“Some sorcerers do boast they have a rod,Gather’d with words and sacrifice,And, borne aloft, will strangely nodTo hidden treasure where it lies.”Extraordinary and special conditions are necessary to ensure success in the cutting of a divining-rod. It must always be performed after sunset and before sunrise, and only on certain nights, among which are specified those of Good Friday, Epiphany, Shrove Friday, and St. John’s Day, the first night of a new moon, or that preceding it. In cutting it, one must face the east, so that the rod shall be one which catches the first rays of the morning sun; or, as some say, the eastern and western sun must shine through the fork of the rod, otherwise it will be valueless.Both in France and England, the divining-rod is much more commonly employed at the present time than is generally supposed.In the eighteenth century its use was ably advocated by De Thouvenel in France, and soon afterwards in our country by enthusiasts. Pryce, in hisMineralogia Cornubiensis, states that many mines have been discovered by means of the rod, and quotes several. Sir Thomas Browne describes the divining-rod as “a forked Hazel, commonly called Moses’ Rod, which, held freely forth, will stir and play if any mine be under it.” He thinks, however, that the rod is of pagan origin, and writes:—“the ground whereof were the magical rods in poets—that of Pallas, in Homer; that of Mercury, that charmed Argus; and that of Circe, which transformed the followers of Ulysses: too boldly usurping the name of Moses’s rod; from which, notwithstanding, and that of Aaron, were probably occasioned the fables of all the rest. For that of Moses must needs be famous to the Egyptians, and that of Aaron unto many other nations, as being preserved in the Ark until the destruction of the Temple built by Solomon.” In the ‘Quarterly Review,’ No. 44, is a long account (vouched for by the editor), proving that a Lady Noel possessed the faculty of using the divining-rod:—“She took a thin forked Hazel-twig, about sixteen inches long, and held it by the end, the joint pointing downwards. When she came to the place where the water was under the ground, the Hazel-twig immediately bent, and the motion was more or less rapid as she approached or withdrew from the spring. When just over it,the twig turned so quick as to snap, breaking near the fingers, which by pressing it were indented and heated, andalmost blistered; a degree of agitation was also visible in her face. The exercise of the faculty is independent of any volition.”——The use of the forked Hazel-twig as a divining-rod to discover metals is said to have been known in this kingdom as early as the days of Agricola: its derivation is probably to be sought in an ancient custom of the Israelites, to which the Prophet Hosea alludes when he says: “My people ask counsel at their stocks, and their staff declareth unto them.”——In Sweden, Hazel-nuts are believed to have the mystical power of making invisible.——An old-fashioned charm to cure the bite of an adder was to cut a piece of Hazel-wood, fasten a long bit and a short one together in the form of a cross, then to lay it softly on the wound, and say thrice in a loud tone—“Underneath this Hazelin mote,There’s a Braggotty worm with a speckled throat,Nine double is he.Now from 9 double to 8 double,And from 8 double to 7 double,And from 7 double to 6 double,And from 6 double to 5 double,And from 5 double to 4 double,And from 4 double to 3 double,And from 3 double to 2 double,And from 2 double to 1 double,And from 1 double to no double,No double hath he!”To dream of Hazels, and of cracking and eating their Nuts, portends riches and content as the reward of toil. To dream of finding hidden Hazel-nuts predicts the finding of treasure.——Astrologers assign the Hazel to the dominion of Mercury.Heartsease.—SeePansy.HEATHER.—Included under the term Heather are the six English species of Heath (Erica) and the Ling (Calluna). Although, in the Scriptures, the Prophet Jeremiah exclaims, “And he shall be like the Heath in the desert,” it is probable that the Juniper is really referred to.——In Germany, the Heath is believed to owe its colour to the blood of the slain heathen, for in that country the inhabitants of the uncultivated fields, where the Heath (heide) grew, came in time to be known as heathen, orheiden.——Heather was the badge of “Conn of a hundred fights.” The Highlanders consider it exceedingly lucky to find white Heather, the badge of the captain of Clanronald.——The Picts made beer from Heather.