This is the well-known fruit of the Common Bramble (_Rubus
fructicosus_), which grows in every English hedgerow, and which
belongs to the Rose order of plants. It has long been esteemed for
its bark and leaves as a [54] capital astringent, these containing
much tannin; also for its fruit, which is supplied with malic and
citric acids, pectin, and albumen. Blackberries go often by the
name of "bumblekites," from "bumble," the cry of the bittern, and
kyte, a Scotch word for belly; the name bumblekite being applied,
says Dr. Prior, "from the rumbling and bumbling caused in the
bellies of children who eat the fruit too greedily." "Rubus" is from
the Latin _ruber_, red.
The blackberry has likewise acquired the name of scaldberry, from
producing, as some say, the eruption known as scaldhead in
children who eat the fruit to excess; or, as others suppose, from the
curative effects of the leaves and berries in this malady of the
scalp; or, again, from the remedial effects of the leaves when
applied externally to scalds.
It has been said that the young shoots, eaten as a salad, will fasten
loose teeth. If the leaves are gathered in the Spring and dried, then,
when required, a handful of them may be infused in a pint of
boiling water, and the infusion, when cool, may be taken, a
teacupful at a time, to stay diarrhoea, and for some bleedings.
Similarly, if an ounce of the bruised root is boiled in three
half-pints of water, down to a pint, a teacupful of this may be given
every three or four hours. The decoction is also useful against
whooping-cough in its spasmodic stage. The bark contains tannin;
and if an ounce of the same be boiled in a pint and a half of water,
or of milk, down to a pint, half a teacupful of the decoction may be
given every hour or two for staying relaxed bowels. Likewise the
fruit, if desiccated in a moderately hot oven, and afterwards
reduced to powder (which should be kept ill a well corked bottle)
will prove an efficacious remedy for dysentery.
[55] Gerard says: "Bramble leaves heal the eyes that hang out, and
stay the haemorrhoides [piles] if they can be laid thereunto." The
London _Pharmacopoeia_ (1696) declared the ripe berries of the
bramble to be a great cordial, and to contain a notable restorative
spirit. In Cruso's _Treasury of Easy Medicines_ (1771), it is
directed for old inveterate ulcers: "Take a decoction of blackberry
leaves made in wine, and foment the ulcers with this whilst hot
each night and morning, which will heal them, however difficult to
be cured." The name of the bush is derived from brambel, or
brymbyll, signifying prickly; its blossom as well as the fruit, ripe
and unripe, in all stages, may be seen on the bush at the same time.
With the ancient Greeks Blackberries were a popular remedy for
gout.
As soon as blackberries are over-ripe, they become quite
indigestible. Country folk say in Somersetshire and Sussex: "The
devil goes round on Old Michaelmas Day, October 11th, to spite
the Saint, and spits on the blackberries, so that they who eat them
after that date fall sick, or have trouble before the year is out."
Blackberry wine and blackberry jam are taken for sore throats in
many rustic homes. Blackberry jelly is useful for dropsy from
feeble ineffective circulation. To make "blackberry cordial," the
juice should be expressed from the fresh ripe fruit, adding half a
pound of white sugar to each quart thereof, together with half an
ounce of both nutmeg and cloves; then boil these together for a
short time, and add a little brandy to the mixture when cold.
In Devonshire the peasantry still think that if anyone is troubled
with "blackheads," _i.e._, small pimples, or boils, he may be cured
by creeping from East to West on the hands and knees nine times
beneath an arched [56] bramble bush. This is evidently a relic of
an old Dryad superstition when the angry deities who inhabited
particular trees had to be appeased before the special diseases
which they inflicted could be cured. It is worthy of remark that the
Bramble forms the subject of the oldest known apologue. When
Jonathan upbraided the men of Shechem for their base ingratitude
to his father's house, he related to them the parable of the trees
choosing a king, by whom the Bramble was finally elected, after
the olive, the fig tree, and the vine had excused themselves from
accepting this dignity.
In the Roxburghe Ballad of "The Children in the Wood," occurs
the verse--
"Their pretty lips with Blackberries
Were all besmeared and dyed;
And when they saw the darksome night
They sat them down, and cryed."
The French name for blackberries is _mures sauvages_, also
_mures de haie_; and in some of our provincial districts they are
known as "winterpicks," growing on the Blag.
