Part the Second. Encyclopædia of Plants (part 1)

ACACIA.—In the deserts of Arabia the finest tree is the Acacia Seyal, which is reputed to be the Shittah tree of the Old Testament. The timber of this tree was termed Shittim, translated by some as “incorruptible wood.” In Exodus xxv. it is recorded that the Ark of the Lord was made of Shittim wood, overlaid within and without with pure gold, and having a crown of gold round about it; and in chapter xxvi. we read that the staves were made of the same wood, as were also the boards of the Tabernacle and the woodwork of the Altar on which the offerings were presented. From this same Acacia is obtained a fragrant and highly-prized gum which is employed as incense in religious ceremonials.——Tradition affirms that this Acacia—the Nabkha of the Arabians—was the tree from which was fabricated the Saviour’s crown of thorns. It has many small sharp spines, and the leaves resemble those of the Ivy with which the Roman Emperors were crowned, thus making the mockery bitterly complete.——The Buddhists make use of the wood of the Sami (Acacia Suma) to light the fire on their altars: this is done by striking it with the Asvattha, or Peepul—the act symbolising generation. This Acacia is one of the sacred trees of India, and yields an astringent or preservative substance.——The tree usually known in England by the name of Acacia is the Robinia pseudo-Acacia, or Locust-tree of America, named by Linnæus after the two Robins, herbalists to Henri IV., who introduced it into France in 1640. This tree would appear to have somewhat of a funeral character, since we find the American Freemasons make a practice of dropping twigs of it on the coffins of brethren. A sprig of Acacia is one of the emblems specially revered by Freemasons.——“It is curious,” says Mr. Reade, in ‘The Veil of Isis,’ “that Houzza, which Mahomet esteemed an idol—Houzza so honoured in the Arabian works of Ghatfan, Koreisch, Renanâh, and Salem—should be simply the Acacia. Thence was derived the word Huzza! in our language, which was probably at first a religious exclamation like the Evoke! of the Bacchantes.”——The English newspapers lately gave an account of a singular species of American Acacia, stated to be growing at Virginia, Nevada, and exhibiting all the characteristics of a sensitive plant. At the commencement of 1883 the Acacia was reported to be about eight feet high, and growing rapidly. When the sun sets, its leaves fold together and the ends of the twigs coil up like a pig-tail; and if the latter are handled, there is evident uneasiness throughout the plant. Its highest state of agitation was reached when the tree was removed from the pot in which it was matured into a larger one. To use the gardener’s expression, it went very mad. It had scarcely been planted in its new quarters before the leaves began to stand up in all directions, like the hair on the tail of an angry cat, and soon the whole plant was in a quiver. At the same time it gave out a most sickening and pungent odour, resembling that of a rattlesnake when teased. The smell so filled the house, that it was necessary to open all the doors and windows, and it was a full hour before the plant calmed down and folded its leaves in peace.

ACANTHUS.—The Acanthus was a favourite plant amongst both the Greeks and Romans, who employed it for decorative purposes: its leaves form the principal adornment of the Corinthian capital, which was invented by Callimachus. How the idea was suggested to the architect is told us by Vitruvius. A young Corinthian damsel fell ill and died. After her interment, her nurse gathered her trinkets and ornaments into a basket, and lest they should be injured by the weather, she covered the basket with a tile, and placed it near her young mistress’s tomb over the root of an Acanthus, the stalks and leaves of which burst forth in the Spring, and spreading themselves on the outside of the basket, were bent back again at the top by the corner of the tile. Callimachus happening to pass by, was charmed with the beauty and novelty of this accidental arrangement, and took from it the idea of the Corinthian chapter. Both Greeks and Romans made use of the Acanthus mollis in the form of garlands, with which they adorned their buildings, their furniture, and even their clothing. Theocritus speaks of a prize cup as having “a crust of soft Acanthus.” Virgil narrates that the plant formed the basis of a design embroidered on the mantle of Helen of Troy; and tells us that the handles of Alcimedon’s cup were enwreathed with what he elsewhere terms “Smiling Acanthus.”——Old English names for this plant were Brank-ursine and Bear’s-breech.——Acanthus is stated by astrologers to be under the dominion of the Moon.

ACHYRANTHES.—The Apamarga, an Indian variety of this plant, has given the name to the sacrificial rite called Apâmârga Homa, because at daybreak they offer a handful of flour made from the seeds of the Apamarga (Achyranthes aspera). According to a legend quoted by De Gubernatis, Indra had slain Vriitra and other demons, when he encountered the demon Namuchi and wrestled with him. Vanquished, he made peace with Namuchi on the understanding that he should never kill anything with a solid body, nor with a liquid body, neither by night nor by day. So Indra gathered a vegetable, which is neither solid nor liquid, and comes during the daybreak, when the night is past, but the day has not yet come. Then with the vegetable he attacked the monster Namuchi, who complained of this treachery. From the head of Namuchi sprang the plant Apâmârga. Indra afterwards destroyed all the monsters by means of this plant. As may be supposed after such a marvellous origin, the plant was soon looked upon as a powerful talisman. According to the Atharvaveda, it should be held in the hand, and invoked against the malady Kshetriya, and against witches, monsters, and nightmares. They call it the Victor, having in itself the strength of a thousand, destroying the effects of maledictions, and especially of those inimical to generation, which produce hunger, thirst, and poverty. It is also called the Lord of salutary plants, son of Vibhindant, having received all its power from Indra himself. The Hindus believe that the plant is a security against the bites of scorpions.

Aconite.—See Monkshood.

ACORUS.—This aromatic Reed, or Sweet Flag, is absurdly said to have been called Acorus, from the Greek koré, pupil, because it was esteemed good for diseases of the eye. The sacred oil of the Jews—the “oil of holy ointment”—used to anoint the tabernacle, the ark of the testimony, the altar of burnt offerings, the altar of incense, the candlesticks, and all the sacred vessels, has the oil of Acorus as one of its ingredients. It is the “Sweet Calamus” mentioned in Exodus xxx.——The Acorus is a plant of the Moon.

ADDER’S TONGUE.—The Adder’s Tongue, or to give it its old Latin name, Christ’s Spear (Ophioglossum vulgatum), was formerly much prized as a remedy for wounds. Gerarde declared that boiled in olive oil it produced “a most excellent greene oyle, or rather a balsam for greene wounds comparable to oyle of St. John’s wort, if it doth not far surpasse it.” A preparation called the “green oil of charity” is still in request; and Adder’s Spear ointment (a compound of Adder’s Tongue Fern, Plantain, and sundry herbs) is well known in country places as a vulnerary. In olden times an Adder’s Tongue was reputed to be a wondrous cure for tumours, if plucked at the falling of the Moon, and applied with the accompaniment of an incantation.——Witches highly esteemed Adder’s Tongue as a plant to be employed in their spells. Astrologers class it as a herb of the Moon.

Affadyl.—See Narcissus.

AGNUS CASTUS.—The “Chaste Tree” (Vitex Agnus Castus), a species of Willow, derives its name from the Greek hagnos, and Latin castus, both meaning chaste. The name was given to it, according to Pliny, from the custom of the Athenian matrons to strew their beds with it during the festival of the Thesmophora, held in honour of Ceres, when the strictest chastity was enjoined. At the same festival young girls adorned themselves with blossoms of the shrub and slept on its leaves in order to guard their innocence and purity.——Agnus Castus was consecrated to Æsculapius, and also, in the isle of Samos, to Juno. Prometheus was crowned with it. At Grecian weddings, the bride and groom carried crowns of it. It was also employed as a preservative against poisoning.——The seed of this shrub in later years acquired the name of Piper Monachorum, and in explanation it is said that, following the example of the matrons of Athens, who had discovered that the odour of branches of Agnus Castus combatted unchaste thoughts and desires, certain Christian monks made themselves girdles of the flexible boughs of the tree, by wearing which they professed to expel from their hearts all passions that love could excite.——Some of the old herbalists affirm that the seeds of Agnus Castus had a very powerful effect in arresting generation. Gerarde says “Agnus Castus is a singular medicine and remedy for such as would willingly live chaste, for it withstandeth all uncleanness or desire to the flesh, consuming and drying up the seed of generation, in what sort soever it bee taken, whether in pouder onely, or the decoction drunke, or whether the leaves be carried about the body; for which cause it was called castus, that is to say, chaste, cleane, and pure.” The leaves, burnt or strewn about, were reputed to drive away serpents; and, according to Dioscorides, a branch of the shrub, carried in the hand, would keep wayfarers from weariness.——Agnus Castus is held to be under the dominion of Mars in Capricorn.

Albespyne.—See Hawthorn.

AGRIMONY.—The Agrimony or Egrimony (Agrimonia Eupatoria) was a herb much in vogue among the old herbalists, who attributed extraordinary virtues to it. Dioscorides prescribes it as a cure for the bitings and stingings of serpents. Gerarde says it is “good for them that have naughty livers,” and in fact it was at one time known as Liver-wort. Culpeper tells us that it will draw forth “thorns and splinters of wood, nails, or any other such thing gotten into the flesh,” and recommends it further as “a most admirable remedy for such whose lives are annoyed either by heat or cold.” Sore throat, gout, ague, colic, ear-ache, cancers, and ulcers are among the numerous complaints the herbalists professed to cure by means of syrups and salves made of Agrimony, a plant which has formed an ingredient in most of the herb teas which have been from time to time introduced.——The astrological government and virtues of Agrimony appear to the uninitiated somewhat complicated. If we may believe Culpeper, it is a herb under Jupiter and the sign Cancer, and strengthens those parts under the planet and sign, and removes diseases in them by sympathy; and those under Saturn, Mars, and Mercury by antipathy, if they happen in any part of the body governed by Jupiter, or under the signs Cancer, Sagittarius, or Pisces.——Michael Drayton, in his ‘Muse’s Elysium,’ thus refers to Agrimony, among other herbs dear to simplers:—

“Next these here Egrimony is,
That helps the serpent’s biting;
The blessed Betony by this,
Whose cures deserving writing.

“This All-heal, and so named of right,
New wounds so quickly healing;
A thousand more I could recite
Most worthy of revealing.”

ALDER.—The origin of the Alder is to be found in the following lines from Rapin’s poem on Gardens:—

“Of watery race Alders and Willows spread
O’er silver brooks their melancholy shade,
Which heretofore (thus tales have been believed)
Were two poor men, who by their fishing lived;
Till on a day when Pales’ feast was held,
And all the town with pious mirth was filled,
This impious pair alone her rites despised,
Pursued their care, till she their crime chastised:
While from the banks they gazed upon the flood,
The angry goddess fixed them where they stood,
Transformed to sets, and just examples made
To such as slight devotion for their trade.
At length, well watered by the bounteous stream,
They gained a root, and spreading trees became;
Yet pale their leaves, as conscious how they fell,
Which croaking frogs with vile reproaches tell.”

In Germany, Alders have often a funereal and almost diabolic character. It is a popular belief that they commence to weep, to supplicate, and to shed drops of blood if there is any talk of cutting them down.——A legend of the Tyrol narrates how a boy who had climbed a tree, overlooked the ghastly doings of certain witches beneath its boughs. They tore in pieces the corpse of a woman, and threw the portions in the air. The boy caught one, and kept it by him. The witches, on counting the pieces afterwards found that one was missing, and so replaced it by a scrap of Alder-wood, when instantaneously the dead came to life again.——Of the wood of the Alder, Virgil tells us, the first boats were made:—Tunc Alnos primum fluvii sensere cavatas.——The Alder, or Aller, is said to be a tree of Venus, under the celestial signs of either Cancer or Pisces.

Alecost.—See Costmary.

Alehoof, Ground-Ivy.—See Ivy.

ALMOND.—According to an ancient tradition mentioned by Servius, the origin of the Almond-tree is to be traced to Phyllis, a beautiful Thracian queen, who became enamoured of Demophoon, the son of Theseus and Phædra, and was wedded to him. Demophoon, who, whilst returning from the Trojan war, had been cast by a storm on the coast of Thrace soon after his marriage with the Queen, was recalled to Athens by his father’s death. He promised faithfully to return to his royal bride at the expiration of a month, but failed to do so, and Phyllis, distracted at his continued absence, after several futile visits to the sea-shore, expired of grief, and was transformed into an Almond-tree, which is called Phylla by the Greeks. Some time after this metamorphosis the truant consort returned, and upon hearing of the untimely fate of Phyllis, he ran and clasped the tree in remorseful embrace. Loving even in death, his beautiful queen seems to have acknowledged his repentance, for the Almond-tree into which she had been transformed, although at that time stripped of its leaves, suddenly shot forth and blossomed, as if eager to show how unchangeable was poor Phyllis’s love.——A second account of the origin of the Almond-tree states that it sprang from the blood of the monster Agdistis, the offspring of Jupiter. This fable further narrates that the daughter of the river Sangarius fell in love with the beautiful tree, and after gathering its fruit, gave birth to a son named Atys.——A third account relates how Io, daughter of King Midas, was forsaken by Atys, whom she loved; and how Agdistis, on the death of Atys, mutilated his body, from which sprang the bitter Almond-tree, the emblem of grief.——Virgil made the flowering of the Almond a presage of the crop of Wheat.

“With many a bud if flowering Almonds bloom,
And arch their gay festoons that breathe perfume,
So shall thy harvest like profusion yield,
And cloudless suns mature the fertile field.”

The Hebrew word Shakad, from which the Almond derives its name, means to make haste, or to awake early, given to the tree on account of its hasty growth and early maturity. Aaron’s rod, which budded and brought forth fruit in the Tabernacle during one day, was of an Almond-tree: “It budded and brought forth buds, and bloomed blossoms, and yielded Almonds.” (Numbers xvii., 8). Among the Hebrews, the Almond-tree was regarded as the symbol of haste and vigilance, because of the suddenness of its blossoming, which announced the Spring. The Mahommedans consider its flowers typical of hope, because they bloom on the bare branches.——Romanists assign the blossoming Almond-tree to the Madonna, as Queen of Heaven.——In Tuscany, and other countries, a branch of the Almond-tree is employed to discover hidden treasures. It is carried to the place where the treasure is supposed to be concealed, and, according to popular superstition, its point will turn towards the exact spot. In the nuptial ceremonies of the Czechs, Almonds are distributed amongst the wedding guests.——Pliny considered Almonds a most powerful remedy against inebriation, and Plutarch relates an anecdote of a notorious wine-bibber, who, by his habitual use of bitter Almonds, used to escape being intoxicated.——The Almond-tree is under Jupiter. To dream of eating Almonds portends a journey: if they taste sweet, it will be a prosperous one; if bitter, the contrary.

ALOE.—The Hebrews appear to have entertained a great respect for the Aloe (Ahaloth). In the Bible it is frequently referred to in commendatory terms, and its use as a perfume is of very great antiquity. King David, in the Psalms, says: “All thy garments smell of Myrrh, and Aloes, and Cassia.” Solomon, in the Canticles, mentions Aloes as one of the chief spices; and in Proverbs (vii., 17) refers to it as a scent. Aloes is one of the spices mentioned by St. John as having been brought by Nicodemus to embalm the body of our Lord.——There are two trees which yield this fragrant wood, viz., Aloexylum Agallochum, a native of the mountains of Hindostan, and Aquilaria Malaccensis, which grows in Malacca: the wood of these aromatic trees forms the principal ingredient in the scented sticks burned by the Hindus and Chinese in their temples. The heart of the Chinese Aloe, or Wood Aloes, is called Calambac, or Tambac-wood, which is reckoned in the Indies more precious than gold itself: it is used as a perfume; as a specific for persons affected with fainting fits or with the palsy; and as a setting for the most costly jewels. Both the name and the plant of the aromatic Aloe are of Indian origin, and it must not be confounded with the common Aloes, most of which have an offensive smell and a bitter taste.——In Wood’s Zoography we read: “The Mahommedans respect the Aloe as a plant of a superior nature. In Egypt, it may be said to bear some share in their religious ceremonies, since whoever returns from a pilgrimage to Mecca hangs it over his street door as a proof of his having performed that holy journey. The superstitious Egyptians believe that this plant hinders evil spirits and apparitions from entering the house, and on this account whoever walks the streets in Cairo will find it over the doors of both Christians and Jews.”——The Arabic name of the Aloe, Saber, signifies patience, and in Mecca at the end of most graves, facing the epitaph, is planted an Aloe, as an allusion to the patience required by those awaiting the arrival of the great day of resurrection. Most Eastern poets, however, speak of the Aloe as the symbol of bitterness; and the Romans seem to have been well acquainted with this qualification, judging from the allusion to it in Juvenal:—“Plus Aloes quam mellis habere.” “As bitter as Aloes” is a proverbial saying of considerable antiquity, derived doubtless from the acrid taste of the medicines obtained from the plant, and made principally from the pulp of the fleshy leaf of the Succotrine Aloe, the leaves of which have a remarkable efficacy in curing scalds and burns.——Not only, however, for its medicinal properties is the Aloe esteemed, for in some countries, particularly Mexico, the poor derive from it almost every necessary of life. The ancient manuscripts of Mexico are chiefly inscribed upon paper made from the fibres of the pité, or pith. Of the points of the leaves of the Aloe are made nails, darts, and awls, and with these last the Indians pierce holes in their ears when they propose to honour the Devil with some peculiar testimonies of their devotion.

ALYSSUM.—This plant was regarded by the Neapolitans as possessing magic qualities, and was suspended in their houses as a charm against the Evil Eye. Its name Alyssum is derived from the Greek a, not, and lussa, madness. In England, the plant was called Alisson and Madwort, because, as Gerarde says, it is “a present remedie for them that are bitten of a mad dog.”

AMARANTH.—In Spenser’s ‘Fairy Queen’ is to be found the following allusion to the mythological origin of the Amaranth:—

“And all about grew every sort of flower,
To which sad lovers were transformed of yore;
Fresh Hyacinthus, Phœbus’ paramour,
Foolish Narciss, that likes the watery shore:
Sad Amaranthus, made a flower but late,
Sad Amaranthus, in whose purple gore
Me seems I see Aminta’s wretched fate,
To whom sweet poets’ verse hath given endless date.”

The Amaranth was a sacred plant among the Greeks and Romans: from the former it received its name, which means “never-fading,” on account of the lasting nature of its blossoms. Hence it is considered the emblem of immortality. The Amaranth was also classed among the funeral flowers. Homer describes the Thessalians as wearing crowns of Amaranth at the funeral of Achilles; and Thessalus decorated the tomb of the same hero with Amaranth-blossoms. Philostratus records the custom of adorning tombs with flowers, and Artemidorus tells us that the Greeks were accustomed to hang wreaths of Amaranth in most of the temples of their divinities: and they regarded the Amaranth as the symbol of friendship. Milton crowns with Amaranth the angelic host assembled before the Deity:—

“With solemn adorations down they cast
Their crowns, inwove with Amaranth and gold—
Immortal Amaranth, a flower which once
In Paradise, fast by the tree of life,
Began to bloom, but soon for man’s offence
To heaven removed, where first it grew.”

The same poet, as well as Spenser, classes the Amaranth amongst “those flowers that sad embroidery wear.”——In Sumatra, the people of the Batta country lead in times of peace a purely pastoral life, and are accustomed to play on a kind of flute crowned with garlands of Amaranth and other flowers.——At the Floral Games at Toulouse, a golden Amaranth was awarded for the best lyric composition.——In modern times, the Amaranth has given its name to an order instituted by Queen Christiana of Sweden, in the year 1633, at an entertainment given in honour of Don Antonio Pimentel, the Spanish Ambassador. On this occasion she appeared in a dress covered with diamonds, attended by a suite nobles and ladies. At the conclusion of the ball she stripped her attire of the diamonds, and distributed them among the company, at the same time presenting the new order of knighthood, consisting of a ribbon and medal, with an Amaranth in enamel, encircled with the motto Dolce nella memoria.——In Roman Catholic countries, more especially in Portugal, the species of the flower known as the Globe Amaranth, Prince’s Feathers, and Cock’s Comb, are much cultivated for church decoration at Christmas time and during the Winter. The Amaranth is also selected as one of the flowers peculiarly appropriate to Ascension Day.——The species of Amaranth which we know as Love-lies-bleeding, has, in France, the singular name of Discipline des religieuses, the Nun’s Scourge.——The Amaranth was formerly known as Flower Gentle, Flower Velure, Floramor, and Velvet Flower. It is said to be under Saturn, and to be an excellent qualifier of the unruly actions of Venus.

AMBROSIA.—The Ambrosia-tree, or tree bearing immortal food, is one of the most popular guises of the Hindu world-trees. The Paradise of Indra had five trees, under the refreshing shade of which the gods reclined and enjoyed life-inspiring draughts of Ambrosia or Amrita. The chief of these trees was the Pârijâta (usually identified with the Erythrina Indica), and this was deemed the Ambrosia-tree.——The Greeks knew a herb which they named Ambrosia, the food of immortals, and it was so called by the ancients because they believed that a continued use of it rendered men long-lived, just as the ambrosia of the gods preserved their immortality. The Moors to this day entertain a belief in the existence of such a plant. The old English name given to this herb was Ambrose, which was applied to the Chenopodium Botrys; but the ancients seem to have applied the name of Ambrosia to the Field Parsley, the Wild Sage, and the Chenopodium ambrosioides. The plant known as Ambrosia at the present day belongs to the Wormwood family.

AMELLUS.—This plant is believed to be a species of Starwort. Virgil, in the Fourth Book of his Georgics, states that at Rome it was employed to decorate the altars of the gods. Gerarde says that the Starwort having a blue or purple flower is that referred to by Virgil as the Amellus in the following lines:—

“In meads there is a flower Amello named,
By him that seeks it easy to be found,
For that it seems by many branches framed
Into a little wood: like gold the ground
Thereof appears; but leaves that it beset
Shine in the colour of the Violet.”

AMORPHOPHALLUS.—The gigantic Aroid, Amorphophallus campanulatus, or Carrion Plant of Java, is regarded with repugnance as a plant of ill-omen. Previous to the sudden bursting, about sunset, of the spathe containing the spadix, there is an accumulation of heat therein. When it opens, it exhales an offensive odour that is quite overpowering, and so much resembles that of carrion, that flies cover the club of the spadix with their eggs.

ANDHAS.—The luminous plant of the Vedic Soma. The plant is also called in general Arjunî, that is to say, Shining. From Andhas it is supposed the Greek word anthos was derived.

ANDROMEDA.—This shrub owes its classical appellation to Linnæus, who gave it the name of Andromeda after the daughter of Cepheus and Cassiope. Ovid, in his ‘Metamorphoses,’ has sung how, lashed to a rock, she was exposed to a sea monster, sent by Neptune to ravage her father’s country, and how she was at last rescued by Perseus, and became his bride. Linnæus thus explains why he gave the Marsh Cistus the name of the classical princess:—“As I contemplated it, I could not help thinking of Andromeda, as described by the poets—a virgin of most exquisite beauty and unrivalled charms. The plant is always fixed in some turfy hillock in the midst of the swamps, as Andromeda herself was chained to a rock in the sea, which bathed her feet as the fresh water does the root of the plant. As the distressed virgin cast down her blushing face through excessive affliction, so does the rosy-coloured flower hang its head, growing paler and paler till it withers away. At length comes Perseus, in the shape of Summer, dries up the surrounding waters, and destroys the monster.” The leaves of this family of plants have noxious properties, and the very honey is said to be poisonous.

ANEMONE.—The origin of the Anemone, according to Ovid, is to be found in the death of Adonis, the favourite of Venus. Desperately wounded by a boar to which he had given chase, the ill-fated youth lay expiring on the blood-stained grass, when he was found by Venus, who, overcome with grief, determined that her fallen lover should hereafter live as a flower.

“Then on the blood sweet nectar she bestows;
The scented blood in little bubbles rose;
Little as rainy drops, which flutt’ring fly,
Borne by the winds, along a lowering sky.
Short time ensued till where the blood was shed
A flower began to rear its purple head.
Such as on Punic Apples is revealed,
Or in the filmy rind but half concealed,
Still here the fate of lovely forms we see,
So sudden fades the sweet Anemone.
The feeble stems to stormy blasts a prey,
Their sickly beauties droop and pine away.
The winds forbid the flowers to flourish long,
Which owe to winds their names in Grecian song.”—Congreve.

The Greek poet, Bion, in his epitaph on Adonis, makes the Anemone the offspring of the tears of the sorrowing Venus.

“Alas the Paphian! fair Adonis slain!
Tears plenteous as his blood she pours amain,
But gentle flowers are born and bloom around
From every drop that falls upon the ground.
Where streams his blood, there blushing springs the Rose,
And where a tear has dropped, a Wind-flower blows.”

Rapin, in his poem, gives a somewhat similar version of the origin of the Anemone. He says:—

“For while what’s mortal from his blood she freed,
And showers of tears on the pale body shed,
Lovely Anemones in order rose,
And veiled with purple palls the cause of all her woes.”

In Wiffen’s translation of the Spanish poet Garcilaso, we find the red colour only of the Anemone attributed to the blood of Adonis:—

“His sunbeam-tinted tresses drooped unbound,
Sweeping the earth with negligence uncouth;
The white Anemones that near him blew
Felt his red blood, and red for ever grew.”

Rapin recounts another story, according to which the Anemone was originally a nymph beloved by Zephyr. This is, perhaps, an explanation of the name of the flower, which is derived from Anemos, the wind.

“Flora, with envy stung, as tales relate,
Condemned a virgin to this change of fate;
From Grecian nymphs her beauty bore the prize,
Beauty the worst of crimes in jealous eyes;
For as with careless steps she trod the plain,
Courting the winds to fill her flowing train,
Suspicious Flora feared she soon would prove
Her rival in her husband Zephyr’s love.
So the fair victim fell, whose beauty’s light
Had been more lasting, had it been less bright:
She, though transformed, as charming as before,
The fairest maid is now the fairest flower.”

The English name of Wind-flower seems to have been given to the Anemone because some of the species flourish in open places exposed to the wind, before the blasts of which they shiver and tremble in the early Spring. Pliny asserts that the flower never blooms except when the winds blow.——With the Egyptians, the Anemone was the emblem of sickness. According to Pliny, the magicians and wise men in olden times were wont to attribute extraordinary powers to the plant, and ordained that everyone should gather the first Anemone he or she saw in the year, the while repeating, with due solemnity—“I gather thee for a remedy against disease.” The flower was then reverently wrapped in scarlet cloth, and kept undisturbed, unless the gatherer became indisposed, when it was tied either around the neck or arm of the patient. This superstition extended to England, as is shown by the following lines in a ballad:—

“The first Spring-blown Anemone she in his doublet wove,
To keep him safe from pestilence wherever he should rove.”

The Anemone was held sacred to Venus, and the flower was highly esteemed by the Romans, who formed it into wreaths for the head.——In some countries, people have a strong prejudice against the flowers of the field Anemone: they believe the air to be so tainted by them, that those who inhale it often incur severe illness. Shakspeare has given to the Anemone the magical power of producing love. In ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ (Act 2), Oberon bids Puck place an Anemone-flower on the eyes of Titania, who, on her awakening, will then fall in love with the first object she sees.——A once famed Parisian florist, named Bachelier, having procured some rare Anemones from the East, would not part with a root, either for love or money. For ten years he contrived to keep the treasures to himself, until a wily senator paid him a visit, and, walking round the garden, observed that the cherished Anemones were in seed. Letting his robe fall upon the plants as if by accident, he so swept off a number of the little feathery seeds, which his servant, following close upon his heels, brushed off his master’s robe and secretly appropriated; and before long the niggardly florist had the mortification of seeing his highly-prized “strain” in the possession of his neighbours and rivals.——The Anemone is held to be under the dominion of Mars.

ANGELICA.—The strong and widely-diffused belief in the manifold virtues of this plant is sufficient to account for its angelic name, although Fuchsius was of opinion that it was called Angelica either from the sweet scent of its root, or its value as a remedy against poisons and the plague. Its old German name of Root of the Holy Ghost is still retained in some northern countries. The Laplanders believe that the use of it strengthens life, and they therefore chew it as they would do Tobacco; they also employ it to crown their poets, who fancy themselves inspired by its odour.——Parkinson says that “it is so goode an herbe that there is no part thereof but is of much use.”——Du Bartas wrote—

“Contagious aire ingendering 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 avowt.”

Sylvester’s trans., 1641.

Angelica was popularly believed to remove the effects of intoxication; according to Fuchsius, its roots, worn suspended round the neck, would guard the wearer against the baneful power of witches and enchantments; and Gerarde tells us that a piece of the root held in the mouth, or chewed, will drive away pestilential air, and that the plant, besides being a singular remedy against poisons, the plague, and pestilent diseases in general, cures the biting of mad dogs and all other venomous beasts. Regarding its astrological government, Culpeper observes that it is a “herb of the Sun in Leo. Let it be gathered when he is there, the moon applying to his good aspect; let it be gathered either in his hour, or in the hour of Jupiter; let Sol be angular.”

ANTHYLLIS.—The English names of this plant are Kidney Vetch, Lamb Toe, Lady’s Fingers, Silver Bush, and Jupiter’s Beard (from the thick woolly down which covers the calyxes of a species growing in the South of Europe). It was formerly employed as a vulnerary, and was recommended by Gesner as useful in staunching the effusion of blood: hence its old English names of Staunch and Wound-Wort. Clare says of it:—

“The yellow Lambtoe I have often got
Sweet creeping o’er the banks in sunny time.”

ANTIRRHINUM.—Columella alludes to this flower as “the stern and furious lion’s gaping mouth.” Its English names are Snap Dragon, Lion’s Snap, Toad’s Mouth, Dog’s Mouth, and Calf’s Snout.——In many rural districts the Snap Dragon is believed to possess supernatural powers, and to be able to destroy charms. It was formerly supposed that when suspended about the person, this plant was a protection from witchcraft, and that it caused a maiden so wearing it to appear “gracious in the sight of people.”

APPLE.—Whether the Apple, the Orange, the Pomegranate, the Fig, the Banana, or the Grape was the actual fruit of the Tree of Knowledge, which tempted Eve in Paradise, will possibly never be settled; but it is certain that not only is the Apple mystical above all the fruits of the earth, but it is the supreme fruit. To it has been given the Latin name Pomona, which is the generic name of fruit, just as Pomona is the goddess of all the fruit trees.

The Scandinavian goddess Iduna is in a measure identified with the Tree of Immortality, which was an Apple-tree. Iduna religiously guarded in a box the Apples which the gods, when they felt old age approaching, had only to taste the juice of to become young again. The evil genius, Loki, having been instrumental in the abduction of Iduna and her renovating Apples, the gods became old and infirm, and were unable properly to govern the world; they, therefore, threatened Loki with condign punishment unless he succeeded in bringing back Iduna and her mystic Apples: this he fortunately succeeded in doing.