“For once thy mantling juice was seen to laughIn pearly cups, which monarchs loved to quaff;And frequent waked the wild inspired layOn Teviot’s hills beneath the Pictish sway.”—Leyden.The secret of the manufacture of Heather beer was lost when the Picts were exterminated, as they never divulged it to strangers. Tradition says that after the slaughter by Kenneth, a father and son, the sole survivors, were brought before the conqueror, who offered the father his life, provided that he would divulge the secret of making this liquor, and the son was put to death before the old man’s eyes, in order to add emphasis to the request. Disgusted with such barbarity, the old warrior said: “Your threats might, perhaps, have influenced my son, but they have no effect on me.” Kenneth then suffered the Pict to live, and he carried his secret with him to the grave. At the present time, the inhabitants of Isla, Jura, and other outlying districts, brew a very potable liquor by mixing two-thirds of the tops of Heath with one of malt.HELENIUM.—The flower of the Helenium resemble small suns of a beautiful yellow. According to tradition, they sprang up from the tears shed by Helen of Troy. On this point Gerarde writes in his ‘Herbal’:—“Some report that this plant tooke the name ofHeleniumfrom Helena, wife to Menelaus, who had her hands full of it when Paris stole her away into Phrygia.”HELIOTROPE.—The nymph Clytie, enamoured of Phœbus (the Sun), was forsaken by him for Leucothea. Maddened with jealousy, the discarded and love-sick Clytie accused Leucothea of unchastity before her father, who entombed his daughter, and thus killed her. Phœbus, enraged with Clytie for causing the death of his beloved Leucothea, heeded not her sighs and spurned her embraces. Abandoned thus by her inconstant lover, the wretched and despairing Clytie wandered half distraught, until at length—“She with distracted passion pines away,Detesteth company; all night, all day,Disrobed, with her ruffled hair unboundAnd wet with humour, sits upon the ground;For nine long days all sustenance forbears;Her hunger cloy’d with dew, her thirst with tears:Nor rose; but rivets on the god her eyes,And ever turns her face to him that flies.At length to earth her stupid body cleaves;Her wan complexion turns to bloodless leaves,Yet streaked with red: her perished limbs begetA flower resembling the pale Violet;Which, with the Sun, though rooted fast, doth move;And, being changed, yet changeth not her love.”—Sandys’ Ovid.Rapin, in error, alludes to the Sunflower (Helianthus) as owing its origin to Clytie. He says:—“But see where Clytie, pale with vain desires,Bows her weak neck, and Phœbus still admires;On rushy stems she lifts herself on high,And courts a glance from his enliv’ning eye.”The flower into which the hapless Clytie was metamorphosed was not the scented Heliotrope, common to modern gardens, which does not turn with the Sun, and, being of Peruvian origin, was of course unknown to the ancients; neither was it theHelianthus, or Sunflower, for that plant also came to us from the new world, and was therefore equally unknown in the days when Ovid wrote the tragic story of Clytie’s love and death. TheHerba Clytiæis identified in an old German herbal (Hortus Medicus Camerarii) withHeliotropium Tricoccon. Gerarde figures four Heliotropiums, or “Tornesoles,” one of which he namesHeliotropium Tricoccum; and in his remarks on the Heliotrope or Turnsole, he says: “Some think it to beHerba Clytiæinto which the poets feign Clytia to be metamorphosed; whence one writeth these verses:—‘Herba velut Clitiæ semper petit obvia solem,Sic pia mens Christum, quo prece spectet, habet.’”Parkinson calls the same plant the Turnesole Scorpion Tayle. Theophrastus alludes to the same Heliotropium under the name ofHerba Solaris. But we do not find that the flowers of this common European species of Heliotrope answer the description given by Ovid—“A flower most like a Violet”—or by Pliny, who says of it: “The Heliotrope turns with the Sun, in cloudy weather even, so great is its sympathy with that luminary: at night, as though in regret, it closes itsblueflowers.” The insignificant Heliotropium or Turnsole, with its diminutive whitish blossom, cannot be the flower depicted by Ovid, or the plant with “blue flowers” referred to by Pliny. Moreover, Gerarde tells us that the European Turnsole he figures “is named Heliotropium, not because it is turned about at the daily motion of the sunne,but by reason it flowereth in the Summer solstice, at which time the sunne being