies must be eaten only on Palm and Easter -Sundays and their neighbour days. At last superstition being too hot to -hold, and the selfishness of physicians walking in the clouds; after the -friars and monks had made the people ignorant, the superstition of the -time, was found out by the virtue of the herb hidden and now is almost, -if not altogether left off. Scarcely any physicians are beholden to none -so much as they are to monks and friars; for wanting of eating this herb -in spring, maketh people sickly in summer, and that makes work for the -physician. If it be against any man or woman’s conscience to eat Tansey -in the spring, I am as unwilling to burthen their conscience, as I am -that they should burthen mine; they may boil it in wine and drink the -decoction, it will work the same effect.” “The Pope and his imps” is a -grand phrase! A more militant Protestant than Culpepper it would be -difficult to find, even in these days. - -From other writers, it seems that the phase of associating Tansies -exclusively with Easter, must have worn itself out, for we find many -descriptions of them on distinctly secular occasions. At the Coronation -Feast of James II. and his Queen, a Tansie was served among the 1445 -“Dishes of delicious Viands” provided for it, and I must quote some of -the others:--“Stag’s tongues, cold; Andolioes; Cyprus Birds, cold and -Asparagus; a pudding, hot; Salamagundy; 4 Fawns; 10 Oyster pyes, hot; -Artichokes; an Oglio, hot; Bacon, Gammon and Spinnage; 12 Stump Pyes; 8 -Godwits; Morels; 24 Puffins; 4 dozen Almond Puddings, hot; Botargo; -Skirrets; Cabbage Pudding; Lemon Sallet; Taffeta Tarts; Razar Fish; and -Broom Buds, cold.”[52] These are only a very few out of an immense -variety that are also named. - -Many recipes for a “Tansy” exist, and very often have only the slightest -resemblance to one another, but this is rather a nice one and is -declared by its transcriber to be “the most agreeable of all the boiled -Herbaceous Dishes.” It consists of: “Tansey, being qualify’d with the -juices of other fresh Herbs; _Spinach_, _green Corn_, _Violet_, -_Primrose Leaves_, etc., at entrance of the spring, and then fry’d -brownish, is eaten hot, with the Juice of Orange and Sugar.” Isaac -Walton speaks of a “Minnow Tansy,” which is made of Minnows “fried with -yolks of eggs; the flowers of cowslips and of primroses and a little -tansy; thus used they make a dainty dish of meat.” Our ancestors seem to -have had a great love of “batter,” for it is a prominent part in very -many of their dishes. Mrs Milne Home says, “In Virginia the Negroes make -Tansy-tea for colds and at a pinch, Mas’r’s cook will condescend to use -it in a sauce,” but in English cookery, it has absolutely disappeared. - -Tansy had many medicinal virtues. Sussex people used to say that to wear -Tansy-leaves in the shoe, was a charm against ague. - -Wild Tansy looks handsome when it grows in abundance on marshy ground; -and, indeed, its feathery leaves are beautiful anywhere, and it has a -more refreshing scent than the Garden-Tansy. “In some parts of Italy -people present stalks of Wild Tansy to those whom they mean to -insult,”[53] a proceeding for which there seems neither rhyme nor -reason. Turner tells tales of the vanity of his contemporaries, -masculine as well as feminine, for he says: - -“Our weomen in Englande and some men that be sunneburnt and would be -fayre, eyther stepe this herbe in white wyne and wash their faces with -the wyne or ellis with the distilled water of the same.” - - [52] Complete Account of the Coronations of the Kings and Queens of - England, J. Roberts. - - [53] Folkard. - - -THISTLE (_Carduus Marianus and Carduus Benedictus_). - - _Margaret._ Get you some of this distilled Carduus Benedictus, and lay - it to your heart, it is the only thing for a qualm. - - _Hero._ There thou prick’st her with a thistle. - - _Beatrice._ Benedictus! why Benedictus? you have some moral in this - Benedictus. - - _Margaret._ Moral! no, by my troth, I have no moral meaning; I meant - plain holy thistle. - - _Much Ado about Nothing_, iii, 4. - - That thence, as from a garden without dressing - She these should ever have, and never want. - Store from an orchard without tree or plant... - And for the chiefest cherisher she lent - The royal thistle’s milky nourishment. - - _Br. Pastorals_, Book i. - -The history, legends, and traditions surrounding Thistles in general, -make far too large a subject to be entered on here, and only these two -varieties can be considered. _Carduus Marianus_, the Milk or Dappled -Thistle, has sometimes been called the Scotch Thistle, and announced to -be the Thistle of Scotland. As a matter of fact, I believe, that after -long and stormy controversy, that honour has been awarded to _Carduus -Acanthioides_, but the Milk Thistle’s claims have received very strong -support, and so it seems most probable, considering the context, that -when Browne referred to the “Royal Thistle,” it was this one that he -meant. This supposition is borne out by Hogg, who writes: “As Ray says, -it is more a garden vegetable than a medicinal plant. The young and -tender stalks of the root leaves when stripped of their spiny part, are -eaten like cardoon, or when boiled, are used as greens. The young -stalks, peeled and soaked in water to extract their bitterness, are -excellent as a salad. The scales of the involucre are as good as those -of the artichoke, and the roots in early spring are good to eat.” The -seeds supply food to many small birds, and it is from the gold-finch -feeding so extensively on them that it has been called _Carduelis_. This -partiality of the gold-finch must have been observed in several lands, -for the same name occurs in different tongues. In England, it has been -called Thistlefinch; in French, _Chardonneret_, and in Italian, -_Cardeletto_, _Cardeto_ being a waste covered with thistles. One cannot -help remembering the charming line:-- - - “As the thistle shakes, - When three gray linnets wrangle for the seed,” - -with the reflection that other birds besides gold-finches have a deep -appreciation of it. - -But to go back to the Thistle itself, after all these uses made of every -part, no wonder that Browne called it a “chiefest cherisher of vital -power!” Although, latterly, its reputation in medicine has fallen, in -old days, on account of its numerous prickles (Doctrine of Signatures), -it was thought good for stitches in the side. Culpepper has further -advice: “In spring, if you please to boil the tender plant (but cut off -the prickles, unless you have a mind to choke yourself), it will change -your blood as the season changeth, and that is the way to be safe.” - -_Carduus Benedictus_, called the Holy, or the Blessed Thistle, was -considered a great preservative against the plague, and that it was also -given for a sudden spasm is shown in the delightful scene between -Beatrice and her friends in “Much Ado About Nothing.” It follows the -_ruse_ that they have just played upon her, to persuade her that -Benedict is already in love with her, in the hope that she may become -enamoured of him, and the play upon the name is very charming. Culpepper -says that _Carduus Benedictus_ was good against “diseases of -melancholy,” which is additional evidence that Shakespeare did not go -out of his way to find an imaginary remedy that would suit that -occasion, but with exquisite skill took a remedy that would have been -natural in his time, and surrounded it with wit. Less than a hundred -years ago a decoction used to be made from its leaves, which are -remarkable for their “intense bitterness,” and it was said to be an -excellent tonic; but, like the Milk Thistle, the Holy Thistle’s virtues -in medicine are now discredited. The thistle was once dedicated to Thor, -and the bright colour of the flower was supposed to come from the -lightning, and therefore lightning could not hurt any person or building -protected by the flower. It was used a good deal in magic, and there is -an old rite to help a maiden to discover which, of several suitors, -really loves her best. She must take as many thistles as there are -lovers, cut off their points, give each thistle the name of a man, and -lay them under her pillow, and the thistle which has the name of the -most faithful lover will put forth a fresh sprout! In East Prussia, says -Mr Friend, there is a strange but simple cure for any domestic animal -which may have an open wound. It is to gather four red thistle blossoms -before the break of day, and to put one in each of the four points of -the compass with a stone in the middle of them. - -Here ends the list of Herbs, but before finishing the chapter I must add -a few names of buds and berries which, though not herbs, were often -employed as such, especially to garnish, or to flavour dishes. Evelyn -includes many of these in his _Acetaria_. “The Capreols, Tendrils and -Claspers of Vines,” very young, may be “eaten alone or mingled with -other sallet. So may the ‘buds and young Turiones of the Tendrils’ of -Hops, either raw, ‘but more conveniently being boil’d’ and cold, like -asparagus.” Elder Flowers, infused in vinegar, are recommended, and -“though the leaves are somewhat rank of smell, and so not commendable in -sallet... they are of the most sovereign virtue, and spring buds and -tender leaves excellent and wholesome in pottage at that season of the -year.” Evelyn experimented with “the large _Heliotrope_ or Sunflower -(e’er it comes to expand and show its golden face), which, being dress’d -as the artichoak, is eaten for a dainty. This I add as a new discovery: -I once made macaroons with ripe blanch’d seed, but the _Turpentine_ did -so domineer over all that it did not answer expectation.” This must have -been a disappointment to his adventurous spirit! Broom buds appeared on -three separate tables at King James II.’s Coronation feast, and seem to -have been popular, when pickled. - -Violets were also used, and Miss Amherst quotes from an old cookery book -the recipe of a pudding called “Mon amy,” which directs the cook to -“plant it with flowers of violets and serve it forth.” Another recipe is -for a dish called “Vyolette!” “Take flowrys of vyolet, boyle hem, presse -hem, bray (pound) hem smal.” After this they are to be mixed with milk, -‘floure of rys,’ and sugar or honey, and finally to be coloured with -violets. Pine-kernels were sometimes eaten. Shelley says of _Marenghi_: - - “His food was the wild fig or strawberry; - The milky pine-nuts which the autumn blast - Shakes into the tall grass.” - -And in England Parkinson writes, “The cones or apples are used of divers -Vintners in this city, being painted to express a bunch of grapes, -whereunto they are very like and are hung up on their bushes, as also to -fasten keyes unto them, as is seene in many places. The kernels with the -hard shels, while they are fresh, or newly taken out, are used by -Apothecaries, Comfitmakers, and Cookes. Of them are made Comfits, -Marchpanes and such like, and with them a cunning cook can make divers -kech-choses for his master’s table.” Barberries were used as a garnish -to salads and other dishes and sometimes as an ingredient. Evelyn -mentions them as an item in “Sallet All-sorts,” and Gervase Markham -describes the making of “Paste of Genoa,” a confection of Quince, and -adds, “In this sort you now make paste of Peares, Apples, Wardens, -Plummes of all kindes, Cherries, Barberries or whatever fruit you -please.” He adds this fruit to the ingredients required in making -aromatic vinegar, and also directs that a good quantity of whole -Barberries, both branches and others, be served with Pike “or any fresh -fish whatsoever.” Parkinson says, “The leaves are sometimes used in the -stead of Sorrell to make sauce for meate, and by reason of their -sournesse are of the same quality.” The “delicious _confitures d’épine -vinette_, for which Rouen is famous,” are prepared from them, says Dr -Fernie, and there is no doubt that they make an excellent jelly. -Formerly they were so much prized that, as Miss Amherst quotes from Le -Strange’s “Household Accounts,” in 1618, 3s. was paid for one pound of -them. - -Strawberry leaves were used as a garnish and for their flavour. -Parkinson tells us that they were “alwayes used among other herbes in -cooling drinks,” and Markham mentions both them and Violet leaves in his -directions to “Smoar a Mallard,” and “to make an excellent _Olepotrige_, -which is the only principall dish of boyled meate, which is esteemed in -all _Spaine_. “For dessert”: The berries are often brought to the table -as a rare service, whereunto Cleret wine, creame or milke is added with -sugar. The water distilled of the berries is good for the passions of -the heart, caused by the perturbation of the spirits being eyther drunk -alone or in wine, and maketh the heart mery.” Such a pleasant and easy -remedy against the evils arising from “perturbation of spirits” is worth -remembering! Gerarde and Parkinson both speak of the prickly strawberry; -a plant which is “of no use for meate” but which has “a small head of -greene leaves, many set thick together like unto a double ruffe, and is -fit for a gentlewoman to wear on her arme, etc. as a raritie instead of -a flower.” Gerarde has a curious little note on its discovery. “Mr John -Tradescant hath told me that he was the first that took notice of this -Strawberry and that in a woman’s garden at Plimouth, whose daughter had -gathered and set the roots in her garden, instead of the common -Strawberry, but she finding the fruit not answer her expectation, -intended to throw it away, which labour he spared her, in taking it and -bestowing it among the lovers of such vanities.” The custom of -transplanting wild strawberries was very general. - - Wife, unto thy garden and set me a plot, - With strawberry rootes of the best to be got. - Such growing abroade, among thorns in the wood, - Wel chosen and picked proove excellent food. - - _September’s Husbandry._--TUSSER. - -Miss Amherst says that in the Hampton Court Accounts there are “several -entries of money paid for strawberry roots, brought from the wood to the -King’s garden.” The fact that this is no longer the custom, may explain -the disappointment that some have experienced, who, in the hope of -enjoying “the most excellent cordial smell” described by Sir Francis -Bacon, have haunted their kitchen gardens when the strawberry leaves are -dying, and without reward. The strawberries grown there at present are -not, as in his day, natives, subjected to civilisation, but are chiefly -of American or Asiatic origin (the first foreign strawberry cultivated -in England was _Fragaria virginiana_, and was introduced from North -America in 1629; four years after the Essay on Gardens was first -published), and if their leaves have any fragrance, it must be of the -faintest possible description. Anyone, however, who passes through a -wood, towards evening, especially if it is a mild and slightly damp day -in October, may speedily realise how true and admirable was this counsel -given by the Great Lord Chancellor. - -[Illustration: THE ARMS OF SAFFRON WALDEN.] - - - - -CHAPTER III - -OF HERBS USED IN DECORATIONS, IN HERALDRY, AND FOR ORNAMENT AND PERFUMES - - Now will I weave white violets, daffodils, - With myrtle spray, - And lily bells that trembling laughter fills, - And the sweet crocus gay, - With these blue hyacinth and the lover’s rose, - That she may wear-- - My sun-maiden--each scented flower that blows - Upon her scented hair. - - Trans. from _Meleager_.--W. M. HARDINGE. - - -It is, perhaps, surprising in studying the history of common English -herbs to find how many were the uses to which they were put by our -forefathers. One reason of their eminence was that no doubt in -pre-hygienic days they were more to be desired, but, besides this, -something “delightful to smell to” seems to have been a luxury generally -appreciated for its own sake. In his poem of the “Baron’s Wars,” Michael -Drayton, by a casual reference, shows how much agreeable scents were -valued, and the pains taken to procure them. He is speaking of Queen -Isabella’s room. - - The fire of precious wood; the light perfume, - Which left a sweetness on each thing it shone, - As ev’rything did to itself assume - The scent from them, and made the same their own, - So that the painted flowers within the room - Were sweet, as if they naturally had grown. - The light gave colours which upon them fell, - And to the colours the perfume gave smell. - -And in describing the bewilderment of a “young, tender maid,” led -through the magnificent court of some prince, he says she was:-- - - Amazed to see - The furnitures and states, which all embroideries be, - The rich and sumptuous beds, with tester-covering plumes, - And various as the sutes, _so various the perfumes_. - -[Illustration: OLD LABORATORY AT MR. HOOPER’S, 24 RUSSELL STREET, COVENT -GARDEN - -THE LARGE STILL IN THE CORNER IS FOR DISTILLING ROSE AND AROMATIC WATERS - -THE SMALLER STILL IS FOR DISTILLING SPIRIT ESSENCES] - -In a discourse, intended to prove that the magic number five is -perpetually appearing in all forms of nature, and that network is an -equally ubiquitous design, Sir Thomas Browne mentions _en passant_, the -“nosegay nets” of the ancients--that is, nets holding flowers, that were -suspended from the head, to provide continuously a pleasant odour for -the wearer. It is very nice to find a survival of the belief that scents -affect the spirits and may be beneficial to the health, and in “Days and -Hours in a Garden,” E. V. B. declares herself to be of that opinion. -“Sweet Smells... have a certain virtue for different conditions of -health,” she says. “Wild Thyme will renew spirits and vital energy in -long walks under an August sun. The pure, almost pungent scent of Tea -Rose, Maréchal Neil is sometimes invigorating in any lowness of... Sweet -Briar promotes cheerfulness... Hawthorn is very doubtful and -Lime-blossom is dreamy.... Apple-blossom must be added to my -pharmacopœia of sweet smells. To inhale a cluster of Blenheim orange -gives back youth for just half a minute after... it is a real, absolute -elixir.” - -The sacristan’s garden, devoted to growing flowers and herbs for the -service of the church, has been already mentioned, and Henry VI. -actually left in his will a garden to be kept for this purpose to the -church of Eton College (Nichol’s “Wills of the Kings and Queens of -England”). After the Reformation the practice of laying fresh green -things about the churches was apparently not abandoned, for in 1618, -James I. set forth a declaration permitting “Lawfull recreations after -divine service, and allowed that women should have leave to carry rushes -to the church for the decoring of it according to old custome.”[54] -Rushes are still strewed on Whitsunday at the church of St Mary -Radcliffe, in Bristol, and the day is often called “Rush-Sunday” there -in consequence. - - [54] Fuller’s “Church History,” Book X. 1655. - -In the accounts of St Margaret’s, Westminster, there is a payment made -for “herbs strewn in the church on a day of thanksgiving” in 1650. Coles -(1656) says: “It is not very long since the custome of setting up -Garlands in Churches, hath been left off with us, and in some places -setting up of _Holly_, _Ivy_, _Rosemary_, _Dayes_, _Yew_, etc., in -Churches at Christmas, is still in use.”[55] Later, the custom seems -almost entirely to have dropped, and in an article in the _Quarterly_ -(1842), the writer is torn between pious aspirations and loyalty to the -church views of the day: “We cannot but admire the practice of the -Church of Rome, which calls in the aid of floral decorations on her -festivals. If we did not feel convinced that it was the most bounden -duty of the Church of England at the present moment to give no -unnecessary offence by restorations in indifferent matters, we should be -inclined to advocate, notwithstanding the denunciation of some of the -early Fathers, some slight exceptions in the case of our own -favourites.” - - [55] “Art of Simpling.” - -The decorations of English houses were much admired by Dr Levinus -Lemmius in 1560, when he visited us. “And beside this, the neate -cleanliness, the exquisite finenesse, the pleasaunt and delightfull -furniture in every poynt for household, wonderfully rejoiced me; their -chambers and parlours strawed over with sweet herbes refreshed me.”[56] -Further on, he praises “the sundry sortes of fragraunte floures” about -the rooms. Parkinson mentions wall-flowers and “the greater-flag” being -used “in nosegayes and to deck up a house,” and Newton says they took -branches of willow to trim up their parlours and dining roomes in -summer, and did “sticke fresh greene leaves thereof about their beds for -coolnesse.”[57] Sir Hugh Platt (1653) advised that “for summer-time your -chimney may be trimmed with a fine bank of mosse... or with orpin, or -the white flower called everlasting.... And at either end one of your -flower or Rosemary pots.... You may also hang in the roof and about the -sides of the room small pompions or cowcumbers pricked full of barley, -and these will be overgrowne with greene spires, so as the pompion or -cowcumber will not appear.... You may also plant vines without the -walls, which being let in at quarrels, may run about the sides of your -windows, and all over the sealing of your rooms.”[58] Herbs in image -were sometimes hung round the room. Harrison mentions “arras worke, or -painted cloths, wherein either diverse histories, or hearbes, beasts, -knots, and such like are stained.” Of flowers thought specially suitable -indoors Tusser (1577) gives a list: “Herbes, branches, and flowers for -windows and pots,” and Bachelor’s Buttons, Sweet Briar, and “bottles, -blue, red, and tawney” are among the forty he mentions. A separate list -is set forth of twenty-one “Strewing Herbs,” and this includes Basil, -Balm, Marjoram, Tansy, Germander, and Hyssop. The practice of strewing -the floors with herbs and rushes, however, started long before his time. -“At the Court of King Stephen, which exceeded in magnificence that of -his predecessors ... and in houses of inferior rank upon occasions of -feasting, the floor was strewed with flowers.... Becket, in the next -reign, according to a contemporary author (Fitz-Stephen) ordered his -hall to be strewed every day, in the winter with fresh straw or hay, and -in summer with rushes or green leaves, fresh gathered; and this reason -is given for it, that such knights as the benches could not contain, -might sit on the floor without dirtying their cloaths.”[59] The contrast -between the pomp of so large a following, and the simplicity of their -accommodation affords an odd picture of the mingled stateliness and -bareness in the great man’s household. - - [56] Harrison’s “Description of England.” Ed. by Furnivall, 1877. - - [57] “Herbal of the Bible,” 1587. - - [58] “The Garden of Eden.” - - [59] “Pegge’s _Curalia_.” - -In the reign of Edward I., “Willielmus filius Willielmi de Aylesbury -tenet tres virgatus terræ... per serjeantiam inveniendi stramen ad -lectum Domini Regis et ad straminandum cameram suam et etiam inveniendi -Domino Rege cum venerit apud Alesbury in estate stramen ad lectum suam -et procter hoc herbam ad juncandam cameram suam.”[60] (William, son of -William of Aylesbury, holds three roods of land... by serjeantry, of -finding straw for the bed of our Lord the King and to straw his -chamber... and also of finding for the King when he should come to -Aylesbury in summer straw for his bed, and, moreover, grass or rushes to -strew his chamber.) Though grass is the literal translation of _herbam_, -it is quite possible, judging from old customs generally, that hay or -sweet herbs, may be intended here. “It may be observed further that -there is a relique of this custom still subsisting, for at Coronations -the ground is strewed with flowers by a person who is upon the -establishment called the Herb-Strewer, with an annual salary.” From this -it appears that there were persons regularly appointed to strew herbs -for the royal pleasure, but for what length of time the Herb-Strewer was -an official actually living at Court, it is very difficult to discover. -At the time of the Coronation of James II. and his Queen, Mary Dowle was -“Strewer of Herbes in Ordinary to His Majesty,” and among the -instructions issued before the ceremony were the following: “Two -breadths of Blue Broad-cloth are spread all along the middle of the -Passage from the stone steps in the Hall, to the Foot of the Steps in -the Choir, ascending the Theatre, by order of the Lord Almoner of the -Day, amounting in all 1220 yards; which cloth is strewed with nine -Baskets full of sweet herbs and flowers by the Strewer of Herbs in -Ordinary to His Majesty, assisted by six women, two to a Basket, each -Basket containing two Bushels.” All the details of his Coronation were -most carefully considered and finally settled “in solemn conclave in the -presence of James II.,” says Roberts in his sketch of the _Approaching_ -Coronation of George II., and “little variation has taken place in the -Ceremony since.” From a manuscript belonging to Mr Eyston, of East -Hundred, Wantage, dated 1702, W. Jones (“Crowns and Coronations”) quotes -an: “Order for a gown of scarlet cloth, with a badge of Her Majesty’s -Cypher on it, for the Strewer of Herbs to Her Majesty, as was provided -at the last Coronation.” This looks as if she played her part in the -ceremony of crowning King William and Queen Mary, and was also present -at the crowning of Queen Anne, though Roberts, in his “Complete Account -of the Coronations of the Kings and Queens of England” does not mention -her. In the State Archives is a “Warrant to the Master of the Great -Wardrobe for delivering of scarlet cloth to Alice Blizard, herb strewer -to Her Majesty,” dated 30th November 1713, showing that whether at that -date she was continually at Court, or whether her services were confined -to the day of Coronation, she was at anyrate officially recognised in -the ordinary course of things, and not only when any very great ceremony -was imminent. I cannot be sure if the Herb Strewer appeared at the -Coronation of George I., but she certainly did at that of George II., -and in the full accounts of the Coronation of George IV., which was -celebrated with great magnificence, there are most elaborate -descriptions of her dress, badge, mantle, etc., and also portraits of -her in full attire. From among many applicants, the King chose Miss -Fellowes, sister of the Secretary to the Lord Great Chamberlain, for the -coveted distinction. “Miss Fellowes wore a gold badge suspended from her -neck by a gold chain, with an inscription indicative of her office on -one side, and the King’s arms beautifully chased on the other. Six young -ladies assisted her. Their costume was white, but Miss Fellowes wore, in -addition, a scarlet mantle trimmed with gold lace. They were very -elegantly dressed in “white muslin, with flowered ornaments. Three large -ornamented baskets of flowers were brought in and placed near the -ladies,”[61] who walked in the front of the Royal Procession. At ten -minutes before eleven Miss Fellowes, with her six tributary herb-women -heading the grand procession, appeared at the Western Gate of the -Abbey.... She and her maids and the serjeant porter came no further, but -remained at the entrance within the west door. In a beautiful series of -coloured plates depicting all the costumes worn at that Coronation, -there is one of Miss Fellowes and her “maids.” She has a small basket in -her left hand; from her right hand, raised high, she is letting a shower -of blossoms fall. Her hair is dressed in short ringlets. All the ladies -wore wreaths of flowers, and the “maids” have, as well, long garlands -falling over one shoulder and across their white dresses almost to the -hem. In a charming letter written by Hon. Maria Twistleton to her -cousin, Mrs Eardley Childers, there is one more detail of these ladies. -“Gold Baskets of Grecian shape, filled with choicest sweets were ranged -at their feet, and as they passed they presented a magnolia to us.”