The golden Apples which Juno presented to Jupiter on the day of their nuptials were placed under the watchful care of a fearful dragon, in the garden of the Hesperides; and the obtaining of some of these Apples was one of the twelve labours of Hercules. By stooping to pick up three of these golden Apples presented by Venus to Hippomenes, Atalanta lost her race, but gained him as a husband. The fatal Apple—inscribed DETUR PULCHRIORI—thrown by the malevolent Discordia into the assembly of the gods, and which Paris adjudged to Venus, caused the ruin of Troy and infinite misfortune to the Greeks.

The Apple was sacred to Venus, who is often represented with the fruit in her hand. The Thebans worshipped Hercules, under the name of Melius, and offered Apples at his altar, the custom having, according to tradition, originated as follows:—The river Asopus being once so swollen as to prevent some youths from bringing across it a sheep destined to be sacrificed to Hercules, one of them recollected that the Apple was called by the same name—Mêlon. In this emergency, therefore, it was determined to offer an Apple, with four little sticks stuck in it to resemble legs, as a substitute for a sheep; and it being deemed that the sacrifice was acceptable, the Apple was thenceforth devoted to Hercules. The god Apollo was sometimes represented with an Apple in his hand.

The Celtic “Isle of the Blest,” the “fair Avalon,” is the “Island of Apples,”

“Where falls not hail, or rain, or any snow,
Nor ever wind blows loudly, but it lies
Deep-meadowed, happy, fair with orchard lawns,
And bowery hollows crowned with Summer sea.”

It has been attempted to localise the Island of Apples either at Glastonbury, in Somersetshire, or at Aiguilon, in Brittany. A Gaelic legend which asserts the claims of an island in Loch Awe to be identified as the Isle of the Blest, changes the mystic Apples into the fruit of the Pyrus cordata, a species of wild Pear, indigenous both to the Scotch island and to Aiguilon.

The Druids highly reverenced the Apple-tree, partly on account of its fruit, but chiefly because they believed that the Mistletoe thrived on it and on the Oak only. In consequence of its reputed sanctity, therefore, the Apple was largely cultivated by the early Britons, and Glastonbury was known as the “Apple Orchard,” from the quantity of fruit grown there previous to the Roman invasion. The Druids were wont to cut their divining-rods from the Apple-tree.

The Saxons highly prized the Apple, and in many towns established a separate market for the fruit. The following sentence from their Coronation Benediction shows with what importance it was regarded:—“May the Almighty bless thee with the blessing of heaven above, and the mountains and the valleys, with the blessings of the deep below, with the blessing of Grapes and Apples. Bless, O Lord, the courage of this Prince, and prosper the work of his hands; and by Thy blessing may this land be filled with Apples, with the fruit and dew of heaven, from the top of the ancient mountains, from the Apples of the eternal hills, from the fruits of the earth and its fulness.”

The old Saxon chronicles relate that before the battle of Senlac, King Harold pitched his camp beside the “hoar Apple-tree”—evidently a well-known object, that had doubtless preserved its quondam sacred character. Saint Serf, when on his way to Fife, threw his staff across the sea, from Inch Keith to Culross, and this staff, we are told, straightway took root and became the Apple-tree called Morglas.

Many ancient rites and ceremonies connected with this mystic tree are still practised in certain parts of the country, whilst others have of late become obsolete. In remote districts, the farmers and peasantry in Herefordshire, Devonshire, and Cornwall still preserve the ancient customs of saluting the Apple-trees on Christmas Eve. In some places, the parishioners walk in procession visiting the principal orchards in the parish. In each orchard one tree is selected as the representative of the rest; this is saluted with a certain form of words, which have in them the air of an incantation, and then the tree is either sprinkled with cider, or a bowl of cider is dashed against it, to ensure its bearing plentifully the ensuing year. In other places, the farmer and his servants only assemble on the occasion, and after immersing cakes in cider, they hang them on the Apple-trees. They then sprinkle the trees with cider, and encircling the largest, they chant the following toast three times:—

“Here’s to thee, old Apple-tree,
Whence thou may’st bud, and whence thou may’st blow;
And whence thou may’st bear Apples enow.
Hats full! caps full!
Bushel, bushel, sacks full!
And my pockets full, too!
Huzza! Huzza!”

After this the men dance round the tree, and retire to the farm-house to conclude, with copious draughts of cider, these solemn rites, which are undoubtedly relics of paganism.

In Sussex, the custom of “worsling” or wassailing Apple-trees still exists. Formerly it took place, according to the locality, some time between Christmas Eve and Twelfth Day. The most popular wassail rhyme was similar to the above, but others were sung by the “howlers.” At Chailey this verse is used:—

“Stand fast root, bear well top,
Pray that God send us a good howling crop.
Every twig, Apples big.
Every bough, Apples enow.
Hats full, caps full,
Full quarters, sacks full.”

In West Sussex, during Christmas, the farmers’ labourers assemble for the purpose of wassailing the Apple-trees. A trumpeter sounds blasts on a bullock’s horn, and the party proceed to the orchard, where they encircle a tree or group of trees, and chant sonorously—

“Stand fast at root, bear well top,
Every twig, bear Apple big,
Every bough, bear Apple enow.”

A loud shout completes the ceremony, which is repeated till all the trees in the orchard have been encircled; after which the men proceed to the homestead, and sing at the owner’s door a song common for the occasion. They are then admitted, and partake of his hospitality.

At West Wickham, in Kent, a curious custom used to prevail in Rogation week. The young men went into the orchards, and, encircling each tree, said:—

“Stand fast, root, bear well, top,
God send us a youling sop;
Every twig, Apple big;
Every bough, Apple enow.”

Cider was formerly not the only drink concocted from the Apple; another famous potation was called “Lambswool,” or more correctly, lamasool, the derivation of the word being the Celtic lámaesabhal—the day of Apple fruit. This appellation was given to the first day of November, dedicated in olden times to the titular saint of fruit and seeds. The Lambswool was composed of ale and roasted Apples, flavoured with sugar and spice; and a bowl of this beverage was drunk, with some ceremony, on the last night of October. Roasted Apples formed an important item in the composition of the famed wassail-bowl. Shakspeare probably alludes to this beverage in ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream,’ where we find the mischievous Puck saying,

“Sometimes I lurk in a gossip’s bowl,
In very likeness of a roasted Crab.”

In Sussex, the wassail-bowl was formerly made at Christmas time; it was compounded of ale, sugar, Nutmeg, and roasted Apples, the latter being called Lambswool. On St. Clement’s day, in East Sussex, the custom exists of going round from house to house asking for Apples and beer: this is called Clemmening. A similar custom prevails on St. Catherine’s Day, when the children sing a rhyme commencing—

“Cattern’ and Clemen’ be here, here, here,
Give us your Apples and give us your beer.”

In Lowland Scotland, there is an old charm still practised by village maidens on Hallow-e’en. It is to go alone into a room, and eat an Apple in front of a looking-glass, when the face of the future husband will appear looking over the maid’s shoulder.

In Scotland, on Hallow-e’en, Apples are thrown into a tub of water, and you endeavour to catch one in your mouth as they bob around in provoking fashion. When you have caught one, you peel it carefully, and pass the long strip of peel thrice sunwise round your head, after which you throw it over your shoulder, and it falls to the ground in the shape of the initial letter of your true love’s name.

In some places, on this mystic night, a stick is suspended horizontally from the ceiling, with a candle at one end and an Apple at the other. While it is made to revolve rapidly, the revellers successively leap up, and endeavour to grasp the Apple with their teeth (the hands must not be used); if they fail, the candle generally swings round in time to salute them disagreeably. Another amusement is to dive for Apples in a tub of water.

In Sussex, on this eve, every person present fastens an Apple on a string, and hangs and twirls it before the fire. The owner of the Apple that first falls off is declared to be upon the point of marriage; and as they fall successively, the order in which the rest of the party will attain to matrimonial honours is clearly indicated, single blessedness being the lot of the one whose Apple is the last to drop.

The custom of throwing the peel of an Apple over the head, marriage or celibacy being foretold by its remaining whole or breaking, is well known, as is also that of finding in a peel so cast the initial of the coming sweetheart.

Mr. Dyer, in his ‘English Folk-lore,’ details a form of divination by means of an Apple-pip. “In Lancashire,” he says, “in order to ascertain the abode of a lover, the anxious inquirer moves round in a circle, at the same time squeezing an Apple-pippin between his finger and thumb. This, on being subjected to pressure, flies from the rind, in the supposed direction of the lover’s residence. Meanwhile, the following rhyme is repeated:—

‘Pippin, pippin, paradise,
Tell me where my true love lies;
East, west, north, and south,
Pilling brig or Cocker mouth.’”

It was formerly customary for Apples to be blessed by priests on July 25th; and in the manual of the Church of Sarum is preserved an especial form for this purpose. In Derbyshire, there is a saying that if the sun shines through the trees on Christmas Day, it ensures a good crop. In Northamptonshire, if the Apple-tree should bloom after the fruit is ripe, it is regarded as a sure omen of death. In the Apple-growing districts, there is an old saying that if it rains on St. Swithin’s Day, it is the Saint christening the Apples.

De Gubernatis, in his Mythologie des Plantes, gives several curious customs connected with the Apple, which are still extant in foreign countries. In Serbia, when a maiden accepts from her lover an Apple, she is engaged. In Hungary, a betrothed maiden, after having received from her lover the “engaged” ring, presents him with an Apple, the special symbol of all nuptial gifts. Young Greek girls never cease to invoke, upon marriage, the golden Apple. In Sicily, when a young man is in love, he presents the object of his affections with a love Apple. At Mount San Giuliano, in Sicily, on St. John’s Day, every young girl throws from the window of her room an Apple into the street, and watches to see who picks it up: should a woman do so, it is a sign that the maiden will not be married during the year; if the Apple is only looked at and not touched, it signifies that the maiden, after her marriage, will soon become a widow: if the first person passing is a priest, the young girl will die a virgin. In Montenegro, the mother-in-law presents an Apple to the young bride, who must try and throw it on the roof of her husband’s house: if the Apple falls on the roof, the marriage will be blest, that is to say there will be children. At Taranto, in Southern Italy, at the wedding breakfast, when the Apples are introduced, each guest takes one, and having pierced it with a knife, places a piece of silver money in the incision: then all the Apples are offered to the young bride, who bites each, and takes out the money.

In a Roumanian legend, the infant Jesus, in the arms of the blessed Virgin, becomes restless, will not go to sleep, and begins to cry. The Virgin, to calm the Holy Child, gives Him two Apples. The infant throws one upwards, and it becomes the Moon; He then throws the second, and it becomes the Sun. After this exploit, the Virgin Mary addresses Him and foretells that He will become the Lord of Heaven.

In old pictures of St. Dorothea, the virgin martyr is represented with a basket containing Apples and Roses: this is in allusion to the legend of her death, which tells that as Dorothea was being led forth to martyrdom, Theophilus, a lawyer, mockingly bade her send him fruits and flowers from Paradise. Dorothea, inclining her head, said, “Thy request, O Theophilus, is granted!” Whereat he laughed aloud with his companions, but she went on cheerfully to death. Arrived at the place of execution, she knelt down and prayed; and suddenly there appeared at her side a beautiful boy, with hair bright as sunbeams. In his hand he held a basket containing three Apples and three fresh-gathered and fragrant Roses. She said to him, “Carry these to Theophilus, and say that Dorothea hath sent them, and that I go before him to the garden whence they came, and await him there.” With these words she bent her neck, and received the death-stroke. Meantime, the angelic boy sought Theophilus, and placed before him the basket of celestial fruit and flowers, saying, “Dorothea sends thee these,” and vanished. Struck by the marvellous incident, Theophilus tasted of the heavenly fruit, and commenced a new life, following in Dorothea’s footsteps, and eventually obtaining the crown of martyrdom.

Mr. Dyer quotes the following from ‘Notes and Queries’:—“In South-east Devon and the neighbourhood, a curious legend is, we learn, current among the farmers respecting St. Dunstan and the Apple-trees. It is said that he bought up a quantity of Barley, and therewith made beer. The Devil, knowing that the Saint would naturally desire to get a good sale for his beer, which he had just brewed, went to him and said, that if he would sell himself to him, then he (the Devil) would go and blight the Apple-trees, so that there should be no cider, and, consequently there would be a far greater demand for beer. St. Dunstan, naturally wishing to drive a brisk trade in his beer, accepted the offer at once; but stipulated that the trees should be blighted in three days, which days fell on the 17th, 18th, and 19th of May. In the almanacs, the 19th is marked as St. Dunstan’s Day, and, as about this time the Apple-trees are in blossom, many anxious allusions are generally made to St. Dunstan; and should, as is sometimes the case, a sharp frost nip the Apple-blossoms, they believe they know who has been at the bottom of the mischief. There seems to be several versions of this legendary superstition. According to some, on a certain night in June, three powerful witches pass through the air, and if they drop certain charms on the blossoming orchards, the crops will be blighted. In other parts of the country, this is known as ‘Frankum’s Night,’ and the story is, that long ago, on this night, one Frankum made ‘a sacrifice’ in his orchard, with the object of getting a specially fine crop. His spells were answered by a blight; and the night is thus regarded as most critical.”

In a Polish legend, derived doubtless from the myth of the Hesperides, the hawk takes the place of the dragon. A young princess, through magic, is shut up in a golden castle situated on a mountain of ice: before the castle she finds an Apple-tree bearing golden Apples. No one is able to come to this castle. Whenever a cavalier ascends the side of the ice mountain in order to release the princess, the hawk darts down and blinds his horse, and both horse and rider are precipitated down the abyss. At length the appointed hero arrives, slays the hawk, gathers the golden Apples, and delivers the princess.

According to a Hanoverian legend, a young girl descends to the infernal regions by means of a staircase, which she discovers under an Apple-tree growing at the back of the house. She sees a garden, where the sun seems to shine more brightly than on earth; the trees are blossoming or are loaded with fruit. The damsel fills her apron with Apples, which become golden when she returns to earth.

In the popular tales of all countries, the Apple is represented as the magical fruit par excellence. The Celtic priests held the Apple sacred, and in Gaelic, Norse, German, and Italian stories it is constantly introduced as a mysterious and enchanted fruit. Mr. Campbell, in the introduction to his Tales of the West Highlands, points out that when the hero wishes to pass from Islay to Ireland, he pulls out sixteen Apples and throws them into the sea one after another, and he steps from one to the other. When the giant’s daughter runs away with the king’s son, she cuts an Apple into a mystical number of small bits, and each bit talks. When she kills the giant, she puts an Apple under the hoof of the magic filly, and he dies, for his life is the Apple, and it is crushed. When the byre is cleansed, it is so clean, that a golden Apple would run from end to end and never raise a stain. There is a Gruagach who has a golden Apple, which is thrown at all comers, who, if they fail to catch it, die. When it is caught and thrown back by the hero, Gruagach an Ubhail, dies. There is a certain game called cluich an ubhail—the Apple play—which seems to have been a deadly game. When the king’s daughter transports the soldier to the green island on the magic table-cloth, he finds magic Apples which transform him, and others which cure him, and by which he transforms the cruel princess, and recovers his magic treasures. When the two eldest idle king’s sons go out to herd the giant’s cattle, they find an Apple-tree whose fruit moves up and down as they vainly strive to pluck it; in fact, in all Gaelic stories, the Apple when introduced has something marvellous about it.

So, in the German, in the ‘Man of Iron,’ a princess throws a golden Apple as a prize, which the hero catches three times, and carries off, and wins. In ‘Snow White,’ where the poisoned comb occurs, there is a poisoned magic Apple also. In the ‘Old Griffin,’ the rich princess is cured by rosy-cheeked Apples. In the ‘White Snake,’ a servant who understands the voice of birds, helps creatures in distress, gets them aid, and procures golden Apples from three ravens which fly over the sea to the end of the world, where stands the tree of life. When he had got the Apple, he and the princess eat it and marry. Again, in the ‘Wonderful Hares,’ a golden Apple is the gift for which the finder is to gain a princess; and that Apple grew on a tree, the sole one of its kind.

In Norse it is the same: the princess on the glass mountain held three golden Apples in her lap, and he who could ride up the hill and carry off the Apples was to win the prize; and the princess rolled them down to the hero, and they rolled into his shoe. The good girl plucked the Apples from the tree which spoke to her when she went down the well to the underground world; but the ill-tempered step-sister thrashed down the fruit; and when the time of trial came, the Apple-tree played its part and protected the poor girl.

In a French tale, a singing Apple is one of the marvels which Princess Belle Etoile and her brothers and her cousin bring from the end of the world. In an Italian story, a lady when she has lost her husband goes off to the Atlantic Ocean with three golden Apples; and the mermaid who has swallowed the husband shows first his head, then his body to the waist, and then to the knees, each time for a golden Apple. Then, finally, in the ‘Arabian Nights,’ there is a long story, called the Three Apples, which turns upon the theft of one, which was considered to have been of priceless value. The Apple-blossom is considered to be an emblem of preference. To dream of Apples betokens long life, success in trade, and a lover’s faithfulness.

APPLE OF SODOM.—The Solanum Sodomeum is a purple Egg-plant of which the fruit is naturally large and handsome. It is, however, subject to the attacks of an insect (a species of Cynips), which punctures the rind, and converts the interior of the fruit into a substance like ashes, while the outside remains fair and beautiful. It is found on the desolate shores of the Dead Sea, on the site of those cities of the plain the dreadful judgment on which is recorded in sacred history. Hence the fruit, called the Apple of Sodom, has acquired a sinister reputation, and is regarded as the symbol of sin. Its first appearance, it is said, is always attended with a bitter north-east wind, and therefore ships for the Black Sea take care to sail before the harbinger of bad weather comes forth. The fruit is reputed to be poisonous. Josephus, the Jewish historian, speaks of them as having “a fair colour, as if they were fit to be eaten; but if you pluck them with your hand, they vanish into smoke and ashes.” Milton, describing an Apple which added new torments to the fallen angels, compares it to the Apples of Sodom:—

“Greedily they pluck’d
The fruitage fair to sight, like that which grew
Near that bituminous lake where Sodom flamed.
This mere delusion, not the touch but taste
Deceived; they fondly thinking to allay
Their appetite with gust, instead of fruit
Chewed bitter ashes.”

Henry Teonge, who visited the country round the Dead Sea in 1675, describes it as being “all over full of stones which looke just like burnt syndurs, and on some low shrubbs there grow small round things which are called Apples, but no witt like them. They are somewhat fayre to looke at, but touch them and they smoulder all to black ashes, like soote both for looks and smell.”—The name Apple of Sodom is also given to a kind of Gall-nut, which is found growing on various species of dwarf Oaks on the banks of the Jordan.—Dead Sea Apples is a term applied to the Bussorah Gall-nut, which is formed on the Oak Quercus infectoria by an insect, and being of a bright ruddy purple, but filled with a gritty powder, they are suggestive of the deceptive Apple of Sodom.

“Dead Sea fruits, that tempt the eye,
But turn to ashes on the lips.”

Apple of Paradise, or Adam’s Apple.—See Banana.

Apple, Love.—See Solanum.

Apple, Mad.—See Solanum.

APRICOT.—According to Columella, the Persians sent the Peach to Egypt to poison the inhabitants; and a species of Apricot is called by the people of Barbary, Matza Franca, or the “Killer of Christians.” The Persians call the Apricot of Iran, the “Seed of the Sun.” The ancients appear to have regarded it as a prophetical or oracular tree.——It was in the solitude of a grove of Apricot-trees that Confucius, the venerated Chinese sage, completed his commentaries on the King or ancient books of China, and beneath this shade he erected an altar, and solemnly thanked Heaven for having permitted him to accomplish his cherished task.——The name has undergone curious transformations: it is traceable to the Latin præcoqua, early; the fruit being supposed by the Romans to be an early Peach. The Arabs (although living near the region of which the tree is a native) took the Latin name, and twisted it into al burquq; the Spaniards altered its Moorish name into albaricoque; the Italians reproduced it as albicoces; the French from them got abricot; and we, in England, although taking the name from the French, first called it Abricock, or Aprecock, and finally Apricot.——The Apricot is under the dominion of Venus. To dream of this fruit denotes health, a speedy marriage, and every success in life.

ARBOR VITÆ.—This tree, otherwise known as Thuja, is called by Pliny, Thya (from thyon, a sacrifice). The resin of the Eastern variety is, in certain localities, frequently used instead of incense at sacrifices. How the tree acquired the name of Arbor Vitæ is not known, unless from some supposed virtue of its berries. Gerarde, who had only seen the Canadian variety, says of it that, of all the trees from that country, the Arbor Vitæ, or Thya, was “the most principall, and best agreeing unto the nature of man, as an excellent cordial, and of a very pleasant smell.” He also tells us that it was sometimes called Cedrus Lycia, and that it is not to be confounded with the Tree of Life mentioned in Genesis.

ARBUTUS.—The Arbutus, or Strawberry-tree (Arbutus unedo), was held sacred by the Romans. It was one of the attributes of Cardea, a sister of Apollo, who was beloved by Janus, guardian of gates and avenues. With a rod of Arbutus—virga Janalis—Cardea drove away witches and protected little children when ill or bewitched. The Romans employed the Arbutus, with other symbolic trees and flowers, at the Palilia, a festival held in honour of the pastoral goddess Pales. It was a Roman custom to deposit branches of the Arbutus on coffins, and Virgil tells us that Arbutus rods and Oak twigs formed the bier of young Pallas, the son of Evander. Horace, in his Odes, has celebrated the shade afforded by the Arbutus. Ovid speaks of the tree as “the Arbutus heavy with its ruby fruit,” and tells us that, in the Golden Age, the fruit afforded food to man. This fruit is called unedo, and Pliny is stated to have given it that name became it was so bitter that he who ate one would eat no more.——The Oriental Arbutus, or Andrachne, bears fruit resembling a scarlet Strawberry in size and flavour. In Greece, it has the reputation of so affecting serpents who feed upon it, that they speedily cease to be venomous. The water distilled from the leaves and blossom of the Arbutus was accounted a very powerful agent against the plague and poisons.

ARCHANGEL.—The name of Archangel is applied to the Angelica archangelica; the Red Archangel, Stachys sylvatica; the White Archangel, Lamium album; and the Yellow Archangel, L. Galeobdolon. Nemnich says, the plant originally obtained its name from its having been revealed by an angel, in a dream. Parkinson considers it was so called on account of its heavenly virtues. Gerarde remarks of it, that “the flowers are baked with sugar, as Roses are, which is called Sugar Roset: as also the distilled water of them, which is used to make the heart merry, to make a good colour in the face, and to refresh the vitall spirits.”

ARECA.—The Areca Catechu is one of the sacred plants of India, producing the perfumed Areca Nuts, favourite masticatories of the Indian races. So highly is this nut esteemed by the natives, that they would rather forego meat and drink than their precious Areca Nuts, which they cut into narrow pieces, and roll up with a little lime in the leaves of the Pepper, and chew. The Areca Palm is known in Hindostan as Supyari, and in Japan as Jambi. The Hindus adorn their gods with these Nuts, and forbid respectable women to deck either their heads or bosoms with them. According to Indian tradition, Devadamani, subduer of the gods, once appeared at the court of King Vikramâditya, to play with him, clothed in a robe the colour of the sky, having in his hand and in his mouth an Areca Nut enveloped in a leaf of the Kalpa-tree. This probably explains the Indian custom of presenting an Areca Nut to guests, which is eaten with the leaf of the Betel. In China, a similar custom prevails, but the Nut given there is the Betel Nut.

ARISTOLOCHIA.—The old English name of this plant was Birth-wort, derived from its reputed remedial powers in parturition—probably first suggested by the shape of the corolla—whence also its Greek name, from aristos, best, and locheia, delivery. According to Pliny, if the expectant mother desired to have a son, she employed Aristolochia, with the flesh of an ox.——Certain of the species are renowned, in some European countries, for having a wonderful influence over fishes and serpents. A. Serpentaria is reputed to be so offensive to the serpent tribe, that they will not only shun the place where it grows, but will even flee from any traveller who carries a piece of the plant in his hand. The snake jugglers of Egypt are believed to stupefy these reptiles by means of a decoction distilled from the plant, and it is asserted that a few drops introduced into the mouth of a serpent will so intoxicate it as to render it insensible and harmless.——Apuleius recommends the use of Aristolochia against the Evil Eye.——The Birth-wort is under the dominion of Venus.

ARKA.—This is the Indian name of the Calotropis gigantea, also called Arkapatra and Arkaparna (the lightning-leaved), the leaves of which present the cuneiform symbols of lightning. Arka, says De Gubernatis, is also the name of the Sun, and this explains why the Brahmins employed the leaf of the Calotropis on the occasion of sacrificing to the Sun. In each part of the Arka it is stated that a portion of the human body can be distinguished. Notwithstanding its grand name, and its beautiful appearance, people have a dread of approaching it, lest it should strike them blind. The origin of this superstition is to be found in the word Arka, which means both the sun and the lightning.

ARTEMISIA.—The genus of plants known as Artemisia was so called after the goddess Artemis (who was regarded by the Romans as identical with Diana, or the Moon), by reason of some of its species being used in bringing on precocious puberty. On this account, also, it is one of the plants specially under the influence of the Moon.—(See Southernwood and Wormwood).

ARUNDHATI.—This is the Brahminical name of a climbing plant of good omen, and to which, according to De Gubernatis, the Atharvaveda attributes magical properties against diseases of the skin. It gives milk to sterile cows, it heals wounds, it delivers men from sickness, it protects those who drink its juices. It is the sister of the water and of the gods; the night is its mother; the mist, the horse of Yama, its father; Aryaman its grandfather. It descends from the mouth of the horse of Yama.

ARUM.—The Germans call the Arum Aronswurzel, and entertain the notion that where this flourishes, the spirits of the wood rejoice. The majestic Ethiopian species of the Arum (Calla Æthiopica) is commonly called the Horn-flower, from the shape of its large white calyx. In tropical climates, the plant is a deadly poison. The Arum of English hedgerows, a flower of a very much humbler character, is known by a variety of quaint names, viz., Aaron, Cuckoo-pint, Cuckoo-pintle, Wake Robin, Friar’s Cowl, Priest’s-pintle, Lords-and-Ladies, Cows-and-Calves, Ramp, Starchwort, and, in Worcestershire, Bloody Men’s Fingers (from the red berries that surround the spadix). These blood-red spots have caused the plant to received in Cheshire the name of Gethsemane, because it is said to have been growing at the foot of the Cross, and to have received some drops of our Saviour’s blood.

“Those deep inwrought marks,
The villagers will tell thee,
Are the flower’s portion from the atoning blood
On Calvary shed. Beneath the Cross it grew.”

This flower, the Arum maculatum, is the English Passion-flower: its berries are highly poisonous, and every part of the plant is acrid; yet the root contains a farinaceous substance, which, when properly prepared, and its acrid juice expressed, is good for food, and is indeed sold under the name of Portland Sago.——Starch has been made from the root, and the French use it in compounding the cosmetic known as Cypress powder. A drachm weight of the spotted Wake Robin, either fresh or dry, was formerly considered as a sure remedy for poison and the plague. The juice of the herb swallowed, to the quantity of a spoonful, had the same effect. Beaten up with Ox-dung, the berries or roots were believed to ease the pains of gout.——Arum is under the dominion of Mars.

ASOKA.—The Saraca Indica, or Jonesia Asoka, is one of the sacred plants of India, which has from remotest ages been consecrated to their temple decoration, probably on account of the beauty of its orange-red blossoms and the delicacy of its perfume, which in the months of March and April is exhaled throughout the night. The tree is the symbol of love, and dedicated to Kâma, the Indian god of love. Like the Agnus Castus, it is reported to have a certain charm in preserving chastity: thus Sîtâ, the wife of Râma, when abducted by the monster Râvana, escapes from the caresses of the monster and finds refuge in a grove of Asokas. In the legend of Buddha, when Mâyâ is conscious of having conceived the Bodhisattva, under the guise of an elephant, she retires to a wood of Asoka trees, and then sends for her husband. The Hindus entertain the superstition that a single touch of the foot of a pretty woman is sufficient to cause the Asoka to flourish. The word asoka signifies that which is deprived of grief, and Asoka, or the tree without grief, is also one of the names of the Bodhidruma, the sacred tree of Buddha.

ASPEN.—A legend referring to the tremulous motion of this tree (Populus tremula—see Poplar) is to the following effect:—“At the awful hour of the Passion, when the Saviour of the world felt deserted in His agony, when earth, shaken with horror, rang the parting knell for Deity, and universal nature groaned: then, from the loftiest tree to the lowliest flower, all felt a sudden thrill, and trembling bowed their heads, all save the Aspen, which said: ‘Why should we weep and tremble? The trees and flowers are pure and never sinned!’ Ere it ceased to speak, an involuntary trembling seized its every leaf, and the word went forth that it should never rest, but tremble on until the Day of Judgment.” An old saying affirmed that the leaves of the Aspen were made from women’s tongues, which never ceased wagging; and allusion is made to this in the following rhyme by Hannay, 1622:—

“The quaking Aspen, light and thin,
In the air quick passage gives;
Resembling still
The trembling ill
Of tempers of womankind,
Which never rest,
But still are prest
To wave with every wind.”

The Bretons have a legend that the Saviour’s cross was made of Aspen wood; and that the ceaseless trembling of the leaves of this tree marks the shuddering of sympathetic horror. The Germans preserve an ancient tradition that, during their flight into Egypt, the Holy Family came to a dense forest, in which, but for an angelic guide, they must have lost their way. As they entered this wilderness, all the trees bowed themselves down in reverence to the infant God; only the Aspen, in her exceeding pride and arrogance, refused to acknowledge Him, and stood upright. Then the Holy Child pronounced a curse against her, as He in after life cursed the barren Fig-tree; and at the sound of His words the Aspen began to tremble through all her leaves, and has not ceased to tremble to this day. Mr. Henderson, in his ‘Folk-lore of the Northern Counties,’ states that this tradition has been embodied in a little poem, which may be thus translated:—

“Once as our Saviour walked with men below,
His path of mercy through a forest lay;
And mark how all the drooping branches show,
What homage best a silent tree may pay!

“Only the Aspen stands erect and free,
Scorning to join the voiceless worship pure;
But see! He casts one look upon the tree,
Struck to the heart she trembles evermore!”