farthest gone from the equinoctial circle, returneth to the same.” In Mentzel’s ‘Index Nominum Plantarum Multilinguis’ (1682) we find that the old Italian name of the Turnsole wasVerrucaria(Wart-wort), and Gerarde, in the index to his ‘Herbal,’ states thatVerrucariaisTithymalus(Spurge), orHeliotropium minus. Referring to his description of the Spurges, we note that he figures twenty-three varieties, the first of which is called Wart-wort; and the second, Sun Spurge, which is thus described:—“The second kinde (calledHelioscopiusorSolisequius, and in English, according to his Greeke name, Sunne Spurge, or Time Tithymale,of turning or keeping time with the sunne) hath sundry reddish stalkes of a foot high; the leaves are like unto Purslane, not so great nor thicke, but snipt about the edges: the flowers are yellowish, and growing in little platters.” Here, then, we have perhaps a sufficiently near approach to the pale flower of Ovid; but nothing like the blue flower of Pliny. Among the Spurges described by Gerarde, however, is one which he calls the Venetian Sea Spurge, and this plant is stated to have bell-shaped flowers of a dark or blackish purple colour, so that possibly this was the flower indicated by Pliny.——De Gubernatis, in hisMythologie des Plantes, states that the flower into which Clytia was transformed is theHelianthemum roseumof Decandolle. The author of ‘Flower Lore’ says, “The classic Sunflower is an annual of an insignificant appearance, having many fabulous properties assigned to it. The Heliotrope belongs to the natural orderBoraginæ, and is a native of the south-west of Europe.” The late Mr. H. A. Bright, in ‘A Year in a Lancashire Garden,’ tells us that one of our very best living authorities on such a subject sent him “the suggestion that the common Salsafy, or possibly the Anagallis, may be the flower.” Turner, in his ‘Brittish Physician’ (1687), calls the yellow-flowered Elecampane, the Sunflower. Other botanists suggest an Aster or Calendula (Marigold): if this last suggestion be correct, the flower called by Parkinson, in his ‘Paradisus,’ the Purple Marigold, and by Gerarde Italian Starwort (Aster Italorum), comes nearest to Pliny’s description. This flower is stated by Gerarde to have been called by some the Blue Marigold, whose yellow European brother Shakspeare describes as“The Marygold, that goes to bed with the sun,And with it rises weeping.”We may include the blue or purple Marigold among those flowers of which Bacon writes: “For the bowing and inclining the head, it is found in the great Flower of the Sunne, in Marigolds, Wart Wort, Mallow Flowers, and others.”——Albertus Magnus accords to the Heliotrope the following wonderful properties: “Gather in August the Heliotropon, wrap it in a Bay-leaf with a wolf’s tooth, and it will, if placed under the pillow, show a man who has been robbed where are his goods, and who has taken them. Also, if placed in a church, it will keep fixed in their places all the women present who have broken their marriage vow. This last is most tried and most true.” According to another version, in order to work this last charm, the Heliotrope-flower must be gathered in August when the sun is in Leo, and be wrapped in a Laurel-leaf before being deposited in the church.HELLEBORE.—The Christmas Rose (Helleborus niger) has also been called Black Hellebore, from the colour of its roots, and Melampodium, in honour of Melampus, a learned physician who flourished at Pylos, in Peloponnesus, 1530 years before the birth of Christ. Melampus travelled into Egypt, then the seat of science, in order to study the healing art, and there he became acquainted with the cathartic qualities of the Hellebore, by noticing the effect it had upon some goats which had fed upon the herb. He afterwards cured with Hellebore the mental derangement of the daughters of Prœtus, King of Argos—ancient writers affirm by causing the princesses to bathe in a cold fountain after taking the drug; but according to Pliny, by prescribing the milk of goats which had eaten this vegetable. From this circumstance, Hellebore became celebrated as a medicine, and was speedily regarded with superstitious reverence by the ignorant populace. Thus, Black Hellebore was used to purify houses, and to hallow dwellings, and the ancients entertained the belief that by strewing or perfuming their apartments with this plant, they drove away evil spirits. This ceremony was performed with great devotion, and accompanied with the singing of solemn hymns. In similar manner, they blessed