[62] -A claim to this office was put forward, before the last Coronation, but -alas! His Majesty decided to dispense with this picturesque adjunct to -the ceremony! Though the strewing of rushes and herbs was a part of the -preparations for any household festival, they were a special feature of -bridal ceremonies. - - [60] Blount’s “Jocular Tenures,” 1679. - - [61] “History of the Coronation of George IV.” R. HUISH. - - [62] Published _Nineteenth Century_, June 1902. - - As I have seen upon a bridal day, - Full many maids clad in their best array, - In honour of the bride come with their flaskets - Fill’d full with flowers: others, in wicker-baskets - Bring from the marish, rushes to o’erspread - The ground whereon to church the lovers tread. - - _Br. Pastorals_, book i. - -Drayton, too, alludes to this practice in the “Polyolbion.” - - Some others were again as seriously employ’d - In strewing of those herbs, at bridals us’d that be - Which everywhere they throw with bounteous hands and free. - The healthful balm and mint from their full laps do fly. - - Song xv. - -And gives a long list of wedding flowers, of which Meadow-sweet -(sometimes called bridewort) is one. Gilded Rosemary, or sprigs of -Rosemary dipped in sweet waters were used, and Brand gives an account of -a wedding where the bride was “led to church between two sweet boys with -bride-laces and rosemary tied to their silken sleeves.”[63] Nosegays, -too, were gathered for weddings, and Brand quotes a remarkable and -cynical passage from “The Plaine Country Bridegroom,” by Stephens: “He -shews neere affinitie betwixt marriage and hanging, and to that purpose -he provides a great nosegay and shakes hands with everyone he meets, as -if he were preparing for a condemned man’s voyage.” Herrick’s lines -beginning, “Strip her of spring-time, tender, whimpering maids,” are too -well known to repeat, but they tell very prettily which flowers were -appropriated to the married and which to the unmarried. Dyer tells us -that this custom of strewing them is still kept up in Cheshire, with -occasional sad results. Often, the flowers that were strewn were -emblematical, and if the bride chanced to be unpopular, she stepped her -way to church over flowers whose meanings were the reverse of -complimentary! - - [63] Popular Antiquities. - -Drayton’s contemporaries were more amiable. - - Who now a posie pins not in his cap? - And not a garland baldrick-wise doth wear, - Some, of such flowers as to his hand doth hap - Others, such as secret meanings bear. - - He, from his lass, him lavender hath sent - Shewing her love, and doth requital crave, - Him rosemary, his sweetheart whose intent, - Is that he her should in remembrance have. - - Roses, his youth and strong desire express, - Her sage, doth show his sovereignty in all; - The July-flower declares his gentleness; - Thyme, truth; the pansie, heartsease, maidens’ call. - - Eclogue ix. - -Herbs have pointed proverbs; for instance: “He who sows hatred, shall -gather rue,”--a saying which some have found to be “ower-true”; and, -“The Herb-Patience does not grow in every man’s garden,”--a piece of -wisdom which may be proved only too often. Both these proverbs turn on a -pun, but some herbs are alluded to in a literal sense. The old -Herbalists used to count Pinks among herbs, and this flower’s name is -very commonly heard in the expression: “The pink of perfection.” -Mercutio says in _Romeo and Juliet_, “I am the very pink of courtesy”; a -phrase which is wonderfully expressive. Miss Amherst quotes an old -ballad to show that the periwinkle was used as a term of praise, for in -this, a noble lady, a type of excellence, is called, “The parwink of -prowesse.” The inelasticity of modern opinions (on herbs) forbids that I -should here go into the history of this most interesting flower, -beloved by Rousseau and endowed by the French with magic power. One of -their names for it is, _Violette de Sorcier_. I will only say that the -Italians call it the “Flower of the Dead,” and place it on graves; and -to the Germans it is the “Flower of Immortality.” In England it was much -used in garlands, and it was with Periwinkle that Simon Fraser was -crowned in mockery, when in 1306 (after he had been taken prisoner, -fighting for Bruce), he rode, heavily ironed, through London to the -place of execution. - -Clove gillyflowers were admitted, till lately, into the herb-garden, so -I may mention that among several cases of nominal rent, land being held -on the payment of certain flowers or other trifles, “three clove -gillyflowers to be rendered on the occasion of the King’s Coronation,” -was once the condition of holding the “lands and tenements of Ham in -Surrey.” Roses were the flowers most often chosen for such a purpose, -and roses and gillyflowers together were paid as rent by St Andrew’s -Monastery in Northampton at the time of its dissolution under Oliver -Cromwell. Blount[64] mentions that Bartholomaus Peyttevyn, of -Stony-Aston in Somerset, held his lands on the payment of a “sextary” of -Gillyflower wine annually, at Christmastide. A “sextary” contained about -a pint and a half, sometimes more. “A still more whimsical tenure was -that of a farm at Brookhouse, Penistone, York, for which, yearly, a -payment was to be made of a red rose at Christmas and a snowball at -mid-summer. Unless the flower of the Viburnum or Guelder-rose, sometimes -called Snowball, was meant, the payment bill had been almost impossible -in those days when ice-cellars were unknown.”[65] - - [64] “Jocular Tenures.” - - [65] “History of Signboards.” - -Clove gillyflowers found their way into Heraldry, and appeared as -heraldic emblems, and besides them, Guillim mentions “Rosemary, Sweet -Marjoram, Betony, Purslane and Saffron,” being borne in Coat Armour. -But, “because such daintiness and affected adornings better befit ladies -and gentlemen than knights and men of valour, whose worth must be tried -in the field, not under a rose-bed, or in a garden-plot, therefore the -ancient Generous made choice rather of such herbs as grew in the fields, -as the Cinque-foil, Trefoil,” etc.[66] It is an interesting explanation -of the reason that dictated the choice of these two last herbs, often -seen in heraldic bearings. One of Guillim’s corrections must specially -delight all west country people. The Coat of the Baskerviles of Hereford -was: Argent, a cheveron, Gules, between three Hurts. “These (saith -_Leigh_) appear light blue and come of some violent stroke. But, if I -mistake not, he is farr wide from the matter... whereas they are indeed -a kind of fruit or small round Berry, of colour betwixt black and -blue... and in some places called Windberries, and in others Hurts or -Hurtleberries.” Guillim knew the popular name of Whortleberries better -than did his fellow-author. The idea of choosing three bruises as a -“charge” does not seem to have struck _Mr Leigh_ as being at all odd. - - [66] Guillim. “Heraldry.” - -In Saxony Rue has given its name to an Order. A chaplet of Rue borne -bendwise on “barrs of the Coat Armour of the Dukedom of Saxony” (till -then “Barry of ten, sable and or,”) was granted by the Emperor Frederick -Barbarossa to Duke Bernard of Anhalt (the first of his house to be Duke -of Saxony), at his request, “to difference his arms from his Brothers’,” -Otho, Marquis of Brandenberg, and Siegfrid, Archbishop of Breme. This -took place in the year 1181, but the Order was not founded till more -than six centuries had passed, and was then due to Frederick Augustus, -first King of Saxony, who created the Order of the _Rautenkrone_ on the -20th July 1807. In the newspapers of October 24th, 1902, it was -announced that the King of Saxony had conferred the Order of the Crown -of Rue on the Prince of Wales. Sprigs of Rue are now interlaced in the -Collar of the Order of the Thistle, but earlier it was composed of -thistles and knots. There is extreme uncertainty as to the origin or -this Order, and cold suspicion is thrown on assertions that it was, of -old, an established “Fraternity,[67] following the lines of other Orders -of Knighthood.” The first appearance of a collar is on the gold bonnet -pieces struck in 1539, where King James V. is represented with a collar -composed alternately of thistle heads and what seem to be knots or links -in the form of the figure 8 or of the letter S, and a similar collar is -placed round the Royal Arms in another gold piece of the same year. -Collars with knots of a slightly different shape appear on Queen Mary’s -Great Seal and on that of James VI. Ashmole says:[68] “It was thought -fit that the collars of both the Garter and Thistle of King Charles I. -should be used in Scotland, 1633”; but after that the Order seems to -have lapsed, for Guillim (Ed. 1679) puts the “Order of Knights of The -Thistle or of St Andrewe’s” between the Orders of The Knights of the -Round Table and the Knights of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, and -speaks of all their rites and ceremonies in the past tense. This seems -as if at that period there was an absolute pause in its chequered -career. In 1685 it was “revived” by James II. of Great Britain, who -created eight knights, but during the Revolution it lapsed again and -“lay neglected till Queen Anne in 1703 restored it to the primitive -design of twelve Knights of St Andrew” (Every). “By a statute passed in -1827 the Order is to consist of the Sovereign and sixteen Knights” -(Burke). Sprigs of Rue do not make their earliest appearance in the -collar till about 1629 and then on doubtful authority. “Mirœus, however, -states that the Collar was made of Thistles and Sprigs of Rue; and the -Royal Achievements of Scotland in Sir George Mackenzie’s ‘Science of -Heraldry’ published in 1680, are surrounded by a Collar of Thistles -linked with Sprigs of Rue.” Very shortly before this Guillim had -described the collar as being “composed of thistles, intermixed with -annulets of gold.” So the publication of Sir George Mackenzie’s book -must be the approximate date of the introduction of the Rue; the present -collar, badge and robe of the Order are the same as those approved by -Queen Anne. André Favyn[69] gives the reasons for this choice of plants, -though as the Rue made its first appearance in the collar so much later -than the date he assigns (which is that of Charlemagne) one cannot help -fearing that he drew a little on his imagination. King Achaius took for -“his devise the Thistle and the Rewe. And for the Soule therof, Pour ma -deffence Because the Thistle is not tractable or easily handled... -giving acknowledgment thereby, that hee feared not forraigne Princes his -neighbours... as for the Rewe although it be an Herbe and Plant very -meane, yet it is (nevertheless full of admirable vertues)... and serveth -to expell and drive serpents to flight... and there is not a more -soveraigne remedy for such as are poisoned.” Guillim called _Hungus_, -King of the Picts, the founder, and says that he, “the Night before the -Battle that was fought betwixt him and _Athelstane_, King of England, -sawe in the skie a bright Cross in fashion of that whereon St Andrew -suffered Martyrdom, and the day proving successful unto _Hungus_ in -memorial of the said Apparition, which did presage so happy an omen, the -Picts and Scots have ever since bore in the Ensigns and Banners the -Figure of the said Cross, which is in fashion of a Saltier. And from -thence ’tis believed that this Order took its rise, which was about the -year of our Lord 810.” Both authors are quite positive as to their facts -regarding the origin of the Order, but they have hardly one fact in -common, not even the founder’s name! - - [67] Sir H. Nicholas. “History of the Orders of Knighthood of the - British Empire.” - - [68] “History of the Most Noble Order of the Garter.” - - [69] “Theater of Honour.” 1623. - -It is perhaps not very well known that there was once a French Order of -the Thistle, or, as it was sometimes called, “Order of Bourbon.” It was -instituted by Louis II., third Duke of Bourbon, surnamed the Good Duke, -and it consisted six and twenty knights,[70] each of whom “wore a Belt, -in which was embroydered the word _Esperance_ in capital letters; it had -a Buckle of Gold at which hung a tuft like a Thistle; on the Collar also -was embroydered the same word _Esperance_, with _Flowers_ de Luce of -Gold from which hung an Oval, wherein was the Image of the Virgin -_Mary_, entowered with a golden sun, crowned with twelve stars of silver -and a silver crescent under her feet; at the end of the Oval was the -head of a Thistle.” - - [70] Ross. “View of all Religions,” 1653. - -There are other Orders called after flowers, or of which flowers form -the badge. Several of the “Christian Orders of Knighthood”--orders -instituted for some religious or pious purpose--bore lilies among their -tokens, and flowers-de-luce appeared in many. The Order of the Lily or -of Navarre was instituted by Prince Garcia in 1048. The Order of the -_Looking-Glass_ of the Virgin _Mary_ was created by “_Ferdinand_, the -Infant of _Castile_, upon a memorable victory he had over the _Moors_. -The Collar of this Order was composed of Bough-pots, full of Lillies, -interlaced with Griffons.” Ross and Favyn give most curious accounts of -the Order “De la Sainte Magdalaine.” This was instituted by a Noble -Gentleman of France, who is alternately called John Chesnil or Sieur de -la Chapronaye, “Out of a godly Zeal to reclaim the French from their -Quarrels, Duels and other sins.... The Cross of the Order had at three -ends, three Flowers-de-Luce; the Cross is beset with Palms to shew this -Order was instituted to encourage Voyages to the Holy Land, within the -Palms are Sunbeams and four _Flowers-de-Luce_ to shew the glory of the -French Nation.” They had a house allotted them near Paris, “wherein were -ordinarily five hundred Knights, bound to stay there during two years’ -probation.... The Knights that live abroad shall meet every year at -their house called the lodging Royal on Mary Magdalene’s Festival Day.” -The Lay Brothers were to be of good family; the _Vallets des -Chevaliers_, of “honestes _Familles d’Artisans et Mecaniques_.” Their -garb was carefully ordered, and they were to take the same vows as their -master. Other elaborate arrangements were made--“But this Order, as it -began, so it ended in the person of Chesnil.” One’s breath is taken -away, as when, in a dream, one falls and falls to immense depths and -awakes with a sudden shock! Francis, Duke of Bretaigne, created the -Order of Bretaigne: “This Order consisteth of five and twenty Knights of -the _Ears of Corn_, so called to signifie that Princes should be careful -to preserve Husbandry.” Favyn, however, finds a much more romantic -origin for the name, and tells a long story of a dispute among the gods -as to the thing most essential to “les Humains.” After lengthy argument, -“de sorte que Jupiter toujours favorisant les Dames,” he declared -victory to rest with Ceres, to whose verdict that of Minerva was joined -(Minerva had pleaded the Ox), and so they both triumphed over the -others. - -In Amsterdam, a literary guild was once named after a herb, and was -called the White Lavender Bloom. Herbs have not appeared on many -signboards, but in 1638 the marigold was the sign of “Francis -Eglisfield, a bookseller in St Paul’s churchyard,”[71] as it still is of -Child’s Bank--and several signs of the “Rosemary Branch” have been -known. - - [71] “The History of Signboards.” - -The Blessed Thistle was a much prized herb, and its cousin, the Spear -Thistle, makes a game for Scotch children; it is sometimes called -“Marian,” and when the flower-heads have turned to “blow-balls” the -children puff away the down and call:-- - - “Marian, Marian, what’s the time of day? - One o’clock, two o’clock, it’s time we were away.” - -Dandelions are still commoner toys. - -Grimmer associations are tied up with the bouquet presented to Judges at -the Assizes, for originally this bouquet was a bunch of herbs, given to -him to ward off the gaol-fever, that was cheerfully accepted as a matter -of course for prisoners. Thornton, writing in 1810, says of Rue, that it -is “supposed to be antipestilential” and hence our benches of judges are -“regaled” with its unpleasing odour. Lupines are not properly to be -included here, but Parkinson must be quoted as to a curious use of their -seeds. In Plautus’ days, “they were used in Comedies instead of money, -when in any scene thereof there was any show of payment.” One is glad he -condescends to tell us this detail of ancient stage-plays. Among herbs -used for nosegays he mentions Basil, Sweet Marjoram, Maudeline and -Costmary, and evidently contemplates their being worn for ornament, and -speaking of the prickly strawberry remarks it is “fit for a Gentlewoman -to weare on her arme, etc., as a raritie instead of a flower.” Scents -were more perpetually to be obtained by carrying a pomander, which was -originally an orange stuffed with spices, and thought also to be good -against infection. Cardinal Wolsey is described as carrying a “very fair -orange, whereof the meat or substance was taken out and filled up again -with part of a sponge whereon was vinegar, and other confection against -the pestilential airs”; evidently some alexiphar-mick, which he “smelt -unto” when going into a crowded chamber. Drayton says, in speaking of a -well dedicated to St Winifred:-- - - The sacred Virgin’s well, her moss most sweet and rare - Against infectious damps, for pomander to wear. - - _Polyolbion._ - -The pomander developed into being a little scent-case, elaborately made. -Mr Dillon describes a silver one of the sixteenth century which he saw -in a collection. It was made to be hung by a chain from the girdle, and -though “no larger than a plum, contains eight compartments inscribed as -follows: ambra, moscheti (musk), viola, naransi (orange), garofalo -(gillyflowers), rosa, cedro, jasmins.” Sweet-scented plants were reduced -to “sweete pouthers,” and many were distilled into “sweete waters” and -“sweete washing waters,” or helped to make “washing balls.” -Orange-flower water is spoken of as “a great perfume for gloves, to wash -them, or instead of Rose-water,” and less expensive distillations must -have contented more economical housewives. Parkinson tells us of sweet -marjoram being put into “sweete bags,” and costmary flowers and lavender -tied up in small bundles for their “sweet sent and savour.” Regarding -“sweet water” there is a delightful description in Ben Jonson’s Masque -_Chloridia_, “Enter Rain, presented by five persons... their hair -flagging as if they were wet, and in the hands, balls full of sweet -water, which as they dance, sprinkle all the room.” - -The following entry is made among “Queen Elizabeth’s Annual Expences”:-- - - Makers of hearb bowres and planters of trees Fee, £25 - Stillers of Waters „ 40 - John Kraunckwell and his wife, 1584. - - _Peck’s Desiderata._ - -These offices must have been of considerable importance, for when money -went much further than it does nowadays, an annual fee of £40 for -“stilling waters” was a high one. - - For never resting time leads summer on - To hideous winter, and confounds him there; - Sap check’d with frost, and lusty leaves quite gone, - Beauty o’ershow’d, and bareness everywhere. - Then, were not summer’s distillation left, - A liquid prisoner pent in walls of glass, - Beauty’s effect with beauty were bereft, - Nor it, nor no remembrance what it was. - But flowers distill’d, though they with winter meet - Lese but their show; their substance still lives sweet. - - Sonnet V.--SHAKESPEARE. - -Among some charming recipes Mrs Roundell gives a charming one for -“Dorothea Roundell’s Sweet-Jar.” But, perhaps, even sweeter is the next -recipe, called simply Sweet-Jar. - - -_Sweet-Jar._ - -“½ lb. bay salt, ¼ lb. salt-petre and common salt, all to be bruised and -put on six baskets of rose-leaves, 24 bay leaves torn to bits, a handful -of sweet myrtle leaves, 6 handfuls of lavender blossom, a handful of -orange or syringa blossoms, the same of sweet violets, and the same of -the red of clove carnations. After having well stirred every day for a -week, add ½ oz. cloves, 4 oz. orris root, ½ oz. cinnamon, and two -nutmegs all pounded; put on the roses, kept well covered up in a china -jar and stirred sometimes.” The recipe of a delicious _Pot Pourri_ made -in a country house in Devonshire has also been very kindly sent me:-- - - -_Pot Pourri._ - -“Gather flowers in the morning when dry and lay them in the sun till the -evening. - - Roses. - Orange flowers. - Jasmine. - Lavender. - Thyme. } - Marjoram.} - Sage. } In smaller quantities. - Bay. } - -“Put them into an earthen wide jar, or hand basin, in layers. Add the -following ingredients:-- - - 6 lbs. vi. Bay Salt. - ℥ iv. Yellow Sandal Wood. - ℥ iv. Acorus Calamus Root. - ℥ iv. Cassia Buds. - ℥ iv. Orris Root. - ℥ ii. Cinnamon. - ℥ ii. Cloves. - ℥ iv. Gum Benzoin. - ℈ i. Storax Calamite. - ℥ i. ℈ Otto of Rose. - ʒ i. Musk. - ℥ ss. Powdered Cardamine Seeds. - -“Place the rose-leaves, etc., in layers in the jar. Sprinkle the Bay -salt and other ingredients on each layer, press it tightly down and keep -for two or three months before taking it out.” - -The following herbs are those which are chiefly valued for their perfume -or for their historical associations. - -[Illustration: BERGAMOT] - - -BERGAMOT (_Monarda fistulosa_). - -It is extraordinary how little comment has been made on the handsome red -flowers and fragrant leaves of Red Bergamot, or Bee-Balm--a name which -Robinson gives it. Growing in masses, it makes a lovely bit of colour, -and a very sweet border. Bergamot was a favourite flower in the posies -that country people used to take to church, as Mrs Ewing observes in her -story “Daddy Darwin’s Dove Cot.” The youthful heroine loses her posy of -“Old Man and Marygolds” on the way to Sunday school, and is discovered -looking for it by an equally youthful admirer. He at once offers to get -her some more Old Man. “But Phœbe drew nearer. She stroked down her -frock, and spoke mincingly but confidentially. ‘My mother says Daddy -Darwin has red bergamot i’ his garden. We’ve none i’ ours. My mother -always says there’s nothing like red bergamot to take to church. She -says it’s a deal more refreshing than Old Men, and not so common.” A -note gives the information that the particular kind of Bergamot meant -here was the Twinflower _Monarda Didyma_. There are several varieties of -Monarda. - -The only superstition that I have ever heard in any way connected with -the plant is, that in Dorsetshire it is thought unlucky, and that if it -be kept in a house an illness will be the consequence. - - -COSTMARY (_Tanacetum Balsamita_). - - Coole violets and orpine growing still, - Enbathed balme and cheerfull galingale, - Fresh costmarie and healthfull camomile. - - _Muiopotmos._ - - Then balm and mint help to make up - My chaplet and for trial - Costmary that so likes the cup, - And next it penny-royal. - - _Muses’ Elysium._ - - Then hot muscado oil, with milder maudlin cast, - Strong tansey, fennel cool, they prodigally waste. - - _Polyolbion_, Song xv. - -Costmary or Alecost, and Maudeline (_Balsamita Vulgaris_), have so close -a semblance that they may be taken together. The German name for -Costmary, _Frauen münze_, supports the natural idea that it was -dedicated to the Virgin, but Dr Prior says that the Latin name used to -be _Costus amarus_, not _Costus Marie_, and that it was really -appropriated to St Mary Magdaleine, as its English name Maudeline -declares. Both plants were much used to make “sweete washing water; the -flowers are tyed up with small bundles of lavender toppes; these they -put in the middle of them, to lye upon the toppes of beds, presses, -etc., for the sweet sent and savour it casteth.”