Blackberry wine, which is a trustworthy cordial astringent remedy
for looseness of the bowels, may be made thus: Measure your
berries, and bruise them, and to every gallon of the fruit add a
quart of boiling water. Let the mixture stand for twenty-four hours,
occasionally stirring; then strain off the liquid, adding to every
gallon a couple of pounds of refined sugar, and keep it in a cask
tightly corked till the following October, when it will be ripe and
rich.
A noted hair-dye is said to be made by boiling the leaves of the
bramble in strong lye, which then imparts permanently to the hair
a soft, black colour. Tom Hood, in his humorous way, described a
negro funeral [57] as "going a black burying." An American poet
graphically tell us:--
"Earth's full of Heaven,
And every common bush afire with God!
But only they who see take off their shoes;
The rest sit round it, and--pluck blackberries."
BLUEBELL (Wild Hyacinth).
This,--the _Agraphis mutans_,--of the Lily tribe--is so abundant in
English woods and pastures, whilst so widely known, and popular
with young and old, as to need no description. Hyacinth petals
are marked in general with dark spots, resembling in their
arrangement the Greek word AI, alas! because a youth, beloved by
Apollo, and killed by an ill-wind, was changed into this flower.
But the wild Hyacinth bears no such character on its petals, and is
therefore called "non-scriptus." The graceful curl of the petals, not
their dark violet colour, has suggested to the poets "hyacinthine
locks."
In Walton's _Angler_ the Bluebell is mentioned as Culverkeys, the
same as "Calverkeys" in Wiltshire. No particular medicinal uses
have attached themselves to the wild Hyacinth flower as a herbal
simple. The root is round, and was formerly prized for its
abundant clammy juice given out when bruised, and employed as
starch. Miss Pratt refers to this as poisonous; and our Poet
Laureate teaches:--
"In the month when earth and sky are one,
To squeeze the blue bell 'gainst the adder's bite."
When dried and powdered, the root as a styptic is of special virtue
to cure the whites of women: in doses of not more than three
grains at a time. "There is [58] hardly," says Sir John Hill, "a more
powerful remedy." Tennyson has termed the woodland abundance
of Hyacinths in full spring time as "The heavens upbreaking
through the earth." On the day of St. George, the Patron Saint of
England, these wild hyacinths tinge the meadows and pastures
with their deep blue colour--an emblem of the ocean empire, over
which England assumes the rule.
But the chief charms of the Bluebell are its beauty and early
appearance. Now is "the winter past; the rain is over and gone; the
flowers appear on the earth; the time for the singing of birds is
come; and the voice of the turtle is heard in the land."
"This earth is one great temple, made
For worship everywhere;
The bells are flowers in sun and shade
Which ring the heart to prayer."
"The city bell takes seven days
To reach the townsman's ear;
But he who kneels in Nature's ways.
Has Sabbath all the year."
The Hairbell (_Campanula rotundifolia_) is the Bluebell of
Scotland; and nothing rouses a Scot to anger more surely than to
exhibit the wild Hyacinth as the true Bluebell.
BOG BEAN (or Marsh-trefoil).
The Buck-bean, or Bog-bean, which is common enough in stagnant
pools, and on our spongy bogs, is the most serviceable of
all known herbal tonics. It may be easily recognised growing in
water by its large leaves overtopping the surface, each being
composed of three leaflets, and resembling the leaf of a Windsor
Broad Bean. The flowers when in bud are of a bright rose [59]
color, and when fully blown they have the inner surface of their
petals thickly covered with a white fringe, on which account the
plant is known also as "white fluff." The name Buckbean is
perhaps a corruption of _scorbutus_, scurvy; this giving it another
title, "scurvy bean." And it is termed "goat's bean," perhaps from
the French _le bouc_, "a he-goat." The plant flowers for a month
and therefore bears the botanical designation, "Menyanthes"
(_trifoliata_) from _meen_, "a month," and _anthos_, "a flower." It
belongs to the Gentian tribe, each of which is distinguished by a
tonic and appetizing bitterness of taste. The root of the Bog Bean
is the most bitter part, and is therefore selected for medicinal use.