their cattle with Hellebore, to keep them free from the spells of the wicked: for these purposes it was dug up with certain attendant mystic rites; the devotee first drawing a circle round the plant with a sword, and then, turning to the east, offering a prayer to Apollo and Æsculapius, for leave to dig up the root. The flight of the eagle was anxiously watched during the performance of these rites, for if the bird approached the spot, it was considered so ominous as to predict the certain death of the persons who took up the plant, in the course of the year. In digging up the roots of certain species of Hellebore, it was thought necessary to eat Garlic previously, to counteract the poisonous effluvia of the plant. Yet the root was eventually dried and pounded to dust, in which state it was taken in the manner of snuff.——R. Turner, writing in 1663, says that at that time Hellebore was thought to cure such as seemed to be possessed with the Devil, and therefore was by some calledFuga Dæmonum.——The ancient Gauls are said to have invariably rubbed the points of their arrows with Hellebore, believing that it rendered all the game killed with them more tender.——Hellebore in ancient times was considered a certain antidote against madness. In his ‘Anatomy of Melancholy,’ Burton introduces the Hellebore among the emblematical figures of his frontispiece, with the following lines:—“Borage and Hellebore fill two scenes,Sovereign plants to purge the veinsOf melancholy, and cheer the heartOf those black fumes which make it smart;To clear the brain of misty fogs,Which dull our senses, and soul clogs;The best medicine that e’er God madeFor this malady, if well assaid.”Hellebore formerly grew in great abundance on the Island of Anticyra, in the Gulf of Corinth: henceNaviga ad Anticyramwas a common proverb applied to hypochondriacal persons.——Pausanias tells us that when the Cirrhæans besieged Athens, Solon recommended that Hellebore should be thrown in the river Plistus: this was done, and the Cirrhæans, from drinking the water, were so powerfully attacked with dysentery, that they were forced to abandon the siege.——The Hellebore has long been considered a plant of evil omen, growing in dark and lonely places. Thus Campbell says of it:—“By the witches’ tower,Where Hellebore and Hemlock seem to weaveRound its dark vaults a melancholy bowerFor spirits of the dead at night’s enchanted hour.”The plant, with certain accompanying exorcisms, was reputed to be efficacious in cases of deafness caused by witchcraft. In Tuscany, the peasantry divine the harvest from the appearance of the Hellebore-plant. If it has four tufts, it will be good; if three, mediocre; if two, bad.——Astrologers say that Hellebore is a herb of Saturn.HELMET-FLOWER.—TheScutellaria, or Skull-cap flower, is generally known by the name of the Helmet-flower, the blossoms being shaped similar to those of the Snap-Dragon. It is used in curing the tertian ague.HEMLOCK.—The common Hemlock (Conium maculatum) is described by Dioscorides as a very evil, dangerous, hurtful, and poisonous herb, “insomuch that whosoever taketh of it into his body dieth remediless, except the party drank some wine before the venom hath taken the heart.” It is theConeionof the ancients: that deadly poison distilled from the juices of the Hemlock, that was drunk by Socrates, Theramenes, and Phocion—the fatal drug given to him whom the Areopagus had condemned to death—the unfailing potion gulped down by ancient philosophers, who were weary of their lives, and dreaded the infirmities of old age. Resolved on their fate, these men crowned themselves with garlands, and with a smile upon their lips tossed off the fatalConeion—dying respected by their countrymen for their fortitude and heroism.——The Hemlock is one of the deadly poisons that kills by its cold quality. Hence Pliny tells us that serpents fly from its leaves, because they also chill to the death: on this account probably it has been calledHerba benedicta, or Herb Bennett.——The Eleusinian priests, who were required to remain chaste all their lives, were wont to rub themselves with Hemlock.——In Russia, the Hemlock under the name ofBeh, is looked upon as a Satanic herb; and in Germany, it is regarded as a funereal plant, and as a representative of the vegetation of the infernal regions. In England, it was a favourite plant of the witches, gathered by them for use in their potions and hell-broths: it is still considered a plant of ill-omen, growingamong ruins and in waste places, and being unsavoury and offensive tothe senses.