The Kirghises, who have become almost Mussulmans, have nevertheless preserved a profound veneration for the sacred Aspen.——Astrologers hold that the Aspen is a lunar tree.

ASPHODEL.—The Asphodel is the flower which flourished in the Elysian Fields. Orpheus, in Pope’s ‘Ode on St. Cecilia’s Day,’ conjures the infernal deities—

“By the streams that ever flow;
By the fragrant winds that blow
O’er the Elysian flowers;
By those happy souls who dwell
In yellow meads of Asphodel,
Or Amaranthine bowers.”

Homer tells us that, having crossed the Styx, the shades passed over a long prairie of Asphodel; and Lucian makes old Charon say:—“I know why Mercury keeps us waiting so long. Down here with us there is nothing to be had but Asphodel, and libations and oblations, and that in the midst of mist and darkness: but up in heaven it is all bright and clear, and plenty of ambrosia there, and nectar without stint.” The fine flowers of this plant of the infernal regions produced grains which were believed by the ancients to afford nourishment to the dead. Accordingly we find that the Greeks planted Asphodel and Mallows round graves. The edible roots of the Asphodel were also wont to be laid as offerings in the tombs of the departed, and, according to Hesiod, they served as food for the poor. The Asphodel was held sacred to Bacchus, probably because he visited the infernal regions, and rescued his mother Semele from the kingdom of the departed. Wreaths of the Asphodel were worn by Bacchus, Proserpine, Diana, and Semele. Asphodels were among the flowers forming the couch of Jupiter and Juno, and Milton has named them as put to the same use by Adam and Eve.

“Flowers were the couch,
Pansies, and Violets, and Asphodel,
And Hyacinth, earth’s freshest, softest lap.”

Dr. Prior says that the Asphodel root was, under the name of cibo regio (food for a king), highly esteemed in the middle ages, but, however improved by cultivation, it is likely to have been troublesome by its diuretic qualities, and has probably on that account gone out of fashion. Rapin, in his poem, refers to the Asphodel as forming an article of food—

“And rising Asphodel forsakes her bed,
On whose sweet root our rustic fathers fed.”

ASTER.—The old English name of the Aster is Star-wort. Rapin says of this flower—

“The Attic star, so named in Grecian use,
But called Amellus by the Mantuan Muse
In meadows reigns near some cool streamlet’s side,
Or marshy vales where winding currents glide.
Wreaths of this gilded flower the shepherds twine,
When grapes now ripe in clusters load the vine.”

The Aster is thus identified with the Amellus, of the Greek and Latin poets, and, according to Virgil, the altars of the gods were often adorned with wreaths of these flowers. In his Fourth Georgic the poet prescribes the root of the Italian Star-wort (Aster Amellus) for sickly bees. (See Amellus). The leaves of the Attic Star-wort (when burnt) had the reputation of driving away serpents. In Germany, the Star-wort is used by lovers as an oracle, to decide whether their love is returned or not. The person consulting it repeats the words—

“Er liebt mich von Herzen
Mit Schmerzen,
Ja—oder Nein.”

At the recurrence of the words ja and nein a leaf is pulled out, and the answer depends on which of these words is pronounced as the last of the leaves is plucked. Göthe introduces this rustic superstition in his tragedy of ‘Faust,’ where the luckless heroine consults the floral oracle as to the affection entertained for her by Faust. The French call the Italian Star-wort, or Amellus, l’Œil de Christ, and the China Aster la Reine Marguerite——The Aster is considered to be a herb of Venus.

ASH.—This tree (Fraxinus excelsior), called, on account of its elegance, the Venus of the forest, and from its utility, the husbandman’s tree, was regarded by the ancient Greeks, Romans, and Scandinavians as a sacred tree, and as one of good omen. In the Teutonic mythology, the Ash is the most venerated of trees, and the Scandinavian Edda, the sacred book of the Northmen, furnishes a detailed account of the mystic Ash Yggdrasill, or mundane tree, beneath whose shade was the chief or holiest seat of the gods, where they assembled every day in council. (See Yggdrasill.) According to the old Norse tradition, it was out of the wood of the Ash that man was first formed; and the Greeks entertained a similar belief, for we find Hesiod deriving his brazen race of men from it. The goddess Nemesis was sometimes represented with an Ashen wand. Cupid, before he learnt to use the more potent Cypress, employed Ash for the wood of his arrows. At the Nuptials of Peleus and Thetis, Chiron appeared with a branch of Ash, from which was made the lance of Peleus, which afterwards became the spear of Achilles. Rapin writes of this tree—

“But on fair levels and a gentle soil
The noble Ash rewards the planter’s toil.
Noble e’er since Achilles from her side
Took the dire spear by which brave Hector died;
Whose word resembling much the hero’s mind,
Will sooner break than bend—a stubborn kind.”

There exists an old superstition, that a serpent will rather creep into the fire than over a twig of the Ash-tree, founded upon the statements of Pliny with respect to the magical powers of the Ash against serpents. It was said that serpents always avoided the shade of the Ash; so that if a fire and a serpent were placed within a circle of Ash-leaves, the serpent, to avoid the Ash, would even run into the midst of the fire. Cowley, enumerating various prodigies, says:—

“On the wild Ash’s tops, the bats and owls,
With, all night, ominous and baleful fowls,
Sate brooding, while the screeches of these droves
Profaned and violated all the groves.

But that which gave more wonder than the rest,
Within an Ash a serpent built her nest,
And laid her eggs; when once to come beneath
The very shadow of an Ash was death.”

There exists a popular belief in Cornwall, that no kind of snake is ever found near the “Ashen-tree,” and that a branch of the Ash will prevent a snake from coming near a person. There is a legend that a child, who was in the habit of receiving its portion of bread and milk at the cottage door, was found to be in the habit of sharing its food with one of the poisonous adders. The reptile came regularly every morning, and the child, pleased with the beauty of his companion, encouraged the visits. So the babe and the adder thus became close friends. Eventually this became known to the mother (who, being a labourer in the fields, was compelled to leave her child all day), and she found it to be a matter of great difficulty to keep the snake from the child whenever it was left alone. She therefore adopted the precaution of binding an Ashen-twig about its body. The adder no longer came near the child; but, from that day forward, the poor little one pined away, and eventually died, as all around said, through grief at having lost the companion by whom it had been fascinated.

On the subject of the serpent’s antipathy to the Ash, we find Gerarde writing as follows:—“The leaves of this tree are of so great vertue against serpents, that they dare not so much as touch the morning and evening shadowes of the tree, but shun them afar off, as Pliny reports (lib. 16, c. 13). He also affirmeth that the serpent being penned in with boughes laid round about, will sooner run into the fire, if any be there, than come neare the boughes of the Ash; and that the Ash floureth before the serpents appeare, and doth not cast its leaves before they be gon againe. We write (saith he) upon experience, that if the serpent be set within a circle of fire and the branches, the serpent will sooner run into the fire than into the boughes. It is a wonderfull courtesie in nature, that the Ash should floure before the serpents appeare, and not cast his leaves before they be gon againe.” Other old writers affirm that the leaves, either taken inwardly, or applied outwardly, are singularly good against the biting of snakes or venomous beasts; and that the water distilled from them, and taken every morning fasting, is thought to abate corpulence. The ashes of the Ash and Juniper are stated to cure leprosy.

The pendent winged seeds, called spinners or keys, were believed to have the same effect as the leaves: in country places there is to this day an opinion current, that when these keys are abundant, a severe Winter will follow. A bunch of Ash-keys is still thought efficacious as a protection against witchcraft.

In marshy situations, the roots of the Ash will run a long way at a considerable depth, thus acting as sub-drains: hence the proverb, in some parts of the country, “May your foot-fall be by the root of the Ash.” In the Spring, when the Ash and Oak are coming into leaf, Kentish folk exclaim:—“Oak, smoke; Ash, squash.” If the Oak comes out first, they believe the Summer will prove hot; if the Ash, it will be wet.

“If the Oak’s before the Ash,
You will only get a splash;
If the Ash precedes the Oak,
You will surely have a soak.”

Gilbert White tells us of a superstitious custom, still extant, which he thinks was derived from the Saxons, who practised it before their conversion to Christianity. Ash-trees, when young and flexible, were severed, and held open by wedges, while ruptured children, stripped naked, were pushed through the apertures, under a persuasion that they would be cured of their infirmity. The operation over, the tree was plastered up with loam, and carefully swathed. If the severed parts coalesced in due course, the babe was sure to be cured; but if not, the operation would probably be ineffectual. The same writer relates another extraordinary custom among rustics: they bore a deep hole in an Ash-tree, and imprison a live shrew mouse therein: the tree then becomes a Shrew-Ash, whose twigs or branches, gently applied to the limbs of cattle, will immediately relieve the cramp, lameness, and pain supposed to attack the animal wherever a shrew mouse has crept over it.

Lightfoot says that, in the Highlands, at the birth of an infant, the nurse takes a green Ash stick, one end of which she puts into the fire; and, while it is burning, receives in a spoon the sap that oozes from the other, which she administers to the child as its first food: this custom is thought to be derived from the old Aryan practice of feeding young children with the honey-like juice of the Fraxinus Ornus. The sap of the Ash, tapped on certain days, is drunk in Germany as a remedy for the bites of serpents.

In Northumberland, there is a belief that if the first parings of an infant’s nails are buried under an Ash, the child will turn out a “top singer.” In Staffordshire, the common people believe that it is very dangerous to break a bough from the Ash. In Leicestershire, the Ash is employed as a charm for warts. In the month of April or May, the sufferer is taken to an Ash-tree: the operator (who is provided with a paper of new pins) takes a pin, and having first struck it through the bark, presses it through the wart until it produces pain; the pin is then taken out and stuck into the tree, where it is left. Each wart is similarly treated, a separate pin being used for each. The warts will disappear in a few weeks. It is a wide-spread custom to stroke with a twig from an Ash-tree, under the roots of which a horse-shoe has been buried, any animal which is supposed to have been bewitched.

An Ashen herding stick is preferred by Scotch boys to any other, because in throwing it at their cattle it is sure not to strike in a vital part, and so kill or injure the animal, a contingency which may occur, it seems, with other sticks. It is worthy of note that the lituus of the Roman Augur—a staff with a crook at one end—was formed of an Ash-tree bough, the crook being sometimes produced naturally, but more often by artificial means.

In many parts of England, the finding of an even Ash-leaf is considered to be an augury of good luck; hence the old saying, so dear to tender maids—

“If you find an even Ash or a four-leaved Clover,
Rest assured you’ll see your true-love ere the day is over.”

In Cornwall, this charm is frequently made use of for invoking good luck:—

“Even Ash I thee do pluck,
Hoping thus to meet good luck.
If no good luck I get from thee,
I shall wish thee on the tree.”

In Henderson’s ‘Northern Folk-lore,’ occur the following lines regarding the virtues of even Ash-leaves:—

“The even Ash-leaf in my left hand,
The first man I meet shall be my husband.
The even Ash-leaf in my glove,
The first I meet shall be my love.
The even Ash-leaf for my breast,
The first man I meet’s whom I love best.
The even Ash-leaf in my hand,
The first I meet shall be my man.”

“Even Ash, even Ash, I pluck thee,
This night my true love for to see;
Neither in his rick nor in his rear,
But in the clothes he does every day wear.”

It is a tradition among the gipsies that the cross our Saviour was crucified upon was made of Ash.

In Devonshire, it is customary to burn an Ashen faggot at Christmastide, in commemoration of the fact that the Divine Infant at Bethlehem was first washed and dressed by a fire of Ash-wood.

The Yule-clog or -log which ancient custom prescribes to be burnt on Christmas Eve, used to be of Ash: thus we read in an old poem:—

“Thy welcome Eve, loved Christmas, now arrived,
The parish bells their tuneful peals resound,
And mirth and gladness every breast pervade.
The ponderous Ashen-faggot, from the yard,
The jolly farmer to his crowded hall
Conveys with speed; where, on the rising flames
(Already fed with store of massy brands),
It blazes soon; nine bandages it bears,
And, as they each disjoin (so custom wills),
A mighty jug of sparkling cider’s brought
With brandy mixt, to elevate the guests.”

Spenser speaks of the Ash as being “for nothing ill,” but the tree has always been regarded as a special attractor of lightning, and there is a very old couplet, which says:—

“Avoid an Ash,
It courts the flash.”

Its character as an embodiment of fire is manifested in a remarkable Swedish legend given in Grimm’s ‘German Mythology.’ Some seafaring people, it is said, received an Ash-tree from a giant, with directions to set it upon the altar of a church he wished to destroy. Instead, however, of carrying out his instructions, they placed the Ash on the mound over a grave, which to their astonishment instantly burst into flames.

There is an old belief that to prevent pearls from being discoloured, it is sufficient to keep them shut up with a piece of Ash-root.

Astrologers appear to be divided in their opinions as to whether the Ash is under the dominion of the Sun or of Jupiter.

ASVATTHA.—The Indian Veda prescribes that for the purpose of kindling the sacred fire, the wood of an Asvattha (Ficus religiosa), growing upon a Sami (Mimosa Suma), should be employed. The idea of a marriage suggested by such a union of the two trees is also developed in the Vedas with much minuteness of detail. The process by which, in the Hindu temples, fire is obtained from wood resembles churning. It consists in drilling one piece of wood (the Asvattha, symbolising the male element) into another (the Sami, representing the female element). This is effected by pulling a string tied to it, with a jerk, with one hand, while the other is slackened, and so alternately until the wood takes fire. The fire is received on cotton or flax held in the hand of an assistant Brahman. This Indian fire-generator is known as the “chark.” (See also Sami and Peepul).

AURICULA.—The old Latin name of this plant was Auricula ursi, from the shape of the leaves resembling a bear’s ear. It is thought to be the Alisma of Dioscorides. Matthiolus and Pena call it Sanicula Alpina, from its potency in healing wounds. Old herbalists have also named it Paralytica on account of its being esteemed a remedy for the palsy. Gerarde calls it Bear’s-ear, or Mountain Cowslip, and tells us that the root was in great request among Alpine hunters, for the effect it produced in strengthening the head and preventing giddiness and swimming of the brain overtaking them on high elevations. The plant is reputed to be somewhat carnivorous, and cultivators place juicy pieces of meat about the roots, so that they may absorb the blood.——In Germany, the Auricula is considered emblematical of love of home.

AVAKA.—The Avaka or Sîpâla is an India aquatic plant, which plays an important part in their funeral ceremonies. It is placed in a cavity made, according to their custom, to the north-east of the sacred fire Ahavanîya, and it is believed that the soul of the deceased person passes into this cavity, and thence ascends with the smoke to heaven. The Avaka or Sîpâla forms the food of the Gandharvas, who preside over the India waters.

Avens.—See Herb Bennett.

AZALEA.—This handsome shrub is narcotic and poisonous in all its parts. Xenophon, in his narrative of the ‘Retreat of the Ten Thousand,’ in Asia, after the death of Cyrus, tells how his soldiers became temporarily stupefied and delirious, as if intoxicated, after partaking of the honey of Trebizond on the Black Sea. The baneful properties of this honey arose from the poisonous nature of the blossoms of the Azalea Pontica, from which the bees had collected it.

BACCHARIS.—This plant is the Inula Conyza, and was called Baccharis after the god Bacchus, to whom it was dedicated. Virgil speaks of Baccharis as being used for making garlands, and recommends it as a plant which is efficacious as a charm for repelling calumny—

“Bacchari frontem
Cingite, ne vati noceat mala lingua futuro.”

Its English name is the Ploughman’s Spikenard; and it was highly esteemed by the old herbalists on account of the sweet and aromatic qualities of its root, from which the ancients compounded an ointment which was also known as Baccharis.

Bachelor’s Buttons.—See Ranunculus.

BALBAGA.—The Indian Grass, Eleusine Indica, had, according to De Gubernatis, the Vedic name of Balbaja: and, as a sacred herb, was employed in Indian religious festivals for litter, in ceremonials connected with the worship of the sacred Cow.

BALDMONEY.—According to Gerarde, the Gentian was formerly called Baldmoyne and Baldmoney; but Dr. Prior considers that the name appertains to Meum athamanticum, and that it is a corruption of the Latin valde bona, very good. The Grete Herball, speaking of Sistra, he says, gives the following explanation:—“Sistra is Dyll, some call it Mew; but that is not so. Howbeit they be very like in properties and vertue, and be put eche for other; but Sistra is of more vertue then Mew, and the leaves be lyke an herbe called Valde Bona, and beareth smaller sprigges as Spiknarde. It groweth on hye hylles” (See Feldwode).

BALIS.—This herb was believed by the ancients to possess the property of restoring the dead to life. By its means Æsculapius himself was said to have been once resuscitated; and Pliny reports that, according to the Greek historian Xanthus, a little dog, killed by a serpent, was brought back to life by this wonderful herb Balis.

BALSAM.—The seed vessel of this plant contains five cells. When maturity approaches, each of these divisions curls up at the slightest touch, and darts out its seeds by a spontaneous movement: hence its generic name Impatiens, and its English appellation Noli me tangere—Touch me not. Gerarde calls it the Balsam Apple, or Apple of Jerusalem, and tells us that its old Latin name was Pomum Mirabile, or Marvellous Apple. He also states that the plant was highly esteemed for its property of alleviating the pains of maternity, and that it was considered a valuable agent to remove sterility—the patient first bathing and then anointing herself with an oil compounded with the fruit.——The Turks represent ardent love by this flower.——Balsam is under the planetary influence of Jupiter.

BALM.—The Melissa, or Garden Balm, was renowned among the Arabian physicians, by whom it was recommended for hypochondria and affections of the heart, and according to Paracelsus the primum ens Melissa promised a complete renovation of man. Drunk in wine, it was believed to be efficacious against the bitings of venomous beasts and mad dogs. A variety called Smith’s or Carpenter’s Balm, or Bawm, was noted as a vulnerary, and Pliny describes it of such magical virtue, that Gerarde remarks, “though it be but tied to his sword that hath given the wound, it stancheth the blood.” On account of its being a favourite plant of the bees, it was one of the herbs directed by the ancients to be placed in the hive, to render it agreeable to the swarm: hence it was called Apiastrum.——The astrologers claimed the herb both for Jupiter and the Sun.——In connection with the Garden Balm, Aubrey relates a legend of the Wandering Jew, the scene of which he places in the Staffordshire moors. When on the weary way to Golgotha, Jesus Christ, fainting and sinking beneath the burden of the cross, asked the Jew Ahasuerus for a cup of water to cool his parched throat, he spurned the supplication, and bade him speed on faster. “I go,” said the Saviour, “but thou shalt thirst and tarry till I come.” And ever since that hour, by day and night, through the long centuries, he has been doomed to wander about the earth, ever craving for water, and ever expecting the Day of Judgment, which alone shall end his frightful pilgrimage. 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; and by the help and power of Almighty God above, thou shalt be well. To-morrow, when thou risest up, go into thy garden, and gather there three Balm-leaves, and put them into a cup of thy small beer. Drink as often as you need, and when the cup is empty, fill it again, and put in fresh Balm-leaves every fourth day, and thou shalt see, through our Lord’s great goodness and mercy, that 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.

BALM OF GILEAD.—The mountains of Gilead, in the east of the Holy Land, were covered with fragrant shrubs, the most plentiful being the Amyris, which yielded the celebrated Balm of Gilead, a precious gum which, at a very early period, the Ishmaelites or Arabian carriers trafficked in. It was to a party of these merchants that Joseph was sold by his brethren as they came from Gilead, with their camels, bearing spicery, and Balm, and Myrrh, going to carry it down to Egypt (Gen. xxxvii., 25). There were three productions from this tree, all highly esteemed by the ancients, viz.: Xylobalsamum, a decoction of the new twigs; the Carpobalsamum, an expression of the native fruit; and the Opobalsum, or juice, the finest kind, composed of the greenish liquor found in the kernel of the fruit. The principal quantity of Balm has, however, always been produced by excision. The juice is received in a small earthen bottle, and every day’s produce is poured into a larger, which is kept closely corked. So marvellous were the properties of this Balm considered, that in order to test its quality, the operator dipped his finger in the juice, and then set fire to it, expecting fully to remain scathless if the Balm was of average strength. The Balm of Gilead has always had a wonderful reputation as a cosmetic among ladies. The manner of applying it in the East is thus given by a traveller in Abyssinia:—“You first go into the tepid bath, till the pores are sufficiently opened; you then anoint yourself with a small quantity, and as much as the vessels will absorb: never-fading youth and beauty are said to be the consequences.” By the Arabs, it is employed as a stomachic and antiseptic, and is believed by them to prevent any infection of the plague.——Tradition relates that there is an aspic that guards the Balm-tree, and will allow no one to approach. Fortunately, however, it has a weakness—it cannot endure the sound of a musical instrument. As soon as it hears the approaching torment, it thrusts its tail into one of its ears, and rubs the other against the ground, till it is filled with mud. While it is lying in this helpless condition, the Balm-gatherers go round to the other side of the tree, and hurry away with their spoil.——Maundevile says that the true Balm-trees only grew in Egypt (near Cairo), and in India. The Egyptian trees were tended solely by Christians, as they refused to bear if the husbandmen were Saracens. It was necessary, also, to cut the branches with a sharp flint-stone or bone, for if touched with iron, the Balm lost its incomparable virtue. The Indian Balm-trees grew “in that desert where the trees of the Sun and of the Moon spake to King Alexander,” and warned him of his death. The fruit of these Balm-trees possessed such marvellous properties, that the people of the country, who were in the habit of partaking of it, lived four or five hundred years in consequence.

BAMBOO.—The Bambusa Arundinaceæ is one of the sacred plants of India: it is the tree of shelter, audience, and friendship. As jungle fires were thought to be caused by the stems of Bamboos rubbing together, the tree derived from that fact a mystic and holy character, as an emblem of the sacred fire.——Indian anchorites carry a long Bamboo staff with seven nodes, as a mark of their calling. At Indian weddings, the bride and bridegroom, as part of the nuptial ceremony, get into two Bamboo baskets, placed side by side, and remain standing therein for some specified time. The savage Indian tribe called Garrows possess neither temples nor altars, but they set up a pillar of Bamboo before their huts, and decorate it with flowers and tufts of cotton, and sacrifice before it to their deity. In various parts of India there is a superstitious belief that the flowering and seeding of various species of Bamboo is a sure prognostication of an approaching famine.——Europeans have noticed, as an invariable rule, in Canara, that when the Bamboos flower and seed, fever prevails. At the foot of the Ghauts, and round Yellapûr, it has been observed that when the Bamboos flowered and seeded, fever made its appearance, few persons escaping it. During blossom, the fever closely resembles hay fever at home, but the type becomes more severe as the seeds fall.——The poor, homeless fishermen of China, to supply themselves with vegetables, have invented a system of culture which may move with them, and they thus transport their gardens wherever they may go. This they do by constructing rafts of Bamboo, which are well woven with weeds and strong grass, and then launched on the water and covered with earth. These floating gardens are made fast to the stern of their junks and boats, and towed after them.

BANANA.—The Banana (Musa sapientum) and the Plantain (M. paradisiaca) are so closely related, as to be generally spoken of together. The Banana has been well designated the king of all fruit, and the greatest boon bestowed by Providence on the inhabitants of hot countries. According to Gerarde, who calls it in his Herbal, Adam’s Apple Tree, it was supposed in his time by the Grecians and Christians inhabiting Syria, as well as by the Jews, to be that tree of whose fruit Adam partook at Eve’s solicitation—the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, planted by the Lord Himself in the midst of the Garden of Eden. It has also been supposed that the Grapes brought by the Israelites’ spies to Moses out of the Holy Land, were in reality the fruit of the Banana-tree.——In the Canary Islands, the Banana is never cut across with a knife because it then exhibits a representation of the Crucifixion. Gerarde refers to this mark, remarking that the fruit “pleaseth and entiseth a man to eate liberally thereof, by a certaine entising sweetnesse it yields; in which fruit, if it be cut according to the length, oblique, transverse, or any other way, whatsoever, may be seene the shape and forme of a crosse, with a man fastened thereto. My selfe have seene the fruit, and cut it in pieces, which was brought me from Aleppo, in pickle: the crosse, I might perceive, as the form of a spred-Egle in the root of Ferne; but the man I leave to be sought for by those which have better eies and judgement than my selfe.”——A certain sect of Brahmans, called Yogis, place all their food in the leaves of the Plantain, or Apple of Paradise, and other large leaves; these they use dry, never green, for they say that the green leaves have a soul in them; and so it would be sinful.

BANYAN TREE.—The Indian Fig-tree (Ficus Indica), of which one of the Sanscrit names is Bahupâda, or the Tree of Many Feet, is one of the sacred trees of India, and is remarkable for its vast size and the singularity of its growth: it throws out from its lateral branches shoots which, as soon as they reach the earth, take root, till, in course of time, a single tree extends itself to a considerable grove. Pliny described the Banyan with great accuracy, and Milton has rendered his description almost literally:

“Branching so broad along, that in the ground
The bending twigs take root, and daughters grow
About the mother tree; a pillared shade,
High over-arched, with echoing walks between.
There oft the Indian herdsman, shunning heat,
Shelters in cool, and tends his pasturing herds
At loop-holes cut through thickest shade.”

The Banyan rarely vegetates on the ground, but usually in the crown of Palms, where the seed has been deposited by birds. Roots are sent down to the ground, which embrace, and eventually kill, the Nurse-Palm. Hence, the Hindus have given the Banyan the name of Vaibâdha (the breaker), and invoke it in order that it may at the same time break the heads of enemies.——In the Indian mythology, the Banyan is often confounded with the Bo-tree, and hence it is given a place in heaven, where an enormous tree is said to grow on the summit of the mountain Supârsva, to the south of the celestial mountain Meru, where it occupies a vast space. Beneath the pillared shade of the Banyan, the god Vishnu was born. His mother had sought its shelter, but she was sad and fearful lest the terrible Kansa should put to death her seventh babe, Vishnu, as he had already done her first six. Yasodâ, to console the weeping mother, gave up her own infant daughter, who was at once killed by Kansa’s servants; but Vishnu was saved. It is, says De Gubernatis, at the foot of a gigantic Banyan, a Bhândîra, near Mount Govardhana, that the Buddhist Vishnu plays with his companions, and, by his presence, illuminates everything around him. The Banyan of the Vedas is represented as being peopled with Indian parroquets, who eat its fruit, which, however, does not exceed a Hazel-nut in size. The Chinese Buddhists represent that Buddha sits under a Banyan-tree, turned towards the East, to receive the homage of the god Brahma. Like the sacred Bo-tree, the Banyan is regarded not only as the Tree of Knowledge, but also as the tree of Indian seers and ascetic devotees. Wherever a Bo-tree or a Banyan has stood, the place where it formerly flourished is always held sacred.——There is in India a Banyan-tree that is the object of particular veneration. It grows on the banks of the Nerbudda, not far from Surat, and is the largest and oldest Banyan in the country. According to tradition, it was planted by the Seer Kabira, and is supposed to be three thousand years old. It is said to be the identical tree visited by Nearchus, one of the officers of Alexander the Great. The Hindus never cut it or touch it with steel, for fear of offending the god concealed in its sacred foliage. De Gubernatis quotes the following description of this sacred tree given by Pietro Della Valle at the commencement of the seventeenth century:—“On one side of the town, on a large open space, one sees towering a magnificent tree, similar to those which I had noticed near Hormuz, and which were called Lul, but here were known as Ber. The peasants of this country have a profound veneration for this tree, both on account of its grandeur and its antiquity: they make pilgrimages to it, and honour it with their superstitious ceremonies, believing that the goddess Pârvatî, the wife of Mahâdeva, to whom it is dedicated, has it under her protection. In the trunk of this tree, at a little distance from the ground, they have roughly carved what is supposed to be the head of an idol, but which no one can recognise as bearing any semblance to a human being; however, like the Romans, they paint the face of the idol red, and adorn it with flowers, and with leaves of a tree which they call here Pan, but in other parts of India Betel. These flowers and leaves ought to be always fresh, and so they are often changed. The pilgrims who come to visit the tree receive as a pious souvenir the dried leaves which have been replaced by fresh ones. The idol has eyes of gold and silver, and is decorated with jewellery offered by pious persons who have attributed to it the miraculous cure of ophthalmic complaints they have suffered from.... They take the greatest care of the tree, of every branch, nay, of every leaf, and will not permit either man or beast to damage or profane it. Other Banyan or Pagod trees have obtained great eminence. One near Mangee, near Patna, spread over a diameter of three hundred and seventy feet, and it required nine hundred and twenty feet to surround the fifty or sixty stems by which the tree was supported. Another covered an area of one thousand seven hundred square yards; and many of almost equal dimensions are found in different parts of India and Cochin-China.”——In the Atharvaveda mention is made of an all-powerful amulet, which is a reduction, on a small scale, of a Banyan-tree, possessing a thousand stems, to each of which is attributed a special magical property.

BAOBAB.—The leviathan Baobab (Adansonia) is an object of reverential worship to the negroes of Senegal, where it is asserted that some of these trees exist which are five thousand years old. It is reputed to be the largest tree in the world, and may readily be taken at a distance for a grove: its trunk is often one hundred feet in circumference; but its height is not so wonderful as its enormous lateral bulk. The central branch rises perpendicularly, the others spread out in all directions, and attain a length of sixty feet, touching the ground at their extremities, and equalling in bulk the noblest trees. The wood is spongy and soon decays, leaving the trunks hollow. In these hollow trunks the negroes suspend the dead bodies of those who are refused the honour of burial; and in this position the bodies are preserved without any process of embalming. The magnificent snowy blossoms are regarded with peculiar reverence at the instant they open into bloom. The leaves are used medicinally, and as a condiment; dried and powdered, they constitute Lalo, a favourite article with the Africans, who mix it daily with their food, to prevent undue perspiration; a fibre is obtained from the bark that is so strong as to have given rise in Bengal to the saying, “As secure as an elephant bound with a Baobab rope.” The gourd-like fruit, called Monkey-bread and Ethiopian Sour Gourd, is also eaten, and is prized for its febrifugal qualities.

BARBERRY.—The Barberry (Berberis vulgaris) was formerly called the Pipperidge-bush, and was regarded with superstitious dislike by farmers, who believed that it injured Wheat crops, even if growing a hundred yards off, by imparting to the Corn the fungus which causes rust.——In Italy, the Barberry is looked upon as the Holy Thorn, or the plant which furnished the crown of Thorns used at our Lord’s crucifixion: it seems to be so regarded because its Thorns grow together in sets of three at each joint of the branch.——The Barberry is under the dominion of Venus.

