_The Plant "Haemony_."--Can any of your readers furnish information of,
or reference to the plant _Haemony_, mentioned in Milton's _Comus_, l.
638.:--
"--a small unsightly root,
But of divine effect,...
The leaf was darkish, and had prickles on it,
But in another country, as he said,
_Bore a bright golden flower, but not in this soil:_
--More medicinal is it than that Moly,
That Hermes once to wise Ulysses gave;
He called it _Haemony_, and gave it me,
And bade me keep it as of sov'reign use
'Gainst all enchantments," &c. &c.
The Moly that Hermes to Ulysses gave, is the wild garlick, [Greek: molu]
by some thought the wild rue. (_Odyss_. b. x. 1. 302.) It is the [Greek:
moluza] of Hippocrates, who recommends it to be eaten as an antidote
against drunkenness. But of _Haemony_ I have been unable to find any
reference among our ordinary medical authorities, Paulus Aeginata,
Celsus, Galen, or Dioscorides. A short note of reference would be very
instructive to many of the readers of Milton.