“By the witches’ tower,Where Hellebore and Hemlock seem to weaveRound its dark vaults a melancholy bowerFor spirits of the dead at night’s enchanted hour.”The Hebrew prophet Hosea says of this sinister plant: “Judgment springeth up as Hemlock in the furrows of the field.”——At the end of Summer the dead stalks of the Hemlock rattle in the wind, and are called by country folk Kecksies, an old English word applied to the dry hollow stalks of umbelliferous plants. Formerly the Hemlock was called Kex.——Astrologers assign the plant to Saturn.HEMP.—Herodotus speaks of Hemp (Cannabis sativa) as a novelty in his time, lately introduced into Thrace from Scythia.——A curious prophecy relating to English kings and queens, and the prosperity of England, has been preserved by Lord Bacon, who heard of it when Queen Elizabeth was “in the flower of her age”:—“When Hempe is spun,England’s done.”“Whereby it was generally conceived that, after the princes had reigned, which had the principal letters of that word Hempe (which were Henry, Edward, Mary, Philip, and Elizabeth), England should come to utter confusion, which is verified in the change of the name; for that the king’s style is now no more of England, but of Britain.”——In some parts of the country, on Midsummer Eve, but in Derbyshire on St. Valentine’s Eve, as the clock strikes twelve, young women desirous of knowing their future husbands go into a churchyard, and run round the church, scattering Hemp-seed, and repeating the while, without stopping, these lines:—“I sow Hemp-seed: Hemp-seed I sow:He that loves me the bestCome after me and mow.”The sowing of Hemp-seed is performed by maidens, at midnight, on Midsummer Eve in Cornwall, on St. Martin’s night in Norfolk, and on All Hallow Eve in Scotland; the incantation being completed by the recital of the following or similar lines:—“Hemp-seed I sow thee,Hemp-seed grow thee:And he who will my true-love beCome after me and show thee.”The figure of the girl’s lover, it is then supposed, will appear and run after her. In the poem of ‘The Cottage Girl,’ the rite of sowing Hemp-seed is thus described:—“To issue from beneath the thatch,With trembling hand she lifts the latch,And steps, as creaks the feeble door,With cautious feet the threshold o’er;Lest, stumbling on the horseshoe dim,Dire spells unsinew ev’ry limb.“Lo! shudd’ring at the solemn deed,She scatters round the magic seed,Andthrice repeats, ‘The seed I sow,My true-love’s scythe the crop shall mow.’Straight, as her frame fresh horrors freeze,Her true love with his scythe she sees.“And next, she seeks the Yew-tree shade,Where he who died for love is laid;There binds, upon the verdant sodBy many a moonlight fairy trod,The Cowslip and the Lily-wreathShe wove her Hawthorn hedge beneath;And whisp’ring, ‘Ah! may Colin proveAs constant as thou wast to love!’Kisses, with pale lip full of dread,The turf that hides his clay-cold head!”Perhaps the origin of this custom of Hemp-sowing is the fact that from Hemp is made cord, which is used to bind, attach, or secure an object. The Sicilians, indeed, employ Hemp as a charm to secure the affection of those they love. De Gubernatis tells us that, on Friday (the day consecrated to the remembrance of our Lord’s Passion), they take a Hempen thread, and twenty-five needlefuls of coloured silk; and at midnight they plait this, saying:“Chistu è cánnava di Christu,Servi pi attaccari a chistu.”Forthwith they go to the church with the plait in their hands, and enter at the moment of the Consecration: then they tie three knots in the plait, previously adding a little of the hair of the loved one; after which they invoke all evil spirits to entice the person beloved towards the person who craves his or her love.——In Piedmont, there is a belief that Hemp spun on the last day of Carnival will bring bad luck. On that day, in some districts, the following ceremony is gone through to divine what sort of Hemp crop may be expected:—A bonfire is lighted, and the direction of the flames is attentively watched: if the flames mount straight upwards, the crop will be good; but if they incline either way, it will be bad.——In the Côtes-du-Nord, France, there is a belief that Hemp enrages those who have been bitten by dogs. When fowls eat Hemp-seed, they cease to lay, and commence to sit. It is customary to leave the finest sprig of Hemp, that the bird St. Martin may be able to rest on it.——The Egyptians prepare an intoxicating substance from Hemp, calledHashîsh. This they roll into balls the size of a Chesnut, and after having swallowed a few of these, they experience ecstatic visions.