[72] They were also used -for strewing. In France Costmary is sometimes used in salads, and it was -formerly put into beer and negus; “hence the name _Alecost_.” - - [72] Parkinson. - - -GERMANDER (_Teucrium Chamœdrys_). - - Clear hysop and therewith the comfortable thyme, - Germander with the rest, each thing then in her prime. - - _Polyolbion_, Song xv. - - Germander, marjoram and thyme, - Which used are for strewing, - With hisop as an herb most prime, - Herein my wreath bestowing. - - _Muses’ Elysium._ - -Germander was grown as a border to garden “knots,” “though being more -used as a strewing herbe for the house than for any other use.”[73] -Culpepper says it is “a most prevalent herb of Mercury, and strengthens -the brain and apprehension exceedingly;” and Tusser includes it amongst -his “strewing herbs”; from which statements it may be gathered that the -scent was pungent but agreeable. It is more often mentioned by old -herbalists as “bordering knots” than in any other capacity, in spite of -Parkinson’s remark, and now is very seldom seen at all. It may, very -rarely, be found growing wild. Harrison, when he is declaiming against -the over-praising of foreigners, says: “Our common Germander, or thistle -benet, is found and knowne to bee so wholesome and of so great power in -medicine as any other hearbe,” but it is not clear whether he really -means Germander, or is not rather thinking of _Carduus Benedictus_. - - [73] Parkinson. - - -GILLIFLOWER (_Dianthus Caryophyllus_). - - Jeliflowers is for gentlenesse, - Which in me shall remaine, - Hoping that no sedition shal - Depart our hearts in twaine. - As soon the sun shall loose his course, - The moone against her kinde, - Shall have no light if that I do - Once put you from my minde. - - CLEMENT ROBINSON. - - Come, and I will sing you-- - “What will you sing me?” - I will sing you Four, O, - What is your Four, O? - Four it is the Dilly Hour, when blooms the gilly-flower. - - _Dilly Song._--Songs of the West. - - I’ll weave my love a garland, - It shall be dressed so fine, - I’ll set it round with roses, - With lilies, pinks and thyme. - - _The Loyal Lover._ - - There stood a gardener at the gate - And in each hand a flower, - O pretty maid, come in, he said, - And view my beauteous bower. - - The lily it shall be thy smock, - The jonquil shoe thy feet, - Thy gown shall be the ten-week-stock, - To make thee fair and sweet. - - The gilly-flower shall deck thy head - Thy way with herbs, I’ll strew, - Thy stockings shall be marigold - Thy gloves the vi’let blue. - - _Dead Maid’s Land._ - -Gillyflowers are, of course, now excluded from the herb-border, but once -housewives infused them in vinegar to make it aromatic, and candied them -for conserves, and numbered them among their herbs, though that is not -the reason that they are mentioned here. They have their place, because -the general ideas about them are too pretty to leave out. First, they -were the token of gentleness, as Robinson’s lover asserts most -touchingly, and Drayton confirms in his line, - - The July-flower declares his gentleness. - -Then Gillyflowers (says Folkard) were represented in some old songs to -be one of the flowers that grow in Paradise. He quotes from a ballad -called “Dead Men’s Songs.” This verse: - - The fields about the city faire - Were all with Roses set, - Gillyflowers and Carnations faire - Which canker could not fret. - - _Ancient Songs._--RITSON. - -There have been great discussions as to what flower was the original -“Gillyflower” spoken of by early writers. Folkard says it was -“apparently a kind of pet-name to all manner of plants.” Parkinson seems -to have called Carnations, Clove-Gillyflowers, and Stocks, the -Stock-Gillyflowers, and Wall-flowers, Wall-Gillyflowers. It is generally -thought that the earlier writers called the Dianthus by this name, and -later ones, the _Cheiranthus cheiri_, or _Matthiola_. Some of the names -for them show how sadly imagination has waned since the seventeenth -century. Think of a new flower being called “Ruffling Robin” or “The -lustie Gallant,” or “Master Tuggie’s Princess,” or “Mister Bradshaw, -his dainty Lady.” Even “the Sad Pageant” has romance about it, but we -can match that by a name for _Hesperides_ which, I believe, still -survives, “The Melancholy Gentleman.” Culpepper calls Gillyflowers, -“gallant, fine and temperate,” but says, “It is vain to describe a herb -so well known.” So there we will leave them. - - -LAVENDER (_Lavandula vera_). - - Here’s flowers for you, - Hot lavender, mints, savory, marjoram, - The marigold that goes to bed wi’ the sun, - And with him rises weeping. - - _Winter’s Tale_, iv. 3. - - The wholesome saulge and lavender still gray, - Ranke smelling Rue, and cummin good for eyes. - - _Muiopotmos._ - - Opening upon level plots - Of crowned lilies standing near - Purple spiked lavender. - - _Ode to Memory._--TENNYSON. - - Lavender is for lovers true, - Which evermore be faine, - Desiring always for to have - Some pleasure for their paine. - - C. ROBINSON. - - _Piscator._ “I’ll now lead you to an honest ale-house; where we shall - find a cleanly room, lavender in the windows and twenty ballads stuck - about the wall.” - - _The Complete Angler._ - -Lavender is one of the few herbs that has always been in great repute -and allusions to it are legion. From the custom of laying it among -linen, or other carefully stored goods, a proverb has arisen--Timbs -quotes from Earle’s _Microcosm_: “He takes on against the Pope without -mercy and has a jest still _in Lavender_ for Bellarmine.” Walton’s -_Coridon_ mentions that “the sheets” smell of lavender in a literal -sense, and Parkinson says that it is much put among “apparell.” Oil of -Lavender is still to be found in the British Pharmacopœia, and some of -the old writers utter serious warnings against “divers rash and -overbold Apothecaries and other foolish women,” who gave -indiscriminately the distilled water, or composition that is made of -distilled wine in which flower seeds have been steeped. Turner suggests -using it in a curious manner. “I judge that the flowers of Lavander -quilted in a cappe and dayly worne are good for all diseases of the head -that come of a cold cause and that they comfort the braine very well.” -Dr Fernie says it is of real use in a case of nervous headache. Lavender -used to be called Lavender Spike or Spike alone, and French Lavender -(_L. Stæchas_) Stickadove or Cassidony, sometimes turned by country -people into Cast-me-down. _La petite Corbeille_ tells us that the juice -of Lavender is a specific in cases of loss of speech and adds drily, -“une telle propriété suffirait pour rendre cette plante à jamais -precieuse.” In Spain and Portugal it is used to strew churches and it is -burned in bonfires on St John’s Day, the day when all evil spirits are -abroad. In some countries it must still possess wonderful qualities! -Tuscan peasants believe that it will prevent the Evil Eye from hurting -children. - -The pretty delicately-scented spikes of White Lavender are less well -known than they should be, but like many other herbs they received more -admiration in former days as has been already said, at the close of the -sixteenth century, a literary guild was called after it. In the -Parliamentary Survey (November 1649) of the Manor of Wimbledon, “Late -parcel of the possessions of Henrietta Maria, the relict and late Queen -of Charles Stuart, late King of England”--an exact inventory is made of -the house and grounds (in which forty-four perches of land, called the -Hartichoke Garden is named), and among other things, “very great and -large borders of Rosemary, Rue and White Lavender and great varietie of -excellent herbs” are noticed. - - -LAVENDER COTTON (_Santolina_). - -Lavender Cotton is a little grey plant with “very finely cut leaves, -clustered buttons of a golden colour and of a sweet smell and is often -used in garlands and in decking up of gardens and houses.” The French -called it _Petit Cyprez_ and _Guarde Robe_, from which it may be -inferred that it was one of the herbs laid in chests among furs and -robes. Tusser counts it among his “strewing herbes,” and it is now -chiefly used as an edging to beds or borders. - - -MEADOW-SWEET (_Spiræa Ulmaria_). - - Bring, too, some branches forth of Daphne’s hair, - And gladdest myrtle for the posts to wear, - With spikenard weav’d and marjorams between - And starr’d with yellow-golds and meadows-queen. - - _Pan’s Anniversary._--BEN JONSON. - - Amongst these strewing herbs, some others wild that grow, - As burnet, all abroad, and meadow-wort they throw. - - _Polyolbion_, Song xv. - - _She._ The glow-room lights, as day is failing - Dew is falling over the field. - _He._ The meadow-sweet its scent is exhaling, - Honeysuckles their fragrance yield. - _Together._ Then why should we be all the day toiling? - Lads and lasses, along with me! - _She._ There’s Jack o’ Lantern lustily dancing, - In the marsh with flickering flame. - _He._ And Daddy-long-legs, spinning and prancing, - Moth and midge are doing the same. - _Chorus._ Then why should we, etc. - - S. BARING-GOULD. - - Where peep the gaping speckled cuckoo-flowers - The meadow-sweet flaunts high its showy wreath - And sweet the quaking grasses hide beneath. - - _Summer._--CLARE. - - Shall I strew on thee rose or rue or laurel? - Or quiet sea flower moulded by the sea, - Or simples and growth of meadow-sweet or sorrel. - - _Ave Atque Vale._--SWINBURNE. - - Pale Iris growing where the streams wind slowly - Round the smooth shoulders of untrodden hills, - White meadow-sweet and yellow daffodils. - - _Phœcia._--N. HOPPER. - -Queen of the Meadow and Bridewort are two of this flower’s most -appropriate names and a very pretty one is that which Gerarde tells us -the Dutch give it, _Reinette_. The Herbalists do not say much about the -“Little Queen,” but what they do say, is in the highest degree -complimentary. Gerarde decides: “The leaves and flowers excel all other -strong herbes for to deck up houses, to strew in chambers, hall and -banquetting houses in the summer time; for the smell thereof makes the -heart merrie, delighteth the senses, neither doth it cause headache” as -some other sweet smelling herbes do. Parkinson, who says it “has a -pretty, sharp sent and taste,” praises it for the same purpose and adds -the interesting bit of gossip that “Queen _Elizabeth_ of famous memory, -did more desire it than any other sweet herbe to strew her chambers -withal. A leafe or two hereof layd in a cup of wine, will give as quick -and fine a rellish therto as Burnet will,” he finishes practically. -Turner says that women, in the spring-time, “put it into the potages and -mooses.” I have known it used medicinally by a Herbalist, and can -strongly recommend it as an ingredient for _pôt pourri_. The scent is so -sweet and clinging that it is surprising that meadow-sweet is not -oftener in request when dried and scented flowers are wanted. The -Icelander says that if taken on St John’s Day and thrown into water, it -will help to reveal a thief, for if the culprit be a man, it will sink, -if a woman, it will float. - - -ROSEMARY (_Rosmarinus officinalis_). - - Here’s Rosemary for you, that’s for remembrance.-- - - _Hamlet_, iv. 5. - - Rosemary’s for remembrance, - Between us day and night, - Wishing that I may always have - You present in my sight. - - C. ROBINSON. - - The double daisy, thrift, the button batchelor, - Sweet William, sops-in-wine, the campion; and to these - Some lavender they put, with rosemary and bays, - Sweet marjoram, with her like sweet basil rare for smell, - With many a flower, whose name were now too long to tell. - - _Polyolbion_, Song xv. - - Oh, thou great shepheard, Lobbin, how great is thy griefe? - Where bene the nosegays that she dight for thee? - The coloured chaplets wrought with a chiefe, - The knotted rush-rings and gilt rosmarie? - - _November, Shepheard’s Calender._--SPENSER. - -Rosemary has always been of more importance than any other herb, and -more than most of them put together. It has been employed at weddings -and funerals, for decking the church and for garnishing the banquet -hall, in stage-plays, and in “swelling discontent,” of a too great -reality; as incense in religious ceremonies, and in spells against -magic; “in sickness and in health”; eminently as a symbol, and yet for -very practical uses. It is quite an afterthought to regard it as a -plant. In “Popular Antiquities,” Brand gives such an admirable account -of it that one would like to quote in full, but must bear in mind the -warning, quoted from “Eachard’s _Observations_,” in those pages: “I -cannot forget him, who having at some time or other been suddenly cur’d -of a little head-ache with a Rosemary posset, would scarce drink out of -anything but Rosemary cans, cut his meat with a Rosemary knife.... Nay, -sir, he was so strangely taken up with the excellencies of Rosemary, -that he would needs have the Bible cleared of all other herbs and only -Rosemary to be inserted.” At weddings it was often gilded or dipped in -scented waters, or tied “about with silken ribbands of all colours.” -Sometimes for want of it Broom was used. Mr Friend quotes an account of -a sixteenth century “rustic bridal” at which “every wight with hiz blu -buckeram bridelace upon a branch of green broom--because Rosemary iz -skant thear--tyed on hiz leaft arm.” A wedding sermon by Robert Hacket -(1607) is also quoted: “Rosemary... which by name, nature, and continued -use, man challengeth as properly belonging to himselfe. It overtoppeth -all the flowers in the garden, boasting man’s rule. Another property of -the Rosemary is, it affecteth the hart. Let this Rosmarinus, this flower -of men, ensigne of your wisdom, love and loyaltie, be carried not only -in your hands, but in your heads and harts.” Ben Jonson says it was the -custom for bridesmaids to present the bridegroom with “a bunch of -Rosemary, bound with ribands,” on his first appearance on his wedding -morn. Together with an orange stuck with cloves, it often served as a -little New Year’s gift; and the same author mentions this in his -_Christmas Masque_. The masque opens by showing half the players -unready, and clamouring for missing properties; and _Gambol_, one of -them, says, of _New Year’s Gift_: “He has an orange and Rosemary, but -not a clove to stick in it.” A little later, _New Year’s Gift_ enters, -“in a blue coat, serving-man-like, with an orange and a sprig of -Rosemary, gilt, on his head.” _Wassel_ comes too, “like a neat sempster -and songster, her page bearing a brown bowl drest with ribands and -Rosemary before her.” - -For less festive occasions it had other meanings: “As for Rosmarine, I -lett it runne all over my garden walls, not onlie because my bees love -it, but because it is the herb sacred to remembrance, and therefore to -friendship; whence a sprig of it hath a dumb language that maketh it the -chosen emblem of our funeral wakes and in our buriall grounds.” Sir -Thomas More thought this, but others beside him “lett Rosmarine run all -over garden walls,” though perhaps they had less sentiment about it; -Hentzner (_Travels_) (1598) says that it was a custom “exceedingly -common in England.” At Hampton Court, Rosemary was “so planted and -nailed to the walls as to cover them entirely.”[74] The bushes were -sometimes set “by women for their pleasure,[75] to grow in sundry -proportions, as in the fashion of a cart, a peacock or such things as -they fancy,” or the branches were twined amongst others to make an -arbour. Brown refers to this:-- - - Within an arbour, shadow’d by a vine - Mix’d with Rosemary and Eglantine. - - _Br. Pastorals_, book i. - -[Illustration: ROSEMARY] - -Rosemary was one of the chief funeral herbs. Herrick says:-- - - Grow it for two ends, it matters not at all, - Be’t for my bridall or my buriall. - -Sprigs of it were distributed to the mourners before they left the -house, which they carried to the churchyard and threw on the coffin when -it had been lowered into the grave. In _Romeo and Juliet_ Friar Laurence -says:-- - - Dry up your tears and stick your Rosemary - On this fair corse - -Brand quotes passages from Gay, Dekker, Cartwright, Shirley, Misson, -Coles, “The British Apollo” and “The Wit’s Interpreter,” which connect -Rosemary with burials; and it was also planted on graves. - -Coles says it was used with other evergreens to decorate churches at -Christmas-time, and Folkard that, “In place of more costly incense, the -ancients often employed Rosemary in their religious ceremonies. An old -French name for it was _Incensier_. It was conspicuous on a very -remarkable occasion in history. In “A Perfect Journall, etc., of that -memorable Parliament begun at Westminster, Nov. 3, 1640,” is the -following passage, “Nov. 28. That afternoon Master Prin and Master -Burton came in to London, being met and accompanied with many thousands -of horse and foot, and rode with rosemary and bayes in their hands and -hats; which is generally esteemed the greatest affront that ever was -given to the courts of justice in England.” The “affront” lay in the -general rejoicing that attended this overthrowing of the sentence passed -by the Star Chamber, and the causes which led to this enthusiasm were -these: “Some years before,” Prynne, Burton, and Bastwick had written -against the Government and the Bishops, and for this offence had been -sentenced to pay a fine of £5000 each, to have their ears cut off, to -stand in the pillory and to be imprisoned for life. “All of which,” says -Clarendon, “was executed with rigour and severity enough.” “After being -first imprisoned in England, Mr Pyrnne was sent to a castle in the -island of Jersey, Dr Bastwick to Scilly, and Mr Burton to Guernsey.” -Bastwick’s wife seized the first moment that the Commons were assembled -(in Nov. 1640) to present a petition, with the result that on the fourth -day after Parliament met, orders for their release were sent to the -Governors of the respective castles. Clarendon, who, of course, had no -sympathy, but much dislike for them, admits: “When they came near -London, multitudes of people of several conditions, some on horseback, -others on foot, met them some miles from the town; very many having been -a day’s journey; and they were brought about two of the clocke in the -afternoon in at Charing Cross, and carried into the city by above ten -thousand persons with boughs and flowers in their hands, the common -people strewing flowers and herbs in the ways as they passed, making -great noise and expressions of joy for their deliverance and return; and -in those acclamations, mingling loud and virulent exclamations against -the bishops, “who had so cruelly persecuted such godly men.” An -appendix,[76] devoted to this incident, further describes their entry, -“The two branded persons riding first, side by side, with branches of -rosemary in their hands, and two or three hundred horse closely -following them, and multitudes of foot on either side of them, walking -by them, every man on horseback or on foot having bays or rosemary in -their hats or hands, and the people on either side of the street -strewing the way as they passed with herbs, and such other greens as the -season afforded, and expressing great joy for their return.” This -splendid reception must have revealed very plainly to the Government the -mind and temper of the people. Nowadays the exuberance of the mob in -greeting popular heroes is much what it seems to have been then, only -they do not generally express it in such a pretty way as strewing -rosemary and bays. - -Culpepper writes that Rosemary was used “not only for physical but civil -purposes,” and among other uses, was placed in the dock of courts of -justice. The reason for this was that among its many reputed medicinal -virtues, “it was accounted singular good to expel the contagion of the -pestilence from which poor prisoners too often suffered. It was also -especially good to comfort the hearte and to helpe a weake memory,” and -was generally highly thought of. Rosemary is still retained in the -pharmacopœia and is popularly much valued as a stimulant to making hair -grow. _L’eau de la reine d’Hongrie_, rosemary tops in proof spirit, was -once famous as a restorative and is mentioned in Perrault’s fairy story -of “The Sleeping Beauty.” After the princess pricks her hand with the -spindle and falls into the fatal sleep, among the means taken to bring -back consciousness, “en lui frotte les tempes avec de l’eau de la reine -d’Hongrie; mais rien ne lui faisait revenir.” Rosemary is also an -ingredient in _Eau de Cologne_. Its efficacy in magic is mentioned in -another chapter. In the countries where it grows to a “very great -height”[77] and the stem is “cloven out into thin boards, it hath served -to make lutes, or such like instruments, and here with us carpenter’s -rules, and to divers other purposes.” - - [74] Hentzner’s “Travels.” - - [75] Barnaby Googe’s “Husbandry” (1578). - - [76] “History of the Rebellion.” - - [77] Parkinson. - - -RUE (_Ruta graveolens_). - - Reverend sirs, - For you there’s Rosemary and Rue; these keep - Seeming and savour all the winter long, - Grace and remembrance to you both. - - _Winter’s Tale_, iv. 3. - - Here did she fall a tear; here, in this place, - I’ll set a bank of rue, sour herb of grace; - Rue, even for ruth, here shortly shall be seen, - In the remembrance of a weeping queen. - - _Richard II._, iii. 4. - - There’s rue for you, and here’s some for me; we may call it herb of - grace o’Sundays O! you may wear your rue with a difference. - - _Hamlet_, iv. 5. - - Michael from Adam’s eyes the film ’emoved - ... then purged with euphrasy and rue, - The visual nerve; for he had much to see. - - _Paradise Lost_, book xi. - - He who sows hatred, shall gather rue. - - _Danish Proverb._ - -“Ruth was the English name for sorrow and remorse, and _to rue_ was to -be sorry for anything or to have pity, ... and so it was a natural thing -to say that a plant which was so bitter and had always borne the name -_Rue_ or _Ruth_ must be connected with repentance. It was therefore the -Herb of Repentance, and this was soon transformed into the Herb of -Grace.”[78] Canon Ellacombe’s explanation makes clear why rue was often -alluded to symbolically, especially by Shakespeare, to whom the thought -of repentance leading to grace seems to have been an accustomed one. It -has been often stated the actual origin of the name was the fact that -rue was used to make “the _aspergillum_, or holy-water brush, in the -ceremony known as the _asperges_, which usually precedes the Sunday -celebration of High Mass; but for this supposition there is no -ground.”[79] Rue was supposed to be a powerful defence against witches, -and was used in many spells, and Mr Friend describes a “magic wreath” in -which it is used by girls for divination. The wreath is made up of Rue, -Willow and Crane’s-bill. “Walking backwards to a tree they throw the -wreath over their heads, until it catches on the branches and is held -fast. Each time they fail to fix the wreath means another year of single -blessedness.” In the Tyrol, a bunch of Rue, Broom, Maidenhair, Agrimony -and Ground Ivy will enable the wearer to see witches. Lupton adds a -tribute to its powers of magic: “That[80] Pigeons be not hunted nor -killed of Cats at the windowes, or at every passage and at every -Pigeon’s hole, hang or put little Branches of Rew, for Rew hath a -marvellous strength against wilde Beasts. As Didymus doth say.” Milton -refers to a belief, very widely spread, that Rue was specially good for -the eyes, when he says: - - Michael - ... purged with Euphrasie and Rue, - The visual nerve. - -that Adam’s eyes should be made clear. (Euphrasie is Eyebright.) Rue was -also an antidote to poison, and preserved people from contagion, -particularly that of the plague, and was thought to be of great virtue -for many disorders. “Some doe rippe up a beade-rowle of the vertues of -Rue, as Macer the poet and others” who apparently declared it to be good -for almost every ill. Mr Britten remarks: “It was long, and probably -still is the custom to strew the dock of the Central Criminal Court at -the Old Bailey with Rue. It arose in 1750, when the contagious disease -known as jail fever, raged in Newgate to a great extent. It may be -remembered that during the trial of the Mannings (1849), the unhappy -woman, after one of the speeches of the opposing counsel, gathered up -some of the sprigs of Rue which lay before her, and threw them at his -head.” - -Turner recommends Rue “made hott in the pyll of a pomegranate” for the -“ake of the eares.” - - [78] “Plant-lore and Garden-craft of Shakespeare,” Canon Ellacombe. - - [79] Britten. - - [80] “Book of Notable Things” (1575). - - -SOUTHERNWOOD (_Artemisa Abrotanum_). - - Lavender and Sweet Marjoram march away, - Sothernwood and Angelica don’t stay, - Plantain, the Thistle, which they blessed call, - And useful Wormwood, in their order fall. - - _Of Plants_, book i.