It contains a chemical glucoside, "Menyanthin," which consists of
glucose and a volatile product, "Menyanthol." For curative
purposes druggists supply an infusion of the herb, and a liquid
extract in combination with liquorice. These preparations are in
moderate doses, strengthening and antiscorbutic; but when given
more largely they are purgative and emetic. Gerard says if the
plant "be taken with mead, or honied water, it is of use against a
cough"; in which respect it is closely allied to the Sundew (another
plant of the bogs) for relieving whooping-cough after the first
feverish stage, or any similar hacking, spasmodic cough. A
tincture is made (H.) from the whole plant with spirit of wine, and
this proves most useful for clearing obscuration of the sight, when
there is a sense, especially in the open-air, of a white vibrating
mist before the eyes; and therefore it has been given with marked
success in early stages of amaurotic paralysis of the retina. The
dose should be three or four drops of the tincture with a
tablespoonful of cold water three times in the day for a week at a
time.
[60] BORAGE.
The Borage, with its gallant blue flower, is cultivated in our
gardens as a pot herb, and is associated in our minds with bees and
claret cup. It grows wild in abundance on open plains where the
soil is favourable, and it has a long-established reputation for
cheering the spirits. Botanically, it is the _Borago officinalis_, this
title being a corruption of _cor-ago_, i.e., _cor_, the heart, _ago_,
I stimulate--_quia cordis affectibus medetur_, because it cures weak
conditions of the heart. An old Latin adage says: _Borago ego
gaudia semper ago_--"I, Borage, bring always courage"; or the
name may be derived from the Celtic, _Borrach_, "a noble
person." This plant was the Bugloss of the older botanists, and it
corresponds to our Common Bugloss, so called from the shape and
bristly surface of its leaves, which resemble _bous-glossa_, the
tongue of an ox. Chemically, the plant Borage contains potassium
and calcium combined with mineral acids. The fresh juice affords
thirty per cent., and the dried herb three per cent. of nitrate of
potash. The stems and leaves supply much saline mucilage, which,
when boiled and cooled, likewise deposits nitre and common salt.
These crystals, when ignited, will burn with a succession of small
sparkling explosions, to the great delight of the schoolboy. And it
is to such saline qualities the wholesome, invigorating effects and
the specially refreshing properties of the Borage are supposed to
be mainly due. For which reason, the plant, "when taken in
sallets," as says an old herbalist, "doth exhilarate, and make the
mind glad," almost in the same way as a bracing sojourn by the
seaside during an autumn holiday. The flowers possess cordial
virtues which are very revivifying, and have been much commended
against melancholic depression of the nervous system. Burton,
in his [61] _Anatomy of Melancholy_ (1676), wrote with reference
to the frontispiece of that book:--
"Borage and Hellebore fill two scenes,
Sovereign plants to purge the veins
Of melancholy, and cheer the heart
Of those black fumes which make it smart;
The best medicine that God e'er made
For this malady, if well assaid."
"The sprigs of Borage," wrote John Evelyn, "are of known virtue
to revive the hypochondriac and cheer the hard student."
According to Dioscorides and Pliny, the Borage was that famous
nepenthe of Homer which Polydamas sent to Helen for a token "of
such rare virtue that when taken steep'd in wine, if wife and
children, father and mother, brother and sister, and all thy dearest
friends should die before thy face, thou could'st not grieve, or shed
a tear for them." "The bowl of Helen had no other ingredient, as
most criticks do conjecture, than this of borage." And it was
declared of the herb by another ancient author: _Vinum potatum
quo sit macerata buglossa moerorum cerebri dicunt auferre
periti_:--
"To enliven the sad with the joy of a joke,
Give them wine with some borage put in it to soak."
The Romans named the Borage _Euphrosynon_, because when put
into a cup of wine it made the drinkers of the same merry and
glad.
Parkinson says, "The seed of Borage helpeth nurses to have more
store of milk, for which purpose its leaves are most conducing." Its
saline constituents promote activity of the kidneys, and for this
reason the plant is used in France to carry off catarrhs which are
feverish. The fresh herb has a cucumber-like odour, and when
compounded with lemon and sugar, added to wine and [62] water,
it makes a delicious "cool tankard," as a summer drink. "A syrup
concocted of the floures," said Gerard, "quieteth the lunatick
person, and the leaves eaten raw do engender good blood." Of all
nectar-loving insects, bees alone know how to pronounce the
"open sesame" of admission to the honey pots of the Borage.