BARLEY.—Barley is a symbol of riches and abundance. The God Indra is called “He who ripens Barley,” and in many of their religious ceremonies the Indians introduce this cereal, viz., at the birth of an infant, at weddings, at funerals, and at certain of their sacrificial rites.——Barley is claimed by astrologers as a notable plant of Saturn.

BAROMETZ.—The Barometz, or Scythian Lamb (Polypodium Barometz), is a name given to a Fern growing in Tartary, the root of which, says Prof. Martyn, from the variety of its form, is easily made by art to take the form of a lamb (called by the Tartars Borametz), “or rather that of a rufous dog, which the common names in China and Cochin-China imply, namely, Cau-tich and Kew-tsie.” The description given of this strange Fern represents the root as rising above the ground in an oblong form, covered all over with hairs: towards one end it frequently becomes narrower and then thicker, so as to give somewhat of the shape of a head and neck, and it has sometimes two pendulous hairy excrescences resembling ears; at the other end a short shoot extends out into a tail. Four fronds are chosen in a suitable position, and are cut off to a proper length, to represent the legs: and thus a vegetable lamb is produced. Loureiro affirms that the root, when fresh cut, yields a juice closely resembling the blood of animals.——Kircher has given a figure of the Tartarian Lamb, in which the lamb is represented as the fruit of some plant on the top of a stalk.——Parkinson, in the frontispiece to his Paradisus Terrestris, has depicted this Lamb-plant as growing in the Garden of Eden, where it appears to be browsing on the surrounding herbage.——Scaliger has given a detailed account of the Barometz, which he calls “a wondrous plant indeed among the Tartars.” After remarking that Zavolha is the most considerable of the Tartar hordes, he proceeds:—“In that province they sow a seed not unlike the seed of a Melon, except that it is not so long. There comes from it a plant which they call Borametz, that is to say, a lamb; and, indeed, the fruit of that plant has exactly the shape of a lamb. We see distinctly all the exterior parts—the body, the feet, the hoofs, the head, and the ears; there wants, indeed, nothing but the horns, instead of which it has a sort of wool that imitates them not amiss. The Tartars fleece it, and make themselves caps of the skin. The pulp that is within the fruit is very much like the flesh of crabs. Cut it, and the blood gushes out, as from a wounded animal. This lamb feeds itself upon all the grass that grows around it, and when it has eaten it all up, it dries and dies away. But what perfects the similitude between the Borametz and a lamb is that the wolves are very greedy of this fruit, which no other animals ever care for.”——The elder Darwin, in his poem on ‘The Loves of the Plants,’ makes the following allusion to the Barometz:—

“Cradled in snow and fanned by Arctic air,
Shines, gentle Barometz! thy golden hair;
Rooted in earth, each cloven hoof descends,
And round and round her flexile neck she bends;
Crops the gray coral Moss and hoary Thyme,
Or laps with rosy tongue the melting rime,
Eyes with mute tenderness her distant dam,
Or seems to bleat, a vegetable Lamb.”

BASIL.—The English name of the Ocymum basilicum is derived from the Greek basilikon, royal, probably from its having been used in some royal unguent, bath, or medicine.——Holy Basil, or Tulasî (Ocymum sanctum), is by the Hindus regarded as a most sacred herb, and they have given one of its names to a sacred grove of their Parnassus, on the banks of the Yamuna. This holy herb is grown in pots near every temple and dwelling of devout Hindus. It is sacred to Vishnu, Kushna, and Lakshmi, but all the gods are interested in it. Narada, the celestial sage, has sung the praises of the immortal plant, which is perfection itself, and which, whilst protecting from every misfortune those who cultivate it, sanctifies and guides them to heaven. For this double sanctity it is reared in every Hindu house, where it is daily watered and worshipped by all the members of the household. Perhaps, also, it was on account of its virtues in disinfecting and vivifying malarious air that it first became inseparable from Hindu houses in India as the protecting spirit or Lar of the family. The pious Hindus invoke the divine herb for the protection of every part of the body, for life and for death, and in every action of life; but above all in its capacity of ensuring children to those who desire to have them. Among the appellations given to the Tulasî are—“propitious,” “perfumed,” “multi-leaved,” “devil-destroying,” &c. The root is made into beads, which are worn round the neck and arms of the votaries of Vishnu, who carry also a rosary made of the seeds of the Holy Basil or the Sacred Lotus. De Gubernatis has given some interesting details of the Tulasî cultus:—“Under the mystery of this herb,” he says, “created with ambrosia, is shrouded without doubt the god-creator himself. The worship of the herb Tulasî is strongly recommended in the last part of the Padmapurâna, consecrated to Vishnu; but it is, perhaps, no less adored by the votaries of Siva; Krishna, the popular incarnation of the god Vishnu, has also adopted this herb for his worship; from thence its names of Krishna and Krishnatulasî. Sîtâ, the epic personification of the goddess Lakshmî, was transformed, according to the Râmâyana, into the Tulasî, from whence the name of Sitâhvayâ given to the herb.” Because of the belief that the Tulasî opens the gates of heaven to the pious worshipper, Prof. De Gubernatis tells us that “when an Indian dies, they place on his breast a leaf of Tulasî; when he is dead, they wash the head of the corpse with water, in which have been dropped, during the prayer of the priest, some Flax seeds and Tulasî leaves. According to the Kriyâyogasâras (xxiii.), in religiously planting and cultivating the Tulasî, the Hindu obtains the privilege of ascending to the Palace of Vishnu, surrounded by ten millions of parents. It is a good omen for a house if it has been built on a spot where the Tulasî grows well. Vishnu renders unhappy for life and for eternity infidels who wilfully, or the imprudent who inadvertently, uproot the herb Tulasî: no happiness, no health, no children for such! This sacred plant cannot be gathered excepting with a good and pious intention, and above all, for the worship of Vishnu or of Krishna, at the same time offering up this prayer:—‘Mother Tulasî, be thou propitious. If I gather you with care, be merciful unto me, O Tulasî, mother of the world, I beseech you.’”——Like the Lotus, the Basil is not only venerated as a plant sacred to the gods, but it is also worshipped as a deity itself. Hence we find the herb specially invoked, as the goddess Tulasî, for the protection of every part of the human frame, from the head to the feet. It is also supposed that the heart of Vishnu, the husband of the Tulasî, is profoundly agitated and tormented whenever the least sprig is broken of a plant of Tulasî, his wife.——In Malabar, sweet Basil is cultivated as a sacred plant, under the name of Collo, and kept in a little shrine placed before the house.——In the Deccan villages, the fair Brahminee mother may be seen early every morning, after having first ground the corn for the day’s bread and performed her simple toilet, walking with glad steps and waving hands round and round the pot of Holy Basil, planted on the four-horned altar built up before each house, invoking the blessings of heaven on her husband and his children. The herb is planted largely on the river banks, where the natives bathe, as well as at the entrance to their temples. They believe that the deities love this herb, and that the god Ganavedi abides in it continually. When travelling, if they cannot obtain the herb, they draw the form of the plant on the ground with its root.——It is difficult to understand why so sacred and so fragrant a herb as Sweet Basil should have become the symbol of Hatred, unless it be because the ancients sometimes represented Poverty by the figure of a female clothed in rags, and seated by a plant of Basil. The ancient Greeks thought that when Basil was sown, the act should be accompanied by abuse, without which it would not flourish. Pliny also records that it throve best when sown with cursing and railing. This explains the French saying, “Semer le Basilic,” equivalent to slandering.——The plant has a decided funereal symbolism. In Persia, where it is called Rayhan,

“the Basil-tuft, that waves
Its fragrant blossom over graves,”

is usually found in cemeteries. In Egypt, the same plant is scattered over the tombs by the women who go twice or oftener a week to pray and weep at the sepulchres of the dead. In Crete, the Basil is considered a symbol of the Evil One, although it is to be found on every window-ledge. It is unfortunate to dream of Basil, for it is supposed to betoken grief and misfortune. It was probably these sinister and funereal associations of the plant that induced Boccaccio to make the unhappy Isabella conceal her murdered lover’s head by planting Basil in the pot that contained it; although it is surmised that the author of the ‘Decameron’ obtained the idea from Grecian sources.——It is, however, satisfactory to find that in Italy the Basil is utilised for other than funereal purposes. De Gubernatis tells us that in some districts pieces of Basil are worn by maidens in their bosoms or at their waists, and by married women in their hair: they believe also that the perfume of Basil engenders sympathy, from which comes its familiar name, Bacia-nicola—Kiss me, Nicholas! Rarely does the young peasant girl pay a visit to her sweetheart without affixing behind her ear a sprig of Basil, which she takes special care not to part with, as that would be a token of scorn. In Turkey, they call Basil, Amorino. In Moldavia, the Basil is regarded as an enchanted flower, whose spells can stop the wandering youth upon his way, and make him love the maiden from whose hand he shall accept a sprig.——In the East, Basil seeds are employed to counteract the poison of serpents: in India the leaves are used for the same purpose, as well as for the cure of several diseases. Gerarde says that “they of Africke do also affirme that they who are stung of the scorpion, and have eaten of it, shall feele no paine at all.” Orisabius likewise asserts that the plant is an antidote to the sting of those insects; but, on the other hand, Hollerius declares that it propagates scorpions, and that to his knowledge an acquaintance of his, through only smelling it, had a scorpion bred in his brain.——Lord Bacon, in his Natural History, states that if Basil is exposed too much to the sun, it changes into Wild Thyme, although the two herbs seem to have small affinity. Culpeper quaintly remarks: “Something is the matter; this herb and Rue will never grow together—no, nor near one another; and we know the Rue is as great an enemy to poison as any that grows.” Gerarde, however, tells us that the smell of Basil is good for the heart and for the head.——The plant is a paradox:—sacred and revered, yet dedicated to the Evil One; of happy augury, yet funereal; dear to women and lovers, yet emblem of hatred; propagator of scorpions, yet the antidote to their stings.——Astrologers rule that Basil is a herb of Mars, and under the Scorpion, and therefore called Basilicon.

BAUHINIA.—The leaves of the Bauhinia or Ebony-tree are two-lobed, or twin—a character, which suggested to Plumier the happy idea of naming the genus after the two famous brothers, John and Caspar Bauhin, botanists of the sixteenth century.

BEANS.—Among the ancients, there appears to have been a superstitious aversion to Beans as an article of food, arising from the resemblance of the fruit to a portion of the human body. The Egyptians, among whom the Sacred Bean was an object of actual worship, would not partake of it as food, probably on that account; because by so doing they would be fearful of eating what they considered was human, and of consuming a soul. By some nations the seed was consecrated to the gods.——The eating of Beans was interdicted to the Jewish High Priest on the Day of Atonement from its decided tendency to bring on sleep.——The goddess Ceres, when bestowing her gifts upon mankind, expressly excluded Beans. The unhappy Orpheus refused to eat them; Amphiaraus, the diviner, in order to preserve a clear vision, always abstained from them; the Flamines, Roman priests, instituted by Numa, would neither touch nor mention them; and the Grecian philosopher Pythagoras, who lived only on the purest and most innocuous food, invariably declined to partake of Beans of any description, giving as his reason that, in the Bean, he recognised blood, and consequently an animal, which, as a vegetarian, he could not consume. According to tradition, the great philosopher, being pursued by his enemies, was overtaken and killed, solely because, having in his flight reached a field of Beans, he would not cross it for fear of trampling upon living beings, the souls of the dead, who had entered temporarily, into the vegetable existence. Cicero considered that the antipathy to Beans as an article of food arose from their being considered impure, inasmuch as they corrupted the blood, distended the stomach, and excited the passions. Hippocrates considered them unwholesome and injurious to the eyesight. They were also believed to cause bad dreams, and, moreover, if seen in dreams, were deemed to portend evil.——One of the Greek words for Bean is Puanos, and at the festival of Puanepsia, held in the month of October, at Athens, in honour of Apollo, Beans and Pulse, we are told, were sodden. The Romans offered Beans to their goddess Carna on the occasion of her festival in the month of June.——The Lemures, or evil spirits of those who had lived bad lives, according to a Roman superstition, were in the habit, during the night-time, of approaching houses, and then throwing Beans against them. The Romans celebrated festivals in their honour in the month of May, when the people were accustomed to throw black Beans on the graves of the deceased, or to burn them, as the smell was supposed to be disagreeable to the manes. This association of Beans with the dead is still preserved in some parts of Italy, where, on the anniversary of a death, it is customary to eat Beans and to distribute them to the poor. Black Beans were considered to be male, and white female, the latter being the inferior.——De Gubernatis relates several curious customs connected with Beans. In Tuscany, the fire of St. John is lighted in a Bean-field, so that it shall burn quickly. In Sicily, on Midsummer Eve, Beans are eaten with some little ceremony, and the good St. John is thanked for having obtained the blessings of a bountiful harvest from God. At Modica, in Sicily, on October 1st, a maiden in love will sow two Beans in the same pot. The one represents herself, the other the youth she loves. If both Beans shoot forth before the feast of St. Raphael, then marriage will come to pass; but if only one of the Beans sprouts, there will be betrayal on the part of the other. In Sicily and Tuscany, girls who desire a husband learn their fate by means of Beans, in this fashion:—They put into a bag three Beans—one whole, another without the eye, a third without the rind. Then, after shaking them up, they draw one from the bag. The whole Bean signifies a rich husband; the Bean without an eye signifies a sickly husband; and the Bean without rind a husband without a penny.——The French have a legend, of one Pipette, who, like our Jack, reaches the sky by means of a Bean-stalk. In France, some parts of Italy, and Russia, on Twelfth Night, children eat a cake in which has been baked a white Bean and a black Bean. The children to whose lot fall the portions of cake containing the Beans become the King and Queen of the evening.——An old English charm to cure warts is to take the shell of a broad Bean, and rub the affected part with the inside thereof; the shell is then to be buried, and no one is to be told about the matter; then, as the shell withers away, so will the wart gradually disappear. It is a popular tradition that during the flowering of the Bean more cases of lunacy occur than at any other season. In Leap Year, it is a common notion that broad Beans grow the wrong way, i.e., the seed is set in the pods in quite the contrary way to what it is in other years. The reason given is that, because it is the ladies’ year, the Beans always lie the wrong way—in reference to the privilege possessed by the fair sex of courting in Leap Year. There is a saying in Leicestershire, that if you wish for awful dreams or desire to go crazy, you have only to sleep in a Bean-field all night.——Beans are under the dominion of Venus. To dream of them under any circumstances means trouble of some kind.

BEDSTRAW.—Our Lady’s Bedstraw (Galium verum) filled the manger on which the infant Jesus was laid. In a painting of the Nativity by N. Poussin, this straw is introduced. From its soft puffy stems and golden flowers, this grass was in bygone times used for bedding, even by ladies of rank,—whence the expression of their being “in the straw.”——Galium was formerly employed to curdle the milk in cheese-making, and was also used before the introduction of Annatto, to give a rich colour to Cheshire cheese. The old herbalists affirmed that the root stirred up amorous desires, if drunk in wine, and that the flowers would produce the same effect if smelt long enough. Robert Turner says: “It challenges the preheminence above Maywort, for preventing the sore weariness of travellers: the decoction of the herb and flowers, used warm, is excellent good to bath the surbated feet of footmen and lackies in hot weather, and also to lissome and mollifie the stiffness and weariness of their joynts and sinews.”——In France, Galium is considered to be a remedy in cases of epilepsy.——Lady’s Bedstraw is under the dominion of Venus.

BEECH.—Vieing with the Ash in stateliness and grandeur of outline, the Beech (Fagus) is worthily given by Rapin the second place among trees.

“Mixt with huge Oaks, as next in rank and state,
Their kindred Beech and Cerris claim a seat.”

According to Lucian, the oracles of Jupiter at Dodona were delivered not only through the medium of the sacred Oaks in the prophetic grove surrounding the temple, but also by Beeches which grew there. A large part, if not the whole, of the Greek ship Argo was built of Fagus, or Beech timber, and as certain beams in the vessel gave oracles to the Argonauts, and warned them against the approach of calamities, it is probable that some, at least, of these prophetic beams were hewn from the Dodonæan Beeches. It was from the top of two Beech-trees that Minerva and Apollo, in the form of vultures, selected to watch the fight between the Greeks and the Trojans.——The connection of the tree with the god Bacchus appears to have been confined to its employment in the manufacture of bowls for wine in the happy time when “No wars did men molest, and only Beechen bowls were in request.” Cowley alludes to this in the words—

“He sings the Bacchus, patron of the Vine,
The Beechen bowl foams with a flood of wine.”

Virgil notices the use of its smooth and green bark for receiving inscriptions from the “sylvan pen of lovers;” and Ovid, in his epistle from Œnone to Paris, refers to the same custom, gracefully noting that the name of the fair one would grow and spread with the growth of the tree:—

“The Beeches, faithful guardians of your flame,
Bear on their wounded trunks Œnone’s name,
And as their trunks, so still the letters grow;
Spread on, and fair aloft my titles show.”

According to a French tradition, a blacksmith, who was one day beating a bar of red-hot iron on his anvil, raised such a shower of sparks, that some of them reached the eyes of God himself, who forthwith, in His wrath, condemned the man to become a bear, with the condition that he might climb at his pleasure all the trees excepting the Beech. Changed into a bear, the man was for ever afterwards cogitating how to uproot the tree. In this legend, the Beech, which is generally considered a tree of good augury, becomes a specially favoured or privileged tree. Pliny wrote that it should not be cut for fuel. Gerarde says of it: “The wood is hard and firme, which being brought into the house there follows hard travail of child and miserable deaths, as it is reported; and therefore it is to be forborne, and not used as fire wood.” The Beech-tree is believed to be exempt from the action of lightning, and it is well known that Indians will seek its shelter during a thunderstorm. It is the Danish symbol.—Astrologers rule the Beech to be under the dominion of Saturn.

BELINUNCIA.—Under the appellation of Kêd, or Ceridwen, the Druids worshipped the Moon, who was believed to exercise a peculiar influence on storms, diseases, and certain plants. They consecrated a herb to her, called Belinuncia, in the poisonous sap of which they dipped their arrows, to render them as deadly as those malignant rays of the Moon which were deemed to shed both death and madness upon men.

BEL-TREE.—The Ægle Marmelos, Bilva (Sanscrit), or Bel-tree, is held sacred in India. Belonging to the same natural order as the Orange, its leaves, which are divided into three separate leaflets, are dedicated to the Hindu Trinity, and Indians are accustomed to carry one of them folded in the turban or sash, in order to propitiate Siva, and ensure safety from accidents. The wood is used to form the sacrificial pillars.——The Hindu women of the Punjab throw flowers into a sacred river, by means of which they can foretell whether or not they are to survive their husbands: but a much more ingenious rite is practised by the Newars of Nepaul. To obviate the terrible hardships to a young Hindu girl of becoming a widow, she is, in the first instance, married to a Bel-fruit, which is then cast into a sacred river. Should her future husband prove distasteful to her, this rite enables her to obtain a divorce; and should the husband die, she can still claim the title of wife to the sacred Bel-fruit, which is immortal; so that she is always a wife and never a widow.

Bell-flower.—See Blue-bell, and Campanula.

BETEL.—According to Indian traditions, the Betel was brought from heaven by Arjuna, who, during his journey to Paradise, stole a little bough of the sacred tree, which, upon his return to earth, he carefully planted. In remembrance of this celestial origin of the tree, and of the manner of its introduction to earth, Indians who desire to plant the Betel invariably steal a few young shoots.——The Betel, or Pepper-tree (Piper betle), is most highly esteemed by the Indian races, who attribute to its leaves no less than thirty properties or virtues, the possession of which, even by a plant of heavenly origin, can scarcely be credited. It is the leaf of the Betel which serves to enclose a few slices of the Areca Nut (sometimes erroneously called the Betel Nut); and these, together with a little Chunam or shell-lime, are what the natives universally chew to sweeten the breath and strengthen the stomach. The poor, indeed, employ it to keep off the pangs of hunger. In certain parts of the East, it is not considered polite to speak to a superior without some of the Betel and Areca compound in the mouth. At Indian marriage ceremonies, the bride and bridegroom exchange between themselves the same Areca Nut, with its accompanying Betel-leaf.——In Borneo, a favoured lover may enter the house of the loved one’s parents, at night, and awaken her, to sit and eat Betel Nut and the finest of Sirih-leaves from his garden.

BETONY.—The ‘Medicinal Betony,’ as Clare calls it, is Betonica officinalis, and of all the simples praised by old herbalists, both English and foreign, none (the Vervain excepted) was awarded a higher place than Wood Betony. Turner, in his ‘Brittish Physician’ (1687), writes:—“It would seem a miracle to tell what experience I have had of it. This herb is hot and dry, almost to the second degree, a plant of Jupiter in Aries, and is appropriated to the head and eyes, for the infirmities whereof it is excellent, as also for the breast and lungs; being boiled in milk, and drunk, it takes away pains in the head and eyes. Probatum. Some write it will cure those that are possessed with devils, or frantic, being stamped and applied to the forehead.” He gives a list of between twenty or thirty complaints which Betony will cure, and then says, “I shall conclude with the words I found in an old manuscript under the virtues of it: ‘More than all this have been proved of Betony.’” Gerarde gives a similar list, and adds, that Betony is “a remedy against the bitings of mad dogs and venomous serpents, being drunk, and also applied to the hurts, and is most singular against poyson.” There is an old saying that, when a person is ill, he should sell his coat, and buy Betony.——The Romans were well acquainted with the medicinal properties of this herb. Pliny wrote of the marvellous results obtained from its use, and also affirmed that serpents would kill one another if surrounded by a ring composed of Betonica. Antonius Musa, physician to Augustus, wrote a treatise on the excellencies of Betonica, which he affirmed would cure forty-seven different ailments. Franzius went so far as to assert that the wild beasts of the forest, aware of its surpassing virtues, availed themselves of its efficacy when they were wounded.——At a time when a belief in witchcraft was rife in England, it was generally understood that the house where Herba Betonica was sown, was free from all mischief. In Yorkshire, the Water Betony was formerly called Bishop’s Leaves. In Italy, at the present day, there are several proverbs relating to the virtues of Betony, one of which is, “May you have more virtues than Betony;” and another, “Known as well as Betony.”

BIGNONIA.—One of the native names of the Bignonia Indica, or Indian Trumpet-flower, is Kâmadûti, or the Messenger of Love. Under the name of Patala, the Bignonia suaveolens is specially consecrated by the Indians to the god Brahma. The name of Patala, however, is given in the Sanscrit to Durgâ, the wife of Siva, probably on account of the colour of her idols, which assimilate to the colour of the flowers of the Bignonia.

BILBERRY.—The origin of the Bilberry or Whortleberry (Vaccinium Myrtillus), according to the mythology of the ancients, is as follows:—Œnomaüs, father of the lovely Hippodamia, chose for his attendant the young Myrtillus, son of Mercury. Proud of his skill, he stipulated that all his daughter’s suitors should compete for the prize in a chariot race with him. Pelops, who was eager to obtain the beautiful Hippodamia, promised Myrtillus a large reward if he would take out the linch-pin of his master’s chariot. Myrtillus was not proof againt the offer: in consequence, the chariot was overturned, and Œnomaüs mortally injured; but as he expired, he implored Pelops to avenge him, which he did by throwing the treacherous attendant into the sea. The waters having borne back his body to the shore, Mercury changed it to the shrub called after his name, Myrtillus, a name formerly given to the plant producing the Myrtle-berry, a fruit largely imported in the middle ages, and used in medicine and cookery—of the same genus as the English Bilberry, which is often found growing on the sea-shore. The Scotch name of this shrub is Blaeberry, the praises of which are often sung in Northern ballads.

“Will ye go, lassie, go to the braes of Balquhidder,
Whare the Blaeberries grow ’mong the bonny blooming Heather?”

Bilberries are held by the astrologers to be under Jupiter. (See also Whortleberry.)

BIRCH.—According to Scandinavian mythology, the Birch (Betula alba) was consecrated to the god Thor, and symbolised the return of Spring. The Greeks and Romans had not much knowledge of the tree, but the latter seem to have regarded it with a feeling of dread in consequence of the fasces of the magistracy being composed of it, as now, says Evelyn, “are the gentler rods of our tyrannical pedagogues for lighter faults.” According to Pliny, the celebrated books which Numa Pompilius composed seven hundred years before Christ, and which were buried with him, were written on the bark of the Birch-tree.——It is in the northern countries of Europe that the Birch flourishes, and it is there the tree is held in the highest esteem. The Russians have a proverb that the Birch excels in four qualities:—It gives light to the world (with Birch-boughs torches are made); it stifles cries (from Birch they extract a lubricant which they apply to the wheels of carriages); it cleanses (in Russian baths, to promote perspiration, they scourge the body with branches of Birch); it cures diseases (by incision they obtain a liquor stated to have all the virtues of the spirit of salt, and from which a wine is distilled, excellent as a cordial and useful in cases of consumption). Moreover, in Russia, the oil of the Birch is used as a vermifuge and a balsam in the cure of wounds. In fact, to the peasants of the North, the Birch is as beneficent as is the Palm to the Indians. No wonder, then, that the Russians are very fond of the Birch, and surround their dwellings with it; believing, as they do, that this tree is never struck by lightning.——On the Day of Pentecost, it is a custom among young Russian maidens to suspend garlands on the trees they love best, and they are careful to tie round the stems of the Birch-trees a little red ribbon as a charm to cause them to flourish and to protect them from the Evil Eye. De Gubernatis quotes from a Russian author named Afanassief, who tells us of a Birch that showed its appreciation of the kindly attentions of a young girl in decking its stem, by protecting her from the persecutions of a witch, who had become her step-mother; and the same author makes mention of a certain white Birch, which grew in the island of Buian, on the topmost of whose branches it was currently believed the Mother of God might be seen sitting.——Grohmann, a German writer, recounts the legend of a young shepherdess, who was spinning in the midst of a forest of Birch-trees, when suddenly the Wild Woman of the forest accosted her. The Wild Woman was dressed in white, and had a garland of flowers upon her head: she persuaded the shepherdess to dance with her, and for three days kept up the dance until sunset, but so lightly that the grass under her feet was neither trampled upon nor bent. At the conclusion of the dance, all the yarn was spun, and the Wild Woman was so satisfied, that she filled the pocket of the little shepherdess with Birch-leaves, which soon turned into golden money.——Professor Mannhardt, says De Gubernatis, divulges to us the means employed by the Russian peasants to evoke the Lieschi, or Geni of the forest. They cut down some very young Birch-trees, and arrange them in a circle in such a manner that the points shall be turned towards the middle: they enter this circle, and then they call up the spirit, who forthwith makes his appearance. They place him on the stump of one of the felled trees, with his face turned towards the East. They kiss his hand, and, whilst looking between his legs, they utter these words:—“Uncle Lieschi, show yourself to us, not as a grey wolf, not as a fierce fire, but as I myself appear.” Then the leaves of the Aspen quiver and tremble, and the Lieschi shows himself in human form, and is quite disposed to render no matter what service to him who has conjured him—provided only that he will promise him his soul.——De Gubernatis relates one other anecdote respecting the Birch, which he says to the Esthonian is the living personification of his country. It is related that an Esthonian peasant noticed a stranger asleep beneath a tree at the moment when it was struck by lightning. He awoke him. The stranger, thanking him for his good offices, said: “When, far from your native country, and feeling sorrowful and home-sick, you shall see a crooked Birch, strike and ask of it: ‘Is the crooked one at home?’” One day the peasant, who had become a soldier, and was serving in Finland, felt dispirited and unhappy, for he could not help thinking of his home and the little ones he had left behind. Suddenly he sees the crooked Birch! He strikes it, and asks: “Is the crooked one at home?” Forthwith the mysterious stranger appears, and, calling to one of his spirits, bids him instantly transport the soldier to his native country, with his knapsack full of silver.——The Swedes have a superstition that our Saviour was scourged with a rod of the dwarf Birch, which was formerly a well-grown tree, but has ever since that day been doomed to hide its miserable and stunted head. It is called Láng Fredags Ris, or Good Friday rod.——In France, it was in mediæval times the custom to preserve a bough of the Birch as a sacred object. In the country districts around Valenciennes, it is an old custom for lovers to hang a bough of Birch or Hornbeam over the doorway of his lady-love. In Haute Bretagne, as a charm to strengthen a weakly infant, they place in its cot Birch-leaves, which have been previously dried in an oven. There is an old English proverb, “Birchen twigs break no bones,” which has reference to the exceedingly slender branches of the tree.——In former days, churches were decked with boughs of the Birch, and Gerarde tell us that “it serveth well to the decking up of houses and banqueting-rooms, for places of pleasure, and for beautifying of streets in the crosse and gang [procession] weeke, and such like.” According to Herrick, it was customary to use Birch and fresh flowers for decorative purposes at Whitsuntide:—

“When Yew is out, then Birch comes in,
And many flowers besides;
Both of a fresh and fragrant kinne,
To honour Whitsontide.”

The Scotch Highlanders think very highly of the Birch, and turn it to all sorts of uses. With Burns, the budding Birch was a prime favourite in the Spring-time. The Scotch proverb, which says of a very poor man that he is “Bare as a Birk at Yule e’en,” probably refers to an old custom of stripping the bark of the tree prior to converting it into the yule log. The tree known in the Highlands as the Drooping Birk is often grown in churchyards, where, as Scott says, “Weeps the Birch of silver bark with long dishevell’d hair.” In Scottish ballads, the Birch is associated with the dead, and more especially with the wraiths or spirits of those who appear to be living after death. The following is a good example:—

“I dreamed a dreary dream last nicht;
God keep us a’ frae sorrow!
I dreamed I pu’d the Birk sae green
Wi’ my true love on Yarrow.

“I’ll redde your dream, my sister dear,
I’ll tell you a’ your sorrow;
You pu’d the Birk wi’ your true love;
He’s killed, he’s killed on Yarrow.”

The Birch-tree is held to be under the dominion of Venus.

Bitter-Sweet.—See Solanum.

BITTER VETCH.—The Orobus, or Bitter Vetch, is supposed to represent the herb mentioned in a passage in Pulci, which relates how an enchanter preserves two knights from starvation, during a long journey, by giving them a herb which, being held in the mouth, answers all the purposes of food.——The Scotch Highlanders have a great esteem for the tubercles of the Orobus root (which they call Corr or Cormeille); they use them as masticatories, to flavour their liquor. They also affirm that by the use of them they are enabled to repel hunger and thirst for a considerable time. In times of scarcity, the roots have served as a substitute for bread, and many think that the Bitter Vetch is the Chara, mentioned by Cæsar, as affording food to his famished soldiers at the siege of Dyrrhachium. The seeds, ground and tempered with wine, were applied to heal the bitings of dogs and venomous beasts.