--COWLEY. - - I’ll give to him, - Who gathers me, more sweetness than he’d dream - Without me--more than any lily could. - I, that am flowerless, being Southernwood. - - Shall I give you honesty, - Or lad’s love to wear? - Or a wreath less fair to see, - Juniper and Rosemary? - Flaxenhair? - - Rosemary, lest you forget, - What was lief and fair, - Lad’s love, sweet thro’ fear and fret, - Lad’s love, green and living yet, - Flaxenhair. - - _Finnish Bride Song._--N. HOPPER. - -Southernwood has many _sobriquets_, among which are Lads or Boy’s Love, -Old Man, and Maiden’s Ruin; the last a corruption of _Armoise du Rône_, -Mr Friend says. The French have contracted the same title to _Auronne_ -and also call the plant _Bois de St Jean_ and _Citronelle_. Dutch people -used to call it _Averonne_ (another form of the French contraction) and -the Germans, _Stab-wurtz_. The name _Bois de St Jean_ is given it, -because in some parts of France it is one of the plants dedicated to St -John the Baptist, and the German title came from their faith in it as a -“singular wound-hearb.” Turner considered that the fumes of it being -burned, would drive away serpents, and credits it with many valuable -properties, chiefly medicinal; and Culpepper calls it “a gallant, -mercurial plant, worthy of more esteem than it hath.” It has also been -supposed to have great virtue to prevent the hair falling out. In later -days Hogg has declared it to have an agreeable, exhilarating smell,” and -to be “eminently diaphoretic.” But Thornton, who loves to shatter all -favourite herbal notions, remarks that these good results are chiefly -because it “operates on the mind of the patient,” and that as a -fomentation it is hardly more useful “than cloths wrung out of hot -water.” So transitory is good report! - - -WOOD-RUFF (_Asperula Odorata_). - - The threstlecoc him threteth oo - A way is huere wynter wo - When woodrove springeth. - - _Springtide_, 1300. - - All that we say, and all we leave unsaid - Be buried with her.... - Pansies for thoughts, and wood-ruff white as she, - And, for remembrance, quiet rosemary. - - _Elegy._--HOPPER. - -The wood-ruff or wood-rowell has its leaves “set about like a star, or -the rowell of a spurre,” whereby it gains its name. English people also -called it Wood-rose and Sweet-Grass; the French, _Hépatique étoilée_, -and the Germans, _Waldmeister_ and _Herzfreude_, and they steep it in -“_Bohle_,” a kind of “cup” made of light wine. - -In England it used to be “made up into garlands or bundles and hanged up -in houses in the heate of summer, doth very wel attemper the aire, coole -and make fresh the place, to the delight and comfort of such as are -therein.”[81] Wood-ruff was employed to decorate churches, and -churchwardens’ accounts still exist (at St Mary-atte-Hill, London) -including wood-ruff garlands and lavender in the expenses incurred in -keeping St Barnabas’ Day. Johnston says[82]: “The dried leaves are put -among linen for their sweet smell, and children put a whorl between the -leaves of their books with a like purpose, and many people like to have -one neatly dried laid in the case of their watch.” Sensible, as well as -pretty customs! It was one of the herbs recommended to “make the hart -merrye,” and Tusser puts it among his “stilling herbs,” thus: -“Wood-roffe, for sweet waters and cakes.” Country people used to lay it -a little bruised to a cut, and its odour of new made hay must have made -it a pleasanter remedy than many that they used. - - [81] Gerarde. - - [82] “Botany of the Eastern Borders” (1853). - - -WORMWOOD (_Artemisia Absinthium_). - - And none a greater Stoick is, than I; - The _Stoa’s_ Pillars on my stalk rely; - Let others please, to profit is my pleasure. - The love I slowly gain’s a lasting treasure. - - _Of Plants_, book i.--COWLEY. - - What savour is better, if physic be true, - In places infected than wormwood and rue - It is as a comfort for heart and the brain, - And therefore to have it, it is not in vain. - - _July’s Husbandry._--TUSSER. - - Here is my moly of much fame - In magic often used; - Mugwort and nightshade for the same, - But not by me abused - - _Muses’ Elysium._--DRAYTON. - -Traditions cluster round _Artemisia Absinthium_ and A. Vulgaris, -Mugwort. Canon Ellacombe says that the species are called after Diana, -as she was supposed to “find them and delivered their powers and -leechdom to Chiron the Centaur... who named these worts from the name of -Diana, Artemis;” and he thinks therefore that “Dian’s bud,” spoken of in -the _Midsummer Night’s Dream_ was one of them. The plant was of some -importance among the Mexicans, and when they kept the festival of -Huixtocihuatl, the Goddess of Salt, they began with a great dance of -women, who were joined to one another by strings of different flowers, -and who wore on their heads garlands of wormwood. This dance continued -all night, and on the following morning the dance of the priests began. -(_Nineteenth Century_, Sept. 1879.) - -According to the ancients, Wormwood counteracts the effects of poisoning -by toadstools, hemlock, and the biting of the shrew mouse or sea-dragon; -while Mugwort preserves the wayfarer from fatigue, sun-stroke, wild -beasts, the Evil Eye in man, and also from evil spirits! Lupton says -that it is “commonly affirmed that, on Midsummer Eve, there is found at -the root of Mugwort a coal which keeps safe from the plague, carbuncle, -lightning, and the quartan ague, them that bear the same about them; and -Mizaldus, the writer hereof, saith that it is to be found the same day -under the Plantain, which is especially and chiefly to be found at -noon.”[83] Later writers have unkindly insisted that these wonderful -“coals” were no more nor less than old dead roots! Gerarde and Parkinson -are both dignified and contemptuous over these stories. Gerarde says, -“Many other fantasticall devices invented by poets are to be seen in the -works of ancient writers. I do of purpose omit them, as things unworthy -of my recording or your reviewing.” Parkinson is still more severe on -“idle superstitions and irreligious relations,” and abuses this special -“idle conceit,” which Gerarde has not deigned to repeat. It is told even -by “Bauhinus, who glorieth to be an eye-witnesse of this foppery. But -oh! the weake and fraile nature of man! Which I cannot but lament.” -Turner devotes a great deal of space to the disputes of writers as to -the identity of the “true Ponticke Wormwood,” and says that “he himselfe -is certainly accurate on the point, having been taught it by Gerhardas -de Wyck, at that tyme the Emperour’s secretary” at Cologne. “This noble -Clerk was afterwards sent by Charles the fyft, Embassator to the great -Turke.” - -It is from wormwood that _Absinthe_ is made; and it has been used -instead of hops in making beer. It used to be laid among stuffs and furs -to keep away moths and insects--by its bitterness, ordinary folk -supposed, but Culpepper knew better, and gives an astrological reason: -“I was once in the tower and viewed the wardrobe and there was a great -many fine cloaths (I can give them no other title, for I was never -either linen or woolen draper), yet as brave as they looked, my opinion -was that the moths might consume them. Moths are under the dominion of -Mars; this herb Wormwood (also an herb of Mars) being laid among cloaths -will make a moth scorn to meddle with the cloaths as much as a lion -scorns to meddle with a mouse, or an eagle with a fly.” One would not -expect to find a moth a “martial creature,” but evidently he _is_, and -this explanation of the working of the law of “sympathies,” not only -tells us so, but kindly shows us a sure means of safeguarding our goods -from an ubiquitous enemy. - -Mugwort has many reputed medical virtues, and Dr Thornton who usually -crushes any pretension to such claims, says it “merits the attention of -English physicians, in regard to gout.” It is with this plant that the -Japanese prepare the _Moxa_ that they use as a cautery to a great -extent. - -Mugwort is said to be a good food for poultry and turkeys. De Gubernatis -tells a Russian legend about this plant which they call _Bech_. Once the -Evil One offended his brother, the Cossack Sabba, who seized and bound -him, and said he should not be released till he had done him some great -service. Presently, some Poles came close by and made a feast, and were -happy, leaving their horses to graze. The Cossack Sabba coveted the -horses and promised the Evil One his liberty if he could manage to get -them. The Evil One then sent other demons to the field and caused -Mugwort to spring up, whereupon the horses trotted away, and as they did -so, the Mugwort moaned “_bech, bech_.” And now when a horse treads on -it, the plant remembers the Pole’s horses and still moans “_bech, -bech!_” for which reason, in the Ukraine it is still called by that -name. It is left untold whether the flight of the horses was due to the -magical nature of the plants, or to their usual bitterness. The latter -is likely enough, as according to Dr Thornton, horses and goats are not -fond of it, and cows and swine refuse it. - -Other well-known varieties of Wormwood are _H. pontica_, Roman wormwood -whose leaves are less bitter; and _A. Maritima_, sea-wormwood, and _A. -Santonica_, Tartarian wormwood. - - [83] “Notable Things.” - - -BAY (_Laurus Nobilis_). - - Then in my lavender I’ll lay, - Muscado put among it, - And here and there a leaf of bay, - Which still shall run along it. - - _Muses’ Elysium._ - - This done, we’ll draw lots who shall buy - And gild the bays and rosemary. - - _Hesperides._--HERRICK. - - Down with the rosemary and bays, - Down with the mistletoe, - Instead of holly, now upraise, - The greener box, for show. - - _Ceremonies for Candlemas Eve._--HERRICK. - -A Bay-tree invites criticism, as it is certainly not a “herb,” but it is -so often classed with some of them, especially with rosemary (to whom -it seems to have been a sort of twin) that a brief extract from its -interesting history must be made. Herrick’s verses show that both for -weddings and decorations, rosemary and bays were paired together--bays -being also gilded at weddings--and Brand quotes some lines from the -“Wit’s Interpreter” to show that alike at funerals, they were fellows:-- - - Shrouded she is from top to toe, - With Lillies which all o’er her grow, - Instead of bays and rosemary. - -And Coles says, “Cypresse garlands are of great account at funeralls -amongst the gentiler sort, but rosemary and bayes are used by the -commons both at funeralls and weddings.” Parkinson’s testimony is -eloquent: “It serveth to adorne the house of God, as well as of man; to -procure warmth, comfort, and strength to the limmes of men and women by -bathings and anoyntings out, and by drinks, etc., inward: to season the -vessels wherein are preserved our meates, as well as our drinkes; to -crown or encircle as with a garland the heads of the living, and to -sticke and decke forth the bodies of the dead; so that from the cradle -to the grave we have still use of, we have still need of it.” No one -could give higher praise to its natural virtues, but in other countries, -it was endowed with supernatural ones. “Neyther falling sickness, -neyther devyll, wyll infest or hurt one in that place where a bay-tree -is. The Romans call it the Plant of the Good Angell.”[84] On the -contrary, the withering of bay-trees was a very ill omen, and a portent -of death. Canon Ellacombe says this superstition was imported from -Italy, but it seems to have taken root in England. Shakespeare mentions -it in _Richard II._, as if it were no new idea; and Evelyn tells us, as -if he were adding a fresh fact to a store of common knowledge, that in -1629, at Padua, before a great pestilence broke out, almost all the -Bay-trees about that famous University grew sick and perished. - -Sir Thomas Browne deals with another belief: “That bays will protect -from the mischief of lightning and thunder is a quality ascribed -thereto, common with the fig-tree, eagle and skin of a seal. Against so -famous a quality Vicomeratus produceth experiment of a bay-tree blasted -in Italy. And, therefore, although Tiberius for this intent did wear -laurel upon his temples, yet did Augustus take a more probable course, -who fled under arches and hollow vaults for protection.” Sir Thomas is -very logical. - -It is not always clear when Laurel and when Bay is intended, because our -Bay-tree was often called Laurel in Elizabethan days. For instance:-- - - And when from Daphne’s tree he plucks more Baies, - His shepherd’s pipe may chant more heavenly lays. - - Intro. to _Br. Pastorals_ by CHRISTOPHER BROOKE. - -If one is airily told one may pluck _bays_ from a _laurel_ bush, it is -impossible to know which is really meant, and a certain confusion -between the two is inevitable. William Browne, who took, or pretended to -take, seriously the view that bays could not be hurt by thunder, brings -forward an ingenious theory to account for it. It is that “being the -materials of poets ghirlands, it is supposed not subject to any of -Jupiter’s thunderbolts, as other trees are. - - “Where Bayes still grow (by thunder not struck down), - The victor’s garland and the poet’s crown.” - -Besides being a prophet of evil, the Bay-tree was also a token of joy -and triumph. “In Rome, they use it to trim up their _Churches_ and -_Monasteries_ on Solemn _Festivals_ ... as also on occasion of Signal -_Victories_ and other joyful Tidings; and these _Garlands_ made up with -_Hobby-Horse Tinsel_, make a glittering show and rattling Noise when -the _Air_ moves them”; also, “With the _Leaves_ of _Laurel_ they made up -their _Despatches_ and Letters _Laurus involutoe_, wrapt in Bay-leaves, -which they sent the Senate from the victorious General.” Imagine a -“victorious General” now sitting down to label despatches with leaves, -signifying triumph! “Ere Reuter yet had found his range,” how much -better the art of becoming ceremonial was understood. - -Finally, the Bay was regarded as a panacea for all ailments, and, -therefore, the statue of Æsculapius was crowned with its leaves. - -I append to this book a copy of the List of Herbs that Tusser gives in -“March’s Abstract.” It will be seen that he has carefully classified -them according to their suitability for stilling, strewing, bough-pots -or kitchen. - - [84] “Book of Notable Things,” C. Lupton. - - - - -CHAPTER IV - -OF THE GROWING OF HERBS - - In March and in April, from morning to night, - In sowing and setting, good housewives delight; - To have in a garden or other like plot, - To trim up their house, and to furnish their pot. - - The nature of flowers, dame Physic doth shew; - She teacheth them all, to be known to a few, - To set or to sow, or else sown to remove, - How that should be practised, pain if ye love. - - * * * * * - - Time and ages, to sow or to gather be bold, - But set to remove, when the weather is cold. - Cut all thing or gather, the moon in the wane, - But sow in encreasing or give it his bane. - - Now sets do ask watering, with pot or with dish, - New sown do not so, if ye do as I wish: - Through cunning with dibble, rake, mattock and spade, - By line, and by level, the garden is made. - - Who soweth too lateward, hath seldom good seed, - Who soweth too soon little better shall speed, - Apt time and the season, so diverse to hit, - Let aiér and layer, help practice and wit. - - _Five hundred Points of Good Husbandry._--TUSSER. - - -The majority of herbs are not exacting in their requirements, but a few -foreigners thrive the better for a little protection as a start. This is -the opinion of a successful gardener on the Herb-Border in an ordinary -kitchen-garden: “As to soil and situation, I used to devote a border -entirely to Herbs, under a privet hedge, facing north-west, with a rough -marly bottom. I had a plant of most varieties I could get hold of, both -Culinary and Medicinal.” - -Circumstances dictated that my own herbs should grow in a plot, rather -overshadowed, and I found that they flourished, though annuals, as a -rough rule, do best where they can get plenty of sunshine. In speaking -of their cultivation, I have divided them into three groups: Perennials, -Biennials and Annuals, and take the Perennials first. - -_Tansy_ will grow in almost any soil and may be increased, either in -spring or autumn, by slips or by dividing the roots. _Lavender_ is not -always easy to please and likes a rather poor, sandy soil. When it is -rich and heavy, matters are sometimes improved by trenching the ground -and putting in chalk about a bushel to a land-yard (16 feet 6 inches by -16 feet 6 inches); lime from a kiln is also used in the same -quantity.[85] Broad-leaved and narrow-leaved are the varieties of the -purple Lavender usually sold, and, besides these, White Lavender. The -narrow-leaved is the hardiest kind and its scent is the strongest; but -the white-flowered has a very delicate fragrance. It requires care, but -is better able to stand cold in a poor, than in a rich soil. The best -way of propagating Lavender is by layering it, and this should be done -in the summer; the plants can then be taken off the spring following. -The narrow-leaved does not grow well from seed, and all kinds are shy of -striking. The best known varieties of _Artemisia_, are _Tarragon_, -_Wormwood_, and _Southernwood_, and they all prefer a dry and rather -poor soil. If Tarragon, especially, be set in a wet soil, it is likely -to be killed in the winter. Two kinds of Tarragon are usually found in -gardens; one has bluish-green, very smooth leaves and the true Tarragon -flavour, and is commonly known as French Tarragon. Russian Tarragon, -the other kind, lacks the special flavour, and bears less smooth leaves -of a fresher green shade. Runners should be taken from these plants in -the spring. Wormwood is satisfied with a shady corner and may be -propagated by seeds or cuttings. Southernwood is increased by division -of the roots in the spring. - - [85] Neither lime nor chalk must be repeatedly added or the soil will - be impoverished. - -_Horehound_ and _Rue_ may be coupled together as liking a shady border -and a dry, calcareous soil, and I have always heard that the latter -thrives best when the plant has been _stolen_! It is a good thing to cut -the bush down from time to time, when it will spring again with renewed -vigour. Rue may be grown from seeds or cuttings taken in the spring. -Horehound may be grown from seeds or cuttings, but is most usually -increased by dividing the roots. - -_Hyssop_, _Rosemary_, and _Sage_ are natives of the south of Europe, and -the two first appreciate a light, sandy soil, and not too much sun. -Hyssop should be sowed in March or April; rooted off-sets may be taken -in these months or in August and September, or cuttings from the stems -in April or May, and these should be watered two or three times a week -till they have struck. Both Hyssop and Sage are the better for being cut -back when they have finished flowering. Loudon[86] says of Rosemary: -“The finest plants are raised from seed. Slips or cuttings of the young -shoots may be taken in the spring and summer and set in rows, two-thirds -into the ground and occasionally watered till they have struck. In the -autumn they may be transplanted.” There are four kinds of Sage: red, -green, small-leaved, or Sage of Virtue, broad-leaved or Balsamic. -Gardening books speak of the red variety as being the commonest, though -it seems to me that the common green sage is the one oftenest seen in -kitchen-gardens. Red Sage seldom comes “true” from seed but is easily -raised by cuttings, and it sometimes succumbs to a hard winter. The -other varieties are propagated by seed or by cuttings taken in May or -June; the outer shoots should be the ones chosen and they should be put -well into the ground and watered. After about three years the plants -begin to degenerate and new ones should be set. Three kinds of -_Marjoram_ are cultivated, _Winter_ (_Origanum Heracleoticum_), _Pot_ -(_O. Onites_) and _Sweet Marjoram_ (_O. Marjorana_). The last-named is -not a perennial. Winter and Pot Marjoram like a dry, light soil and are -best propagated by off-sets, slipping or parting the roots in spring or -autumn, but they may be also raised from seed. _Bergamot_, sometimes -called Bee Balm, is, Robinson says, of the simplest culture, thriving or -flowering in any position or soil. “For its scent alone, or for its -handsome crimson flowers it would be well worth cultivating.”[87] He -adds that the different varieties of _Monarda_ are admirably suited to -being planted “for naturalization in woods and shrubberies.” Bergamot -may be increased by division of the roots in the spring or grown from -seed. - - [86] “Encyclopædia of Gardening.” - - [87] “English Flower Garden.” - -_Balm_ grows almost too readily and has a terrible habit of spreading in -all directions unless severely checked. To propagate it, the roots -should be divided, or slips taken either in spring or autumn. - -_Thyme._--Of the varieties of _Serpyllum_ there seems no end, and the -number of the species of _Thymus_ is still dubious. Twelve kinds of them -are offered for sale in an ordinary seed list sent to me the other day, -but of these, few are grown in the kitchen-garden. _Common Thyme_ or -_Lemon Thyme_ are the kinds most usually cultivated. Common Thyme has -long, narrow-pointed leaves and Lemon Thyme is easily recognised by its -scent from the wild Thyme, of which it has generally been considered a -variety. _Golden_ or _Variegated Thyme_ (also lemon-scented) makes a -pretty and fragrant edging to a flower-bed, but should be cut back when -it has done flowering, unless the seed is to be saved, as it becomes -straggling and untidy, and there is more danger of its being killed by -the frost than if the winter finds it compact and bushy. Thyme is -propagated by seed, by taking up rooted side-shoots, or by cuttings -taken in the spring. It thrives best in a light, rich earth, and should -be occasionally watered till well rooted. - -There are two varieties of _Camomile_, the single and the -double-flowered; the first is the most valuable in medicine, but the -second is the most commonly met with. Camomile grows freely in most -soils, but seems naturally to choose gravel and sand. The roots may be -divided or, as the gardener before quoted, remarks: “Only let a plant of -it go to seed; it will take care of itself.” _Costmary_ is seldom grown. -Loudon says the whole plant has “a peculiarly agreeable odour”; -personally, the odour strikes me as exactly resembling that of mint -sauce. The plant is rather handsome, with large greyish leaves and small -deep-yellow flowers; it likes a dry soil and is increased by division of -the roots after the flowering time is over. - -_Mint_, _Peppermint_ and _Penny-royal_, demand the same treatment, and -all like moisture. They are easily increased by dividing the roots in -the spring or autumn, by taking off runners in the autumn, or by -cuttings taken in the spring. The cuttings should be planted about half -way into the earth. To have really good mint, it should be transplanted -about every third year. _Green Mint_ is sometimes required in the winter -and early spring, and this may be provided by putting a few outside -runners in a pot and placing it in bottom heat. “Plant for succession -every three weeks, as forced roots soon decay.” - -_Winter Savoury_ is “propagated by slips or cuttings in April or June, -planted in a shady border, and transplanted a foot apart and kept bushy -by cuttings.”[88] - - [88] Abercrombie, “Every Man his own Gardener.” - -_Fennel_ has become naturalised and is sometimes found growing wild by -the sea; it is usually raised from seed or increased by side off-sets of -the roots which may be taken in spring, summer or autumn. _Bugloss_ or -_Alkanet_ grows freely anywhere, but seems to prefer moisture, and it -may be increased by division of the roots or grown from seeds. - -Of _Mallows_ and _Marsh Mallows_, De la Quintinye says, “They ought to -be allowed a place in our Kitchen-Gardens... they grow of their own -accord,” but he admits that it is best to “sow them in some bye-place,” -because of their propensity to spread. They are raised from seed, but -cuttings may do well, and off-sets of the root, carefully divided, are -satisfactory. _Sweet Cicely_ may be increased by dividing the roots. It -is well suited to an open shrubbery or wild garden, as well as to a -herb-border. _Elecampane_ is propagated by off-sets, taken when the -plant has done flowering; it likes a moist soil or shade, and sends up -tall spikes of bright yellow flowers. This year some of mine were over -six feet high. - -_Angelica_, Abercrombie tells us, is an annual-perennial, which means -that it must be taken up and newly planted every year to be at all good, -though off-sets from the plant would continue to come up of their own -accord. It delights in moisture, and flourishes on the banks of running -streams, but will do well almost anywhere. Angelica is best raised from -seed, which, if sown in August, will grow better than if sown earlier in -the year and it will sometimes grow from cuttings. _Liquorice_ is -“propagated by cuttings of the roots. On account of the depth to which -the root strikes when the plant has room to flourish, the soil should -have a good staple of mould thirty inches or three feet in depth. Taking -the small horizontal roots of established plants, cut them into sections -six inches long. Having traced out rows a yard asunder, plant the sets -along each row at intervals of eighteen inches, covering them entirely -with mould.”[89] - - [89] Abercrombie. - -[Illustration: PLANTATION OF LAVENDER] - -_Saffron_ will grow in any soil, but prefers a sandy one, and plenty of -sun. It is increased by seed, and by off-sets, which must be taken from -the bulb when the plant is in a state of rest. As Saffron is an -autumn-flowering plant, the time of rest is in the beginning of summer, -and the bulb should be taken up when the leaves (which appear in the -spring) begin to decay. The parent bulbs should be kept dry for a month -and then replanted, that they may have time to “establish themselves” -and flower before winter. This should be done once in three years. -_Skirrets_ are seldom eaten, but occasionally seen; they may be raised -from seed, or by off-sets from the roots taken in spring or autumn. -_Chives_ are propagated by dividing the roots either in spring or -autumn, and when the leaves are wanted they should be cut close, and -then new ones will grow up in their place. - -_Sorrel_ of two kinds is cultivated, _Rumex Acetosa_ and _Rumex -Scutatus_ or _French Sorrel_; Garden Sorrel rejoices in a damp, French -Sorrel in a dry, soil. Both are most commonly increased by parting the -roots, which may be done either in spring or autumn, and the roots -planted about a foot apart and watered. Loudon says: “The finer plants -are propagated from seed,” which should be sown in March, though it may -be sown in any of the spring months, and the plants must be thinned out -when they are one or two inches high. When the stalks run up in the -summer they should be cut back occasionally. - -_Herb Patience_ or _Patience Dock_ is raised from seed sown in lines and -thinned out and the leaves to be eaten must be cut young. _Burnet_ is -easily raised from seed, or increased by dividing the roots in the -spring. All the flower-stalks ought to be cut down, if they are not -required for seed. _Dandelion_, it is hardly necessary to say, is only -too easily raised from seed or by roots. Loudon says that when wanted -for the table, the leaves should be tied together and earthed up, which -will blanch them satisfactorily; otherwise, it may be grown blanched by -keeping it always in a dark place. - -For obvious reasons there are obstacles to the cultivation of -_Water-cress_; a very little running water, however, will suffice, and -it may be grown from seeds or by setting roots in the shallow stream. It -should never be grown in stagnant water. Loudon quotes several -authorities on the subject of growing _Samphire_; it is difficult to -please, but this treatment was successful at Thames Ditton. The Samphire -was “placed in a sheltered, dry situation, screened from the morning -sun, protected by litter in the winter, and in the spring the soil was -sprinkled with a little powdered barilla, to console it for the lack of -its beloved sea-spray.” It is raised from seed which should be sown as -soon as it is ripe, or the roots may be divided. - -In the early part of August, the young shoots should be cut back, and -the decayed flower-stems removed, on such plants as hyssop, sage, -lavender, and the like, and they will then send out new short shoots, -which will make a close, bushy head for the winter. If possible, this -should be done in damp weather. In October, the beds should be weeded; -if the plants stand at some distance from each other, the earth between -should be loosened, and if the beds are old, a little manure would be a -great advantage. Amongst close-growing herbs, digging is impossible, -but the ground must be hoed, raked and cleaned of weeds. - -BIENNIALS.