——The Arabians concoct a preparation of Hemp, which produces the most varied hallucinations, so that those who are intoxicated by it imagine that they are flying, or that they are changed into a statue, that their head is cut off, that their limbs stretch out to immense lengths, or that they can see, even through stone walls, “the colour of the thoughts of others” and the words of their neighbours.——In theChineseLiao chai chih ye(A.D.60–70), it is recorded that two friends wandering among the mountains culling simples, find at a fairy bridge two lovely maidens guarding it; at their invitation, the two friends cross this “azure bridge” and are regaled with Huma (Hemp—the ChineseHashîsh); forthwith they fall deeply in love with their hostesses, and spend with them in the Jasper City what appears to them a few blissful days: at length, becoming home-sick, they return, to find that seven generations have passed, and that they have become centenarians.——To dream of Hemp betokens ill-luck.——Astrologers assign Hemp to the rule of Saturn.HENBANE.—There are two species of Henbane (Hyoscyamus), the black and the white: the black or common Henbane grows on waste land by roadsides, and bears pale, woolly, clammy leaves, with venomous-looking cream-coloured flowers, and has a fœtid smell. Pliny calls this black Henbane a plant of ill omen, employed in funeral repasts, and scattered on tombs. The ancients thought that sterility was the result of eating this sinister plant, and that babes at the breast were seized with convulsions if the mother had partaken of it.——Henbane was calledInsana, and was believed to render anyone eating it stupid and drowsy: it was also known asAlterculum, because those that had partaken of it became light-headed and quarrelsome.——According to Plutarch, the dead were crowned with chaplets of Henbane, and their tombs decorated with the baneful plant, which, for some unknown reason, was also employed to form the chaplets of victors at the Olympic games. Hercules is sometimes represented with a crown of Henbane. Priests were forbidden to eat Henbane, but the horses of Juno fed on it; and to this day, on the Continent, Henbane is prescribed for certain equine disorders.——Albertus Magnus calls Henbane the sixth herb of Jupiter, and recommends it especially for liver complaints.——In Sanscrit, Henbane is calledAj’amoda, or Goat’s Joy. Both sheep and goats will eat the plant sparingly, but swine are said really to like it, and in England it is well known as Hog’s Bean.——In Piedmont, there is a tradition that if a hare be sprinkled with Henbane juice, all the hares in the neighbourhood will run away. They also have a saying, when a mad dog dies, that he has tasted Henbane.——In Germany, there is a superstitious belief that Henbane will attract rain.——The English name of Henbane was given to the plant on account of the baneful effects of its seed upon poultry, for, according to Matthiolus, birds that have eaten the seeds perish soon after, as do fishes also.——Anodyne necklaces, made of pieces of this root, are sometimes worn by infants to facilitate teething, and the leaves are smoked by country people to allay toothache. Gerarde says, “The root boiled with vinegre, and the same holden hot in the mouth, easeth the pain of the teeth. The seed is used by mountebank tooth-drawers, which run about the country, to cause worms to come forth of the teeth, by burning it in a chafing-dish of coles, the party holding his mouth over thefume thereof; but some crafty companions, to gain money, convey small lute-strings into the water, persuading the patient that those small creepers came out of his mouth or other parts which he intended to cure.”——The plant was one of those sought for by witches, and used in their potions.“And I ha’ been plucking plants amongHemlock, Henbane, Adder’s-tongue.”—Ben Jonson.Astrologers place Henbane under the rule of Saturn.HENNA.