=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.