--_Parsley._--There are many kinds of parsley, and one -specially recommended is the triple-curled variety. All parsleys are -raised from seed, and it is a good thing to sow one bed in March and a -second in June, thus securing a continual supply all through the winter. -The plants want well thinning out, and if the weather be very dry, the -last sown should have two or three waterings with weak manure water. To -protect them from the frost, a reed-hurdle, or even a few branches of -fir, may be used, but, of course, a box-frame and light is the best. -Parsley likes a deep soil, not too rich; and a good quantity of soot -worked into it much improves the plants. - -_Caraway_ is raised from seed, which should be sown in the autumn, and -it may also be sown in March or April, but the result will not be so -good. This plant likes a rich, light soil. _Dill_ should be sown in the -spring, either broadcast or in drills, six to twelve inches apart. It -may be sown in autumn, but this is not very advisable. _Clary_ is sown -in the end of March or in April, and should be transplanted to six to -twelve inches apart, when the plants are two or three inches high; it -may also be grown from cuttings. - -_Rampions_ should be thinly sowed in April or May in shady borders. If -the plant is grown for use, it must not be allowed to flower, and in -this case, it should not be sown till the end of May. The plants should -be moderately watered at first (and later if the weather be very dry), -and when sufficiently grown, they should be thinned out to three or four -inches apart. The roots are fit for use in November. _Alexanders_ or -_Alisanders_, will send up shoots indefinitely, but must be sown afresh -every year if wanted for the table. The seed should be sown in drills -eighteen inches or more apart, and the plants thinned out to five or -six inches distance from each other. When they are well grown they -should be earthed up several inches on each side to blanch them. - -ANNUALS.--_Anise_ and _Coriander_ like a warm, dry, light soil. If this -is not procurable, anise should be “sown in pots in heat, and removed to -a warm site in May.”[90] Coriander may be sown in February, if it be -mild and dry, and the seeds must be buried half an inch. _Cumin_ is -rarely seen; but it is advised that it should be sown in a warm, sunny -border in March or April. - - [90] Loudon. - -_Sweet Marjoram_ and _Summer Savory_ must both be sowed in light earth, -either in drills nine inches apart, or broadcast, when they must be -thinned out later on. The plants thinned out may be planted in another -bed at six inches distance from each other, and must be watered. _Sweet -Basil_ and _Bush Basil_ are both raised from seed sown in a hot-bed in -the end of March, and the young plants should be set a foot apart in a -warm border in May. They may be sown in an open border, but there is a -risk of their coming up at all, and a certainty, that if they do, the -plants will be late and small. Sweet Basil (_Ocymum Basilicum_) is much -the largest plant, Bush Basil (_O. Mininum_) being scarcely half the -size; both like a rich soil. - -_Borage_ is raised from seed, and, if let alone, will seed itself and -come up, year after year, in the same place. It likes a dry soil. -Gardening books recommend that it should be planted in drills and -thinned, but for the sake of the picturesque, it should be dotted about -among low-growing herbs in single plants or little clumps. - -_Marigolds_ should be planted in light, dry soil; they may be “sowed in -the spring, summer, or autumn, to remain or be transplanted a foot -asunder.”[91] The outer edge (near the palings) of Regent’s Park, close -to Hanover Gate, testifies to their power of seeding themselves. -Authorities differ as to whether _Finocchio_ is an annual, but at -anyrate, in England, it must be treated as one. Finocchio should be -sowed in dry, light earth, and must afterwards be thinned, or the plants -transplanted to a distance of fifteen inches between each. The swelling -stems “of some tolerable substance” must be earthed up five or six -inches, and will be blanched and tender in a fortnight’s time, and if -sowed in successive sowings, it may be eaten from June till December. - - [91] Abercrombie. - -_Endive_ must be sown in successive crops in July and the early part of -August, and this will produce “a sufficiency to last through the winter -and early spring. If sown earlier it runs to seed the same year; but if -early endive is required, a little white-curled variety is the best to -sow. The ground should be light and rich on a dry subsoil”; when -sufficiently grown, the plants should be thinned, and those taken out, -transplanted at a distance of ten or twelve inches apart, and watered -occasionally till they are well rooted. Endive is more easy to blanch if -sowed in trenches than in level ground. In wet weather, blanching is -best accomplished by putting a garden-pot over the plant; but, in -summer, it is better to tie the leaves together and earth them half way -up. The process will take from a week in dry weather to nearly three -weeks in wet, and the plant must be taken up soon after it is finished, -as after a few days it begins to decay. In severe frost the bed should -be covered with straw litter. - -_Chervil_ is sown in August and September, and can be used in the same -autumn and through the winter; if successive crops are wanted, it may be -sown any time between the end of February and August. It should be sown -in shallow drills, and the plants left to grow as they come up. When the -leaves are two or three inches high they are ready to be used, and if -cut close, fresh leaves will shoot up in their place. _Lambs’ Lettuce_ -is appreciated chiefly in the winter; it should be sown in August, and -again in September to last through the winter and early spring. Dry -fairly mellow soil will suit it, and it may be left to grow as it was -sowed. - -_Rocket._--“This is an agreeable addition to cresses and mustard, early -in spring. It should be sown in a warm border in February, and during -the next months if a succession is wanted. After the first rough leaf -has appeared, thin out the plants.”[92] The _Purslanes_ are both tender -annuals, Green Purslane (_Portulaca olerecea_) being rather hardier than -Golden Purslane (_P. sativa_). They should be sowed on hot-beds in -February or March; or in a warm border, they may be sowed in drills -during fine weather in May. They should be left as they grow, and when -the leaves are gathered they must be cut low, and then a fresh crop will -appear. Purslane must be watered occasionally in very dry, hot weather. - - [92] Loudon. - -The above remarks pretend to being no more than bare outlines of the art -of growing certain herbs. Many of these have outlived their reputation, -and are now cultivated for no practical purpose, but for sentiment’s -sake, or for their aromatic grace, by those who “take a delight” in such -things. To these I hope these suggestions may be useful. Any person -desiring to bring a special herb to perfection is hardly likely to need -reference to one of the many admirable gardening dictionaries, for it is -not probable that he would look to an amateur for solid instruction on -such points. To conclude, Leonard Meager[93] gives some pithy directions -which it is well to bear in mind:-- - -“In setting herbs ever observe to leave the tops no more than a handful -above the ground, and the roots a foot under the earth. - - [93] “New Art of Gardening.” - -“Twine the roots of the herbs you set, unless too brittle. Gather herbs -when the sap is full in the top of them. Such herbs as you intend to -gather for drying, to keep for use all the winter, do it about -Lammas-tide; dry them in the shade that the sun draw not out their -vertue, but in a clear air and breezy wind, that no mustiness may taint -them.” - -Cut all herbs just before they flower, except where the flower heads are -wanted--lavender or camomile, for instance. These should be cut just -before the flowers are fully open. - - - - -CHAPTER V - -OF HERBS IN MEDICINE - - When bright Aurora gilds the eastern skies, - I wake and from my squalid couch arise... - Be this my topic, this my aim and end, - Heav’n’s will to obey and seek t’oblige a friend... - Some herbs adorn the hills--some vales below, - Where limpid streamlets in meanders flow, - Here’s Golden Saxifrage, in vernal hours, - Springs up when water’d well by fertile showers: - It flourishes in bogs where waters beat, - The yellow flowers in clusters stand complete. - Adorn’d with snowy white, in meadows low, - White Saxifrage displays a lucid show:... - Why should my friends in pining grief remain, - Or suffer with excruciating pain? - The wholesome medicines, if by heaven blest, - Sure anodynes will prove and give them rest.... - Here’s Tormentilla, with its searching parts, - Expels the pois’nous venom from our hearts... - Wood-betony is in its prime in May, - In June and July does its bloom display, - A fine, bright red does this grand plant adorn, - To gather it for drink I think no scorn; - I’ll make a conserve of its fragrant flowers, - Cephalick virtues in this herb remain, - To chase each dire disorder from the brain. - Delirious persons here a cure may find - To stem the phrensy and to calm the mind. - All authors own wood-betony is good, - ’Tis king o’er all the herbs that deck the wood; - A king’s physician erst such notice took - Of this, he on its virtues wrote a book. - - _The Poor Phytologist._--JAMES CHAMBERS. - - -The old herbalists used so many herbs and found each one good for so -many disorders that one is filled with wonder that patients ever -died, till one examines into the prescriptions and methods generally, -and then one is more astonished that any of them recovered. I shall not -mention any prescriptions here, excepting the celebrated antidote to all -poison, Venice Treacle. This included seventy-three ingredients, and was -evolved from an earlier and also famous nostrum, the _Mithridaticum_, -originated by Mithridates, King of Pontus. Of course, this “treacle” was -in no way connected with the sugary syrup we call by this name, but is a -corruption of the Latin--_Theriaca_, a counter poison. Venice Treacle is -an extreme example of the multitude of conflicting elements that were -massed together and boldly administered in ancient remedies. The memory -of it still clings about a wayside plant, _Erysimum cheiranthoides_, -better known as Treacle-Mustard, which has gained its English name from -the fact that its seeds were used in this awe-inspiring compound. - -[Illustration: CHELSEA PHYSIC GARDEN] - -Anyone who is interested in ancient remedies can easily gain much -information from Culpepper or Salmon. Either herbal can be procured at a -low price (in a cheap edition) from any second-hand bookseller, and -Salmon’s wild statements, especially about animals, and Culpepper’s -biting wit, make them amusing reading. It is more instructive to examine -the principles that animated the practice, and from one, the Doctrine of -Signatures took form--a doctrine widely believed in, and of great -influence. Coles[94] expounds it with great clearness: “Though Sin and -Sattan have plunged mankinde into an Ocean of Infirmities... yet the -mercy of God, which is over all His workes, maketh ... herbes for the -use of man, and hath not onely stamped upon them a distinct forme, but -also given them particular Signatures, whereby a man may read, even in -legible characters, the use of them.... Viper’s Bugloss hath its stalks -all to be speckled like a snake or viper, and is a most singular remedy -against poyson and the sting of scorpions.... Heart Trefoyle is so -called, not onely because the leafe is triangular, like the heart of a -man, but also because each leafe contains the perfection of the heart, -and that in its proper colour, viz., in flesh colour. It defendeth the -heart.... The leaves of Saint John’s Wort seem to be pricked or pinked -very thick with little holes like the pores of a man’s skin. It is a -soveraigne remedy for any cut in the skin.” This was a view very -generally shared. William Browne says: - - In physic by some signature - Nature herself doth point us out a cure. - - [94] “Art of Simpling.” - -And again: - - Heaven hath made me for thy cure, - Both the physician and the signature. - - _Br. Pastorals_, book iii. - -Drayton’s _Hermit_ pursued a development of this theory. He merely -accepted the conclusions of earlier authorities who had made discoveries -about the properties of plants and had named them accordingly. - - Some (herbs) by experience, as we see, - Whose _names express their natures_. - - _Muses’ Elysium._ - -It was, naturally, more simple to administer all-heal, for a wound; -hore-hound, for “mad dogge’s biting,” and so on, than to decipher the -signature from the plant, himself, and so he and many others, prescribed -the herbs, with more reference to their names, than unprejudiced -attention to results. - -The planets were another determining factor in the choice of remedies. -Each plant was dedicated to a planet and each planet presided over a -special part of the body, therefore, when any part was affected, a herb -belonging to the planet that governed that special part must, as a -rule, be used. Thus, Mercury presided over the brain, so for a headache -or “Folly and Simplicity (the Epidemicall diseases of the Time)” one of -Mercury’s herbs must be chosen. Mercurial herbs were, as a rule, -refreshing, aromatic and of “very subtle parts.” The planets seem -usually to have caused, as well as cured the diseases in their special -province, and therefore their own herbs, brought about the cure “by -sympathy.” But sometimes, a planet would cause a disorder in the -province ruled by another planet, to whom the first was in opposition, -and in this case the cure must be made “by antipathy.” Thus the lungs -are under Jupiter, to whom Mercury is opposed, therefore in any case of -the lungs being affected, the physician must first discover whether -Jupiter or Mercury were the agent and if the latter, the remedy must be -“antipathetical”; it must be from one of Mercury’s herbs. Sometimes -where a planet had caused a disease in the part it governed, an -“antipathetical” cure, by means of an adversary’s herbs, was advised; -for instance Jupiter is opposed to Saturn, so Jupiter’s herbs might be -given for toothache or pains in the bones caused by Saturn, for the -bones are under Saturn’s dominion. An antipathetical remedy, however, -Culpepper does not recommend for common use, for “sympathetical cures -strengthen nature; antipathetical cures, in one degree or another, -weaken it.” Besides this, the position of the planet had to be -considered, the “House” that it was in, and the aspect in which it was -to the moon and other planets. - -“A benevolent Planet in the sixth, cures the disease without the help of -a Physitian. - -“A malevolent Planet there causeth a change in the disease, and usually -from better to worse. - -“A malevolent in the Ascendant threatens death, and makes the sick as -cross-grained as _Bajazet_ the Turkish Emperor when he was in the Iron -Cage.” - -This is from Culpepper’s “Astrological Judgment of Diseases”; in his -“Herbal” he gives definite directions: - -“Fortify the body with herbs of the nature of the Lord of the Ascendant, -’tis no matter whether he be a Fortune or Infortune in this case. - -“Let your medicine be something antipathetical to the Lord of the Sixth. - -“If the Lord of the Tenth be strong, make use of his medicines. - -“If this cannot well be, make use of the medicines of the Light of -Time.” - -Turning to the herbs appropriated to the special planets, we find that -those of Mars were usually strong, bright and vigorous, and cured ills -caused by violence, including the sting of “a martial creature, imagine -a wasp, a hornet, a scorpion.” Yellow flowers were largely dedicated to -the Sun or Moon, radiant, bright-yellow ones to the Sun; these of paler, -fainter hues to the Moon. Flowers dedicated to either were good for the -eyes, for the eyes are ruled by “the Luminaries.” Jupiter’s herbs had -generally, “_Leaves_ smooth, even, slightly cut and pointed, the veins -not prominent. _Flowers_ graceful, pleasing bright, succulent.” The -herbs of Venus were those with many flowers, of bright or delicate -colours and pleasant odours. Saturn, who is almost always looked upon as -being unfavourable, had only plants, whose leaves were “hairy, dry, -hard, parched, coarse,”[95] and whose flowers were “gloomy, dull, -greenish, faded or dirty white, pale red, invariably hirsute, prickly -and disagreeable.” - - [95] Folkard. - -One does not know how much modern physicians care about propitiating -Jupiter, but certainly they make an effort in that direction every time -that they do, as did the Ancients, and write Rx--thus making his -sign--at the top of a prescription. The small attention paid by doctors -to herbs is often supposed to be a modern development, but hear -Culpepper in 1652! “Drones lie at home and eat up what the bees have -taken pains for. Just so do the college of physicians lie at home and -domineer and suck out the sweetness of other men’s labours and studies, -themselves being as ignorant in the matter of herbs as a child of four -years old, as I can make appear to any rational man by their last -dispensatory.” - -It was not unnatural that the Herbalists should maintain the superiority -of vegetable over mineral drugs, and Gerarde expresses his opinions in -the introduction to his “Herbal.” “I confesse blind Pluto is nowadays -more sought after than quick-sighted Phœbus, and yet this dusty -metall,... is rather snatched of man to his own destruction.... -Contrariwise, in the expert knowledge of herbes what pleasure still -renewed with varietie? What small expence? What security? And yet what -an apt and ordinary meanes to conduct men to that most desired benefit -of health?” - -Many herbs have been expunged from modern Pharmacopœias. Perhaps we have -no use for them now that we, in England, no longer live in perpetual -terror of the bitings of sea-hares, scorpions or tarantulas, as our -forefathers seem to have done! In Harrison’s “Description of England,” -the habit of preferring foreign, to native herbs, is rebuked. “But -herein (the cherishing of foreign herbs) I find some cause of just -complaint, for that we extoll their uses so farre that we fall into -contempt of our owne, which are, in truth, more beneficiall and apt for -us than such as grow elsewhere, sith (as I said before) everie region -hath abundantly within his own limits whatsoever is needfull and most -convenient for them that dwell therein.” Probably there are to-day some -thinkers of this stamp, as well as others who will hold anything -valuable as long as it has been fetched from “overseas.” - -Russell gives instructions, in his “Boke of Nurture,” how to “make a -Bath medicinable,” by adding herbs,--mallow, hollyhocks and fennel being -among the number. And he directs that herbs “sweet and greene” should be -hanged round the room “when the Master will have a bath”; a proceeding -which was evidently something of a ceremony. - -To-day, there is an unfortunate tendency among the poor, to desert -herbs, _not_ for “doctor’s medicine,” but for any quackery they may -chance to see “on the paper” and some of these remedies are advertised -to cure nearly as many and diverse diseases, as any of the compounds -prescribed by the Ancients. Consequently, one usually hears of the uses -of herbs in the past tense. There is a curious poem (published at -Ipswich, 1796) called the “Poor Phytologist, or the Author Gathering -Herbs,” by James Chambers, Itinerant Poet, which gives the names and -virtues of the simples most prized at that date. He was a pedlar, who -wandered about the country, always accompanied by several dogs, and he -added to his “precarious mode of existence, the art of making nets and -composing acrostics.” I have quoted some of his lines at the beginning -of this chapter, but few of the herbs he mentions are in popular use -now, at least in the west of England. Betony occurs in some old village -recipes still employed, though its vaunted powers have been declared -vain by science. Amongst those that I have known, or have heard of, -through personal friends, as being still, or quite recently in use, are -the following:--Dandelion, Centaury, Meadow-Sweet and Wild-Sage are used -as “bitters.” By _Wild_-Sage, _Wood_-Sage is usually, if not always, -meant. Dandelion is, of course, in the British Pharmacopœia; and -Wood-Sage, though not officinal, is asked for by some chemists. Bear’s -foot (Hellebore) has five finger-like leaves, but one finger is bad and -must be torn off. Angelica is a wonderful herb; Parkinson put it in the -fore-front of all medicinal plants and it holds almost as high a place -among village herbalists to-day. Among many other virtues, the dried -leaves are said to have great power to reduce inflammation if steeped in -hot water and applied to the affected part. Mallows, especially -Marsh-Mallows, retain their old reputation for relieving the same ill -and the well-known _Pâtés de Guimauve_ are made from their roots. Elder, -beloved by all herbalists, still keeps its place in the British -Pharmacopœia, and the cooling effects of Elder-Flower Water, none can -deny. In the country, Elder leaves and buds are most highly valued and -are used in drinks, poultices and ointments. Hyssop, or as some call it -I-sop, is sometimes used. Primrose, Poor Man’s Friend, and Comfrey are -together made into an ointment, but White Comfrey should be used when -the ointment is for a woman, Red-flowered Comfrey when it is for a man. -“Poor Man’s Friend” in this case is Hedge-Garlic, but the name is -sometimes given to Swine’s Cress (_Lapsana Communis_). The juice of -House-Leek, mixed with cream, relieves inflammation and particularly the -irritation which follows vaccination in an arm “taking beautifully.” -_Probatum est._ Penny-pies or Penny-wort (_Cotyledon Umbilicus_) is said -to be equally efficacious, especially used with cream, and when simmered -with the “sides of the pan,” have been known to heal, where linseed -poultices failed to do good. When the leaf of Penny-wort is applied to a -wound, one side draws, the other side heals. Wormwood is often in -request by brewers. Marigold-tea is a widely administered remedy for the -measles, and is one of the few remedies which everybody seems to know. -Very often families appear to have their own special formula, and even -where the chief herbs in different prescriptions to relieve the same -ailment are identical, the lesser herbs vary. Saffron was also -recommended for measles; both probably on the “Doctrine of Colour -Analogy” referred to the rash. An old Herbalist told me that he -considered Marigolds nearly as good as Saffron and “more home-grown, so -to speak.” Dr Primrose, a physician in the reign of Charles II., who -wrote a book on “Popular Errors in Physick,” inveighs against the custom -then in vogue of covering “the sick [with measles or small-pox] with red -cloaths, for they are thought by the affinitie of the colour to draw the -blood out to them, or at least some suppose that it is done by force of -imagination. And not onely the people, but also very many physicians use -them.” Marigold-tea is at anyrate a better survival as “treatment” than -this system! Meadow-Saffron is still officinal, and is well known in the -form it is usually dispensed, Tincture of Colchicum. Broom has a place -in the pharmacopœia, and is also a popular remedy. Furze is not -officinal, but a preparation made from it, Ulexine, is mentioned in a -well-known medical dictionary. An infusion of Furze-blossom used to be -given to children to drink in scarlet fever. Camomile is officinal, and -the great authority, Dr Schimmelbusch recently recommended it as a -mouth-wash, for disinfecting the muscous membrane after cases of -operation in the mouth. In a fomentation Camomile heads are a recognised -anodyne; and Wild Camomile and Red Pimpernel are given locally for -asthma, it is said, with great success. Boy’s love, (Southernwood), -Plantain leaves, Black Currant leaves, Elder buds, Angelica and Parsley, -chopped, pounded, and simmered with clarified butter, make an ointment -for burns or raw surfaces. A maker of this particular ointment near -Exeter, died a year or two ago, but up to her death it was much in -request. Butter is always better for making ointments than lard, because -cows feed on herbs, and all herbs are good for something. Sage poultices -and sage gargle are very good for sore throats, better than some of -the gargles that “the gentlemen” prescribe (so a Herbalist told me), and -red sage is better than green. Rosemary has long been celebrated for -making the hair grow. Water-cress is very good for the blood, and the -expressed juice has been known to prove a wonderful cure for rheumatism. -A lady told me of a case she knew in Berkshire, where a man was -absolutely crippled till he tried this remedy, and afterwards quite -recovered his power to move and a very good degree of strength. -Water-cress was one of the plants from which Count Mattei extracted his -vegetable electricity. Parsley, freshly gathered and laid on the -forehead is good for a headache, and if put in a fold of muslin and laid -across inflamed eyes, it is said to be beneficial. Endive tea is cooling -and is given to “fever” patients, and the dry leaves of lovage infused -in white wine were good for ague. An infusion of Raspberry leaves, -Agrimony, and Barberry-bark was good for consumptive patients, and -Cowslip and Cucumber were made into a wash to make the complexion -“splendent,” to use an old expression. Coltsfoot is still given for -coughs; Sweet Marjoram was administered for dropsy, Alderberries for -boils; Arb-Rabbit (Herb-Robert) made into poultices for “inflammation;” -Brook-lime, given for St Anthony’s Fire, and Brown Nut, made into a -decoction, was taken hot just before going to bed, for a cold. -Groundsel, Docks, Hay-Maids (Ground-Ivy), Feather-Few, Chicken-Weed, -Hedge-Garlic or Hedge-Mustard, I have also heard recommended at -different times. The Blessed Thistle is a useless ingredient in a good -herb-ointment for burns. Amongst the last named plants are several not -strictly to be called “herbs,” but they and others I shall mention are -“simples,” and as such they fitly find a place among medicinal herbs. -Foxglove and Belladonna, of course, are among the most important drugs -in the Pharmacopœia, and both the fruits and leaves of Hemlock have -also a place there. Foxglove, called in Devonshire, Cowflop, is -recommended as an application to heal sores, and one woman told me that -it should always be gathered on the north side of the hedge. It is -interesting to note that the Italians have a proverb, “Aralda, tutte -piaghe salda” (Foxglove heals all sores). Cliders (Goose-grass, _Galium -aparine_) was much given for tumours and cancers, and is praised by -other than merely village sages. Dr Fernie quotes the testimony of -several doctors who used it with success, and adds, “some of our trading -druggists now furnish curative preparations made from the fresh herb.” - -[Illustration: PLANTATION OF POPPIES (_P. Somniferum_)] - - No ear hath heard, no tongue can tell, - The virtues of the pimpernel. - -This most popular plant, amongst other uses, is put into poultices. -Bacon mentions it as a weather prophet. “There is a small red flower in -the stubble-fields, which country people call the wincopipe, which if it -open in the morning, you may be sure of a fine day to follow.”