Black-Thorn.—See Thorn.

Blaeberry.—See Bilberry and Whortleberry.

BLUE-BELL.—The Blue-bells of Scotland have long since become household words. The flower (Campanula latifolia) is the finest and most stately of the species, and although common enough on its native hills, is scarce in England. It is associated with the feast of St. George. (See Campanula.)

Blue-Bottle and Bluet.—See Centaury.

Bo-Tree.—See Peepul.

BORAGE.—In former days, Borage (Borago officinalis) was noted as one of the four “cordial flowers” most deserving of esteem for cheering the spirits—the other three being the Rose, Violet, and Alkanet. Pliny called Borage Euphrosynum, because it made men merry and joyful: and to the same purport is the old Latin rhyme, “Ego Borago gaudia semper ago.” All the old herbalists praise the plant for its exhilarating effects, and agree with Pliny that when put into wine the leaves and flowers of Borage make men and women glad and merry, driving away all sadness, dulness, and melancholy. The “cool tankard” of our forefathers was a beverage composed of the young shoots and blossoms of Borage mingled with wine, water, lemon, and sugar. Lord Bacon was of opinion that “if in the must of wine or wort of beer, while it worketh, before it be tunned, the Burrage stay a short time, and be changed with fresh, it will make a sovereign drink for melancholy passion.”——Borage, astrologers tell us, is one of Jupiter’s cordials.

BOX.—The evergreen Box (Buxus semperviva) was specially consecrated by the Greeks to Pluto, the protector of all evergreen trees, as being symbolical of the life which continues through the winter in the infernal regions, and in the other world.——A curious superstition existed among the ancients in regard to the Box: although it very much resembles the Myrtle, which was held sacred to Venus, yet they carefully refrained from dedicating the Box to that goddess, because they were afraid that through such an offering they would lose their virility. They also, according to Bacon, entertained the belief that the Box produced honey, and that in Trebizonde the honey issuing from this tree was so noxious, that it drove men mad. Corsican honey was supposed to owe its ill repute to the fact that the bees fed upon Box. The Box is referred to by the Prophet Isaiah in his description of the glory of the latter days of the Church: “The glory of Lebanon shall come unto thee, the Fir-tree, the Pine-tree, and the Box-tree together, to beautify the place of my sanctuary.” It is thought, also, to be the Ashur-wood of the Scriptures, and to be referred to by Ezekiel when, in describing the splendour of Tyre, he alludes to the benches of the rowers as made of Ashur wood, inlaid with ivory. That the ancients were accustomed to inlay Box-wood with ivory we know from Virgil and other writers, who allude to this practice.——The Jews employ branches of Box in erecting their tents at the Feast of Tabernacles.——Boughs of Box were used formerly for decorative purposes, instead of the Willow, on Palm Sundays. According to Herrick, it was once a time-honoured custom on Candlemas Day to replace the Christmas evergreens with sprigs of Box, which were kept up till Easter Eve, when they gave place to Yew.

“Down with the Rosemary and Bays,
Down with the Mistletoe;
Instead of Holly now upraise
The greener Box for show.”

Box-boughs were also in olden times regularly gathered at Whitsuntide for decking the large open fire-places then in vogue.——In several parts of the North of England, when a funeral takes place, a basin full of sprigs of Box is placed at the door of the house from which the coffin is taken up, and each mourner is expected to take a sprig, and afterwards cast it on the grave of the deceased.——In Turkey, it is a practice with widows, who go weekly to pray at their husbands’ tomb, to plant a sprig of Box at the head of the grave. The monastery of St. Christine, in the Pyrenees, assumes the arms of the Knights of St. Christine, viz., a white pigeon with a cross in its beak, to which is attached the following legend:—The workmen who were employed to build the monastery had the greatest difficulty in finding a suitable foundation. After several ineffectual attempts, they one morning perceived a white pigeon flying with a cross in its beak. They pursued the bird, which perched on a Box-tree, but though it flew away on their near approach, they found in the branches the cross which it had left: this they took as a good omen, and proceeded successfully to lay the foundation on the spot where the Box-tree had stood, and completed the edifice.——To dream of Box denotes long life and prosperity, also a happy marriage.

BRACKEN FERN.—There was formerly a proverb respecting the Pteris aquilina, or common Brake Fern, popular in the country:—

“When the Fern is as high as a spoon,
You may sleep an hour at noon;
When the Fern is as high as a ladle,
You may sleep as long as you’re able;
When the Fern begins to look red,
Then milk is good with brown bread.”

In Ireland, the Bracken Fern is called the Fern of God, from an old belief that if the stem be cut into three pieces, there will be seen on the first slice the letter G, on the second O, and on the third D,—the whole forming the sacred word God. There is still a superstition in England, probably derived from some holy father, that in the cut stem of the Bracken Fern may be traced the sacred letters I.H.S. In Kent, and some other counties, these letters are deciphered as J.C. In other parts of the country, the marks are supposed to delineate an Oak, and to have first grown there in memory of the tree in which King Charles sought shelter during his flight.——An old legend is yet told, that James, the unfortunate Duke of Monmouth, after the battle of Sedgemoor, was able to lie concealed for some days beneath the dense Bracken Ferns; but one day, emerging from his retreat, he sat down and began cutting some of the Fern-stems which had sheltered him. Whilst doing this, he was seen by some peasants, who noticed the flash of a diamond ring on one of his fingers. When, therefore, a reward was offered soon afterwards for the Duke’s capture, they recalled the circumstance, and sought for him where he lay concealed among the Brakes.——Connected with this figure of an Oak in the Bracken-stem, there is a saying, that if you cut the Bracken slantwise, you’ll see a picture of an Oak-tree; the more perfect, the luckier your chance will be. In Germany, the figure portrayed in the stem is popularly recognised as the Russian Double Eagle. Of still more ancient origin, however, is the opinion that the figure in the Brake Fern-stem is that of an eagle, from whence it derived its name of Eagle Fern. In Henderson’s ‘Folk Lore of the Northern Counties,’ we read that witches detest the Bracken Fern because it bears on its root the letter C, the initial of the holy name of Christ, which may be plainly seen on cutting the root horizontally. It has, however, been suggested that the letter intended is not the English C, but the Greek Χ, the initial letter of the word Christos, which resembles closely the marks on the root of the Bracken. These marks, however, have been also stated to represent Adam and Eve standing on either side of the Tree of Knowledge, and King Charles in the Oak. In some parts, lads and lasses try to discover in the Bracken-stem the initials of their future wife or husband.——Astrologers state that the Bracken Fern is under the dominion of Mercury.

BRAMBLE, or BLACKBERRY.—The Bramble or Blackberry-bush (Rubus fruticosus) is said to be the burning bush, in the midst of which Jehovah appeared to Moses. It is the subject of the oldest apologue extant. We read in Judges ix., 8–15, how Jotham, when bitterly reproaching the men of Shechem for their ingratitude to his father’s house, narrated to them, after the Oriental fashion, the parable of the trees choosing a king, in which their choice eventually fell upon the Bramble. According to some accounts, it was the Bramble that supplied the Thorns which were plaited into a crown, and worn by our Saviour just prior to the Crucifixion.——On St. Simon and St. Jude’s Day (October 28th) tradition avers that Satan sets his foot on the Bramble, after which day not a single edible Blackberry can be found. In Sussex, they say that, after Old Michaelmas Day (10th October), the Devil goes round the county and spits on the Blackberries. In Scotland, it is thought that, late in the Autumn, the Devil throws his cloak over the Blackberries, and renders them unwholesome. In Ireland, there is an old saying, that “at Michaelmas the Devil put his foot on the Blackberries;” and in some parts of that country the peasants will tell their children, after Michaelmas Day, not to eat the Grian-mhuine (Blackberries); and they attribute the decay in them, which about that time commences, to the operation of the Phooka, a mischievous goblin, sometimes assuming the form of a bat or bird, at other times appearing as a horse or goat.——The ancients deemed both the fruit and flowers of the Bramble efficacious against the bites of serpents; and it was at one time believed that so astringent were the qualities of this bush, that even its young shoots, when eaten as a salad, would fasten teeth that were loose. Gerarde, however, for that purpose recommends a decoction of the leaves, mixed with honey, alum, and a little wine, and adds that the leaves “heale the eies that hang out.”——In Cornwall, Bramble-leaves, wetted with spring water, are employed as a charm for a scald or burn. The moistened leaves are applied to the burn whilst the patient repeats the following formula:—

“There came three angels out of the East,
One brought fire, and two brought frost;
Out fire and in frost;
In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
Amen.”

A similar incantation to the above is used as a charm for inflammatory disease. The formula is repeated three times to each one of nine Bramble-leaves immersed in spring water, passes being meanwhile made with the leaves from the diseased part. A cure for rheumatism is to crawl under a Bramble, which has formed a second root in the ground; and to charm away boils, the sufferer should pass nine times, against the Sun, under a Bramble-bush growing at both ends. In Devonshire, a curious charm for the cure of blackhead or pinsoles consisted in creeping under an arched Bramble. The person affected by this troublesome malady has to creep on hands and knees under or through a Bramble three times, with the Sun—that is, from east to west. The Bramble must be of peculiar growth, forming an arch rooting at both ends, and if possible reaching into two proprietors’ lands; so that a Bramble is by preference selected, of which the original root is in the hedge of one owner, and the end of the branch forming the arch is rooted in the meadow of another.——The Bramble has funereal associations, and its young shoots have long been used to bind down the sods on newly-made graves in village churchyards. Jeremy Taylor, when commenting on mortality, says, referring to this custom: “The Summer gives green turf and Brambles to bind upon our graves.”——The Moat of Moybolgue, in the County of Cavan, is a sacred place in Ireland, where St. Patrick ministered. According to a legend, Honor Garrigan, one Sunday during the saint’s lifetime, rode up the hill to church; but espying a bunch of ripe Blackberries, she dismounted in order to gather them. Her servant lad remonstrated upon the wickedness of her breaking her fast before receiving the Holy Communion, but in vain; his mistress ate the Blackberries, and then her hunger increased to famine pitch, and she ate the boy and then the horse. St. Patrick, alarmed by the cries of his congregation, who were afraid the wicked woman would devour them also, shot her with his bow and arrow—her body separating into four sections, which were buried in a field outside the churchyard; St. Patrick prophesying to the terrified crowd that she would lie quiet till nine times nine of the name of Garrigan should cross the stream which separated the roads from the churchyard. When that took place, she would rise again, and devour all before her; and that would be the way she would be destroyed. The water of the stream has ever since been held sacred, and effects miraculous cures.——The Bramble is said to be a plant of Mars. To dream of passing through places covered with Brambles, portends troubles; if they prick you, secret enemies will do you an injury with your friends; if they draw blood, expect heavy losses in trade. To dream of passing through Brambles unhurt, denotes a triumph over enemies.

Breakstone.—See Saxifrage.

BROOM.—The English royal line of Plantagenet undoubtedly derived its name from the Broom (Planta genista), the Gen of the Celts, the Genêt of the French, and from time immemorial the badge of Brittany. According to Skinner, the house of Anjou derived the name of Plantagenet from Fulke, the first earl of that name, who, it is said, having killed his brother in order that he might enjoy his principality, afterwards, touched by remorse, undertook a pilgrimage to Jerusalem as a work of atonement; and being there soundly scourged with Broom-twigs, which grew plentifully on the spot, he ever after took the surname of Plantagenet, and bore the Genêt as his personal cognisance, which was retained by his noble posterity. Another legend, however, relates that this badge was first adopted by Gefroi, Earl of Anjou, the father of Henry II., and husband of Matilda, Empress of Germany. Passing on his way to the battle-field through a rocky pathway, on either side of which bushes of yellow Broom clung firmly to the boulders, or upheld the crumbling earth, Gefroi broke off a branch and fixed it as a plume in his cap, saying, “Thus shall this golden plant ever be my cognisance—rooted firmly among rocks, and yet upholding that which is ready to fall.” He afterwards took the name of Plantagenet (Planta genista) and transmitted it to his princely posterity. His son Henry was called the Royal Sprig of Genista, and the Broom continued to be the family device down to the last of the Plantagenets, Richard III. It may be seen on the great seal of Richard I., its first official heraldic appearance.——In 1234, St. Louis of France established a new order of Knighthood, called l’Ordre du Genest, on the occasion of his marriage with Queen Marguerite. The Knights of the Genest wore a chain composed of blossoms of the Genêt (Broom) in gold alternately with white enamelled Fleurs de Lis, from which was suspended, a gold cross with the motto “Deus exaltat humiles.” One hundred Knights of the Order of the Genest acted as a body-guard to the King. The order was long held in high esteem, and one of its recipients was Richard II.——The Broom may well be symbolic of humility, for, according to a Sicilian legend, it was accursed for having made such a noise in the garden of Gethsemane during the time that Jesus Christ was praying there, that His persecutors were thus enabled to surprise Him. Hemmed in by His enemies, Jesus, turning towards the traitorous shrub, pronounced on it this malediction: “May you always make as much noise when you are being burnt.”——In England, the Broom has always been held as one of the plants beloved by witches. In Germany, the Broom is the plant selected for decorations on Whit-Sunday: it is also used as a charm. When a limb has been amputated, the charmer takes a twig from a Broom, and after pressing the wound together with it, wraps it in the bloody linen, and lays it in a dry place, saying:

“The wounds of our Lord Christ
They are not bound;
But these wounds they are bound
In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.”

In Tuscany, on the day of the Fête-Dieu, it is often employed. In England, it is considered that if the Broom has plenty of blossoms, it is the sign of a plentiful grain harvest. In Suffolk and Sussex, there is a saying that—

“If you sweep the house with blossomed Broom in May,
You are sure to sweep the head of the house away.”

By the old herbalists the Broom was considered a panacea for a multiplicity of disorders, and Gerarde tells us that no less a personage than “that worthy Prince of famous memory, Henry VIII., of England, was wont to drink the distilled water of Broome-floures, against surfets and diseases thereof arising.”——Broom is under the planetary influence of Mars.

BRIONY.—The poisonous fruit or berries of the Black Briony (Tamus) are supposed to remove sunburns, freckles, bruises, black eyes, and other blemishes of the skin. Another name of this wild Vine is Our Lady’s Seal. The root of the White Briony may be made to grow in any shape by placing it when young in an earthenware mould. In olden times, designing people by this means obtained roots of frightful forms, which they exhibited as curiosities, or sold as charms. The anodyne necklace, which was a profitable affair for one Doctor Turner in the early part of the present century, consisted of beads made of white Briony-root: it was believed to assist in cutting the teeth of infants, around whose neck it was hung.——Briony is under the dominion of Mars.

BUCKTHORN.—Of one variety of Buckthorn (Rhamnus palinurus) it is said that Christ’s Crown of Thorns was composed. Of another variety (R. Frangula) the Mongols make their idols, selecting the wood on account of its rich hue.——The Buckthorn is under the dominion of Saturn.

BUGLOSS.—The Bugloss (Anchusa) has been made the emblem of Falsehood, because the roots of one of its species (A. tinctoria) are used in making rouge for the face. In the wilds of America, the Indians paint their bodies red with the root of a Bugloss (Anchusa Virginica) indigenous to their country. Galen notices the use of the Bugloss as a cosmetic in his time, and the rouge made from the roots of this plant is said to be the most ancient of all the paints prepared for the face.——Pliny says that the Anchusa was used by the Romans for colouring and dyeing; and adds, that if a person who has chewed this plant should spit in the mouth of a venomous creature, he would kill it.——The Viper’s Bugloss (Echium vulgare) derives its name from its seed being like the head of a viper, and, according to Matthiolus, was celebrated for curing its bites. Nicander also speaks of the Viper’s Bugloss as one of those plants which cure the biting of serpents, and especially of the viper, and that drive serpents away. Dioscorides, as quoted by Gerarde, writes, “The root drunk with wine is good for those that be bitten with serpents, and it keepeth such from being stung as have drunk of it before: the leaves and seeds do the same.”——Bugloss is reputed to be under the dominion of Jupiter.

BULRUSH.—King Midas, having preferred the singing of Marsyas, the satyr, to that of Apollo, the god clapped upon him a pair of ass’s ears. The king’s barber saw them, and, unable to keep the secret, buried it at the foot of a cluster of Bulrushes. These Reeds, shaken by the wind, continually murmured, “King Midas has ass’s ears.” Both the Scirpus lacustris and Typha latifolia (the Reed Mace) are popularly known as the Bulrush (a corruption of Pole Rush or Pool Rush). The Typha is depicted by Rubens, and the earlier Italian painters, as the Reed put into the hands of Jesus Christ upon His crucifixion. The same Reed is, on certain days, put into the hands of the Roman Catholic statues of our Saviour. Gerarde calls this Reed Cat’s-tail, and points out that Aristophanes makes mention of it in his ‘Comedy of Frogs,’ “where he bringeth them forth, one talking with another, being very glad that they had spent the whole day in skipping and leaping among Galingale and Cat’s-tail.”——The Bulrushes, among which the infant Moses was placed on the banks of the Nile, were Reeds not unlike the Typha. The ark in which he was laid was probably a small canoe constructed with the same Reed—the Papyrus Nilotica, which, according to Egyptian belief, was a protection from crocodiles. Gerarde says: “It is thought by men of great learning and understanding in the Scriptures, and set downe by them for truth, that this plant is the same Reed mentioned in the second chapter of Exodus, whereof was made that basket or cradle, which was daubed within and without with slime of that country, called Bitumen Judaicum, wherein Moses was put, being committed to the water, when Pharaoh gave commandment that all the male children of the Hebrews should be drowned.”——Boats and canoes formed of the Papyrus are common in Abyssinia. In South America, a similar kind of Bulrush is used for a like purpose.——The Bulrush is under the dominion of Saturn.

BURDOCK.—Everyone is acquainted with the prickly burs of the Arctium Lappa, or Burdock, which, by means of their hooks, are apt to cling so tenaciously to the passer-by. There exists an old belief among country lads, that they can catch bats by throwing these burs at them. The plant is also known by the names of Great-bur, Hur-bur, and Clot-bur, and has an ancient reputation for curing rheumatism.——It was under the great leaf of a Burdock that the original Hop-o’-my-Thumb, of nursery-rhyme celebrity, sought refuge from a storm, and was, unfortunately, swallowed, enclosed in the leaf, by a passing hungry cow.——In Albania, there is a superstitious belief that, if a man has been influenced by the demons of the forest, the evil spirit must be exorcised by the priest; a portion of the ceremony consisting of the steeping of bread in wine, and spreading it on the broad leaves of a Burdock.——Venus is the planet under whose rule astrologers place Burdock.

BURITI.—The Buriti Palm (Mauritia vinifera) attains, in Brazil, gigantic proportions, and its rich red and yellow fruit, “like quilted cannon balls,” hang in bunches five feet long. From it flour, wine, and butter are made, whilst the fibre of the leaves supplies thread for weaving, &c. Another species, M. flexuosa, flourishes in the valleys and swamps of South America, where the native Indians regard it with great reverence, living almost entirely on its products; and, what is very remarkable, building their houses high up amongst its leaves, where they live during the floods.

BURNET.—The Burnet Saxifrage (Pimpinella Saxifraga) appears to be considered a magical plant in Hungary, where it is called Châbairje, or Chaba’s Salve, from an old tradition that King Chaba discovered it, and cured the wounds of fifteen thousand of his soldiers after a sanguinary battle fought against his brother.——In a work on astrology, purported to be written by King Solomon, and translated from the Hebrew by Iroé Grego, it is stated that the magician’s sword ought to be steeped in the blood of a mole and in the juice of Pimpinella.——In Piedmont, the Pimpinella is thought to possess the property of increasing the beauty of women.——Burnet is a herb of the Sun.

BUTCHER’S BROOM.—A species of Butcher’s Broom, Ruscus hypoglossum, was the Alexandrian Laurel of the Romans, who formed of this shrub the so-called Laurel crowns worn by distinguished personages. It is the Laurel generally depicted on busts, coins, &c.——The name of Butcher’s Broom was given to this plant because in olden times butchers were in the habit of sweeping their blocks with hand brooms made of its green shoots. In Italy, branches of the plant, tied together, are commonly employed as besoms for sweeping houses; and hucksters place boughs of it round bacon and cheese to defend them from the mice. The Ruscus aculeatus, besides its ordinary name of Butcher’s Broom, is called Knee-holme, Knee-pulver, Knee-holly, Pettigree, and sometimes Jews’ Myrtle, because it is sold to the Jews for use during the Feast of the Tabernacles. In combination with Horse-radish, the plant, boiled for a decoction, is said to be serviceable in cases of dropsy; and its boughs are often used in this country for flogging chilblains.——Butcher’s Broom has been used and claimed by the Earls of Sutherland as the distinguishing badge of their followers and clan. The present Duke retains it, and every Sutherland volunteer still wears a sprig of Butcher’s Broom in his bonnet on field days.——Butcher’s Broom is under the dominion of Mars.

Buttercups.—See Ranunculus.

CABBAGE.—A Grecian legend recounts that the Cabbage (Brassica) sprang from the tears of Lycurgus, Prince of Thrace, whom Dionysus had bound to a Vine-stock as a punishment for the destruction of Vines of which the Prince had been guilty. Perhaps this ancient legend may account for the belief that the Cabbage, like the Laurel, is inimical to the Vine; and it may also have given rise to the employment by the Egyptians and the Greeks of this vegetable as a most powerful remedy for the intoxication produced by the fruit of the Vine. Bacon, in his Sylva Sylvarum, says: “So the Colewort (Cabbage) is not an enemy (though that were anciently received) to the Vine onely; but it is an enemy to any other plant, because it draweth strongly the fattest juyce of the earth.” He also tells us that “it is reported that the shrub called Our Ladie’s Seal (which is a kinde of Briony) and Coleworts, set neare together, one or both will die.” Gerarde says that the Greeks called the Cabbage Amethustos, “not onely because it driveth away drunkennesse, but also for that it is like in colour to the pretious stone called the Amethyst.”——The ancient Ionians, in their oaths, invoked the Cabbage. Nicander calls the Cabbage a sacred plant.——In Scotland, young women determine the figure and size of their future husbands by drawing Cabbages, blindfolded, on Hallowe’en.——In some country places, the housewife considers it a lucky omen if her Cabbages grow “double,” i.e., with two shoots from one root; or “lucker,” that is, with the leaves spreading open.——A Cabbage stalk or stump is a favourite steed upon which the “good people,” or fairies, are wont to travel in the air. Mr. Croker, in his ‘Fairy Legends of Ireland,’ relates that at Dundaniel, a village near Cork, in a pleasant outlet called Blackrock, there lived not many years ago a gardener named Crowley, who was considered by his neighbours as under fairy control, and suffered from what they termed “the falling sickness” resulting from the fatigue attendant on the journeys which he was compelled to take; being forced to travel night after night with the good people on one of his own Cabbage-stumps.——The Italian expressions, “Go among the Cabbages,” and “Go hide among the Cabbages,” mean to die. In the North, however, children are told that “Baby was fetched out of the Cabbage-bed.”——In Jersey, the Palm Cabbage is much cultivated, and reaches a considerable height. In La Vendée, the Cæsarean Cow Cabbage grows sixteen feet high. Possibly these gigantic Cabbages may have given rise to the nursery tales of some of the continental states, in which the young hero emulates the exploits of the English Jack and his Bean-stalk, by means of a little Cabbage, which grows larger and larger, and finally, becoming colossal, reaches the skies.——In England, there is a nursery legend which relates how the three daughters of a widow were one day sent into the kitchen garden to protect the Cabbages from the ravages of a grey horse which was continually stealing them. Watching their opportunity, they caught him by the mane and would not be shaken off; so the grey horse trotted away to a neighbouring hill, dragging the three girls after him. Arrived at the hill, he commanded it to open, and the widows’ daughters found themselves in an enchanted palace.——A tradition in the Havel country, North Germany, relates that one Christmas Eve a peasant felt a great desire to eat Cabbage, and having none himself, he slipped into a neighbour’s garden to cut some. Just as he had filled his basket, the Christ Child rode past on his white horse, and said: “Because thou hast stolen on the holy night, thou shalt immediately sit in the moon with thy basket of Cabbage.” The culprit was immediately wafted up to the moon, and there, as the man in the moon, he is still undergoing his penalty for stealing Cabbages on Christmas Eve.——To dream of cutting Cabbages denotes jealousy on the part of wife, husband, or lover, as the case may be. To dream of anyone else cutting them portends an attempt by some person to create jealousy in the loved one’s mind. To dream of eating Cabbage implies sickness to loved ones and loss of money.——Cabbages are plants of the Moon.

CACTUS.—The Cacti are for the most part natives of South America, where their weird and grotesque columns or stems, devoid of leaves, dot with green the arid plains of New Barcelona or the dark hillsides of Mexico and California. They often attain the height of fifty feet, and live to such an age as to have gained the name of “imperishable statues.” Standing for centuries, they have been selected to mark national boundaries, as for instance, between the English and French possessions in the Island of St. Christopher, West Indies, and they are also employed as hedges to lanes and roadways. In the arid plains of Mexico and Brazil, the Cacti serve as reservoirs of moisture, and not only the natives, by probing the fleshy stems with their long forest knives, supply themselves with a cool and refreshing juice, but even the parched cattle contrive to break through the skin with their hoofs, and then to suck the liquid they contain. The splendid colours of the Cactus flowers are in vivid contrast with the ugly and ungainly stems.——There are sundry local legends and superstitions about these plants of the desert. A certain one poisons every white spot on a horse, but not one of any other colour. Another, eaten by horses, makes them lazy and imbecile.——The number of known genera is eighteen, and there are six hundred species, two of which are specially cultivated, viz., Opuntia Cochinellifera (Nopal plant), largely grown in Mexico, as the food plant of the Cochineal insect (Coccus Cacti), which produces a beautiful crimson dye; and C. vulgaris, or Prickly Pear, which is cultivated for its grateful Gooseberry-like fruits in barren rocky parts of North Africa and Southern Europe.——Peruvian sorcerers make rag dolls, and stick the thorns of Cactus in them, or hide these thorns in holes under or about houses, or in the wool of beds and cushions, that those they wish to harm may be crippled, maddened, or suffocated.

Calf’s-snout.—See Antirrhinum.

CAMELLIA.—The flower of the beauteous Rose of Japan (Camellia Japonica) has been well described as—

“The chaste Camellia’s pure and spotless bloom,
That boasts no fragrance and conceals no Thorn.”

The tree was introduced into Europe in 1639, and is named after G. J. Kamel, or Camellus, a Moravian Jesuit, and traveller in Asia, who, returning to Spain from the Isle of Luzon, sought an audience of Queen Maria Theresa, and presented her with a mother-o’-pearl vase, in which grew a small shrub with glossy green leaves, bearing two flowers of dazzling whiteness. Plucking the fair bloom, she ran to the king’s chamber, which he was pacing in one of his periodical fits of melancholy. “Behold the new flower of the Philippines,” she cried, as her husband welcomed her with a fond embrace; “I have kept the best for you; the other you shall present to-night to Rosalez, who plays so well in Cinna, at the Theatre del Principe.” Ferdinand pronounced the flower of which his wife was so enraptured to be “beautiful but scentless,” but spite of the latter defect, the plant was assiduously cultivated in the hothouses of El Buen Retiro, and called after the giver, the Camellia.——In Japan, the Camellia is a large and lofty tree, greatly esteemed by the natives for the beauty of its flowers and evergreen foliage, and grown everywhere in their groves and gardens: it is also a native of China, and figures frequently in Chinese paintings. The Camellia Sasanqua, the Cha-Hwa of the Chinese, has fragrant flowers, and its dried leaves are prized for the scent obtained from them; a decoction is used by the ladies of China and Japan as a hair-wash.——This shrub so resembles the Tea-plant, both in leaf and blossom, that they are not readily distinguished: the leaves are mixed with Tea to render its odour more grateful.

CAMPANULA.—One of the chief favourites in the family of Campanulaceæ, or Bell-flowers, is Campanula Speculum, or Venus’s Looking-glass. The English name was given to this little plant probably because its brilliant corollas appear to reflect the sun’s rays, although some authorities state that it is so called from the glossiness of the seeds. Still another derivation is the resemblance of the flower’s round-shaped bloom to the form of the mirror of the ancients, which was always circular; and the plant being graceful and extremely pretty, it was appropriated to the Goddess of Beauty. The classics, however, ignore all these derivations, and give us the following account of the origin of the

“Floral bough that swingeth
And tolls its perfume on the passing air.”

In one of her rambles on earth, Venus accidentally dropped a certain mirror which she was carrying, and which possessed the quality of beautifying whatever it reflected. A shepherd picked it up; but no sooner had he gazed upon its wondrous reflecting surface, than he forgot forthwith his favourite nymph, and it is to be presumed himself as well; for, like another Narcissus, he became enamoured of his own visage, and could do nothing but admire his own charms. Cupid, who had discovered his mother’s loss, and found out how matters stood with the foolish shepherd, became fearful of the consequences of such a silly error; he, therefore, broke the magic mirror, and transformed the glittering fragments into those bright little flowers, which have ever since been called Venus’s Looking-glass.——Miller mentions seventy-eight kinds of Campanula, the best known of which are the Canterbury-bells, Coventry-bells, the Heath-bell, and the Giant Throat-wort, a flower mentioned by Sir Walter Scott in his poem of ‘Rokeby’:—

“He laid him down,
Where purple Heath profusely strown,
And Throat-wort, with its azure bell,
And Moss, and Thyme, his cushion swell.”

(See also Canterbury Bells).

CAMPHOR.—The Camphire or Camphor-tree (Laurus Camphora) is principally found in China and Japan. Camphor is obtained by boiling the wood of this tree, in which the gum exists, ready formed. The Arabians at a very early period were acquainted with the virtues of the Camphor-trees of Sumatra and Borneo, the produce of which is known as Native Camphor.

Campion.—See Lychnis, and Ragged Robin.