[96] The -virtues of Betony are set forth by the “Poor Phytologist,” and he is -quite right in saying that it was once esteemed a most sovereign remedy -for all troubles connected with the brain. It was, in fact, so far -extolled that an adage was once current:-- - - “Sell your coat and buy betony.” - -In Italy there are two modern sayings, one a pious aspiration, “May you -have more virtues than Betony”; and the other an allusion, “Known as -well as Betony.” Though the reputation of this plant has quite withered, -that of horehound is in a more flourishing state, and it is still, I -believe, considered of real use for coughs. Violet leaves are now -becoming a fashionable remedy in the hands of amateur doctors, who -prescribe them for cancer. In the Highlands, it is said, they were used -for the complexion, and a recipe is translated from the Gælic, “Anoint -thy face with goat’s milk in which violets have been infused, and there -is not a young prince on earth who will not be charmed with thy beauty.” -The Greater Celandine was once dedicated to the sun, and it is still -recommended as being good for the eyes, though not by members of the -faculty. The following advice was given me by an old Cornish woman, but -I am almost sure the flower she spoke of was the Lesser Celandine. This -probably arose from a confusion of the two flowers, as I have never -heard or seen the Lesser Celandine elsewhere commended for this purpose. -“Take celandines and pound them with salt. Put them on some rag, and lay -it on the inside of the wrist on the side of whichever eye is bad. -Change the flowers twice a day, and go on applying them till the eye is -well. Put enough alum to curdle it, into some scalded milk. Bathe the -eyes with the liquid and apply the curds to the place.” - - [96] “Natural History.” Cent. IX. - -Green Oil made after the following recipe has often proved beneficial -for slight burns and scalds, and smells much nicer than the boracic -ointment usually ordered for such injuries. It is also recommended for -fresh wounds and bruises. “Take equal quantities of sage, camomile, -wormwood and marsh-mallows, pick them clean and put them into sweet oil -and as much of it as will cover the herbs; if a quart add a quarter of a -pound of sugar, and so on in proportion. Let them stand a week without -stirring, then put them into the sun for a fortnight, stir them every -day. Strain them with a strong cloth very hard, and set it on a slow -fire with some red rose-buds and the young tops of lavender, let them -simmer on a slow fire for two hours, strain off the oil, and put to it a -gill of brandy. (If some hog’s lard be poured upon the herbs, they will -keep and make an excellent poultice for any kind of sore.) - -The oil should be applied _immediately_ to any kind of bruise or burn. -It will prevent all inflammation and heal the wound. The time to begin -making it is when the herbs are in full vigour, which depends much on -the season being early; in general the middle of May is about the time, -as the rose-buds and lavender would not be ready sooner than the middle -of June. - -Mrs Milne Home gives the ingredients of the _Tisane de Sept Fleurs_, -which, she says, is often prescribed by French doctors for colds and -sleeplessness-- - - “Bouillon blanc. Mullein. - Tilleul. Lime. - Violette. Violet. - Coquelicot. Poppy. - Pied de chat. Tussilago. - Guimauve. Mallow. - Mauve. Another sort of mallow.” - -I think Mauve means mallow, Guimauve, marsh-mallow. Beyond these simples -that I have mentioned as being in popular use, various English plants -and herbs are used not much (if at all) by country people, but by -medical men, and a few of those included in the British Pharmacopœia may -be remarked on here. - -Hops are used in the form of _Infusum Lupuli_. They have long had the -reputation of inducing sleep, and George III. slept on a hop-pillow. To -prevent the hops crackling (and producing exactly the opposite effect) -it is advised that a little alcohol should be sprinkled on them. To eat -poppy-seed was thought a safe means of bringing drowsiness. “But,” says -Dr Primrose (about 1640), “Opium is now brought into use, the rest [of -soporifics] being layd aside. Yet the people doe abhorre from the use -thereof and avoyd it as present poyson, when notwithstanding being -rightly prepared, and administered in a convenient dose, it is a very -harmlesse and wholesome medicament. The Ancients indeed thought it to -bee poyson, but that is onely when it is taken in too great a quantity.” -One wonders what experiences “the people” went through to learn this -terror of the drug! Gerarde and Parkinson both commend it as a medicine -that “mitigateth all kinde of paines,” but say that it must be used with -great caution. Browne refers to the poppy’s power of soothing. - - “Where upon the limber grass - Poppy and mandragoras, - With like simples not a few - Hang for ever drops of dew. - Where flows Lèthe without coil, - Softly like a stream of oil. - Hie thee, thither, gentle Sleep.” - - In _The Inner Temple Masque_. - -It is from the seed of the White Poppy (_Papaver somniferum_) that opium -is prepared, and that procured from poppies grown in England is quite as -good, and often purer, than opium imported from the East. The first -poppies that were cultivated in this country for the purpose were grown -by Mr John Ball of Williton about 1794. Timbs quotes: “‘Cowley -Plantarium. In old time the seed of the white poppy parched was served -up as a dessert.’ By this we are reminded that white poppy seeds are -eaten to this day upon bread made exclusively for Jews. The ‘twist’ -bread is generally prepared by brushing over the outside upper crust -with egg and sprinkling upon it the seeds.” In Germany, _Mond-kuchen_, a -kind of pastry in which poppy seeds are mixed, is still a favourite -dish. _Mond-blumen_ (moon-flowers) is a name not unnaturally given to -poppies, as they have been emblems of sleep ever since the Greeks used -to represent their deities of Sleep, Death and Night as crowned with -them. - - “The water-lily from the marish ground - With the wan poppy,” - -were both dedicated to the moon. - -Gentian is greatly valued and largely prescribed by our doctors, but -Parkinson raises a curious echo from a time when, it is generally -supposed, people were less “nice” than they are to-day. “The wonderful -wholesomeness of Gentian cannot be easily knowne to us, by reason our -daintie tastes refuse to take thereof, for the bitternesse sake, but -otherwise it would undoubtedly worke admirable cures.” Valerian was, and -is officinal, but seldom finds its way into “pottage” nowadays. Gerarde, -however, writes: “It hath been had (and is to this day among the poore -people of our Northerne parts) in such veneration amongst them, that no -broths, pottage or physicall meats are worth anything if Setwall were -not at an end: whereupon some woman Poet or other hath made these -verses: - - “They that will have their heale, - Must put Setwall in their keale (kail).” - -The herbalist speaks of “Garden Valerian or Setwall” as if they were one -and the same, but Mr Britten says that Setwall was not _Valeriana -officinalis_ but _V. pyrenaica_. All varieties seem to have been used as -remedies, and in Drayton’s charming “Eclogue,” of which Dowsabel is the -heroine, he shows that it was used as an adornment. - - “A daughter, ycleapt Dowsabel, - A maiden fair and free, - And for she was her father’s heir, - Full well she was ycond the leir, - Of mickle courtesy. - The silk well couth she twist and twine - And make the fine march-pine, - And with the needle-work; - And she couth help the priest to say - His mattins on a holy day - And sing a psalm in kirk.... - The maiden in a morn betime, - Went forth when May was in the prime. - To get sweet setywall, - The honeysuckle, the harlock, - The lily and the ladysmock, - To deck her summerhall.” - -[Illustration: A FIELD OF ENGLISH ACONITE] - -The summary of Dowsabel’s education is so delightful, that though it was -irrelevant, I could not refrain from quoting it. Aconite, Wolfsbane, or -Monkshood (_Aconitum Napellus_) was held in wholesome terror by the old -herbalists, who described it as being most venomous and deadly. Gerarde -says, “There hath beene little heretofore set downe concerning the -virtues of the Aconite, but much might be said of the hurts that have -come thereby.” Parkinson chiefly recommends it to “hunters of wild -beastes, in which to dippe the heads of their arrows they shoote, or -darts they throw at the wild beastes which killeth them that are wounded -speedily”; but, he says, it may be used in outward applications. Aconite -was first administered internally by Stoerck, who prescribed it for -rheumatism, with good results, and it is now known to be sedative to the -heart and respiratory organs, and to reduce temperature. - -Other English-grown plants in the Pharmacopœia are: Anise, Artemisia -maritima (Wormwood), Uvæ Ursi (Bearberries), Coriander, Caraway, Dill, -Fennel, Flax (Linseed), Henbane, Wych-Hazel, Horse-Radish, Liquorice, -Lavender, Mint, Mezereon, Musk, Mustard, Arnica, Pyrethrum, Rosemary, -Squills, Saffron and Winter-green. In the making of Thymol, a -preparation in common hospital use, _Monarda punctata_ (Bergamot), Oil -of Thyme and _Carum copticus_ are used. - -The following plants are not yet to be found in the Pharmacopœia, which -includes those only that have been tried by very long experience, but -leading physicians have prescribed these drugs with success. -_Convalleria_, from Lily of the Valley; _Salix nigra_, from the Willow; -_Savin_, Juniper; _Rhus_, Sumach; _Aletris_, Star-Grass; _Lycopodium_, -Club-Moss; _Grindelia_; from Larkspur, Oil of _Stavesacre_; and from -Broom, _Spartein_. - -There are two plants that I do not like to omit, for their history’s -sake, though their power to do good is no longer believed in, Plantain -and Lungwort. The first was considered good for wounds in the days of -Chaucer, and Shakespeare mentions it. - - _Romeo._ Your plantain leaf is excellent for that. - - _Benvolio._ For what, I pray thee? - - _Romeo._ For your broken shin. - - _Romeo and Juliet_, I. 2, 51. - -Lungwort (_Pulmonaria officinalis_) owes its name and its reputation to -the white spots on the leaves, which were thought to be the “signature,” -showing that it would cure infirmities and ulcers of the lungs. It is -remarkable how many popular names this flower has. Gerarde tells us that -the leaves are used among pot-herbes, and calls it Cowslips of -Jerusalem, Wild Comfrey and Sage of Bethlem; and other country names -are, Beggar’s Basket, Soldiers and Sailors, Adam and Eve, and in Dorset, -Mary’s Tears. The name Adam and Eve arose from the fact that some of the -flowers are red and others blue: red, in earlier days, being usually -associated with men and blue with women. One of Drayton’s prettiest -verses alludes to it. - - “Maids, get the choicest flowers, a garland and entwine; - Nor pink, nor pansies, let there want, be sure of eglantine. - See that there be store of lilies, - (Call’d of shepherds daffadillies) - With roses, damask, white, and red, the dearest fleur-de-lis, - The cowslip of Jerusalem, and clove of Paradise.” - - _Eclogue III._ - - - - -CHAPTER VI - -OF HERBS AND MAGIC - - “And first, her fern-seed doth bestow - The kernel of the mistletow, - And here and there as Puck should go, - With terror to affright him. - - The nightshade straws to work him ill, - There with her vervain and her dill, - That hindreth witches of their will, - Of purpose to dispight him. - - Then sprinkled she the juice of rue, - That groweth underneath the yew, - With nine drops of the midnight dew - From lunary distilling.” - - _Nymphidia._--DRAYTON. - - “Trefoil, vervain, John’s wort, dill, - Hinders witches of their will.” - - _Guy Mannering._ - - -Amongst the account-books of the Physic Garden in Chelsea, there is one -on whose fly-leaf is scrawled a list of “Botanical Writers before -Christ.” It begins: - - Zoroaster. - Orpheus. - Moses. - Solomon. - Homer. - Solon. - -Names that one hardly expects to find grouped together, and especially -not under this heading. The vegetable world, however, has attracted -writers since the earliest times, and in the days when supernatural -agencies were almost always brought forward to account for -uncomprehended phenomena, it was not marvellous that misty lore should -lead to the association of plants and magic. The book of nature is not -always easy to read, and the older students drew from it very personal -interpretations. Some herbs were magical because they were used in -spells and sorceries; others, because they had power in themselves. For -instance, Basil, the perfume of which was thought to cause sympathy -between two people, and in Moldavia they say it can even stop a -wandering youth upon his way and make him love the maiden from whose -hand he accepts a sprig. The Crocus flower, too, belongs to the second -class, and brings laughter and great joy, and so it is with others. -Plants were also credited with strong friendships and “enmities” amongst -themselves. “The ancients” held strong views about their “sympathies and -antipathies,” and this sympathy or antipathy was attributed to -individual likes and dislikes. “Rue dislikes Basil,” says Pliny, “but -Rue and the Fig-tree are in a great league and amitie” together. -Alexanders loveth to grow in the same place as Rosemary, but the Radish -is “at enmetie” with Hyssop. Savory and Onions are the better for each -other’s neighbourhood, and Coriander, Dill, Mallows, Herb-Patience and -Chervil “love for companie to be set or sowne together.” Bacon refers to -some of these, but he took a prosaic view and thought these -predilections due to questions of soil! - -Being credited with such strong feelings amongst themselves, it is -easier to understand how they were supposed to sympathise with their -“environment.” Honesty, of course, grew best in a very honest man’s -garden. Where Rosemary flourishes, the mistress rules. Sage will fade -with the fortunes of the house and revive again as they recover; and -Bay-trees are famous, but melancholy prophets. - - _Captain._--’Tis thought the king is dead; we will not stay, - The Bay-trees in our country are all wither’d. - - _Richard II._ ii. 4. - -From this, it is not a great step to acknowledge that particular plants -have power to produce certain dispositions in the mind of man. So, the -possession of a Rampion was likely to make a child quarrelsome: while, -on the contrary, eating the leaves of Periwinkle “will cause love -between a man and his wife.” Laurel greatly “composed the phansy,” and -did “facilitate true visions,” and was also “efficacious to inspire a -poetical fury” (Evelyn). Having admitted the power of herbs over mental -and moral qualities, we easily arrive at the recognition of their power -in regard to the supernatural. If, as Culpepper tells us, “a raging -bull, be he ever so mad, tied to a Fig-tree, will become tame and -gentle;” or if, as Pliny says, any one, “by anointing himself with -Chicory and oile will become right amiable and win grace and favour of -all men, so that he shal the more easily obtain whatsoever his heart -stands unto,” it is not much wonder that St John’s Wort would drive away -tempests and evil spirits, four-leaved Clover enable the wearer to see -witches, and Garlic avert the Evil Eye. Thus many herbs are magical “in -their own right,” so to speak, apart from those that are connected with -magic, from being favourites of the fairies, the witches, and, in a few -cases, the Evil One! - -De Gubernatis quotes from a work on astrology attributed to King -Solomon, and translated from the Hebrew (?) by Iroé Grego (published in -Rome, 1750), with indignant comments on the “pagan” methods of the -Church in dealing with sorceries. Directions how to make an _aspersoir -pour exorcisme_ are given in it, which, teaching, he says, simply add to -the peasant’s existing load of superstition. Vervain, Periwinkle, Sage, -Mint, Valerian, Ash and Basil are some of the plants chosen. “Tu n’y -ajouteras point l’Hysope, mais le Romarin” (Rosemary). It is odd that -Hyssop should be excluded, because it has always been a special defence -against powers of darkness. In Palermo (again according to De -Gubernatis), on the day of St Mark, the priests mount a hill in -procession and bless the surrounding country, and the women gather -quantities of the Hyssop growing about, and take it home to keep away -from their houses the Evil Eye, and “toute autre influence magique.” -Rosemary is celebrated, from this point of view, as from others. It was, -say the Spaniards, one of the bushes that gave shelter to the Virgin -Mary in the flight into Egypt, and it is still revered. Borrow, in “The -Bible in Spain,” notices that, whereas in that country it is _Romero_, -the Pilgrim’s Flower, in Portugal it is called _Alecrim_, a word of -Scandinavian origin (from _Ellegren_, the Elfin plant), which was -probably carried south by the Vandals. Other authorities think that -“Alecrim” comes from the Arabians. The reference to Rosemary occurs in a -delightful passage. Borrow was staying at an inn, when one evening “in -rushed a wild-looking man mounted on a donkey.... Around his _sombrero_, -or shadowy hat, was tied a large quantity of the herb, which in English -is called Rosemary.... The man seemed frantic with terror, and said that -the witches had been pursuing him and hovering over his head for the -last two leagues.” On making inquiries, Borrow was told that the herb -was “good against witches and mischances on the road.” He treats this -view with great scorn, but says: “I had no time to argue against this -superstition,” and with charming _naïveté_ admits that, notwithstanding -his austerity, when, next morning at departure, some sprigs of it were -pressed upon him by the man’s wife for his protection, “I was foolish -enough to permit her to put some of it in my hat.” The Sicilians thought -that it was a favourite plant of the fairies, and that the young -fairies, taking the form of snakes, lie amongst the branches. Dill, able -to “hinder witches of their will,” was used in spells _against_ witches, -besides being employed by them. There was a strong belief that plants -beloved by magicians, and powerful for evil in their hands, were equally -powerful to avert evil when used in charms against witchcraft. Lunary, -or Honesty, is another plant with a double edge. In France it is -nicknamed _Monnaie du Pape_ and _Herbe aux Lunettes_, and its shining -seed-vessels have many pet names in English. “It has a natural power of -dispelling evil spirits,” quotes Mr Friend, and explains this verdict by -pointing that Lunary with its great silver disks, called after the moon, -is disliked and avoided by evil spirits, who fear the light and seek -darkness. Rue is used by witches and against them; in some parts of -Italy a talisman against their power is made by sewing up the leaves in -a little bag and wearing it near the heart. If the floor of a house be -rubbed with Rue it is certain that all witches must fly from it. In -Argentina grows the Nightmare flower, _Flor de Pesadilla_. The witches -of that region extract from it a drug which causes nightmare lasting all -night long, and they contrive to give it to whoever they wish to -torment. Besides these, Pennyroyal and Henbane, Chervil and Vervain, -Poppies, Mandrakes, Hemlock and Dittany were specially used by witches -in making spells. Valerian, Wormwood, Elder, Pimpernel, Angelica, and -all yellow flowers growing in hedgerows are antagonistic to them. Their -dislike to yellow flowers may have arisen from these being often -dedicated to the sun, and being therefore repellent to lovers of gloom -and mystery. Angelica preserved the wearer from the power of witches or -spells, and is, I think, the only herb quoted by Gerarde as a power -against witchcraft. He does not condescend generally to consider -superstitions other than medical. Of the herbs dedicated to the Evil One -are Yarrow, sometimes known as the Devil’s Nettle; Ground-Ivy, called -his Candlestick, and Houseleek, which he has rather unjustly -appropriated. Mr Friend explains that in Denmark, “Old Thor” is a polite -euphemism, and that the Houseleek really belonged to Thor, but has been -passed on through confusion between the two. Yarrow or Milfoil has been -used for divination in spells from England to China. - - “There’s a crying at my window, and a hand upon my door, - And a stir among the Yarrow that’s fading on the floor, - The voice cries at my window, the hand on my door beats on, - But if I heed and answer them, sure hand and voice are gone.” - - MAY EVE. - -Johnston[97] says: “Tansy and Milfoil were reckoned amongst plants -averse to fascination; but we must retrograde two centuries to be -present at the trial of Elspeth Reoch, who was supernaturally instructed -to cure distempers by resting on her right knee while pulling ‘the herb -callit malefour’ betwixt her mid-finger and thumbe, and saying of, ‘In -nomen Patris, Filii, et Spiritus Sancti.’” - - [97] “Botany of the Eastern Borders” (1853). - -Johnston gathers his information from Dalzell on the “Darker -Superstitions of Scotland.” - -[Illustration: RAMPION] - -Wormwood is in some parts of Europe called the “Girdle of St John,” it -has so much power against evil spirits. Cumin is much disliked by a race -of Elves in Germany, called the Moss-People. Dyer[98] tells us that the -life of each one is bound up with the life of a tree, and if the inner -bark of this is loosened, the elf dies. Therefore their precept is:-- - - “Peel no tree, - Relate no dream, - Bake no cumin in bread, - So will Heav’n help thee in thy need.” - - [98] “Folk-Lore of Plants.” - -On one occasion when a loaf baked with Cumin was given as an offering to -a forest-wife, she was heard screaming-- - - “They’ve baken for me Cumin bread - That on this house brings great distress.” - -The unhappy giver at once began to go downhill, and was soon reduced to -abject misery! Elecampane is in Denmark called Elf-Dock. Flax-flowers -are a protection against sorcery. “Flax[99] is supposed to be under the -protection of the goddess Hulda, but the plant’s blue blossom is more -especially the flower of Bertha, whose blue eyes shine in its calyx, and -whose distaff is filled by its fibres.... It was the goddess Hulda who -first taught mortals the art of growing flax, of spinning, and of -weaving it.... Between Kroppbühl and Unterlassen, is a cave which is -believed by the country people to have been the entrance to Queen -Hulda’s mountain palace. Twice a year she passed through the valley, -scattering blessings around her path--once in summer, when the blue -flowers of the Flax were brightening the fields, and again during the -mysterious “twelve nights” immediately preceding