CANDY-TUFT.—The Iberis, or, as we call it in English, Candy-tuft (from Candia, whence we first received the plant), is singularly devoid of any poetical or traditional lore. Old Gerarde tells us that Lord Edward Zouche sent him some seeds which he sowed in his garden, and reared in due course. He calls it Candie Mustard, Thlaspi Candiæ, the latter being one of the names by which the plant was known in France. In that country, more importance seems to have been attached to the flower, or, at any rate, more notice was taken of it by poets and literati, for we find that one of the species was distinguished as being the emblem of architecture, from the fact that its flowers are disposed in stories from the base to the summit of the stalk, resembling in some little degree the open columns of one of the most delicate orders of architecture. Rapin, the French Jesuit poet, alludes to this flower in his poem on Gardens, and briefly gives the mythology of Thlaspis in the following lines:—

“Now, on high stems will Matricaria rear
Her silver blooms, and with her will appear
Thlaspis, a Cretan youth, who won the fair:
Happy if more auspicious Hymen’s rites
Had with pure flames adorned their nuptial lights.”

CANNA.—The Burmese esteem as sacred the Bohdda Tharanat (Canna Indica, or Indian Shot), so named from its seeds, which are used for the beads of the rosary. The flowers are red, or sometimes white. The Burman believes that it sprang from Buddha’s blood; and the legend relates that his evil-minded brother-in-law and cousin Dewadat, enraged that he was not allowed to have a separate assembly of his own, went to the top of a hill, and rolled down a huge stone, intending to destroy the most excellent payah. But the boulder burst into a thousand pieces, and only one little piece bruised Buddha’s toe, and drew a few drops of blood, whence sprang the sacred flower, the Bohdda Tharanat. The renowned physician Zaywaku healed the great teacher’s wound in a single day. The earth soon afterwards opened and swallowed up the sacrilegious Dewadat.

CANTERBURY BELLS.—The Nettle-leaved Bell-flower, Campanula Trachelium, was so called by Gerarde from growing plentifully in the low woods about Canterbury, and possibly in allusion to its resemblance to the hand-bells which were placed on poles, and rung by pilgrims when proceeding to the shrine of Thomas à Becket—St. Thomas, of England. There is, however, a tradition extant that the name of Canterbury Bells was given to the Campanula in memory of St. Augustine.

CARDAMINE.—The faint sweet Cuckoo-flower, common in meadows and by brook sides, is the Cardamine pratensis. It was so called, says Gerarde, because it flowers in April and May, “when the cuckoo doth begin to sing her pleasant notes without stammering.” The flower is also called Lady’s Smock, and Our Lady’s Smock, from the resemblance of its pale flowers to little smocks hung out to dry, as they used to be once a year, at that season especially. Shakspeare alludes to it in these lines:—

“When Daisies pied and Violets blue,
And Lady-smocks all silver white,
And Cuckoo-buds of yellow hue,
Do paint the meadows with delight.
When shepherd’s pipe on oaten straws,
And maidens bleach their Summer smocks,” &c.

The Cuckoo-buds here alluded to are supposed to be a species of Ranunculus; and, perhaps, as the Cardamine pratensis is rather a pale blue than a silver-white flower, Shakspeare alluded in these lines to C. amara, whose brilliantly-white blossoms might well be taken for linen laid out to bleach. The plant derives its name Cardamine from its taste of Cardamoms. It is also called Meadow Cress. For some reason, if this flower was found introduced into a May-day garland, it was torn to pieces immediately on discovery. Our Lady’s Smock is associated by the Catholics with the Day of the Annunciation.——The Cardamine is a herb of the Moon.

CARDINAL-FLOWER.—Of the extensive Lobelia family the L. Cardinalis, or Cardinal’s Flower, is, perhaps, the most beautiful. Its blossoms are of so brilliant a scarlet, as to have reminded the originator of its name of the scarlet cloth of Rome, while its shape is not altogether dissimilar to the hat of the Romish dignitary. Alphonse Karr, remarking on the vivid hue of the Cardinal’s Flower, says that even the Verbena will pale before it.

CARLINE THISTLE.—The white and red Carline Thistles (Carlina vulgaris) derive their name from Charlemagne, regarding whom the legend relates that once—“a horrible pestilence broke out in his army, and carried off many thousand men, which greatly troubled the pious Emperor. Wherefore, he prayed earnestly to God; and in his sleep there appeared to him an angel, who shot an arrow from the cross-bow, telling him to mark the plant upon which it fell, for that with that plant he might cure his army of the pestilence. And so it really happened.” The plant upon which the arrow alighted was the Carline Thistle, and, as Gerarde tells us, Charlemagne’s army was, through the benefit of the root delivered and preserved from the plague.—The Carline Thistle is under the dominion of Mars.

CARNATION.—The Carnation (Dianthus caryophyllus) is generally supposed to have obtained its name from the flesh-colour of its flowers; but it was more correctly spelt by old writers, Coronation, as representing the Vetonica coronaria of the early herbalists, and so called from its flowers being used in the classic coronæ or chaplets. Thus Spenser, in his ‘Shepherd’s Calendar’ says: “Bring Coronations and Sops-in-wine, worn of paramours.” From Chaucer we learn that the flower was formerly called the Clove Gilliflower, and that it was cultivated in English gardens in Edward the Third’s reign. In those days, it was used to give a spicy flavour to wine and ale, and from hence obtained its name of Sop-in-wine:—

“Her springen herbes, grete and smale,
The Licoris and the Setewales,
And many a Clove Gilofre,
————to put in ale,
Whether it be moist or stale.”

The name Gilliflower (formerly spelt Gyllofer and Gilofre) is a corruption of the Latin Caryophyllum, a Clove (Greek, Karuophullon); and has reference to the spicy odour of the flower, which was used as a substitute for the costly Indian Cloves in flavouring dainty dishes as well as liquors. The Gilliflower was also thought to possess medicinal properties. Gerarde assures us, that “The conserve made of the flowers of the Clove Gilloflower and sugar is exceeding cordiall, and woonderfully above measure doth comfort the heart, being eaten now and then.” It was, also, thought good against pestilential fevers.——A red Carnation distinguishes several of the Italian painters. Benvenuto Tisio was called “Il Garofalo,” from his having painted a Gilliflower in the corner of his pictures.——The Carnation is under the dominion of Jupiter. (See also Gilliflower).

CAROB.—The Carob-tree, or St. John’s Bread (Ceratonia Siliqua) flourishes in the East, and in Palestine (to quote from Gerarde) there is “such plenty of it, that it is left unto swine and other wilde beasts to feed upon, as our Acorns and Beech-mast.” Hence it has long been supposed by many that the shells of the Carob-pod were the husks which the Prodigal Son was fain to feed upon, although they were what “the swine did eat; and no man gave unto him’ (Luke xv., 16).——In Germany, as in England, the Carob obtained the name of St. John’s Bread, from the popular belief that the Baptist fed upon it whilst in the wilderness. Gerarde says: “This is of some called Saint John’s Bread, and thought to be that which is translated Locusts, whereon Saint John did feed when he was in the wildernesse, besides the wilde honey whereof he did also eat; but there is small certainty of this; but it is most certain that the people of that country doe feed on these pods.” By others it has been supposed that the Locusts on which John the Baptist fed were the tender shoots of plants, and that the wild honey was the pulp in the pod of the Carob, whence it derived the name of St. John’s Bread.——According to a Sicilian tradition, the Carob is a tree of ill-repute, because it was on one of this species that the traitor Judas Iscariot hung himself.——In Syria and Asia Minor, the Carob, venerated alike by Christian and Mussulman, is dedicated to St. George, whose shrines are always erected beneath the shadow of its boughs.

CARROT.—The wild Carrot (Daucus Carota) is also called Bird’s-nest or Bee’s-nest, because, in its seeding state, the umbel resembles a nest.——In the reign of James the First, ladies adorned their head-dresses with Carrot-leaves, the light feathery verdure of which was considered a pleasing substitute for the plumage of birds.——The ancient Greeks called the Carrot Phileon, because of its connection with amatory affairs. We read in Gerarde in what this consisted. He remarks that the Carrot “serveth for love matters; and Orpheus, as Pliny writeth, said that the use hereof winneth love; which things be written of wilde Carrot, the root whereof is more effectual than that of the garden.” According to Galen, the root of the wild Carrot possessed the power of exciting the passions. The seed was administered to women under the belief that it induced and helped conception.——To dream of Carrots signifies profit and strength to them that are at law for an inheritance, for we pluck them out of the ground with our hand, branches, strings, and veins.——Carrots are held to be under Mercury.

CASHEW.—The nuts of the Cashew (Anacardium occidentale) are supposed by the Indians to excite the passions. The negroes of the West Indies say a branch of the Cashew-tree supplied the crown of Thorns used at our Saviour’s crucifixion, and that, in consequence, one of the bright golden petals of the flower became black and blood-stained.

CASSAVA.—The South American Cassava (Jatropha Manihot) is also known as the edible-rooted physic-nut, and in Brazil it bears the name of Mandioc. There are two kinds of Cassavas—the bitter and the sweet. From the roots of both bread is made, the tubers being first peeled and then ground into farina, and a poisonous juice expressed. Should this juice be drunk by cattle or poultry, they will become speedily much swollen, and die in convulsions; but if the same liquid is boiled with meat, and seasoned, it forms a favourite soup, called by the Brazilians Casserepo. The juice is used by the Indians for the poisoning of arrows: it is sometimes fermented, and converted into an intoxicating liquor in great favour with the Indians and negroes. Tapioca is a kind of starch prepared from the farina of Cassava roots.

CASSIA.—The Cassia mentioned by Moses in Exodus xxx., 24 (called in Hebrew Kidda, the bark), was a sweet spice commanded to be used in the composition of the holy oil employed in the consecration of the sacred vessels of the Tabernacle. It is supposed to have been the bark of an aromatic tree, known by the ancients as Costus, preparations of the bark and root of which were sometimes burnt on the pagan altars. There were three sorts of Costus—the Arabian, the Indian, and the Syrian; the root of the first of these was most esteemed for its aromatic properties: it had a fragrant smell similar to the perfume of Orris or Violets, and was called Costus dulcis or odoratus.

CASSIA-TREE.—The Cassia, or Senna-tree, belongs to a genus numerous in species, which are generally diffused in warm countries: among them is the Moon-tree of the Chinese, and this Cassia is considered by them to be the first of all medicaments. They have a saying, “The Cassia can be eaten, therefore it is cut down,” which probably explains their belief that in the middle of the Moon there grows a Cassia-tree, at the foot of which is a man who is endeavouring continually to fell it. This man is one Kang Wou, a native of Si-ho. Whilst under the tuition of a Geni, he committed a grave fault, for which he was condemned from henceforth to cut down the Cassia-tree. They call the Moon, therefore, the Kueïlan, or the disk of the Cassia. The Chinese give other reasons for associating the Cassia with the Moon. They say that it is the only tree producing flowers with four petals which are yellow—the colour of a metal, an element appertaining to the West, the region where the Moon appears to rise. Then the Cassia-flower opens in Autumn, a period when sacrifices are offered to the Moon; and it has, like the Moon, four phases of existence. During the seventh Moon (August) it blossoms. At the fourth Moon (May) its inflorescence ceases. During the fifth and sixth Moon (June and July) its buds are put forth, and after these have opened into leaf, the tree again bears flowers. Anglo-Indians call the Cassia Fistula, or Umultuss-tree, the Indian Laburnum: its long cylindrical pods are imported into England, and a sugary substance extracted from the pulp between the seeds is commonly used as a laxative. Gerarde says this pulp of Cassia Fistula, when extracted with Violet water, is a most sweet and pleasant medicine, and may be given without danger to all weak people of what age and sex soever. Lord Bacon writes in his Natural History:—“It is reported by one of the ancients, that Cassia, when it is gathered, is put into the skins of beasts, newly flayed, and that the skins corrupting, and breeding wormes, the wormes doe devoure the pith and marrow it, and so make of it hollow; but meddle not with the barke, because to them it is bitter.”

CATCH-FLY.—The Silene, or Catch-fly, received its English name from its glutinous stalk, from which flies, happening to light upon it, cannot disengage themselves. Gerarde gives the plant the additional name of Limewort, and adds, that in his time they were grown in London gardens, “rather for toies of pleasure than any virtues they are possessed with.”

CAT MINT.—Gerarde, probably copying from Dodoens, says of Cat Mint or Cat Nep, that “cats are very much delighted herewith, for the smell of it is so pleasant unto them, that they rub themselves upon it, and swallow or tumble in it, and also feed on the branches very greedily.” There is an old proverb respecting this herb—

“If you set it, the cats will eat it;
If you sow it, the cats won’t know it.”

According to Hoffman, the root of the Cat Mint, if chewed, will make the most gentle person fierce and quarrelsome; and there is a legend of a certain hangman who could never find courage to execute his task until he had chewed this aromatic root. Nep or Cat Mint is considered a herb of Venus.

CEDAR.—Numerous are the allusions made in the Bible to the Cedars of Lebanon (Cedrus Libani), the tree which Josephus says was first planted in Judea by Solomon, who greatly admired this noble tree, and built himself a palace of Cedar on Lebanon itself. The celebrated Temple of Solomon was built of hewn stone, lined with Cedar, which was “carved with knops and open flowers; all was Cedar, there was no stone seen.” Since King Solomon’s time, the Cedar forest of Lebanon has become terribly reduced, but Dr. Hooker, in 1860, counted some four hundred trees, and Mr. Tristram, a more recent traveller in the Holy Land, discovered a new locality in the mountains of Lebanon, where the Cedar was more abundant. Twelve of the oldest of these Cedars of Lebanon bear the title of “Friends of Solomon,” or the “Twelve Apostles.” The Arabs call all the older trees, saints, and believe an evil fate will overtake anyone who injures them. Every year, at the feast of the Transfiguration, the Maronites, Greeks, and Armenians go up to the Cedars, and celebrate mass on a rough stone altar at their feet.——The Cedar is made the emblem of the righteous in the 92nd Psalm, and is likened to the countenance of the Son of God in the inspired Canticles of Solomon. Ezekiel (xxxi., 3–9) compares the mighty King of Assyria to a Cedar in Lebanon, with fair branches, and says, as a proof of his greatness and power, that “the Cedars in the garden of God could not hide him.” In the Romish Church, the Cedar of Lebanon, because of its height, its incorruptible substance, and the healing virtues attributed to it in the East, is a symbol of the Virgin, expressing her greatness, her beauty, and her goodness.——The Jews evidently regarded the Cedar as a sacred tree: hence it was used in the making of idols. According to a very old tradition, the Cedar was the tree from which Adam obtained the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden. The ancient legend relating how the Cross of Christ was formed of a tree combining in itself the wood of the Cypress, Cedar, and Pine, will be found under the heading Cypress. Another tradition states that of the three woods of which the Cross was composed, and which symbolised the three persons of the Holy Trinity, the Cedar symbolised God the Father.——Pythagoras recommended the Cedar, the Laurel, the Cypress, the Oak, and the Myrtle, as the woods most befitting to honour the Divinity.——The Shittim wood of the Scriptures is considered by some to have been a species of Cedar, of which the most precious utensils were made: hence the expression Cedro digna signified “worthy of eternity.”——The Cedar is the emblem of immortality.——The ancients called the Cedar “life from the dead,” because the perfume of its wood drove away the insects and never-dying worms of the tombs. According to Evelyn, in the temple of Apollo at Utica, there was found Cedar-wood nearly two thousand years old; “and in Sagunti, of Spain, a beam, in a certain oratory consecrated to Diana, which had been brought from Zant two hundred years before the destruction of Troy. The statue of that goddess in the famous Ephesian Temple was of this material also, as was most of the timber-work in all their sacred edifices.” In a temple at Rome there was a statue of Apollo Sosianus in Cedar-wood originally brought from Seleucia. Virgil states that Cedar-wood was considered to be so durable, that it was employed for making images of the gods, and that the effigies of the ancestors of Latinus were carved out of an old Cedar. He also informs us that Cedar-wood was used for fragrant torches.——Sesostris, King of Egypt, is reported to have built a ship of Cedar timber, which, according to Evelyn, was “of 280 cubits, all gilded without and within.”——Gerarde says that the Egyptians used Cedar for the coffins of their dead, and Cedar-pitch in the process of embalming the bodies.——The books of Numa, recovered in Rome after a lapse of 535 years, are stated to have been perfumed with Cedar.——The Chinese have a legend which tells how a husband and wife were transformed into two Cedars, in order that their mutual love might be perpetuated. A certain King Kang, in the time of the Soungs, had as secretary one Hanpang, whose young and beautiful wife Ho the King unfortunately coveted. Both husband and wife were tenderly attached to one another, so the King threw Hanpang into prison, where he shortly died of grief. His wife, to escape the odious attentions of the King, threw herself from the summit of a high terrace. After her death, a letter was discovered in her bosom, addressed to the King, in which she asked, as a last favour, to be buried beside her dear husband. The King, however, terribly angered, would not accede to poor Ho’s request, but ordered her to be interred separately. The will of heaven was not long being revealed. That same night two Cedars sprang from the two graves, and in ten days had become so tall and vigorous in their growth, that they were able to interlace their branches and roots, although separated from one another. The people henceforth called these Cedars “The trees of faithful love.”——Tchihatcheff, a Russian traveller, speaks of vast Cedar forests on Mount Taurus in Asia Minor: the tree was not introduced into England till about Evelyn’s time, nor into France till 1737, when Bernard de Jussieu brought over from the Holy Land a little seedling of the plant from the forests of Mount Lebanon. A romantic account is given of the difficulty this naturalist experienced in conveying it to France, owing to the tempestuous weather and contrary winds he experienced, which drove his vessel out of its course, and so prolonged the voyage, that the water began to fail. All on board were consequently put on short allowance; the crew having to work, being allowed one glass of water a day, the passenger only half that quantity. Jussieu, from his attachment to botany, was reduced to abridge even this small daily allowance, by sharing it with his cherished plant, and by this act of self-sacrifice succeeded in keeping it alive till they reached Marseilles. Here, however, all his pains seemed likely to be thrown away, for as he had been driven, by want of a flower-pot, to plant his seedling in his hat, he excited on landing the suspicions of the Custom-house officers, who at first insisted on emptying the strange pot, to see whether any contraband goods were concealed therein. With much difficulty he prevailed upon them to spare his treasure, and succeeded in carrying it in triumph to Paris, where it flourished in the Jardin des Plantes, and grew until it reached one hundred years of age, and eighty feet in height. In 1837 it was cut down, to make room for a railway.——According to the ancient Chaldean magicians, the Cedar is a tree of good omen—protecting the good and overthrowing the machinations of evil spirits.——M. Lenormant has published an Egyptian legend concerning the Cedar, which De Gubernatis has quoted. This legend recites that Batou having consented to incorporate his heart with the Cedar, if the tree were cut the life of Batou would at the same time be jeopardised; but if he died his brother would seek his heart for seven years, and when he had found it, he would place it in a vase filled with divine essence, which was to impart to it animation, and so restore Batou to life.... Anpou, in a fit of rage, one day enters Batou’s house, and slays the shameless woman who had separated him from his brother. Meanwhile Batou proceeds to the valley of Cedars, and places, as he had announced, his heart in the fruit of the tree at the foot of which he fixes his abode. The gods, not desiring to leave him solitary, create a woman, endowed with extraordinary beauty, but carrying evil with her. Falling madly in love with her, Batou reveals to the woman the secret of his life being bound up with that of the Cedar. Meantime the river becomes enamoured of Batou’s wife; the tree, to pacify it, gives it a lock of the beauty’s hair. The river continues its course, carrying on the surface of its waters the tress, which diffuses a delicious odour. It reaches at last the king’s laundress, who carries it to his majesty. At the mere sight and perfume of the tress, the king falls in love with the woman to whom it belongs. He sends men to the vale of Cedars to carry her off; but Batou kills them all. Then the king despatches an army, who at last bring him the woman whom the gods themselves had fashioned. But while Batou lives she cannot become the wife of the king; so she reveals to him the secret of her husband’s twofold life. Immediately workmen are despatched, who cut down the Cedar. Batou expires directly. Soon Anpou, who had come to visit his brother, finds him stretched out dead beside the felled Cedar. Instantly he sets out to search for Batou’s heart; but for four years his search is fruitless. At the end of that period the soul of Batou yearns to be resuscitated: the time has arrived when, in its transmigrations, it should rejoin his body. Anpou discovers the heart of his brother in one of the cones of the tree. Taking the vase which contains the sacred fluid, he places the heart in it; and, during the day, it remains unaffected, but so soon as night arrives, the heart becomes imbued with the elixir. Batou regains all his members; but he is without vigour. Then Anpou gives to him the sacred fluid in which he had steeped the heart of his young brother, and bids him drink. The heart returns to its place, and Batou becomes himself again. The two brothers set out to punish the unfaithful one. Batou takes the form of a sacred bull. Arrived at the Court, Batou, metamorphosed into the bull, is welcomed and fêted. Egypt has found a new god. During one of the festivals he takes the opportunity of whispering into the ear of her who had formerly been his wife: “Behold, I am again alive—I am Batou! You plotted and persuaded the king to fell the Cedar, so that he might occupy my place at your side when I was dead. Behold, I am again alive—I have taken the form of a bull!” The queen faints away at hearing these words; but speedily recovering herself, she seeks the king and asks him to grant her a favour—that of eating the bull’s liver. After some hesitation, the king consents, and orders that a sacrifice shall be offered to the bull, and that then he shall be killed; but at the moment the bull’s throat is cut, two drops of blood spirt out: one falls to the ground, and forthwith two grand Perseas (the Egyptians’ tree of life) shoot forth. The king, accompanied by his wife, hastens to inspect the new prodigy, and one of the trees whispers in the queen’s ear that he is Batou, once more transformed. The queen, relying on the doting affection which the king entertains for her, asks him to have this tree cut down for the sake of the excellent timber it will afford. The king consents, and she hastens to superintend the execution of his orders. A chip struck from the tree whilst being felled, falls into the mouth of the queen. Shortly she perceives that she has become enceinte. In due course she gives birth to a male infant. It is Batou, once more entering the world by a novel incarnation!”

CELANDINE.—The Great or Major Celandine (Chelidonium major) is also called Swallow-wort and Tetter-wort, and is thought to be efficacious in the cure of warts and cutaneous disorders. It derives its name from the Greek Chelidon, a swallow—not, says Gerarde, “because it first springeth at the coming in of the swallowes, or dieth when they go away, for as we have saide, it may be founde all the yeare, but because some holde opinion that with this herbe the dams restore sight to their young ones, when their eies be put out.” This magical property of the Celandine was first propounded by Aristotle, and afterwards repeated by Pliny, Dodoens, Albert le Grand, Macer, and most of the old botanical writers. Coles fully believed the wonderful fact, and remarks: “It is known to such as have skill of nature, what wonderful care she hath of the smallest creatures, giving to them a knowledge of medicine to help themselves, if haply diseases annoy them. The swallow cureth her dim eyes with Celandine; the wesell knoweth well the virtue of Herb Grace; the dove the Verven; the dogge dischargeth his mawe with a kinde of grasse,” &c. Lyte also, in his ‘Herbal,’ fully supported the ancient rustic belief that the old swallows used Celandine to restore sight to their young. He says the plant was called Swallow-herb, because “it was the first found out by swallowes, and hath healed the eyes and restored sight to their young ones that have had harme in their eyes or have been blinde.” Celandine has long been popular among village simplers as a remedy when diluted with milk against thick spots in the eye.——It is said that the lack of medical knowledge among the ancients induced the belief in the magical properties of Celandine. They saw in the Chelidonium a Cœli donum, and hence were anxious to endow it with celestial properties.——The red and violet Celandines, or Horned Poppies, are mentioned by Ben Jonson among the plants used by witches in their incantations.

The Lesser Celandine (Ranunculus Ficaria) is perhaps better known as the Pile-wort, a name given to it in allusion to the small tubers on the roots, which, on the doctrine of plant signatures, indicated that the plant was a remedial agent in this complaint.——Astrologers assign Celandine to the Sun, and the Pile-wort to Mars.

CENTAURY.—This flower, the well known Blue-bottle of the cornfields, is fabled to have derived its name from Chiron, a centaur, who is stated to have taught mankind the use of plants and medicinal herbs. According to Pliny, Chiron cured himself with this plant from a wound he had accidentally received from an arrow poisoned with the blood of the hydra. M. Barthelemy writes how, when Anacharsis visited the cave of Chiron, the centaur, on Mount Pelion, he was shown a plant which grew near it, of which he was informed that the leaves were good for the eyes, but that the secret of preparing them was in the hands of only one family, to whom it had been lineally transmitted from Chiron himself.——Mythology has another origin for the Centaurea Cyanus. According to this account, the flower was called Cyanus, after a youth so named, who was so enamoured of Corn-flowers, that his favourite occupation was that of making garlands of them; and he would scarcely ever leave the fields, whilst his favourite blue flowers continued to bloom. So devoted was his admiration, that he always dressed himself in clothes of the same brilliant hue as the flower he loved best. Flora was his goddess, and of all the varied gifts, her Corn-flower was the one he most appreciated. At length he was one day found lying dead in a cornfield, surrounded with the blue Corn-flowers he had gathered: and soon after the catastrophe, the goddess Flora, out of gratitude for the veneration he had for her divinity, transformed his body into the Centaurea Cyanus, the Blue-bottle of English cornfields.——In Lucan’s ‘Pharsalia,’ the Centaury is one of the plants named as being burned with the object of driving away serpents.

“Beyond the farthest tents rich fires they build,
That healthy medicinal odours yield:
There foreign Galbanum dissolving fries,
And crackling flames from humble Wallwort rise;
There Tamarisk, which no green leaf adorns,
And there the spicy Syrian Costos burns:
There Centaury supplies the wholesome flame,
That from Thessalian Chiron takes its name;
The gummy Larch-tree, and the Thapsos there,
Woundwort and Maidenweed perfume the air:
There the long branches of the long-lived Hart,
With Southernwood their odours strong impart,
The monsters of the land, the serpents fell,
Fly far away, and shun the hostile swell.”

The Corn-flower is called in Russia Basilek (the flower of Basil), and attached to it is a legend that a handsome young man of this name was enticed away by a nymph named Russalka, allured into the fields, and transformed into the Corn-flower.——Plants have always been a favourite means of testing the faith of lovers; and the Centaury or Bluet of the cornfields was the flower selected by Margaret as the floral oracle from which to learn the truth respecting Faust.

“There is a flower, a purple flower,
Sown by the wind, nursed by the shower,
O’er which love breathed a powerful spell,
The truth of whispering hope to tell.
Now, gentle flower, I pray thee tell,
If my lover loves me, and loves me well:
So may the fall of the morning dew
Keep the sun from fading thy tender blue.”

The Centaury is known as the Hurt-sickle, because it turns the edges of the reapers’ sickles: its other familiar names are Blue-bottle, Blue-blow, Bluet, and Corn-flower.——It is held by astrologers to be under Saturn.

CEREUS.—The crimson-flowered Cereus (Cereus speciosissimus), belonging to the natural order Cactaceæ, is generally known in England as the Torch Thistle, and is fabled to have been the torch borne by Ceres in the daytime. Cereus flagelliformis is the pink-flowered creeping Cereus, the long round stems of which hang down like cords. Cereus grandiflorus is the night-blowing Cereus, which begins to open its sweet-scented flowers about eight o’clock in the evening; they are fully blown by eleven, and by four o’clock next morning they are faded and droop quite decayed. The Old Man’s Head, or Monkey Cactus, Cereus senilis, is another member of this family.

CHAMELÆA.—The Spurge-Olive or Chamelæa (Cneorum tricoccum) is a humble shrub, whose three-leaved pale-yellow flowers were consecrated to the god Janus. The month of January, placed under the protection of Janus, was represented in the guise of an old man, who held in his hand a flower of the Chamelæa. After flowering, the shrub produces three-cornered berries, which are at first green, then red, and finally brown. The plant in England was formerly called the Widow-wail, for what reason we know not, but Gerarde says, “quia facit viduas.”

CHAMOMILE.—According to Galen, the Egyptians held the Chamomile (Anthemis nobilis) in such reverence, that they consecrated it to their deities: they had great faith in the plant as a remedy for agues. Gerarde tells us that Chamomile is a special help against wearisomeness, and that it derives its name from the Greek Chamaimelon, Earth-Apple, because the flowers have the smell of an Apple.——In Germany, Chamomile-flowers are called Heermännchen, and they are traditionally supposed to have once been soldiers, who for their sins died accursed.——The Romans supposed the Anthemis to be possessed of properties to cure the bites of serpents.——Chamomile is considered to be a herb of the Sun.

CHAMPAK.—The Champa or Champak (Michelia Champaca) is one of the sacred plants of India. The blue Champak-flower is of the greatest rarity, and is regarded as being the principal ornament of Brahma’s heaven. It is, in fact,

“That blue flower which Brahmins say
Blooms nowhere but in Paradise,”

for the earthly sort has yellow blossoms with which the Hindu maidens are fond of ornamenting their raven hair. The tree is sacred to Vishnu, and is, therefore, an object of reverential regard on the part of the Hindus, who cultivate it for the fragrance of its flowers, which is so strong that the bees, fearful of being overcome, will scarcely ever alight upon them. The Hindus apply to the Champak-flowers the most flattering appellations, which celebrate its wondrous delicacy and form, its glittering golden hue, and its voluptuous perfume.

CHERRY.—About the year 70 B.C., Lucullus, after his victory over Mithridates, brought from Cerasus, in Pontus, the Cherry-tree, and introduced it into Italy. It was planted in Britain a century later, but the cultivated sorts disappeared during the Saxon period. “Cherries on the ryse,” or on the twigs, was, however, one of the street cries of London in the fifteenth century. These Cherries were, perhaps, the fruit of the native wild Cherry, or Gean-tree, as the cultivated Cherry was not re-introduced till the reign of Henry VIII., whose fruiterer brought it from Flanders, and planted a Cherry orchard at Teynham.——An ancient legend records that, before the birth of our Saviour, the Virgin Mary longed extremely to taste of some tempting Cherries which hung upon a tree high above her head; so she requested Joseph to pluck them. Joseph, however, not caring to take the trouble, refused to gather the Cherries, saying sullenly, “Let the father of thy child present thee with the Cherries if he will!” No sooner had these words escaped his lips, than, as if in reproof, the branch of the Cherry-tree bowed spontaneously to the Virgin’s hand, and she gathered its fruit and ate it. Hence the Cherry is dedicated to the Virgin Mary. There is a tradition that our Saviour gave a Cherry to St. Peter, cautioning him at the same time not to despise little things.——The ancient Lithuanians believed that the demon Kirnis was the guardian of the Cherry. In Germany and Denmark there is a tradition that evil spirits often hide themselves in old Cherry-trees, and delight in doing harm to anyone who approaches them. The Albanians burn branches of the Cherry-tree on the nights of the 23rd and 24th of December, and the nights of the 1st and 6th of January—that is to say on the three nights consecrated to the new sun; and they preserve the ashes of these branches to fertilise their Vines. They say that in so doing they burn the evil spirits hidden in the trees, who are destructive to vegetation.——At Hamburg, there is an annual festival called the Feast of the Cherries, when children parade the streets, carrying boughs laden with the fruit. This observance dates from the year 1432, when the Hussites threatened the immediate destruction of Hamburg. The inhabitants, in despair, dressed all the children in black, and despatched them to the Hussite leader, P. Rasus, to plead with him. The warrior, touched at the sight of so many little helpless ones, promised that he would spare the city, and after feasting the children with Cherries, sent them back rejoicing and waving in their hands the Cherry-boughs.——There is an old proverb current in Germany, France, and Italy, that you should never eat Cherries with the rich, because they always choose the ripest, or, even worse, eat the luscious fruit, and throw the stones and stalks to their companions.——The gum which exudes from the Cherry-tree is considered equal in value to gum-arabic. Hasselquist relates that during a siege upwards of one hundred men were kept alive for nearly two months, without any other nutriment than that obtained by sucking this gum.——The Cherry is held by astrologers to be under the dominion of Venus.——To dream of Cherries denotes inconstancy and disappointment in life.