our Feast of Epiphany, -when, in ancient days, gods and goddesses were believed to visit the -earth.” The Bohemians have a belief that if seven-year-old children -dance among flax, they will become beautiful. From the little Fairy-Flax -“prepared and manufactured by the supernatural skill, the ‘Good People’ -were wont in the olden time to procure their requisite supplies of -linen,” writes Johnston. - - [99] Folkard. - -Wild Thyme is specially beloved by fairies and elves, and Fox-gloves and -Wood-sorrel are also favourites,--Fox-gloves, being called in Ireland, -Fairy-cap, and Wood-sorrel, known in Wales as Fairy-bells. - -Among plants that have magic powers in themselves are two varieties of -Pimpinella; the Anise and the Burnet Saxifrage. The first averts the -Evil Eye, and the second is called in Hungary, “Chaba’s Salve,” because -it is said that its virtues were discovered by King Chaba, who after a -furious battle cured 15,000 of his soldiers with it. In Iroé Grego’s -book, it is advised that the sword of a magician should be bathed in the -blood of a mole, and the juice of Pimpinella. De Gubernatis says that in -Germany and in Rome, Endive-seed is sold as a love-philtre, and when -wanted for this reason, the plant must be uprooted not with the hand but -with a bit of gold, or stag’s horn (which symbolise the disk and rays of -the sun) on one of the _jours des Apôtres_, June 27th, St Peter’s Day, -or July 25th, St James’ Day. - -The Mustard-tree is called in Sanscrit, the Witch, for when Hindus want -to discover a witch, they light lamps during the night, and fill vessels -with water,[100] into which they gently drop Mustard-seed oil, -pronouncing the name of every woman in the village. If, during the -ceremony, as they pronounce the name of a woman, they notice the shadow -of a female in the water, it is a sure sign that such a woman is a -witch. Mugwort laid in the soles of the boots, will keep a man from -weariness, though he walk forty miles. Wreaths of Camomile flowers hung -up in a house on St John’s Day will, it is said in Prussia, defend it -against thunder, and Wild Thyme and Marjoram laid by milk in a dairy -will prevent it being “turned” by thunder. The root of Tarragon held -between the teeth will cure toothache, and the name Réséda, the family -name of Mignonette, is supposed to be derived from the verb “to -assuage,” for it was a charm against so many evils. If a sprig of Basil -were left under a pot, it would, in time, turn to scorpions! It is a -strange plant altogether. The ancient Greeks thought that it would not -grow unless when the seed was sown railing and abuse should be poured -forth at the same time. Much blossom on the broom foretells a plentiful -harvest of corn. “Les anciens” according to _La petite Corbeille_ -believed that a pot of Gilly-flowers, growing in a window, would fade if -the master of the house died; and similar curious sympathies in Sage and -Honesty and Rosemary have already been noticed. - - [100] Folkard. - -There is a belief in the West Country that no girl who is destined to be -an old maid, can make a myrtle grow. Mr Friend does not mention this, -but he does tell us that a flowering myrtle is one of the luckiest -plants to have, and it is often difficult to grow; and he generously -presents us with the receipt that he had heard given to make sure of its -flowering. The secret is, while setting the slip, to spread the tail of -one’s dress, and _look proud_! - -To transplant Parsley is very unlucky, and to let Rhubarb run to seed -will bring death into the family before a year is out. These beliefs are -still active. One hears also that no one will have any luck with young -chickens if they bring any blossom (of fruit-trees) into the house, -which is, indeed, an unlucky thing to do at any time. - -There was a fairly recent case in Gloucestershire, which showed that the -idea still survives that if flower-seeds are sowed on Palm Sunday, the -flowers will come out double. - -Though Elder is not a herb, it cannot be omitted here, for every inch of -an Elder-tree is connected with magic. This is especially the case in -Denmark. First of all there is the Elder-tree Mother, who lives in the -tree and watches for any injury to it. Hans Andersen tells a charming -story about her and the pictures that she sometimes brings. It may -happen, that if furniture is made of the wood, Hylde-Moer may follow her -property and haunt and worry the owners, and there is a tradition that, -once when a child was put in a cradle of Elder-wood, Hylde-Moer came and -pulled it by the legs and would give it no peace till it was lifted out. -Permission to cut Elder wood must always be asked first, and not till -Hylde-Moer has given consent by keeping silence, may the chopping begin. -He who stands under an Elder-tree at midnight on Midsummer-Eve will -chance to see Toly, the King of the Elves, and all his retinue go by. -“The pith of the branches when cut in round, flat shapes, is dipped in -oil, lighted, and then put to float in a glass of water; its light on -Christmas Eve is thought to reveal to the owner all the witches and -sorcerers in the neighbourhood.”[101] The Russians believe that -Elder-trees drive away evil spirits, and the Bohemians go to it, with a -spell, to take away fever. The Sicilians think that sticks of its wood -will kill serpents and drive away robbers better than any other, and the -Serbs introduce a stick of Elder into their wedding ceremonies to bring -good luck. In England it was thought that the Elder was never struck by -lightning; and a twig of it tied into three or four knots, and carried -in the pocket, was a charm against rheumatism. A cross made of Elder, -and fastened to cow-houses and stables, was supposed to keep all evil -from the animals. Canon Ellacombe, in the Tyrol, says: “An Elder bush, -trimmed into the form of a cross, is planted in a new-made grave, and if -it blossoms, the soul of the person lying beneath it is happy.” Sir -Thomas Browne takes the “white umbrella or medical bush of Elder as an -epitome of the order arising from five main stems, quincuncially -disposed and tolerably maintained in their sub-divisions.” The number -5, and its appearance in works of Nature, must have occupied his mind at -one time to a very great extent, judging from his writings. There is a -saying that:-- - - An eldern stake and a black thorn ether (hedge) - Will make a hedge to last for ever. - -And it is a common tradition that an Elder stake will last in the ground -longer than an iron bar the same size. Several very different musical -instruments have been alike named “Sambuke,” because they were all made -out of Elder-wood. Elder-berries have also wonderful properties. In -Styria, on “Bertha Night (6th January), the devil goes about with -special virulence. As a safeguard persons are recommended to make a -magic circle, in the centre of which they should stand, with -Elder-berries gathered on St John’s night. By doing this, the mystic -Fern-seed may be obtained, which possesses the strength of thirty or -forty men. There are no instructions as to why or how the desired -Fern-seed should arrive, and all the proceedings are somewhat -mysterious.” - - [101] Folkard. - -The most extraordinary collection of charms and receipts is to be found -in an old book, called _Le petit Albert_; probably the contents are -largely gleaned from out the wondrous lore set forth by Albertus Magnus. -A charm--it must be a charm, for a mere recipe could hardly achieve such -results, “pour s’enrichir par la pêche des poissons” is made by mixing -Nettles, Cinquefoil, and the juice of Houseleek, with corn boiled in -water of Thyme and Marjoram, and if this composition is put into a net, -the net will soon be filled with fish. Cinquefoil appears in many -spells, particularly as a magic herb in love-divinations, and also -against agues! Some parts of the book shed a lurid light on the customs -of the day, as for instance, recipes “to render a man or woman -insensible to torture.” Here is a less ghastly extract. “Je quitte des -matières violentes pour dire un Mot de Paix. J’ai lû dans le très -curieux livre des Secrets du Roi Jean d’Arragon, que si aucun dans le -mois de septembre, ayant observé le temps que le soleil est entré au -signe de la Vierges a soin de cueillir de la fleur Soucy (Marigold) qu’a -été appellé par les Anciens, Epouse du Soleil, and si on l’enveloppe -dedans des feuilles de Laurier avec un dent de Loup, personne ne pourra -parler mal de celui qui les portera sur luy et vivra dans un profonde -paix et tranquillité avec tout le monde.” There is an odd, little -passage about the supernatural beings who inhabit the four elements, -Salamanders, Nymphs, Sylphs, and Gnomes, and the practices of Lapland -miners to obtain “la bienveillance des Gnomes.” This is managed through -observing their love of perfumes. Each day of the week a certain perfume -was burnt for them and these odours had an elaborate formula, compiled -with reference to the planets. Thus Sunday’s perfume is “sous les -auspices du soleil,” and contains Saffron and Musk; Monday’s is made of -the Moon’s special plants and includes the seed of the White Poppy; and -the ingredients for each are equally appropriate to the ruling planet. -Mars has Hellebore and Euphorbia in his perfume; Venus, dried roses, red -coral, and ambergris; and Saturn, black poppy seeds, Mandrake roots and -Henbane. In an English translation (there are many editions of _Le petit -Albert_) fifteen magical herbs of the Ancients are given, but I will -only quote two. - -“The eleventh hearbe is named of the Chaldees Isiphilon... or -Englishmen, Centory... this hearbe hath a marvellous virtue, for if it -be joined with the blood of a female lapwing or black plover and put -with oile in a lamp, all they that compasse it about shall believe -themselves to be witches, so that one shall believe of another that his -head is in heaven and his feete on earth.” - -“If ⁂ the fourteenth hearbe, smallage, be bounden to an oxe’s necke, he -will follow thee whithersoever thou wilt go.” The last instructions lead -one to agree with the poet: - - “I would that I had flourished then, - When ruffs and raids were in the fashion,” - -and when views of mine and thine were less rigid than they are to-day. - - - - -CHAPTER VII - -OF HERBS AND BEASTS - - Here may’st thou range the goodly, pleasant field, - And search out simples to procure thy heal, - What sundry virtues, sundry herbs do yield, - ’Gainst grief which may thy sheep or thee assail. - - _Eclogue_ vii.--DRAYTON. - - And tryed time yet taught me greater thinges; - The sodain rising of the raging seas, - The soothe of byrdes by beating of their winges, - The powre of herbes, both which can hurt and ease; - And which be wont t’enrage the restless sheepe, - And which be wont to worke eternal sleepe. - - _Shepheard’s Calendar._--SPENSER. - - And did you hear wild music blow - All down the boreen, long and low, - The tramp of ragweed horses’ feet, - And Una’s laughter wild and sweet. - - _The Passing of the Shee._--N. HOPPER. - - -Herbs and animals may appear linked together in many aspects, but there -are two in which I specially wish to look at them--first, glancing at -the old traditions that tell of beasts and birds themselves having -preferences among herbs; secondly, the human reasoning, which decreed -that certain plants must benefit or affect special creatures. The -glamour of magic at times hovers over both. Ragwort is St James’s Wort -(the French call it _Jacobée_), and St James is the patron saint of -horses, therefore Ragwort is good for horses, and has even gained the -name of the Staggerwort, from being often prescribed for “the staggers.” -This is a good specimen of the reasoning, but there is romance about -the plant which is far more attractive. Besides being good for horses, -it is actually the witches’ own horse! There is a high granite rock -called the Castle Peak, south of the Logan Rock in Cornwall, where, as -tales run, witches were specially fond of gathering, and thither they -rode on moonlight nights on a stem of Ragwort. In Ireland, it is the -fairies ride it, and there it is sometimes called the Fairy’s Horse. - - Reach up to the star that hangs the lowest, - Tread down the drift of the apple blow, - Ride your ragweed horse to the Isle of Wobles. - -Ragwort is specially beloved by the Leprehauns, or Clauricanes, the -little fairy cobblers, who are sometimes seen singing or whistling over -their work on a tiny shoe. They wear “deeshy-daushy” leather aprons, and -usually red nightcaps. - - Do you not catch the tiny clamour, - Busy click of an elfin hammer, - Voice of the Lepracaun singing shrill, - As he merrily plies his trade. - - W. B. YEATS. - -There is a very nice legend of the Field of Boliauns, which turns on the -belief that every Leprehaun has a hidden treasure buried under a -ragwort. And if anyone can catch the little man, and not for one second -take his eyes off him until the plant is reached, the Leprehaun must -show him exactly where to dig for it. In the Isle of Man, they used to -tell of another steed, not the fairies’ horse, but a fairy or enchanted -horse, ridden by mortals. If anyone on St John’s Eve, they said, trod on -a plant of St John’s Wort after sunset, the horse would spring out of -the earth, and carry him about till sunrise, and there leave him -wherever they chanced at that moment to be. - -William Coles[102] speaks with great decision as to the various -remedies which animals find for themselves. “If the Asse be oppressed -with melancholy, he eats of the herbe _Asplenium_... so the wilde Goats -being shot with Darts or Arrows, cure themselves with Dittany, which -Herb hath the power to worke them out of the Body and to heale up the -wound.” Gerarde adds that the “Deere in Candie” seek the same remedy, -and Parkinson remarks of Hemp Agrimony, “It is sayd that hunters have -observed that Deere being wounded by the eating of this herbe have been -healed of their hurts.” Drayton’s _Hermit_ refers to dictam or dittany. - - And this is dictam which we prize - Shot shafts and darts expelling. - -Shelley is less definite. He only laments: - - The wounded deer must seek the herb no more - In which its heart cure lies. - - [102] “Art of Simpling.” - -Goats do not seek Sea-Holly as a remedy, but it has a startling effect -upon them if, by accident, they touch it. “They report that the herb -Sea-Holly (_Eryngium maritimum_), if one goat take it into her mouth, it -causeth her first to stand still, and afterwards the whole flocke, -untill such time as the Shepherd take it forth of her mouth, as Plutarch -writeth.”[103] However much these wild theories may exceed facts as to -animals curing themselves, they are not altogether without reason, for -the instinct of beasts leading them to healing herbs has often been -noticed. Evelyn says: “I have heard of one Signior _Jaquinto_, Physician -to Queen _Anne_ (Mother of the Blessed _Martyr_, Charles the First), and -was so to one of the _Popes_. That observing the _Scurvy_ and _Dropsy_ -to be the Epidemical and Dominent Diseases of this Nation, he went -himself into the _Hundreds_ of _Essex_ (reputed the most unhealthy -County of this _Island_), and us’d to follow the Sheep and Cattell on -purpose to observe what Plants they chiefly fed upon; and of those -_Simples_ compos’d an excellent _Electuary_ of extraordinary Effects -against those Infirmities. - - [103] Gerarde. - -“Thus we are told, that the Vertue of the Cophee was discover’d by -marking what the _Goats_ so greedily brutted upon. So _Æsculapius_ is -said to have restor’d dismember’d _Hippolitus_ by applying some simples, -he observ’d a _Serpent_ to have us’d another dead _Serpent_.” The last -instance sounds mythical! But goats have really more than once led -mankind to some useful bit of knowledge. There is a Chilian plant, -_Boldo_, a tincture of the leaves of which are frequently administered -in France for hepatic complaints, and this is the history of the -discovery of its virtues. “The goats in Chili had been for many years -subject to enlargement of the liver, and the owners of the flocks had -begun to despair of them as a source of revenue, until it was observed -that certain flocks were exempt from the complaint, whilst others in -adjacent districts continued subject to it. It was ultimately discovered -that the goats browsing in fields where _Boldo_ grew were never a prey -to hepatic diseases, and the herb became gradually known and used, first -by South American and then by French druggists.” _Boldo_ is little used -in England. - -Sheep seek Dandelions; and Miss Anne Pratt quotes an agricultural -report, describing how some weakly lambs were moved into a field full of -Dandelions in flower, and how rapidly the conspicuous blossoms were -devoured. Finally, as the flowers grew fewer and fewer, the lambs were -seen pushing one another away from the coveted plants, and in this field -they speedily gained in health and strength. _Valerianella Olitaria_ is -said to be a favourite food of lambs, and so gains its name of Lambs’ -Lettuce. Shepherds and flocks have always been favourite subjects for -poetry, and Drayton touches them very prettily:-- - - When the new wash’d flock from the river side, - Coming as white as January’s snow, - The ram with nose-gays bears his horns in pride, - And no less brave the bell-wether doth go. - -Nep or Cat-mint is said to have a great attraction for cats. Of which -there is this old rime:-- - - If you set it, the catts will eate it, - If you sow it, the catts won’t know it.[104] - - [104] Coles. - -The weasel, with a grand knowledge of counter-poisons, “arms herself -with eating of Rue,” _before_ fighting a serpent. Folkard says that in -the north of England there is a tradition that when hops were first -planted there, nightingales also made their first appearance, and he -adds that both have long since disappeared, north of the Humber. In -other parts of England there is an idea (quite a false one) that -nightingales will only sing where cowslips flourish. The cuckoo is -connected with both plants and minerals. In some parts of Germany, Mr -Friend writes, the call of the cuckoo is thought to reveal mines, and -the cuckoo’s bread, the purple orchis, grows most abundantly where rich -veins of metal lie beneath. There is a story about the plantain, a plant -with a most interesting legendary history, in which the cuckoo appears. -Once the Plantain or Waybread was a maiden, always watching for her -absent lover, and at last she was changed into the plant that almost -always grows by the road-side. And now every seventh year the plantain -becomes a bird, either the Cuckoo or the Cuckoo’s servant, the Dinnick. - -The Yellow Rattle is sometimes called Gowk’s Siller, and Gowk may mean -either the Cuckoo or a fool, so they may quarrel for it. Johnston seems -to think that the siller belongs rather to the fool, for he remarks: -“the capsules rattle when in seed... being like the fool unable to -conceal its wealth.” The Swallow restored sight to the eyes of her -young, when any evil had befallen them, by the help of Celandine. And it -was for this reason, says Gerarde, that the flower gained its name, -_Chelidonium_, swallow-herbe, and not because it “first springeth at the -coming of the swallows or dieth when they goe away.”... Celsus doth -witnesse that it will restore “the sight of the eies of divers young -birds... and soonest of all of the sight of the swallow.” The eagle, -when he wishes his sight to be particularly keen, rubs his eyes with the -wild Lettuce, and the hawk follows his example, but chooses Hawkweed -with equal success. Doves and pigeons find that Vervain cures dimness of -vision and goldfinches and linnets and some other birds turn to -eyebright. “The purple and yellow spots which are upon the flowers of -eyebright very much resemble the diseases of the eyes or -bloodshot.”[105] There is a very wide belief in a magic plant called -Spring-wort or Spring-wurzel of which Folkard gives an interesting -description. “Pliny,” he says, “records the superstition concerning it, -almost in the same form in which it is now found in Germany. If anyone -touches a lock with it, the lock, however strong, must yield. In -Switzerland it is carried in the right pocket to render the bearer -invulnerable to dagger or bullet; and in the Hartz mountains it is said -to reveal treasures. One cannot easily find it oneself, but generally -the wood-pecker (according to Pliny also the raven, in Switzerland, the -Hoopoe, in the Tyrol, the swallow) will bring it under the following -circumstances. When the bird has temporarily left its nest this must be -stopped up with wood. The bird then flies away to find the Spring-wurzel -and will open the nest by touching it with the root. Meantime a fire or -a red cloth must be placed near by, which will so frighten the bird that -it will let the magical root fall.” _Le petit Albert_, to procure -Spring-wort suggests tying up a magpie’s nest with new cords, but merely -says that she brings _une herbe_ to release her nestlings, without -giving its name. - - [105] “Adam in Eden,” Coles. - -Several legends are attached to the Wood-pecker. Amongst others there is -an idea that the root of the Peony is good for epilepsy, but should a -Wood-pecker be in sight when the patient tastes it he would be forthwith -struck blind! In Piedmont there is a little plant called the Herb of the -Blessed Mary, which is fatal to birds, and there it is said that when -young wild birds are caught and caged their parents bring them a sprig -of it, that death rather than imprisonment may be their lot. De -Gubernatis speaks of an oriental bird of greater resource, the -_Paperone_, for when _his_ little ones are imprisoned he seeks and -brings a root which breaks the iron bars and releases them. Parkinson -tells of an Indian herb which “cast to the birds causeth as many as take -it to fall downe to the ground as being stoned for a time, but if any -take it too greedily it will kill them, if they bee not helped by cold -water put on their heads, but Dawes above all other birds are soonest -kild thereby.” There is a suggestion of comedy in this picture of a -seventeenth century herbalist in a foreign land pouring cold water on -the heads of wild birds. - -[Illustration: FENNEL] - -“The raven, when he hath killed the chameleon, and yet perceiving he is -hurt and poisoned by him, flyeth for remedy to the Laurell,” which -“represseth and extinguisheth the venom,” says Pliny.[106] The elephant, -under the same circumstances, recovers himself by eating “wild Olive, -the only remedy he hath of this poison.... The storke, feeling himself -amisse, goeth to the herbe Organ for remedy,” and Parkinson quotes -Antigonas as saying that ring-doves cured their wounds with the same -plant. Stock-doves, jays, merles, blackbirds and ousels recover “their -appetite to meate,” by eating bay leaves; and ducks, geese and other -waterfowl seek endive or chicory. Of course, chickweed and goosegrass -have gained their names as the result of similar observations, more -modern, and possibly more accurate. Elder-berries are eaten by birds, -but they are said to have serious effects on chickens. - - [106] Philemon Holland’s Translation. - -Lizards cure themselves of the biting of serpents with calaminth, and -the tortoise cautiously eats a “kind of sauorie or marjerome” before the -battle. Sir Francis Bacon mentions that, “the snake loveth fennel; that -the toad will be much under sage; that frogs will be in cinquefoil”; -though he unromantically doubts that the virtue of these herbs is the -cause of these preferences. Turner also remarks on the toad’s liking for -sage, and says: “Rue is good to be planted among Sage, to prevent the -poison which may be in it by toads frequenting amongst it, but Rue being -amongst it they will not come near it.” A toad recovers itself by means -of the plantain from the poison of the spider, and Bullein[107] tells us -of the frog’s fondness for the _Scabiosa_, under whose leaves they will -“shadow themselves from the heate of the daie, poppyng and plaiying -under these leaves, which to them is a pleasant Tent or Pavillion.” The -reputed venom of toads was sometimes said to be sucked from camomile, of -all plants! - - [107] Bullein’s “Bulwarke; or, Booke of Simples,” 1562. - -Pliny wrote of the serpent, that waking in the spring, she finds that -during the winter her sight has become “dim and dark, so that with the -herbe Fennell she comforteth and anointeth her eies,” and having cast -her coat, “appeareth fresh, slick and yong again.” - -If camomile furnishes venom for toads, it seems to provide nourishment -for fishes. William Browne says of some nymphs:-- - - Another from her banks, in sheer good will, - Brings nutriment for fish, the camomile. - -Isaac Walton observes that, “Parsley and Garden earth recovers and -refreshes sick fish.” The Alder or Aul is indirectly connected with -trout in a Herefordshire rhyme:-- - - When the bud of the Aul is as big as the trout’s eye, - Then that fish is in season in the River Wye. - -Among other counsels _Piscator_ speaks of the perch’s tastes. “And he -hath been observed by some not usually to bite till the mulberry-tree -buds--that is to say, till extreme frosts be past in the spring.... Some -think [of grayling] that he feeds on water-thyme, and smells of it at -his first taking out of the water.” A pike has a liking for lavender, -and the directions for trying for this fish with a dead bait begin: -“Dissolve gum of ivy in oil of spike [lavender], and then anoint the -bait with it. Wheat boiled in milk and flavoured with Saffron is a -choice bait for Roach and Grayling, and Mulberries and those -Blackberries which grow upon briars, be good baits for Chubs and Carps.” -Gerarde says that Balm rubbed over hives will keep the bees there, and -cause others to come to them, and Parkinson thought that the “leaves or -rootes of _Acorus_ (sweet-smelling Flagge) tyed to a hive” would have -the same effect. - -To turn to the herbs prescribed by men for beasts, we find that Spenser -alludes to two of them:-- - - Here grows _melampode_ everywhere - And _terebinth_ good for gotes. - - July--_Shepheard’s Calendar_. - -A marginal note suggests that the latter meant the “turpentine tree.” -“The tree that weepeth turpentine” is mentioned by Drayton, and we may -suppose that both poets referred to the same tree, the Silver Fir -(_Pinus picra_). Melampode was hellebore or bear’s foot, a very -important plant, and it was much used in magic. A cynical French verse -says:-- - - L’ellébore est la fleur des fous, - On l’a dédie a maints poètes. - -Once people blessed their cattle with it to keep them from evil spells, -and “for this purpose it was dug up with certain attendant mystic rites: -the devotees first drawing a circle round the plant with a sword, and -then turning to the east and offering a prayer to Apollo and Æsculapius -for leave to dig up the root.”[108] In the old French romance, _Les -Quatre Fils Aymon_, the sorcerer, Malagis or Maugis, when he wishes to -make his way, unchallenged, through the enemy’s camp, scatters powdered -hellebore in the air as he goes. Both the Black and the White Hellebore, -Parkinson says, are known to be very poisonous, and the white hellebore -was used by hunters to poison arrows, with which they meant to kill -“wolves, foxes, dogs,” etc. Black Hellebore was used to heal and not to -hurt, and “a piece of the roote being drawne through a hole made in the -eare of a beast troubled with cough, or having taken any poisonous -thing, cureth it, if it be taken out the next day at the same houre.” -This writer believes that White Hellebore would be equally efficacious -in such a case, but Gerarde recommends the Black Hellebore only as being -good for beasts. He says the old Farriers used to “cut a slit in the -dewlap and put in a bit of Beare-foot, and leave it there for daies -together.” _Verbascum thapsis_ was called Bullock’s Lungwort, from the -resemblance of its leaf to a dewlap, and on the Doctrine of Signatures -was therefore given to cattle suffering from pneumonia. - - [108] Timbs. - -_Samoclas_, or Marchwort, was a strange herb which used to be put in the -drinking-troughs of cattle and swine to preserve their health. But to -obtain this desirable result it had to be “gathered fasting, and with -the left hand, without looking back, when it was being plucked.”[109] -Gervase Markham mentions a curious evil among cattle. He says if a -shrew-mouse run over a beast “it feebleth his hinder parts and maketh -him unable to go. The cure is to draw him under, or beat him with a -Bramble, which groweth at both ends in the furrowes of corne lands.” -Markham was a noted authority on Husbandry and Farriery in the early -part of the seventeenth century, and he gives advice for the various -ills afflicting horses. For nightmare he prescribed balls composed of -Aniseed, Liquorice and Garlic, and other ingredients. For toothache, Ale -or Vinegar, in which Betony has been seethed; and loose teeth are to be -rubbed with the leaves of Elecampane, which will “fasten” them. Stubwort -(wood-sorrel), “lapped in red Dock leafe and roasted in hot cinders, -will eat away the dead flesh in a sore,” and any “splint, iron, thorne -or stub” may be drawn out by an application of Yarrow, Southernwood, -Cummin-seed, Fenugreek and Ditany, bruised with black soap. Horse Mint, -Wormwood and Dill are other herbs recommended by this author. - - [109] Timbs. - -Gerarde says that the leaves of Arsmart (_Persicaria_) rubbed on the -back of a tired horse, and a “good handfull or two laid under the -saddle, will wonderfully refresh him;” and _Le petit Albert_ gives a -recipe for making a horse go further in one hour than another would go -in eight. You must begin by mingling a handful of “Satyrion” in his -oats, and anointing him with the fat of a deer; then when you are -mounted and ready to start “vous lui tournerez la têté du coté de soleil -levant et vous penchant sur son oreille gauche vous prononçerez trois -fois à voix basse les paroles suivantes et vous partirez aussi tôt: -_Gaspar_, _Melchior_, _Merchisard_. T’ajonte à cecy que si vous -suspenderez au col du cheval les grosses dents d’un loup qui aura étè -tué en courant, le cheval ne sera pas fatigue de sa course.” No doubt -these proceedings were carried out by the traveller with an air of -mystery, and must have impressed the bystanders, but one wonders what -the rider thought of them after an hour’s journeying? Satyrion is a kind -of orchis. There was a herb called _Sferro Cavallo_ which was supposed -to be able to break locks or draw off the shoes of the horses that -passed over it. Sir Thomas Browne speaks of it in his “Popular Errors,” -and laughs the idea to scorn, and “cannot but wonder at Matthiolus, who, -upon a parallel in Pliny, was staggered into suspension” [of judgment]. -This plant was probably the Horse-shoe Vetch, whose seed-vessels, being -in the shape of horse-shoes, may have given rise to the superstition; -but Grimm thought it was the _Euphorbia Lathyris_. The same belief is -found in different countries, referred to other plants; the French -thought that Rest Harrow had this marvellous property, and Culpepper -tells the same tale about the Moonwort (_Botrychium Lunaria_), which had -the country name of Unshoe-the-Horse. “Besides, I have heard commenders -say that in White Down in Devonshire, near Tiverton, there were found -thirty horse-shoes, pulled off from the feet of the Earl of Essex’s -horses, being then drawn up in a body, many of them being but newly -shod, and no reason known, which caused much admiration, and the herb -described usually grows upon heaths.” One would hardly have thought that -“admiration” was the feeling evoked, but perhaps nobody concerned was -pressed for time! - -Hound’s Tongue (_Cynoglossum officinale_) was believed to have the -remarkable property that it will “tye the tongues of Houndes, so that -they shall not bark at you, if it be laid under the bottom of your -feet.” - -In Markham’s advice about domestic animals, he alludes to a “certaine -stage of madnesse” which attacks rabbits, and says that the cure is -Hare-Thistle (_Sonchus oleraceus_). The “Grete Herbal” called this plant -the “Hare’s Palace.” “For yf the hare come under it, he is sure that no -best can touche hym.” - -These statements lead one to feel that once upon a time, the world was -much more like the world of Richard Jefferies than it is, and that “wood -magic” was nearer to our forefathers than to ourselves. Nowadays, when -everything travels more quickly along the road of life, the eyes of -ordinary mortals get confused with the movement and the jostling and -they do not see the pretty by-play that goes on in the bushes by the -way, nor peer into the depths of the woodland beyond. In this they lose -a good deal, but no one can “put back the clock,” and one must feel -grateful that the idylls of the forest are still being acted, and that -there are still men whose vision is quick enough to catch sight of them, -and whose pens have the cunning to put before others the glimpses that -they themselves have caught. - -A legend exists about the Cormorant, the Bat, and the Bramble--quite -inconsequent, but not wholly out of place here, so it shall serve as a -conclusion. - -Once the Cormorant was a wool merchant and he took for partners the Bat -and the Bramble. They freighted a large ship with wool, but she was -wrecked and then they were bankrupt. Ever since that, the Cormorant is -diving into the deep, looking for the lost ship; the Bat skulks round -till midnight, so that he may not meet his creditors, and the Bramble -catches hold of every passing sheep to try and make up for his loss by -stealing wool. No doubt, you have often noticed their ways, but did you -ever before know their reasons? - - - - -TUSSER’S LIST - -SEEDS AND HERBS FOR THE KITCHEN. - - 1. Avens. - 2. Betony. - 3. Bleets or beets, white or yellow. - 4. Bloodwort. - 5. Bugloss. - 6. Burnet. - 7. Borrage. - 8. Cabbages, remove in June. - 9. Clary. - 10. Coleworts. - 11. Cresses. - 12. Endive. - 13. Fennel. - 14. French Mallows. - 15. French Saffron, set in August. - 16. Lang de beef. - 17. Leeks, remove in June. - 18. Lettuce, remove in May. - 19. Longwort (_Lungwort_). - 20. Liverwort (probably _Agrimonia Eupatoria_). - 21. Marigolds, often cut. - 22. Mercury (_Chenopodium Bonus Henricus_). - 23. Mints, at all times. - 24. Nep (_Nepeta Cataria_). - 25. Onions, from December to March. - 26. Orache or arache, red and white (_Atriplex hortensis_). - 27. Patience. - 28. Parsley. - 29. Penny-royal. - 30. Primrose. - 31. Poret (_a leek or small onion according to some writers, - Garlick_). - 32. Rosemary, in the spring time, to grow south or west. - 33. Sage, red or white. - 34. English Saffron, set in August. - 35. Summer Savory. - 36. Sorrell. - 37. Spinage. - 38. Succory. - 39. Siethes (_Chives_). - 40. Tansey. - 41. Thyme. - 42. Violets of all sorts. - -HERBS AND ROOTS FOR SALADS AND SAUCE. - - 1. Alexanders at all times. - 2. Artichokes. - 3. Blessed Thistle, or Carduus Benedictus. - 4. Cucumbers, in April and May. - 5. Cresses, sow with lettuce in the spring. - 6. Endive. - 7. Mustard-seed, sow in the spring, and at Michaelmas. - 8. Musk, Mellion, in April and May. - 9. Mints. - 10. Purslane. - 11. Radish, and after remove them. - 12. Rampions. - 13. Rocket, in April. - 14. Sage. - 15. Sorrell. - 16. Spinage, for the summer. - 17. Sea-holy. - 18. Sparage, let grow two years and then remove. - 19. Skirrets, set these plants in March. - 20. Succory. - 21. Tarragon, set in slips in March. - 22. Violets of all colours. - - These buy with the penny - Or look not for any. - - 1. Capers. - 2. Lemons. - 3. Olives. - 4. Oranges. - 5. Rice. - 6. Samphire. - -HERBS AND ROOTS, TO BOIL OR TO BUTTER. - - 1. Beans, set in winter. - 2. Cabbages, sow in March and after remove. - 3. Carrots. - 4. Citrons, sow in May. - 5. Gourds, in May. - 6. Navews, sow in June (_Brassica Napus_). - 7. Pompions, in May. - 8. Parsnips, in winter. - 9. Runcival Pease, set in winter. - 10. Rapes, sow in June. - 11. Turnips, in March and April. - -STREWING HERBS OF ALL SORTS. - - 1. Basil, fine and busht, sow in May. - 2. Balm, set in March. - 3. Camomile. - 4. Costmary. - 5. Cowslips and Paggles. - 6. Daisies of all sorts. - 7. Sweet Fennell. - 8. Germander. - 9. Hyssop, set in February. - 10. Lavender (_Lavendula vera_). - 11. Lavender Spike (_L. spica_). - 12. Lavender Cotton. - 13. Marjoram, knotted, sow or set in the spring. - 14. Maudeline. - 15. Pennyroyal. - 16. Roses of all sorts, in January and September. - 17. Red Mints. - 18. Sage. - 19. Tansy. - 20. Violets. - 21. Winter Savory. - -HERBS, BRANCHES, AND FLOWERS FOR WINDOWS. - - 1. Bays, sow or plant in January. - 2. Bachelor’s Buttons. - 3. Bottles, blue, red, and tawny. - 4. Columbines. - 5. Campions. - 6. Cowslips (_Tusser here meant Oxlips_). - 7. Daffodils or Daffodondillies. - 8. Eglantine or Sweet-Brier. - 9. Fetherfew. - 10. Flower Amour, sow in May (_Amaranthus_). - 11. Flower de Luce. - 12. Flower-Gentle, white and red (_Amaranthus_). - 13. Flower Nice. - 14. Gillyflowers, red, white, and Carnations, set in spring and at - harvest in pots, pails, or tubs, or for summer, in beds. - 15. Holyoaks, red, white, and Carnations (_Hollyhocks_). - 16. Indian Eye, sow in May, or set in slips in March (_Dianthus - Plumarius_). - 17. Lavender of all sorts. - 18. Larksfoot (_Larkspur_). - 19. Laus tibi (_Narcissus Poeticus_). - 20. Lillium Convallium. - 21. Lilies, red and white, sow or set in March and September. - 22. Marigolds, double. - 23. Nigella Romana. - 24. Pansies, or Heartsease. - 25. Paggles, green and yellow (_Cowslips_). - 26. Pinks of all sorts. - 27. Queen’s Gilliflowers (_Hesperis Matronalis_). - 28. Rosemary. - 29. Roses of all sorts. - 30. Snapdragon. - 31. Sops in wine (Pinks). - 32. Sweet Williams. - 33. Sweet Johns (_Dianthus Barbatus_). - 34. Star of Bethlehem (_Ornithogalum Umbellatum_). - 35. Star of Jerusalem (_Tragopogon pratensis_). - 36. Stock Gilliflowers of all sorts. - 37. Tuft Gilliflowers. - 38. Velvet flowers, or French Marigolds (_Tagetes patula_). - 39. Violets, yellow and white. - 40. Wall Gilliflowers of all sorts. - -HERBS TO STILL IN SUMMER. - - 1. Blessed Thistle. - 2. Betony. - 3. Dill. - 4. Endive. - 5. Eyebright. - 6. Fennel. - 7. Fumitory. - 8. Hyssop. - 9. Mints. - 10. Plantane. - 11. Roses, red and damask. - 12. Respies (_Rubus Idæus_). - 13. Saxifrage (_Pimpinella saxifraga_ or _Saxifraga granulata_, or - perhaps, _Carum Carvi_). - 14. Strawberries. - 15. Sorrel. - 16. Succory. - 17. Woodroffe, for sweet waters and cakes. - -NECESSARY HERBS TO GROW IN THE GARDEN FOR PHYSIC, NOT REHEARSED BEFORE. - - 1. Anise. - 2. Archangel (_Angelica_). - 3. Betony. - 4. Chervil. - 5. Cinquefoil (_Potentida reptans_). - 6. Cummin. - 7. Dragons (_Arum Maculatum_). - 8. Dittary or garden ginger (_Lepidium Latifolium_). - 9. Gromwell seed (_Lithospernum officinale_). - 10. Hart’s tongue. - 11. Horehound. - 12. Lovage. - 13. Liquorice. - 14. Mandrake. - 15. Mugwort. - 16. Peony. - 17. Poppy. - 18. Rue. - 19. Rhubarb. - 20. Smallage. - 21. Saxifrage. - 22. Savin. - 23. Stitchwort. - 24. Valerian. - 25. Woodbine. - - Thus ends in brief, - Of herbs the chief, - To get more skill, - Read whom ye will; - Such mo to have, - Of field go crave. - - - - -AUTHORS REFERRED TO - - - ABERCROMBIE, “Every Man his own Gardener.” - AMHERST (Hon. Alicia), “A History of Gardening in England.” - ASHMOLE, “History of the Most Noble Order of the Garter.” - BACON, “Sylva Sylvarum; or, a Naturall Historie.” - BLOUNT, “Fragmenta Antiquitatis; or Jocular Tenures.” - BRAND, “Popular Antiquities.” - BRITTEN, “A Dictionary of English Plant Names.” - BROWNE (Sir Thomas), “Vulgar Errors.” - CLARENDON, “History of the Rebellion.” - COLES, “Art of Simpling.” - CULPEPPER, “The English Physitian.” - CULPEPPER, “Astrological Judgment of Diseases.” - DE GUBERNATIS, _La Mythologie des Plantes_. - DE LA QUINTINYE, “The Compleat Gard’ner.” - DILLON, _Nineteenth Century_, April 1894. - DYER (Thistleton), “The Folk-Lore of Plants.” - ELLACOMBE (Canon), “The Plant-Lore and Garden-Craft of Shakespeare.” - EVELYN (J.), “Acetaria, a Discourse of Sallets,” 1699. - FAVYN (André), _Le Théâtre d’honneur et de Chevatries_, 1620. - FAVYN (André), “Theatre of Honour.” - FERNIE, “Herbal Simples.” - FOLKARD, “Plant-Lore, Legends and Lyrics.” - FRIEND, “Flowers and Flower-Lore.” - FULLER, “Church History.” - FULLER, “Antheologia; or, the Speech of Flowers.” - GERARDE, “The Herball,” 1596. - THE “Grete Herball,” 1516. - GUILLIM, “Heraldry.” - HAKLUYT’S Voyages, “Remembrances for Master S.,” 1582. - HARRISON’S “Description of England.” - “History of Signboards.” - HOGG, “The Vegetable Kingdom and its Products.” - HUISH, “History of the Coronation of George IV.” - INGRAM, _Flora Symbolica_. - I. W., _i.e._ John Worlidge, _Systema Agriculturæ_, printed (London) - for Thos. Dring, 1681. - JONES, “Crowns and Coronations.” - LAMBERT (Miss), _Nineteenth Century_, September 1879, and May 1880. - _Le Petit Albert_, from the “Secrets of Albertus Magnus, of the - Virtues of Herbs, Stones and Certaine Beasts,” 1617. - LOUDON, “Encyclopædia of Gardening.” - LUPTON, “Book of Notable Things,” 1575. - MARKHAM (Gervase), “The Complete Housewife.” - MEAGER, “The New Art of Gardening,” 1697. - NEWTON, “An Herbal of the Bible,” 1587. - NICHOLAS (Sir N. H.), “History of the Orders of Knighthood of the - British Empire.” - PARKINSON, _Paradisi in Sole, Paradisus terrestris_, 1629. - PARKINSON, “Theatre of Plants,” 1640. - PECK, _Desiderata Curiosa_. - PEGGE’S _Curalia_. - PLATT (Sir Hugh), “The Garden of Eden,” 1653. - PLINY’S “Natural History,” Trans. by Philemon Holland. - _Quarterly Review_, June 1842. - RHIND, “History of the Vegetable Kingdom.” - ROBERTS (H.), “Complete Account of the Coronations of the Kings and - Queens of England.” - ROBINSON, “English Flower-Garden.” - ROSS, “View of all Religions,” 1653. - SELDEN, “Table Talk.” - SMITH, “Dictionary of the Bible.” - THORNTON, “Family Herbal.” - TIMBS, “Things Not Generally Known.” - TUSSER, “Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry,” 1577. - WALTON (Isaac), “The Complete Angler.” - - - - -INDEX OF PLANTS - - - ACONITE, 173 - _Acorus_, 196 - Agrimony, 135, 167 - ---- Hemp, 190 - Alder, 167, 196 - Alecost, 121, 122 - Alexanders, 47, 48, 153, 176 - Alkanet, 15, 150 - Angelica, 48, 49, 50, 150, 164, 166, 179 - Anise, 9, 154, 173, 182, 198 - Arnica, 173 - Arsmart, 198 - _Asplenium_, 190 - - BALM, 9, 10, 11, 105, 148, 196 - Barberries, 99, 107 - Basil, Sweet, 11, 12, 13, 105, 117, 154, 176, 178, 183 - ---- Bush, 11, 12, 13, 154 - Bay, 132, 133, 141, 142, 143, 144, 177, 195 - Bearberries, 173 - Bearsfoot, 164, 196, 197 - Bella-Donna, 167 - Bergamot, 120, 121, 148, 173 - Betony, 111, 164, 168, 198 - Blites, 50, 51 - Bloodwort, 51 - Boldo, 190 - Borage, 13, 14, 154 - Boy’s Love, 136, 166 - Bridewort, 109, 128 - Brooklime, 167 - Broom, 98, 129, 134, 166, 174, 183 - Buckshorne, 51, 52 - Bugloss, 14, 64, 150 - ---- Viper’s, 15, 160 - Bullock’s Lungwort, 197 - Burnet, 15, 16, 152 - Burnet-Saxifrage, 182 - - CALAMINTH, 195 - Camomile, 53, 54, 149, 166, 182, 195 - ---- Wild, 166 - Caraway, 16, 17, 153, 173 - Cardoons, 55 - Cassidony, 126 - Celandine, 168, 193 - Celery, 17, 18 - Centaury, 164, 187 - Chervil, 3, 18, 89, 155, 176, 179 - Chibbals, 18 - Chickenweed, 167, 195 - Chickweed, 4 - Chicory, 25, 177 - Chives, 19, 151 - Ciboules, 18, 19 - Cinquefoil, 112, 185, 195 - Cives, 19 - Clary, 55 - Cliders, 168 - Clove-Gillyflowers, 111, 124 - Club-Moss, 1, 174 - Colchicum, 86, 165 - Coltsfoot, 167 - Comfrey, 165 - Coriander, 3, 19, 144, 173, 176 - Corn-Salad, 36 - Costmary, 117, 118, 121, 122, 149 - Cowflop, 168 - Cowslip, 167, 192 - ---- of Jerusalem, 174 - Cresses, 20, 21, 22 - ---- Water, 22, 152, 167 - Cuckoo’s Bread, 192 - Cuckoo-flowers, 62, 63 - Cumin, 3, 19, 154, 181, 198 - - DANDELION, 22, 23, 152, 164, 191 - Decoration of Churches, 103, 104 - ---- of Houses, 104 - Dial of flowers, 4, 5 - Dill, 23, 24, 153, 173, 176, 179 - Distillers to Queen Elizabeth, 118, 119 - Dittander, 56 - Dittany, 179, 190, 198 - Dock, 167, 198 - ---- Patience, 59, 60 - Doctrine of Signatures, 85, 96, 159 - - _EAU D’ARQUEBUSADE_, 49 - Elder, 98, 165, 166, 179, 183, 184, 185, 195 - Elecampane, 56, 57, 150, 181, 198 - Endive, 24, 25, 155, 182, 195 - Eyebright, 35, 193 - - FAIRY-BELLS, 182 - Fairy-cap, 182 - Featherfew, 3, 54, 167 - Fennel, 25, 26, 27, 150, 173, 195 - Fenngreek, 57, 58, 198 - _Finocchio_, 27, 155 - Flax, 173, 181 - ---- Fairy, 181 - Flower Gentle, 50 - Foxglove, 167, 168, 181, 182 - Furze, 165 - - GARLIC, 177, 198 - Gentian, 172 - Germander, 105, 122, 123 - Gilliflowers, 123, 124, 125, 183 - Goat’s Beard, 4, 27, 28 - Good King Henry, 58 - Goosegrass, 168, 195 - Ground-ivy, 135, 167, 180 - Groundsel, 167 - Green Oil (recipe), 169 - - HARE-THISTLE, 199 - Hawkweed, 193 - Haymaids, 167 - Heart-fever-grass, 23 - Hedge-Garlic, 165, 167 - Hedge-Mustard, 167 - Hellebore, 164, 186, 196 - ---- Black, 197 - ---- White, 197 - Hemlock, 168, 179 - Henbane, 173, 179, 186 - Herbary, 6 - Herb-strewer, The King’s, 106, 107, 108 - Herb-strewing, 104, 105, 106 - ---- at Weddings, 109 - Herb of the Blessed Mary, 194 - ---- Patience, 41, 59, 60, 152, 176 - ---- Robert, 167 - Hollyhock, 67, 68 - Honesty, 78, 176, 179 - Hops, 97, 170, 192 - Horehound, 61, 147, 160, 168 - Horse-radish, 28, 173 - Horse-shoe Vetch, 199 - Hound’s Tongue, 199 - House-leek, 165, 180, 185 - Hyssop, 29, 30, 105, 147, 165, 176 - - JUDAS TREE FLOWERS, 8 - Juniper, 174 - Jupiter’s Distaff, 55 - - LAD’S LOVE, 136 - Ladysmocks, 9, 61, 62, 63 - Lamb’s Lettuce, 30, 155, 191 - Langdebeefe, 63, 64 - Larkspur, 174 - Laurel, 195 - Lavender, 118, 125, 126, 138, 146, 173, 174 - ---- French, 126 - ---- White, 116, 126, 146 - ---- Cotton, 126 - Lettuce, Wild, 193 - Lily of the Valley, 173 - Liquorice, 64, 65, 150, 173, 198 - Lovage, 3, 65, 66 - Lunary, 179 - Lungwort, 174 - Lupines, 57, 117 - - MAIDEN’S RUIN, 136 - Mallow, 3, 66, 67, 150, 165, 176 - ---- French, 66 - ---- Marsh, 67, 150, 165 - Marchwort, 197 - Marigold, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 154, 165 - ---- Corn, 74 - Marjoram, 29, 31, 32, 105, 182, 185, 195 - ---- Pot, 148 - ---- Sweet, 111, 117, 118, 148, 154 - ---- Winter, 148 - Maudeline, 117, 121, 122 - Meadow-Sweet, 109, 126, 127, 164 - Melampode, 196 - Mezereon, 173 - Mignonette, 182 - Milfoil, 180 - Mint, 3, 32, 33, 149, 173, 178 - ---- Cat, 33, 192 - ---- Horse, 198 - ---- Pepper, 33, 149 - ---- Spear, 33 - ---- Water, 16 - Monk’s-hood, 173 - Moonwort, 198 - Mugwort, 52, 138, 139, 140, 141, 182 - Musk, 173, 186 - Mustard, 3, 33, 34, 173 - ---- Tree, 182 - Myrtle, 183 - - NEP, 192 - - OLD MAN, 136 - Olive, 195 - Orange, 6, 117, 130 - Orders of Knighthood, 112, 113, 114, 115, 116 - Organs, 17, 195 - Ox-eye Daisy, 9 - - PARSLEY, 3, 34, 35, 36, 153, 166, 183, 195 - “Passions,” 60 - Penny Royal, 74, 75, 149, 179 - Penny Pies, 165 - Peony, 194 - Periwinkle, 110, 111, 177, 178 - Pimpernel, 166, 168, 179 - Pine Cones, 98 - Planets, Influence of the, 160, 161, 162 - Plantain, 9, 52, 166, 174 - Pomanders, 117, 118 - Poor Man’s Friend, 165 - Poppy, 170, 171, 179, 192 - ---- Black, 186 - ---- White, 171, 186 - Pot-Pourri, 119 - Primrose, 9, 165 - Proverbs, 110 - Purslane, 76, 111, 156 - ---- Golden, 156 - Pyrethrum, 54, 173 - - QUEEN OF THE MEADOWS, 128 - - RAGWORT, 188, 189 - Ram-ciches, 77 - Rampion, 77, 78, 153, 177 - Rest-Harrow, 198 - Rhubarb, 6, 183 - ---- Monk’s, 59 - Rocambole, 79 - Rocket, 79, 80, 156 - ---- London, 80 - Rosemary, 8, 109, 111, 116, 126, 128, 129, 130, 131, 132, 133, 142, - 147, 167, 173, 176, 178 - Rue, 3, 112, 113, 114, 117, 126, 134, 135, 136, 147, 176, 178, 192, - 195 - Rush-Strewing, 104 - - SAFFRON, 57, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 111, 151, 165, 173, 186, 196 - ---- Meadow, 86, 166 - Sage, 37, 38, 39, 147, 166, 167, 176, 178, 195 - Sage, Wood, 164 - St John’s Wort, 160, 177, 189 - Salsify, 28 - Samoclas, 197 - Samphire, 86, 87, 152 - Satyrion, 198 - Savory, Summer, 39, 154 - ---- Winter, 29, 39, 40, 150, 176, 195 - _Scabiosa_, 193 - Scorzonera, 44 - Sea-holly, 190 - Set-wall, 172 - _Sferro Cavallo_, 199 - Skirrets, 87, 88, 151 - Smallage, 88, 187 - Sorrel, 40, 41, 151 - ---- French, 41, 151 - Southernwood, 136, 137, 146, 147, 198 - Springwort, 193, 194 - Squills, 173 - Staggerwort, 188 - Star-grass, 174 - Stickadove, 126 - Stonecrop, 89 - Strawberries, 99, 100 - ---- leaves, 99, 100 - Stubwort, 198 - Succory, 25 - Sumach, 174 - Sunflower, 96 - Sweet Cicely, 89, 90, 150 - Sweet Grass, 137 - Sweet Jar, 119 - Swine’s Cress, 165 - - TANSY, 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 105, 146, 180 - ---- Wild, 94 - Tarragon, 41, 42, 146, 147, 182 - Terebinth, 196 - Thistle, 97, 113, 114, 115 - ---- Blessed, or Holy, 95, 96, 167 - ---- Milk, 95, 96, 97 - ---- Spear, 117 - Thyme, 29, 42, 43, 44, 148, 149, 173, 185 - ---- Water, 196 - ---- Wild, 16, 181, 182 - _Tisane de Sept Fleurs_, 170 - Treacle-Mustard, 159 - Tripe-Madam, 89 - Turnip, 8 - - UNSHOE-THE-HORSE, 198 - Uvæ Ursi, 173 - - VALERIAN, 172, 178, 179 - Venice Treacle, 159 - Vervain, 178, 179, 193 - Vine, 97, 105 - Violets, 98, 99, 168 - Viper’s-Grass, 44 - - WAYBREAD, 192 - Whortleberries, 112 - Willow, 105, 134, 173 - Wincopipe, 168 - Winter-green, 173 - Wolfs-bane, 173 - Wood-rose, 137 - ---- rowell, 137 - ---- ruff, 137, 138 - ---- sorrel, 45, 181, 182, 198 - Wormwood, 138, 139, 140, 141, 146, 147, 165, 173, 179, 180, 198 - - YARROW, 9, 180, 198 - Yellow Rattle, 192 - - - - - * * * * * * - - - - -Transcriber’s uote: - - Inconsistent spelling (including of proper and botanical names, and - including differences between the text and the index) and factual - errors have been retained, except as listed below. Non-English phrases - have not been corrected or individually commented upon either, except - as listed below. The terms German and Dutch appear to be used - interchangeably. - - In several places an opening or closing quote mark is missing. Where - it was clear where the mark should go, it has been inserted (see under - Changes made). In other instances the correction has not been made. - - Page 85, γξοκό-ςτπλθ: as printed in the source document; Fuller wrote - χροκό-δειλος (possibly as an error for κροκό-δειλος). - - Page 122-123, Footnotes 72 and 73: the source document has two - identical footnote markers and but a single footnote. Both appear to - be quotes from Parkinson. - - Page 198-199, T’ajonte should be J’ajoute. - - Page 207: Le Théâtre d’honneur et de Chevatries should be Le Théâtre - d’honneur et de Chevalerie. - - - Changes made - - Footnotes have been moved to the end of the section or paragraph, - illustrations have been moved outside text paragraphs. - - Minor obvious typographical an punctuation errors have been corrected - silently. - - Some ditto marks („) have been replaced with the dittoed text. - - Page ix: Illustration numbers added - - Page 2: ” inserted after ... flowers and sweet herbs. - - Page 5: the ‘lovers’ walk changed to the lovers’ walk - - Page 20: chez le Grecs changed to chez les Grecs - - Page 23: to “dull,” changed to “to dull,” - - Page 24: ... spicie taste.’ changed to ... spicie taste.’”; quote mark - deleted after ... the seeds of Dill, - - Page 81: Vunc Saffroni changed to V unc Saffroni - - Page 85: when he hath changed to whence he hath - - Page 94, quote mark inserted before Tansey, being qualify’d ... - - Page 99, quote mark deleted after ... both branches and others - - Page 105: quote mark inserted before for summer-time your chimney ... - - Page 122: Stroing tansey changed to Strong tansey - - Page 124: they mentioned here changed to they are mentioned here - - Page 125: Hat lavender changed to Hot lavender - - - -***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BOOK OF HERBS*** - - -******* This file should be named 60050-0.txt or 60050-0.zip ******* - - -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: -http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/6/0/0/5/60050 - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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