CHESNUT.—The Chesnut (Fagus Castanea) was classed by Pliny among the fruit trees, on account of the value of the nut as an article of food. He states that the tree was introduced from Sardis in Pontus, and hence was called the Sardian Acorn. The Chesnuts of Asia Minor supplied Xenophon’s whole army with food in their retreat along the borders of the Euxine. Once planted in Europe, the Chesnut soon spread all over the warm parts. It flourished in the mountains of Calabria, and is the tree with which Salvator Rosa delighted to adorn his bold and rugged landscapes.——The Castagno dei cento cavalli (Chesnut of the hundred horses) upon Mount Etna is probably the largest tree in Europe, being more than 200 feet in circumference.——Chesnuts are included in the list of funereal trees. In Tuscany, the fruit is eaten with solemnity on St. Simon’s Day. In Piedmont, they constitute the appointed food on the eve of All Souls’ Day, and in some houses they are left on the table under the belief that the dead poor will come during the night and feast on them. In Venice, it is customary to eat Chesnuts on St. Martin’s Day, and the poor women assemble beneath the windows and sing a long ballad, or, after expressing their good wishes towards the inmates of the house, ask for Chesnuts to appease their hunger. (See also Horse-Chesnut.)

CHOHOBBA.—The Mexicans regard with peculiar sanctity and reverence a herb which grows in their country, and which they call Chohobba. If they wish an abundant crop of Yucca or Maize, if they wish to know whether a sick chief will recover or die, if they desire to learn whether a war is likely to occur, or, in fact, if they desire any important information, one of their chiefs enters the building consecrated to their idols, where he prepares a liquid obtained from the herb Chohobba, which can be absorbed through the nose: this fluid has an intoxicating effect, and he soon loses all control over himself. After awhile, he partly recovers, and sits himself on the ground, with head abased, and hands beneath his knees, and so remains for some little time. Then he raises his eyes, as if awaking from a long sleep, and gazes upwards at the sky, at the same time muttering between his teeth some unintelligible words. No one but his relatives approaches the chief, for the people are not allowed to assist at the rite. When the relatives perceive that the chief is beginning to regain consciousness, they return thanks to the god for his recovery, and ask that he may be permitted to tell them what he has seen whilst in his trance. Then the half-dazed chief relates what the god has told him regarding the particular matters he had wished to enquire about.

CHOKE PEAR.—The fruit of the Wild Pear, Pyrus communis, is so hard and austere as to choke: hence the tree has been called the Choke Pear. It is supposed to have been a Pear of this description that caused the death of Drusus, a son of the Emperor Claudius. He caught in his mouth, and swallowed, a Pear thrown into the air, but owing to its extreme hardness, it stuck in his throat and choked him.

Christmas Rose.—See Hellebore.

CHRIST’S HERB.—The Black Hellebore is called Christ’s Herb or Christmas Herb (Christwurz), says Gerarde, “because it floureth about the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (See Hellebore.)

CHRIST’S LADDER.—In the fourteenth century, the Erythræa Centaurium was called Christ’s Ladder (Christi scala), from the name having been mistaken for Christ’s Cup (Christi schale), in allusion to the bitter draught offered to our Lord upon the Cross.

CHRIST’S PALM.—The Ricinus communis is commonly known as Palma Christi, or Christ’s Palm. The same plant is also reputed to have been Jonah’s Gourd.

CHRIST’S THORN.—Gerarde, in his Herbal, calls the Paliurus, Christ’s Thorn or Ram of Libya; and he writes: “Petrus Bellonius, who travelled over the Holy Land, saith, that this shrubby Thorne Paliurus, was the Thorne wherewith they crowned our Saviour Christ, his reason for the proofe hereof is this, That in Judea, there was not any Thorne so common, so pliant, or so fit for to make a crown or garland of, nor any so full of cruell sharpe prickles. It groweth throughout the whole countrey in such abundance, that it is there common fuell to burn; yea, so common with them there as our Gorse, Brakes, and Broome is here with us. Josephus (lib. 1, cap. 2 of his Antiquities) saith, That this Thorne hath the most sharp prickles of any other; wherefore that Christ might bee the more tormented, the Jews rather tooke this than any other.” The shrub still abounds in Judea, and has pliable branches armed with sharp spines. (See Thorn.)

CHRYSANTHEMUM.—The leaf and flower of the Chrysanthemum Indicum were long ago adopted as, and are still, the special emblem and blazon of Mikados of Japan. One of the most popular of the Japanese festivals is that held in honour of the golden Chrysanthemum, or Kiku. The Japanese florists display their Chrysanthemums built up into the forms of their gods or heroes; thus, in their exhibitions, are to be seen effigies of Benkei, the Hercules of Japan, gorgeously apparelled in white, purple, and yellow Pompons; the Sun Goddess, decked in golden blooms; Jimmu Tenno, a popular hero, and endless groups of gods and goddesses, and mythological heroes and heroines.——The Chrysanthemum was first introduced into England in 1764 by Miller, who received a Kok fa, or Chrysanthemum Indicum from Nîmpu, and cultivated it at the botanical garden at Chelsea. In the seventeenth century a Chrysanthemum was grown in Dantsic.——Three Chrysanthemums (the Corn Marigold, the Ox-eyed Daisy, and the Fever-few) are natives of England, but as they bloom in summer when flowers are plentiful, and not in November, as our garden varieties do, it has not been so well worth while to bestow care in raising and improving them. The Autumn Chrysanthemums are descended from either the Chinese or the Indian varieties, the former of which have white flowers and the latter yellow. The Pompon varieties are derived from the Chusan Daisy, introduced into England from China by Mr. Fortune in 1846. In their wild state they are all, indeed, even the Japanese forms of the Chinese flowers, much like Daisies, with a yellow disc surrounded by rays of florets, but by cultivation the disc-florets are assimilated to those of the ray, and the flower assumes a homogeneous appearance only faintly suffused with yellow towards the centre.

CINCHONA.—The Cinchona, or Jesuit’s Bark-tree (Cinchona officinalis), is a native of Peru. The famous bark was introduced into Europe through the medium of Ana de Osorio, Countess Cinchon, and Vice-Queen of Peru, after whom the powdered bark was called “Countess’s Powder.” The use of the bark was first learned from the following circumstances:—Some Cinchona-trees being thrown by the winds into a pool, lay there until the water became so bitter that everyone refused to drink it, till one of the inhabitants of the district being seized with violent fever, and finding no water wherewith to quench his thirst, was forced to drink of this, by which means he became perfectly cured; and afterwards, relating his cure to others, they made use of the same remedy.

CINNAMON.—Bacon, in his ‘Natural History,’ speaks thus of the Cinnamon (Laurus Cinnamomum):—“The ancient Cinnamon was of all other plants, while it grew, the dryest; and those things which are knowne to comfort other plants did make that more sterill: for, in showers, it prospered worst: it grew also amongst bushes of other kindes, where commonly plants doe not thrive; neither did it love the Sunne.” Solomon, in his Canticles, mentions Cinnamon among the precious spices; and Moses was commanded to use “sweet Cinnamon” in the preparation of the holy oil used to anoint the Tabernacle and the sacred vessels, and to consecrate Aaron and his sons to the priesthood. The Emperor Vespasian was the first to take chaplets of Cinnamon to Rome, wherewith to decorate the temples of the Capitol and of Peace. It is related, that Alexander the Great, whilst at sea, perceived he was near the coast of Arabia, from the scent of Cinnamon wafted from the still distant shore.——The Mahometans of India used to have a curious belief that the Cinnamon-tree is the bark, the Clove the flower, and the Nutmeg the fruit, of one and the same tree; and most of the writers of the Middle Ages thought that Cinnamon, Ginger, Cloves, and Nutmegs were the produce of one tree.——Gerarde tells us, that there was formerly much controversy concerning the true Cinnamon and Cassia of the ancients, but he considered the tree whose bark is Cassia to be a bastard kind of Cinnamon. The Cinnamon, he says, has pleasant leaves and fair white flowers, which turn into round black berries, the size of an Olive, “out of which is pressed an oile that hath no smell at all untill it be rubbed and chafed between the hands: the trunk or body, with the greater arms or boughs of the tree, are covered with a double or twofold barke, like that of the Corke-tree, the innermost whereof is the true and pleasant Cinnamon, which is taken from this tree and cast upon the ground in the heate of the sun, through whose heate it turneth and foldeth itselfe round together.” The tree thus peeled, recovered itself in three years, and was then ready to be disbarked again.——Tradition states that the ancient Arabian priests alone possessed the right of collecting the Cinnamon. The most patriarchal of them would then divide the precious bark, reserving the first bundle for the Sun. After the division had taken place, the priests left to the Sun itself the task of lighting the sacred fire on the altar where the high priest was to offer a sacrifice.——Theophrastus narrates that the Cinnamon flourished in the valleys frequented by venomous serpents; and that those who repaired thither to collect it were compelled to wear bandages on their hands and feet. After the Cinnamon was collected, it was divided into three portions, of which one was reserved for the Sun, which, with glowing rays, quickly came and carried it off.——Herodotus says, that Cinnamon was gathered from the nest of the Phœnix.——An old writer affirms that the distilled water of the flowers of the Cinnamon-tree excelled far in sweetness all the waters whatsoever. The leaves yield oil of Cloves; the fruit also yields an oil, which was formerly, in Ceylon, made into candles, for the sole use of the king; the root exudes an abundance of Camphor; and the bark of the root affords oil of Camphor, as well as a particularly pure species of Camphor.

CINQUEFOIL.—In former days, Cinquefoil (Potentilla) much prevailed as an heraldic device; the number of the leaves answering to the five senses of man. The right to bear Cinquefoil was considered an honourable distinction to him who had worthily conquered his affections and mastered his senses. In wet weather the leaves of the Cinquefoil contract and bend over the flower, forming, as it were, a little tent to cover it—an apt emblem of an affectionate mother protecting her child. Cinquefoil was formerly believed to be a cure for agues; four branches being prescribed for a quartan, three for a tertian, and one for a quotidian.——Cinquefoil is deemed a herb of Jupiter.

CISTUS.—The Cistus, according to Cassianus Bassus, derives its name from a Grecian youth named Kistos. Under this title is embraced a most extensive genus of plants celebrated all over the world for their beauty and fragility. Gerarde and Parkinson call them Holly Roses, a name which has become changed into Rock Roses.——From the Cistus Creticus (frequently called the Ladaniferous Cistus) is obtained the balsam called Ladanum, a kind of resin, prized for its tonic and stomachic properties, but more highly valued as a perfume, and extensively used in oriental countries in fumigations. This resin, which is secreted from the leaves and other parts of the shrub, is collected by means of a kind of rake, to which numerous leather thongs are appended instead of teeth. In olden times this resin was believed to have been gathered from the shrubs by goats who rubbed their beards against the leaves, and so collected the liquid gum; but Gerarde affirms this to have been a monkish tradition—a fable of the “Calohieros, that is to say, Greekish monkes, who, of very mockery, have foisted that fable among others extant in their workes.” Be this as it may, Bacon records the fact in his ‘Natural History,’ remarking: “There are some teares of trees, which are kembed from the beards of goats; for when the goats bite and crop them, especially in the morning, the dew being on, the teare cometh forth, and hangeth upon their beards: of this sort is some kinde of Ladanum.”

CITRON.—A native of all the warm regions of Asia, the Citron was introduced into Europe from Media, and hence obtained the name of Malus Medica. During the feast of the Tabernacles, the Jews in their synagogues carry a Citron in their left hand; and a conserve made of a particular variety of the fruit is in great demand by the Jews, who use it during the same feast. According to Athenæus, certain notorious criminals, who had been condemned to be destroyed by serpents, were miraculously preserved, and kept in health and safety by eating Citrons. Theophrastus says that Citrons were considered an antidote to poisons, for which purpose Virgil recommended them in his Georgics. Gerarde thus translates the passage:—

“The countrey Media beareth juices sad,
And dulling tastes of happy Citron fruit,
Than which no helpe more present can be had,
If any time stepmothers, worse than brute,
Have poyson’d pots, and mingled herbs of sute
With hurtful charmes: this Citron fruit doth chase
Black venome from the body in every place.
The tree itselfe in growth is large and big,
And very like in show to th’ Laurell-tree;
And would be thought a Laurell leafe and twig,
But that the smell it casts doth disagree:
The floure it holds as fast as floure may be:
Therewith the Medes a remedie do finde
For stinking breaths and mouthes, a cure most kinde,
And helpe old men which hardly fetch their winde.”

Della Valle, an Italian traveller of the seventeenth century, relates how, at Ikkeri, he saw an Indian widow, on her way to the funeral pyre, riding on horseback through the town, holding in one hand a mirror, in the other a Citron, and whilst gazing into the mirror she uttered loud lamentations. De Gubernatis thinks that perhaps the Citron was the symbol of the life become bitter since the death of her husband.——Rapin recommends the Citron for heart affections:—

“Into an oval form the Citrons rolled
Beneath thick coats their juicy pulp unfold:
From some the palate feels a poignant smart,
Which though they wound the tongue, yet heal the heart.”

CLAPPEDEPOUCH.—The Capsella Bursa pastoris, or Shepherd’s Purse, was so called from the resemblance of its numerous flat seed-pouches to a common leather purse. Dr. Prior says that the Irish name of Clappedepouch was applied to the plant in allusion to the licensed begging of lepers, who stood at the crossways with a bell and a clapper. Hoffmann von Fallersleben, in his Niederländische Volkslieder, says of them: “Separated from all the world, without house or home, the lepers were obliged to dwell in a solitary, wretched hut by the roadside; their clothing so scanty that they often had nothing to wear but a hat and a cloak, and a begging wallet. They would call the attention of the passers-by with a bell or a clapper, and received their alms in a cup or a bason at the end of a long pole. The bell was usually of brass. The clapper is described as an instrument made of two or three boards, by rattling which they excited people to relieve them.” The lepers, Dr. Prior thinks, would get the name of Rattle-pouches, and this be extended to the plant, in allusion to the little purses which it hangs out by the wayside. The plant was also known by the names of Poor Man’s Parmacetie, and St. James’s Weed—the former in allusion to its medicinal virtues. (See Shepherd’s Purse). It is considered a herb of Saturn.

CLEMATIS.—The Clematis vitalba, Gerarde informs us, was called Travellers’ Joy, “as decking and adorning waies and hedges when people travell.” It was also termed “Old Man’s Beard,” from the hoary appearance of its seeds; and Virgin’s Bower, out of compliment to Queen Elizabeth, and in allusion to its climbing habits. It became the emblem of Artifice because beggars, in order to excite compassion, were in the habit of making false ulcers in their flesh by means of its twigs, the result often being a real sore.——The Clematis flammula, or upright Virgin’s Bower, is an acrid plant, that inflames the skin. Miller says of it that if one leaf be cropped in a hot day in the summer season, and bruised, and presently put to the nostrils, it will cause a smell and pain like a flame.——Clematis integrifolia, or Hungarian Climber, is known in Little Russia as Tziganka (the Gipsy Plant). Prof. De Gubernatis has given in his Mythologie des Plantes the following legend connected with this plant:—The Cossacks were once at war with the Tartars. The latter having obtained the advantage, the Cossacks commenced to retreat. The Cossack hetman, indignant at the sight, struck his forehead with the handle of his lance. Instantly there arose a tempest, which whirled away the Cossack traitors and fugitives into the air, pounded them into a thousand fragments, and mingled their dust with the earth of the Tartars. From that earth springs the plant Tziganka. But the souls of the Cossacks, tormented by the thought of their bones being mixed with the accursed earth of the stranger, prayed to God that he would vouchsafe to disseminate it in the Ukraine, where the maidens were wont to pluck Clematis integrifolia to weave into garlands. God hearkened to their Christian prayers, and granted their patriotic desires. It is an old belief in Little Russia that if everybody would suspend Briony from his waistbelt behind, these unfortunate Cossacks would come to life again.

CLOVE.—The aromatic Clove-tree (Caryophyllatus aromaticus) is a native of the Moluccas, where its cultivation is carefully guarded by the Dutch. The islanders wear its white flowers as a mark of distinction. These flowers grow in bunches at the end of the branches, and are succeeded by oval berries, which are crowned with the calyx. It is these berries, beaten from the trees before they are half grown, and allowed to dry in the sun, which are the Cloves of commerce. The Clove is considered to be one of the hottest and most acrid of aromatics; its pungent oil (which is specifically heavier than water) has been administered in paralytic cases. Gerarde says, that the Portuguese women, resident in the East Indies, distilled from the Cloves, when still green, a certain liquor “of a most fragrant smell, which comforteth the heart, and is of all cordials the most effectual.”——There is an old superstition, still extant, that children can be preserved from evil influences and infantile disorders, by having a necklace of Cloves suspended as an amulet round the neck.

CLOVER.—The old English names for Clover were Trefoil and Honey-suckles.——The word Clover is derived from the Anglo-Saxon Clœfre. The club of Hercules was called by the Latins clava trinodis; and the “club” of our playing cards is so named from its resemblance to a Clover-leaf—a leaf with three leaflets (tria folia). Hence the herb’s generic name of Trifolium, or Trefoil.——Hope was depicted by the ancients as a little child standing on tiptoe, and holding a Clover-flower in his hand. Summer is also represented with the Trefoil.——In the Christian Church, the Trefoil is held to be the symbol of the Trinity; hence Clover is used for decorations on Trinity Sunday. It is often employed as an architectural emblem: the limbs of crosses are sometimes made to end in Trefoils, and church windows are frequently in the same form.——Clover possesses the power of vegetating after having existed in a dormant state for many years. If lime is powdered and thrown upon the soil, a crop of white Clover will sometimes arise where it had never been known to exist; this spontaneous coming-up of the flower is deemed an infallible indication of good soil.——Clover-grass is reputed always to feel rough to the touch when stormy weather is at hand; and its leaves are said to start and rise up, as if it were afraid of an assault.——The Druids held the Clover, or Trefoil, in great repute, and it is believed that they considered it a charm against evil spirits. Formerly the Clover was thought to be not only good for cattle, but noisome to witches, and so “the holy Trefoil’s charm,” was very generally prized as a protective.——A sprig of Clover with only two leaves on it is employed by the lads and lasses of Cambridgeshire, Norfolk, and Suffolk, as a charm to enable them to ascertain the names of their future wives and husbands:—

“A Clover, a Clover of two,
Put it on your right shoe;
The first young man [or woman] you meet,
In field street, or lane,
You’ll have him [or her] or one of his [or her] name.”

Gerarde says that the meadow Trefoil (especially that with the black half-moon upon the leaf), pounded with a little honey, “takes away the pin and web in the eies, ceasing the pain and inflammation thereof if it be strained and dropped therein.” The finding of a four-leaved Clover is considered especially fortunate, not only in England, but in France, Switzerland, and Italy. It is believed to almost ensure happiness, and in the case of young girls a husband very speedily. There is old couplet which records that—

“If you find an even Ash-leaf or a four-leaved Clover,
You’ll be bound to see your true love ere the day be over.”

In Scotland, the possessor of a piece of four-bladed Clover is reputed to have a prescience when witchcraft is attempted to be practised upon him; and in the North of England this lucky leaf is placed in dairies and stables, to preserve them from the spells of witches.——There is a Cornish fairy tale which is intimately associated with the four-leaved Clover:—One evening a maiden set out to milk the cows later than usual: indeed, the stars had begun to shine before she completed her task. “Daisy” (an enchanted cow), was the last to be milked, and the pail was so full that the milk-maid could hardly lift it to her head. So to relieve herself, she gathered some handfuls of Grass and Clover, and spread it on her head in order to carry the milk-pail more easily. But no sooner had the Clover touched her head, than suddenly hundreds of little people appeared surrounding Daisy, dipping their tiny hands into the milk, and gathering it with Clover-flowers, which they sucked with gusto. Daisy was standing in the long Grass and Clover, so some of these little creatures climbed up the stalks and held out Buttercups, Convolvuluses, and Foxgloves, to catch the milk which dropped from the cow’s udder. When the astonished milk-maid, upon reaching home, recounted her wonderful experiences to her mistress, the goodwife at once cried out: “Ah! you put a four-leaved Clover on your head.”——To dream of seeing a field of Clover is of happy augury, indicating health, prosperity, and much happiness. To the lover it foretells success, and that his intended wife will have great wealth.——Clover is under the dominion of Venus.

CLUB-MOSS.—The Stag’s-horn, Fox’s-tail, or Club-Moss (Lycopodium clavatum), is used in the North of England, Sweden, and Germany, in wreaths worn on festive occasions. The powder or dust which issues from its spore cases, is highly inflammable, and is collected for fireworks and for producing stage lightning. It is the Blitz-mehl, or lightning-meal of the Germans. The Fir Club-Moss (L. Selago) is made by the Highlanders into an eye ointment. In Cornwall, the Club-Moss is considered good against all diseases of the eyes, provided only it is gathered in the following manner:—On the third day of the moon, when it is seen for the first time, show it the knife with which the Moss is to be cut, repeating the while—

“As Christ healed the issue of blood,
Do thou cut what thou cuttest for good.”

Then, at sundown, the Club-Moss may be cut by the operator kneeling, and with carefully washed hands. The Moss is to be tenderly wrapped in a fair white cloth, and afterwards boiled in water procured from the spring nearest the spot where it grew. The liquor is to be applied as a fomentation. The Club-Moss may also be made into an ointment, with butter made from the milk of a new cow. These superstitious customs have probably a Druidic origin, and tend to identify the Selago or Golden Herb of the Druids with the Club-Moss, as the Selago was held sacred by them, and gathered with many mystic observances. (See Selago.)——In many parts of Germany, certain Fairy-folk, called Moss-women, are popularly believed to frequent the forests. In Thuringia, these little women of the wood are called Holzfrala, and in one of the legends of the Fichtelgebirge (a mountain-chain near the junction of Saxony, Bavaria, and Bohemia), we find it stated that there was a poor child whose mother lay sick of a fever. Going into the forest to gather Strawberries, the child saw a little woman entirely clothed with golden Moss—presumably Selago. The Moss-woman asked the child for some of the fruit, and her request having been readily acceded to, the Moss-woman ate her Strawberries and tripped away. When the child reached home, she found the fruit which she had carried in a jug was transformed to gold. The Moss dress of the little woman is described as being of a golden colour, which shone, when seen at a distance, like pure gold, but on close inspection lost all its lustre. It is thought that many of the stories about hidden treasure which are rife on the Fichtelgebirge are to be attributed to the presence there of this curious species of vegetation.

COCOA-NUT PALM.—The Cocos Nucifera (Sanscrit Nârikera), or Cocoa-Nut Palm is the most extensively-cultivated tree in the world, and its importance to myriads of the human race is almost beyond conception. George Herbert wrote truly of this Palm:—

“The Indian Nut alone
Is clothing, meat and trencher, drink and can,
Boat, cable, sail, mast, needle, all in one.”

A vigorous tree will grow one hundred feet high, and produce annually one hundred Nuts.——The Chinese call the Cocoa-Nut Yüe-wang-t’ou (head of Prince of Yüe) from a tradition that a certain Prince Lin-yi, who was at enmity with the Prince of Yüe, sent an assassin to cut off the head of his enemy. The deed was executed, and the severed head being caught in the branches of a Palm, it remained suspended there, and was transformed into a Cocoa-Nut, with two eyes in its shell.——The Portuguese are said to have given the name of Coco to the Nut because at one end of the Nut are three holes, resembling the head of a cat when mewing (Coca).——The Indians, when unable to recover the corpse of one of their people who has been slain, but whom they wish to honour, form an effigy of Reeds, and surmount it with a Cocoa-Nut, which is supposed to represent the head of the deceased. This sham corpse they cover with Dhak wood, after which they offer up prayers, and then burn it. The Cocoa-Nut is regarded by the natives of India as an oracle in cases of sickness. Thus, if an Indian has fallen ill, they spin a Cocoa-Nut on its end; if the Nut falls towards the west, he will die; if to the east, he will recover. The Deccan Indians never commence any building without first offering Cocoa-Nuts to their gods.——When a Fijian child is sick, and its friends want to know if it will live or die, they shake a bunch of dry Cocoa-Nuts: if all fall off, the little one will recover; if one remains, it will die. The Fijians also spin Cocoa-Nuts, and then prophecy of future events according to the direction in which the eye of the Nut lies when it rests still.

COCKLE.—The Corn Cockle, or Gith (Agrostemma Githago) is a troublesome weed, of which Gerarde says: “What hurt it doth among Corne, the spoile of bread, as well as in colour, taste, and unwholesomenesse, is better knowne than desired.” In the Book of Job, the Cockle coming up instead of the Barley is spoken of as a great misfortune; but it could not have been the Corn Cockle, which is unknown in Palestine and Arabia.——The plant is alluded to in an old English nursery rhyme, in which a garden allowed to run wild is said to be

“Full of weeds and Cockle seeds.”

COFFEE.—The Coffee-plant (Coffea Arabica) derives its name from the Kingdom of Caffa, in Africa, where it grows abundantly. The bloom of this tree is similar to the Jasmine in figure and fragrance, while its fruit has the appearance of a Cherry; the liquor prepared from the fruit or berry is said to have been drunk, in Ethiopia, from time immemorial. The Galla, a wandering nation of Africa, in their incursions in Abyssinia, being obliged to traverse immense deserts, and to travel swiftly, were accustomed to carry nothing with them to eat but Coffee roasted till it could be pulverised, and then mixed with butter into balls, and put into a leather bag. One of these, the size of a billiard ball, was said to keep them in strength and spirits during a whole day’s fatigue, better than bread or meat.——To dream of drinking coffee is a favourable omen, betokening riches and honour. To the lover it foretells a happy marriage.

COLCHICUM.—The Meadow Saffron, or Colchicum, derives its name from Colchis, a country on the eastern shore of the Euxine, where it once grew in such abundance as to have led Horace thus to allude to it:—

“Or tempered every baleful juice
Which poisonous Colchian glebes produce.”

Colchicum was one of the herbs highly prized and made use of by the enchantress Medea. It is poisonous, and, according to Dioscorides, kills by choking, as do poisonous Mushrooms. Gerarde recommends anyone who has eaten Colchicum, to “drinke the milke of a cow, or else death presently ensueth.”——Colchicum is a herb of the Sun.

COLTSFOOT.—The shape of its leaves has given the Tussilago Farfara its English name of Colt’s-foot, although, as Gerarde points out, it might more appropriately be termed Cough-wort. The plant has its Latin name from tussis, a cough, and for many centuries has been used in pulmonary complaints. It formed the basis of Coltsfoot lozenges, long celebrated as a cure for coughs.——The Bavarian peasants make garlands of the sweet-scented Colt’s-foot on Easter Day, and cast them into the fire.——Colt’s-foot, or Foal’s-foot, is a herb of Venus.

COLUMBINE.—The English name of the Aquilegia is derived from the Latin columba, a pigeon, from the resemblance of its nectaries to the heads of pigeons in a ring round a dish, a favourite device of ancient artists. The generic name comes from aquila, an eagle, from the fancied resemblance of the same parts of the flower to the claw of the king of birds.——The plant was formerly sometimes called Herba leonis, from a belief that it was the favourite herb of the lion.——The Columbine is held to be under the dominion of Venus.

CONJUGALIS HERBA.—This herb, De Gubernatis considers to be, in all probability, the same as is known in Piedmont as Concordia (according to Gerarde, a kind of wild Tansy), concerning which M. Bernadotti had sent him the following particulars:—“In the valleys of Lanzo, when two lovers wish to assure themselves that their marriage will take place, they proceed to search for the plant called Concordia. They say that this plant is exceedingly scarce, and hence very difficult to find. Its root is divided into two parts, each representing a hand with five fingers. On finding this plant, it is necessary to uproot it in order to see if the two hands are united—a certain sign that the union will take place. If, on the contrary, the two hands are separated, the marriage will be broken off.” (See Concordia.)

CORIANDER.—From a passage in the Book of Numbers, where Manna is likened to Coriander-seed, it would seem that “Coriander’s spicy seed” was commonly used by the Israelites. The bitter Coriander is one of the five plants mentioned by the Mishna as one of the “bitter herbs” ordained by God to be eaten by the Jews at the Feast of the Passover. It was esteemed as a spice by the Arabs, Egyptians, and Hindus. The plant’s foliage has a strong and offensive odour, but its little round fruit is pleasantly aromatic, and its seeds, when covered with sugar, form the well-known Coriander comfits. Robert Turner, in the ‘Brittish Physician,’ says that the powder of the seeds taken in wine, stimulate the passions; and Gerarde affirms that the juice of the green leaves, “taken in the quantity of four dragmes, killeth and poisoneth the body.”——Coriander is held to be under the planetary influence of Saturn.

CORN.—The generic name of Corn, which is applied to all kinds of grain, is one of several words, which being common to the widely-separated branches of the Indo-European race, prove the practice of tillage among our ancestors before they left their first home in Central Asia.——The Greeks worshipped Demeter, and the Romans Ceres, as the goddess of Corn, and she is supposed to have been the same deity as Rhea and Tellus, and the Cybele, Bona Dea, Berecynthia of the Phrygians, the Isis of the Egyptians, Atergates of the Syrians, and the Hera of the Arcadians. Ceres was generally represented as a beautiful woman, with a garland of ears of Corn on her head, a wheatsheaf by her side, and the cornucopia, or horn of plenty, in her hand. To commemorate the abduction of her daughter Proserpine by Pluto, a festival was held about the beginning of harvest, and another festival, lasting six days, was held in remembrance of the goddess’s search for her daughter, at the time that Corn is sown in the earth. During the quest for Proserpine, the earth was left untilled and became barren; but upon the return of Ceres, she instructed Triptolemus of Eleusis in all the arts appertaining to agriculture and the cultivation of Corn, and gave him her chariot, drawn by two dragons, wherein he might travel over the whole earth and distribute Corn to all its inhabitants. On his return to Eleusis, Triptolemus restored the chariot to Ceres, and established the famed Eleusinian festivals and mysteries in her honour. This festival, observed every fourth year, and dedicated to Demeter (Ceres) and Proserpine, was the most solemn of all the sacred feasts of Greece, and was so religiously observed, that anyone revealing its secret mysteries, or improperly taking part in the ceremonials, was put to an ignominious death. During the festival, the votaries walked in a solemn procession, in which the holy basket of Ceres was carried about in a consecrated cart, the people on all sides shouting Hail, Demeter!——In their sacrifices, the ancients usually offered Ceres a pregnant sow, as that animal often destroys the Corn and other crops. While the Corn was yet in grass they offered her a ram, after the victim had been thrice led round the fields.——Among the Romans, twelve priests named Arvales, supposed to have been descended from the nurse of Romulus, celebrated in April and July the festivals called Ambarvalia. These priests, who wore crowns composed of ears of Corn, conducted processions round the ploughed fields in honour of Ceres, and offered as sacrifices at her shrine a sow, a sheep, and a bull. The rites of the Arvales were founded specially on the worship of Corn.——It is believed that among the Greeks, the story of Proserpine brought back from the infernal regions by her mother Ceres, and finally adjudged to pass six months on earth, and six months in Hades, symbolises Corn as the seed of Wheat, and its condition during Winter and Summer.——De Gubernatis considers that the story of Proserpine has its Indian equivalent in the myth of the birth of Sîtâ, daughter of King Janaka, the Fecundator. Sîtâ was not born of a woman, but issued either from a furrow in the earth, or from the middle of an altar.——The Vishnupurâna mentions several species of grain which have been specially created by the gods; amongst them being Rice, Barley, Millet, and Sesamum. In the sacrifices of the Hindoos, they offer several sorts of Corn to ensure abundant harvests. Indra is the great husbandman of the heavens, which he renders fertile: he is also the divinity of the fields, and, like the Scandinavian god Thor, the presiding deity of Corn. It is he who fertilises the earth in his capacity of god of tempests and rain. The employment of Corn in sacrificial rites, was common in India of the Vedic period, in Greece, and in Rome; and in the same countries we find Corn used during nuptial ceremonies. Thus in Vedic India, it was customary to scatter two handfuls of Corn over the clasped hands of the bride and bridegroom, and a similar proceeding still takes place amongst the Parsees. An analogous custom existed amongst the Romans. At an Indian wedding, after the first night, the mother of the husband, with all the female relatives, come to the young bride, and place on her head a measure of Corn—emblem of fertility. The husband then comes forward and takes from his bride’s head some handfuls of the grain, which he scatters over himself. Similar usages exist at the present day in many parts of Italy, relics of the old Roman custom of offering Corn to the bride. In Gwalior, at one part of the marriage ceremony, the priests shout vociferously, only stopping now and then to cast over the bride and bridegroom showers of Corn, Millet, and Rice. In some parts of Central India, at the end of the rainy season, the people congregate on the banks of the lakes, and launch on the water, as an offering, pots of earth, containing sprouting Wheat.——On the banks of the Indus, there is believed to grow some miraculous Corn on the spot where formerly were burnt the remains of the Buddhist King Sivika, who sacrificed his life for a pigeon. The Chinese Buddhists made pilgrimages, during the middle ages, to the place where Sivika had lived and died; and here it was that the miraculous Wheat grew, which the sun had no power to scorch. A single grain of this Wheat kept its happy possessor from all ills proceeding from cold as well as from fever.——The Chinese, regarding Corn as a gift from heaven, celebrate with sacrifices, prayers, and religious rites, both seedtime and harvest. They also think that in the heavens there is a special constellation for Corn, composed of eight black stars, each of which has under its special protection one of the eight varieties of Corn, viz., Rice, Millet, Barley, Wheat, Beans, Peas, Maize, and Hemp. When this cereal constellation is clear, it is a sign that the eight kinds of Corn will ripen; but when, on the contrary, it is dim and obscured, a bad harvest is looked for. The Emperor Ven-ti, who reigned 179 years before Christ, is said to have incited his subjects to the more zealous cultivation of Corn, by ploughing with his own hands the land surrounding his palace.——The Chaldeans recognised a god of grain, called Sérakh; the Assyrians, a god of harvests, named Nirba; the Romans, a goddess, Segetia or Segesta, who was invoked by husbandmen, that their harvests might be plentiful. Among the Romans, indeed, the growth of Corn was under the special protection of different deities; hence the worship they paid to Seia, who protected Corn before it sprang up above the earth; to Occator, the god of harrowing; to Sarritor, the god of weeding; to Nodotus, the god who watched over the blade when it became knotty; and to Robigus, the god who protected the Corn from blights.——In the sepulchres of the Egyptian kings, which have of late years been opened, was discovered, carefully preserved in closed vessels, Corn, the grains of which retained both their pristine form and colour; when tested, this Corn was found, after several thousand years, still to retain its vitality. The matchless wealth of ancient Egypt was probably in great measure due to its Corn. The Bible history of Joseph, and the narrative of the ten plagues, set forth how famed the land of Egypt was in those days for its Wheat. The mode of culture in that country now is exceedingly simple: when the inundations of the Nile have subsided, the grain is thrown upon the mud; and if by chance it should be considered too hard, the seed is lightly ploughed in. No further care is bestowed until the ripening of the produce in the following April.——Corn was unknown among the Mexicans when their country was first visited by Europeans; the foundation of the vast Wheat harvests of Mexico is said to have been three or four grains, which a slave of Cortez discovered in 1530, accidentally mixed with some Rice.——Peru was indebted for the introduction of Corn to a Spanish lady, Maria de Escobar, who conveyed a few grains to Lima, cultivated them, and distributed the seed among the farmers. The first grains of Corn which reached Quito, were conveyed thither by Father Josse Rixi, a Fleming, who sowed them near the Monastery of St. Francis, where the monks still preserve and show, as a precious relic, the rude earthen vessel wherein the seeds first reached them.——Among the Arabs there is a tradition that when Adam was driven out of Paradise he took with him three plants,—an ear of Corn, chief of all kinds of food; a bunch of Dates, chief of fruits; and a slip of Myrtle, chief of sweet-scented flowers.——There is a curious custom which still survives in a few districts of Brittany, by which the good faith of lovers is sought to be proved. On St. John’s Eve, the men, wearing branches of green Wheat-ears, the women with Flax-blossoms, come to one of the pillar stones, or dolmens, still standing, dance around it, and then place their wreath upon it: if the wreath remain fresh for some time after, the lover is to be trusted; but should it shrivel up within a day or two, so will the love wither and fade away.——In some parts of Italy, there is a belief that on the night of the third of May the blessing of Heaven descends on the Corn in the form of a minute red insect, which remains on the Wheat only for two or three days.——In Piedmont, it is a custom in certain districts, on the last day of February, for the children to roam the meadows, crying, “March, March, arrive! and for every grain of Wheat let us receive a hundred.”——At Venice, on Midsummer Eve, young girls sow some Corn in a pot, which they then place in a position where the sun cannot enter; after eight days they remove the pot: the Corn has then sprouted; and if it is green and healthy, it is a token to the girl that she will have a rich and handsome husband; but if the sprout is yellow or white, it is a sign that the husband will be anything but a good one.——In Corsica, after a wedding, just before the feast, the men and children retire, and the women seat the bride on a measure full of Corn, from which they have each previously taken a handful. The women then commence saying an invocation, and during this each one scatters the handful of Corn over the bride’s head.——In English harvest-fields the prettiest girl present is chosen to cut the last handful of Corn.——In Sweden, if a grain of Corn be found under the table when sweeping on a New Year’s morn, it is believed to be a portent of an abundant crop that year.——A tuft of Corn or Grass was given by Eugène and Marlborough as a cockade to the German, Dutch, and English soldiers comprising the army. The faction of the Fronde opposed to Cardinal Mazarin wore stalks of Corn to distinguish them.——Corn and Grapes typify the Blessed Eucharist. An ear of Corn is a prominent emblem in Freemasonry, proving that the order did not originally confine their intellects or their labours to building operations, but also devoted themselves to agriculture.——Astrologers appear to be divided in their opinions as to whether Corn is under the dominion of Venus or the Sun.——In dreams, to pluck Corn-ears portends secret enemies; otherwise, dreams of Corn betoken good fortune, prosperity, and happiness.

Corn-flower. See Centaury.

Corn-Marigold. See Chrysanthemum.

CORNEL.—After Romulus had marked out the bounds of his rising city, he threw his javelin on the Mount Palatine. The weapon, made of the wood of the Cornel (Cornus mascula), stuck fast in the ground, took root, grew, threw out leaves and branches, and became a flourishing tree. This prodigy was considered as the happy presage of the power and duration of the infant empire.——According to some accounts, the Cornel, or Cornelian Cherry, is the tree which sprang from the grave of Prince Polydorus, who was assassinated by Polymnestor. The boughs of this tree dropped blood when Æneas, journeying to Italy, attempted to tear them from the tree.——The Greeks consecrated the Cornel to Apollo; and when, in order to construct the famed wooden horse during the siege of Troy, they felled, on Mount Ida, several Cornelian-trees in a grove, called Carnea, dedicated to the god, they provoked his anger and indignation: to expiate this sacrilege, the Greeks instituted the festival called Carnea.——The Cornel is under Venus.

Coronation-flower.—See Carnation.

COSTMARY.—This plant, the Balsamita vulgaris, owes its name of Costmary to the Greek Kostos, an unknown aromatic plant, and to the fact of its being dedicated to St. Mary Magdalene. A variety of the plant is also called, after her, Maudlein, either in allusion to her box of scented ointment or to its use in the uterine affections over which, as the special patroness of unchaste women, she presided. In old times, the plant was known as Herba Sanctæ or Divæ Mariæ.——The Costmary is held to be under Jupiter.

COSTUS.—The Costus speciosus, an Indian swamp tree, celebrated for its sweet fruit, is a sacred tree, and in the Hindu mythology figures as Kushtha, one of the trees of heaven. It is a magical tree, curing fevers, and is looked upon as the first of medicinal plants. It is represented as the friend and companion of Soma, the god of Ambrosia. It is called the Revealer of Ambrosia, inasmuch as its fruit grew on the summit of Mount Himavant at the moment when the golden boat of the gods touched its summit, and by its illuminating powers enabled them to find the Ambrosia.

COTTON-PLANT.—The Cotton-plant (Gossypium) was first cultivated in the East, whence were procured the finest muslins (so named from Mosul, in Mesopotamia, where it was first made), calico (from Calicut, in India), and Nankeen (from Nankin, in China, where the yellow Cotton-plants grow). Now the Cotton-plant gives employment to millions of people, sends thousands of ships across the sea, and binds together the two great Anglo-Saxon nations. Although so useful, the Cotton is not one of the sacred plants of India: in an Indian poem, however, the plant is noticed favourably:—“We love the fruits of the Cotton because, although tasteless, they have the property of concealing that which ought to be concealed” (in allusion to the use of cotton as clothing). The Khonds, whenever founding a new settlement, always plant first a Cotton-plant, which they hold sacred and religiously preserve.——M. Agassiz, in his work on Brazil, recounts a strange legend respecting the Gossypium Brazilianum. Caro Sacaibu, the first of men, was a demi-god. His son, Rairu, an inferior being, obeyed the instructions of his father, who, however, did not love him. To get rid of him, Sacaibu constructed an armadillo, and buried it in the earth, leaving visible only the tail, rubbed with Mistletoe. Then he ordered his son to bring him the armadillo. Rairu obeyed, but scarcely had he touched the tail, when, aided by Sacaibu, it dragged Rairu to the bottom of the earth. But thanks to his wit, Rairu contrived to make his way to the surface again, and told Sacaibu that in the subterranean regions lived a race of men and women, who, if transported to earth, would cultivate it. Sacaibu allowed himself to be convinced of this, and accordingly descended in his turn to the bottom of the earth by the aid of a rope composed of Cotton, which he had sown for the first time on the occasion. The first men brought to earth by means of Sacaibu’s rope were small and ugly, but the more rope he pulled up, the handsomer became the men, until just as he was about to pull out the handsomest the Cotton rope broke, and the brightest specimens of humanity were doomed for ever to remain in the bowels of mother earth. That is the reason why, in this earth of ours, beauty is so scarce.

Coventry Bells.—See Campanula.

COWSLIP.—The familiar name, Cowslip, is presumed to be derived from the Anglo-Saxon Cú-slyppe: Skeat thinks because the plant was supposed to spring up where a patch of cow-dung had fallen. The flowers of the common Cowslip, Petty Mullein, or Paigle (Primula veris), are, in some parts of Kent, called Fairy Cups. The odour of Cowslips is said to calm the heart. A pleasant and wholesome wine is made from them, resembling Muscadel. It is said to induce sleep. Says Pope:—

“For want of rest,
Lettuce and Cowslip wine—probatum est.”

Cowslip-balls are made in the following manner:—The umbels or heads are picked off as close as possible to the top of the main stalks. From fifty to sixty of these are hung across a string stretched between the backs of two chairs. The flowers are then pressed carefully together, and the string tied tightly, so as to collect them into a ball. Care should be taken to have all the flowers open, so as to make the surface of the ball even.——Culpeper, the astrological herbalist, says that the Greeks gave the name of Paralysis to the Cowslip because the flowers strengthened the brain and nerves, and were a remedy for palsy. He adds, that Venus lays claims to this herb, and it is under the sign Aries.

COWSLIP OF JERUSALEM.—The Virginian Cowslip or Lungwort (Pulmonaria officinalis), is called Cowslip of Jerusalem, Sage of Jerusalem, Sage of Bethlehem, Wild Comfrey and Lung-wort, being supposed, from its spotted leaves, to be a remedy for diseased lungs. Linnæus christened the plant Dodecatheon, or Twelve Divinities, because, in April, it is crowned with twelve pink flowers reversed.——The Lung-wort is considered to be a herb of Jupiter.

COW-TREE.—The ancient inhabitants of Venezuela regarded as sacred the Chichiuhalquehuill, Tree of Milk, or Celestial Tree, that distilled milk from the extremity of its branches, and around which were seated infants who had expired a few days after their birth. A Mexican drawing of this Celestial Tree is preserved in the Vatican, and is noticed by Humboldt, who first heard of the Palo de Vaca, or Cow-tree, in the year 1800, and supposed it to be peculiar to the Cordillera of the coast. It was also found by Mr. Bridemeyer, a botanist, at a distance of three days’ journey to the east of Caraccas, in the valley of Caucagua, where it is known by the name of Arbol de Leche, or the Milk-tree; and where the inhabitants profess to recognise, from the thickness and colour of the foliage, the trunks that yield the most juice,—as the herdsman distinguishes, from external signs, a good milch cow. At Barbula, this vegetable fountain is more aptly termed the Palo de Vaca, or Cow-tree. It rises, as Humboldt informs us, like the broad-leaved Star-apple (Chrysophyllum Cainito), to a height of from thirty to forty feet, and is furnished with round branches, which, while young, are angular, and clothed with a fine heavy down. The trunk, on being wounded, yields its agreeable and nutritious fluid in the greatest profusion. Humboldt remarks that “a few drops of vegetable juice recall to our minds all the powerfulness and the fecundity of nature. On the barren flank of a rock grows a tree with coriaceous and dry leaves. Its large woody roots can scarcely penetrate into the stone. For several months of the year, not a single shower moistens its foliage. Its branches appear dead and dried; but when the trunk is pierced, there flows from it a sweet and nourishing milk. It is at the rising of the sun that this vegetable fountain is most abundant. The blacks and natives are then seen hastening from all quarters, furnished with large bowls to receive the milk, which grows yellow, and thickens at its surface. Some empty their bowls under the tree itself, others carry the juice home to their children. We seem to see the family of a shepherd who distributes the milk of his flock.”

CRANE’S BILL.—The Crane’s Bill, or English Geranium, derived its name from a fancied resemblance of the fruit to the beak of that bird. Another name for the plant is Dove’s Foot.——Astrologers say that it is under the dominion of Mars.

CRANBERRY.—The Cranberry (Vaccinium Oxycoccus) was formerly known as the Marsh-wort or Fen-berry. The Druids called the plant Samolus, and used great ceremonies in gathering it; these consisted in a previous fast, in not looking back during the time of their plucking it, and lastly in using their left hand only. This plant was considered to be particularly efficacious in curing the diseases incident to swine and cattle.

CRESS.—Chaucer calls the Cress by its old Saxon name of Kers, which may possibly have been the origin of the vulgar saying of not caring a “curse” for anything—meaning a Cress. Gerarde tells us that the Spartans were in the habit of eating Cresses with their bread; this they did no doubt on account of an opinion held very generally among the ancients that those who ate Cress became firm and decided, for which reason the plant was in great request. Water-Cresses, according to astrologers, are herbs of the Moon.

Cross-Flower.—See Milkwort.

CROCUS.—Legendary lore derives the name of this flower from a beautiful youth named Crocus, who was consumed by the ardency of his love for the shepherdess Smilax, and was afterwards metamorphosed into the flower which still preserves his name; Smilax being also transformed, some accounts say into a flower, others into a Yew.

“Crocus and Smilax may be turned to flowers,
And the Curetes spring from bounteous showers.”—Ovid.

Rapin says:—

“Crocus and Smilax, once a loving pair,
But now transformed, delightful blossoms bear.”

According to a Grecian legend, the Crocus sprang from the blood of the infant Crocus, who was accidentally struck by a metal disc thrown by Mercury whilst playing a game.——One of the Sanscrit names of the Crocus, or Saffron, is asrig, which signifies “blood.” The dawn is sometimes called by the classic poets, on account of its colour, crocea.——The ancients often used to adorn the nuptial couch with Crocus-flowers, perhaps because it is one of the flowers of which, according to Homer, the couch of Jove and Juno was composed.

“And sudden Hyacinths the turf bestrow,
And flowery Crocus made the mountains glow.”

The Egyptians, at their banquets, encircled their wine cups with garlands of Crocus and Saffron, and in their religious processions these flowers were carried with other blooms and aromatics.——The Jews made use of the Saffron Crocus (Crocus sativus) as an aromatic, and in the Song of Solomon it is referred to as highly appreciated:—“Thy plants are an orchard of Pomegranates, with pleasant fruits; Camphire, with Spikenard; Spikenard and Saffron,” &c.——The Greeks employed the Crocus in the composition of their perfumes. Thus Hipponax says:—

“I then my nose with baccaris anointed
Redolent of Crocus.”

The Romans were so fond of the Crocus, that they not only had their apartments and banqueting halls strewed with this plant, but they also composed with it unguents and essences which were highly prized. Some of the latter were often made to flow in small streams at their entertainments, or to descend in dewy showers over the audience. Lucan, in his ‘Pharsalia,’ describing how the blood runs out of the veins of a person bitten by a serpent, says that it spouts out in the same manner as the sweet-smelling essence of Saffron issues from the limbs of a statue. In both Greece and Rome, as in later years in this land, Crocus was a favourite addition to dishes of luxury, and Shakspeare speaks of Saffron to colour the warden pies.——In olden times, Crocus was held to be a great cordial and strengthener of the heart and lungs; it was also considered useful in the plague and similar pestilences; and was said to excite amatory passions.——Robert Turner states that the plant was sometimes called Filias ante Patrem, because it puts forth flowers before the leaves. This old herbalist, who lived in the reign of Charles II., would seem to have been a thorough Royalist, for after remarking that large crops of Saffron-flowers were grown at Saffron-Walden, he adds that the crop “must be gathered as soon as it is blown, or else it is lost; so that Jack Presbyter for covetousness of the profit can reach his Sabbatarian conscience to gather it on Sunday; and so he can do anything else that redounds to his profit, tho’ it destroy his brother.”——The Crocus or Saffron is a herb of the Sun, and under the Lion.

CUCKOO FLOWERS.—Various flowers are called after the “harbinger of Spring.” In old works, the name “Cuckoo Flower” was given to the Lychnis flos cuculi, but is now generally applied to the Lady’s Smock (Cardamine pratensis). Cuckoo Gilliflower was a name also given to the Lychnis flos cuculi, on account of its blooming at the time the Cuckoo’s song was heard. “Cuckoo’s Bread,” or “Cuckoo’s Meat” is the Wood Sorrel, Oxalis Acetosella. Shakspeare’s “Cuckoo Buds of yellow hue” are probably the buds of the Crowfoot. “Cuckoo Grass” is the Luzula Campestris, a grass-like Rush, flowering at the time of the Cuckoo. “Cuckoo Pint,” or “Pintle” is the Arum maculatum.

CUCUMBER.—In the East, the Cucumber (Cucumis sativa) has been cultivated from the earliest periods. When the Israelites complained to Moses in the wilderness, comparing their old Egyptian luxuries with the Manna of the wilderness, they exclaimed: “We remember the fish which we did eat in Egypt freely, the Cucumbers, and the Melons.” Isaiah, depicting the desolation of Judah, said: “The daughter of Zion is left as a cottage in a vineyard—as a lodge in a garden of Cucumbers”—in allusion to the practise of cultivating Cucumbers in open fields.——Although, says De Gubernatis, the Buddhists derive the name of Ikshvâku from Ikshi (Sugar-cane), we must not forget that the wife of Sagara, to whom was promised sixty thousand children, first gave birth to an Ikshvâku, that is to say, to a Cucumber. Just as the Cucumber and the Pumpkin or Gourd are gifted with fecundity and the desire to climb, so Trisanku, one of the descendants of Ikshvâku, had the ambition to ascend to heaven, and he obtained that favour by the assistance of the sage Visvamitra.——There was formerly a superstitious belief in England that Cucumbers had the power of killing by their natural coldness. Gerarde says “they yield to the body a cold and moist nourishment, and that very little, and the same not good.”——To dream of Cucumbers denotes recovery to the sick, and that you will speedily fall in love; or if you are in love, that you will marry the object of your affection. It also denotes moderate success in trade; to a sailor a pleasant voyage.——Cucumbers are under the influence of the Moon.

CUMIN.—According to Theophrastus, the ancients were accustomed to sow the seed of Cumin (Cuminum Cyminum), with an accompaniment of oaths and maledictions, just as they were wont to do in the case of Basil: this singular custom was probably some form of incantation, to preserve this highly-reverenced plant from the dreaded effects of the Evil Eye, and to cause it to flourish well. Among the Greeks, Cumin symbolised meanness and cupidity: the people nicknamed Marcus Antoninus, Cumin, on account of his avarice; and misers were jokingly spoken of as persons who had eaten Cumin.——The plant appears to have been regarded as specially possessing the power of retention. Thus in Germany, in order to prevent newly-made bread from being stolen by Wood-demons, the loaves had Cumin put in them. In Italy, a similar custom prevails; and in some places it is supposed that the Cumin possesses the power of keeping the thief in the house along with the bread which he wished to steal. In some parts of Italy they give Cumin to pigeons in order to make them tame and fond of their home; and Cumin mixed with flour and water is given to fowls with the same object. Country lasses also endeavour to make their lovers swallow it, in order to ensure their continued attachment and fidelity. Or, if the lover is going to serve as a soldier, or has obtained work in a distant part of the country, his sweetheart gives him a newly-made loaf seasoned with Cumin, or, perhaps, a cup of wine in which Cumin has been previously powdered and mixed.——The ancients were acquainted with the power of Cumin to cause the human countenance to become pallid, and Pliny mentions two cases in which the herb was so employed.

CURRANT.—According to the Iranian legend of the Creation, the first human couple, Maschia and Maschiäna, issued from a Currant-bush. At first there was only one Currant-bush, but in process of time the one bush became separated into two. To these two plants Ormuzd, the Iranian supreme deity, imparted a soul, and thus from the Currant-bushes issued the first two human beings.——To dream of Currants denotes happiness in life, success in your undertakings, constancy in your sweetheart, and to the farmer and tradesman riches.——The Currant-tree is under the influence of Venus.

CYCLAMEN.—The Greeks had several names for the Cyclamen, and the Romans also distinguished it by a variety of titles, as Tuber terræ and Terræ rapum, from its Turnip-like root, Panis Porcinus, Orbicularis, Arthanita, and Cyclamen, on account of the roundness of its root. It was called Sow-bread and Swine-bread because, in countries where it is abundant, it forms the chief food of herds of swine.——This plant was formerly regarded as a most potent assistant by midwives, and it was recommended to them by the surgeons of the day. The peculiar shape of its root was in itself suggestive of its employment by these good women, and the virtues of the plant were regarded with superstitious reverence. Thus we find Gerarde stating, that the mere wearing of the root, “hanged about women,” had a salutary effect; and that he himself had instructed his wife to employ its leaves when tending divers women in their confinement. The old herbalist also tells us that he had Cyclamens growing in his garden, but that for fear any matrons should, accidentally, step over them, and by this means bring on miscarriage, he fenced them in with sticks, and laid others crossways over them, “lest any woman should, by lamentable experiment, find my words to be true, by their stepping over the same.” He further warns those who are about to become mothers not to touch or take this herb, or to come near unto it, on account of “the naturale attractive vertue therein contained.” According to Theophrastus, Cyclamen was employed by the ancients to excite love and voluptuous desires.——Placed in a dormitory, this plant was supposed to protect the inmate:—

“St. John’s Wort and fresh Cyclamen she in his chamber kept,
From the power of evil angels to guard him while he slept.”

The old English names of Cyclamen were Sow-bread and Swine-bread.——It was considered under the dominion of Mars.

CYPRESS.—Ovid tells us of the “taper Cypress,” that it is sacred to Apollo, and was once a fair youth, Cyparissus by name, who was a great favourite of the god. Cyparissus became much attached to a “mighty stag,” which grazed on the fertile fields of Cæa and was held sacred to Carthæan nymphs. His constant companion, this gentle stag was one day unwittingly pierced to the heart by a dart thrown by the luckless youth. Overcome with remorse, Cyparissus would fain have killed himself but for the intervention of Apollo, who bade him not mourn more than the loss of the animal required. Unable, however, to conquer his grief, Cyparissus at length prayed the superior powers, that as an expiation, he should be doomed to mourn to all succeeding time: the gods therefore turned him into a Cypress-tree. Ovid thus relates the tale:—

“And now of blood exhausted he appears,
Drained by a torrent of continual tears;
The fleshy colour in his body fades,
And a green tincture all his limbs invades;
From his fair head, where curling locks late hung,
A horrid bush with bristled branches sprung,
Which, stiff’ning by degrees, its stem extends,
Till to the starry skies the spire ascends.
Apollo sad looked on, and sighing cried,
Then be for ever what thy prayer implied;
Bemoaned by me, in others grief excite,
And still preside at every funeral rite.”—Congreve.

According to another account, Silvanus, god of the woods (who is sometimes represented holding a branch of Cypress in his hand), became enamoured of a handsome youth named Cyparissus, who was changed into the tree bearing his name. Rapin gives the following version of the story:—

“A lovely fawn there was—Sylvanus’ joy,
Nor less the fav’rite of the sportive boy,
Which on soft grass was in a secret shade,
Beneath a tree’s thick branches cooly laid;
A luckless dart rash Cyparissus threw,
And undesignedly the darling slew.
But soon he to his grief the error found,
Lamenting, when too late, the fatal wound:
Nor yet Sylvanus spared the guiltless child,
But the mischance with bitter words reviled,
This struck so deep in his relenting breast,
With grief and shame, and indignation prest,
That tired of life he melted down in tears,
From whence th’ impregnate earth a Cypress rears;
Ensigns of sorrow these at first were born,
Now their fair race the rural scenes adorn.”

In a legend current among the Greeks, the Cypress owes its origin to the daughters of Eteocles, King of Thebes. Carried away by the goddesses in a whirlwind, which kept revolving them in endless circles, they were at length precipitated into a pond, upon which Gæa took compassion on the young girls, and changed them into Cypress-trees.——Perhaps owing to its funereal and sorrowful character, the Cypress has been named as the tree which furnished the wood of the Saviour’s Cross.——An ancient legend referred to in the ‘Gospel of Nicodemus,’ Curzon’s ‘Monasteries of the Levant,’ and other works, carries the history of the Cross back as far as the time of Adam. In substance it is as follows:—Adam, one day, fell sick, and sent his son Seth to the Garden of Eden to ask the guardian angel for some drops of the oil of mercy, distilled from the Tree of Life. The angel replied that none could have that till five thousand years had passed, but gave him a slip of the tree, which was afterwards planted on Adam’s grave, and grew into a goodly tree with three branches. Another version states that the Angel in Paradise gave Seth three seeds, which he placed under Adam’s tongue before burial, from which they grew into the Cypress, the Cedar, and the Pine. These were subsequently carried away by Moses, who cut his rod from them, and King David transplanted them near a fountain at Jerusalem, where the three saplings combined and grew into one grand tree. Under its umbrageous shade he composed his Psalms and lamented his sins. His son Solomon afterwards cut it down for a pillar in his Temple, but no one was able to fix it there. Some say it was preserved in the Temple, while others aver that it formed a bridge across a marsh, which the Queen of Sheba refused to pass, being deterred by a vision of its future burden. It was afterwards buried in the Pool of Bethesda, thereby accounting for the healing properties possessed by its waters. At the Passion, it floated and was taken for the Cross, or, as some say, for the upright beam. Henry Maundrell speaks of a Greek convent, about half an hour’s distance from Jerusalem, where they showed him a hole in the ground under the high altar, where the stump of the tree stood. Sir John Maundevile also says that the spot where the tree grew at Jerusalem was pointed out to him; the wood, he states, formed a bridge over the brook Cedron.——Some versions of the legend of the wood of the Cross state it was made of Cypress, Cedar, Pine, and Box: one names Cypress for the body, Palm for the hands, Cedar for the support of the feet, and Olive for the superscription.——Another version states that the cross beam was of Cypress; the upright beam of “immortal Cedar;” the title of Olive; and the foot-rest of Palm: hence the line—

“Ligna crucis Palma, Cedrus, Cupressus, Oliva.”