—In the Canticles, the royal poet says: “My beloved is unto me as a cluster of Camphire in the vineyards of Engedi.” The Camphire mentioned here, and in other parts of Scripture, is the same shrub which the Arabs call Henna (Lawsonia inermis), the leaves of which are still used by women in the East to impart a ruddy tint to the palms of their hands and the soles of their feet. Throughout Egypt, India, Persia, Arabia, and Greece, it is held in universal estimation for its beauty and sweet perfume. Mohammed pronounced it the chief of the sweet-scented flowers of this world and of the next. In Egypt, the flowers are sold in the street, the vendor calling out as he proceeds—“O, odours of Paradise! O flowers of the Henna!” The Egyptian women obtain from the powdered leaves a paste, with which they stain their fingers and feet an orange colour that will last for several weeks. This they esteem an ornament. Gerarde describes the Henna, or Henne-bush, as a kind of Privet, which in his day grew in Syria near the city Ascalon, and he says “Bellonius writeth that not onely the haire, but also the nether parts of man’s body, and nailes likewise, are colored and died herewith, which is counted an ornament among the Turks.”——The Hindus call the Henna-flowerMindi, and the females, like the Egyptians, employ it to colour their nails, fingers, and the soles of their feet an orange hue. The miraculous stone, which they callGauri, orParvati, received its name and its ruddy colour from being touched by the foot of the divine wife of Siva, which had previously been stained with the juice ofMindi. Henna-flowers are of a pale yellow tint, and emit a sweet perfume; they are made into garlands by the Hindus, and offered to travellers in official ceremonies; thus we read that at the reception of M. Rousselet by the King of Gwalior, the ceremony concluded by the guests being decked with garlands of Henna-flowers, placed around their necks and hands. An extract prepared from these flowers is employed in religious ceremonies.HERB BENNETT.—The Avens, Herb Bennett, orHerba Benedicta(Geum urbanum), occurs as an architectural decoration towards the end of the thirteenth century, and is found associated with old church paintings. The Holy Trinity and the five wounds of our Lord are thought to be symbolised in its trefoiled leaf and the five golden petals of its blossom. The flower has several rural names, such as Star of the Earth, Goldy-flower, and Blessed Herb(a translation of the LatinHerba Benedicta, of which Herb Bennett is simply a corruption). This last name was given to it from an ancient belief that when the root is in the house, the Devil is powerless and flies from it; wherefore it was considered blessed above all herbs. Herb Bennett was also reported to be hostile to all venomous beasts: if grown in a garden, no such creature would approach within scent of it, and the root carried about the person of any man ensured his immunity from the attacks of monsters or reptiles.——Formerly, the appellationHerba Benedicta, was applied not only to the Avens, but also to the Hemlock and the Valerian. Dr. Prior remarks that “in point of fact the proper name of these plants was notHerba Benedicta, butSti. Benedicti herba, St. Benedict’s herb (German,Sanct Benedicten-kraut), and was assigned to such as were supposed to be antidotes, in allusion to a legend of St. Benedict, which represents that, upon his blessing a cup of poisoned wine which a monk had given to destroy him, the glass was shivered to pieces.”——By astrologers, Avens is deemed a herb of Jupiter.HERB CARPENTER.—ThePrunella vulgaris, from its efficacy in healing wounds inflicted by chisels, sickles, and other sharp instruments used by working-men, was formerly known as Herb Carpenter, Sickle-wood, and Hook-weed, as well as by the name it is still called by—Self-heal.——It is a herb of Venus.HERB CHRISTOPHER.—The name of Herb Christopher is applied by Gerarde to a species of Aconite, and to the Osmund Fern. Parkinson gives the Baneberry the same title.HERB GERARD.—Aishweed, Gout-wort, or Herb Gerard (Ægopodium Podagraria), was named after St. Gerard, who used to be invoked against the gout, a disease for which this plant was highly esteemed as a remedy.Herb Impious.—SeeEverlasting Flower.HERB MARGARET.—The Daisy (Bellis perennis) was also formerly calledHerba Margarita, Herb Margaret, or Marguerite (French). The flower is erroneously supposed to have been named after the virtuous St. Margaret of Antioch, “Maid Margarete, that was so meeke and milde”—who was invoked because in her martyrdom she prayed for lying-in women; whereas it derives its name from St. Margaret of Cortona. (SeeMarguerite).Herb of Grace.—SeeRue.HERB OF THE CROSS.—In Brittany, the Vervain (Verbena officinalis) is called the Herb of the Cross, and is supposed to be endowed with remarkable healing qualities. J. White (1624) writes thus of it:—“Hallow’d be thou, Vervain, as thou growest in the ground,For on the Mount of Calvary thou first was found.Thou healedst our Saviour Jesus Christ,And staunchedst His bleeding wound.In the name of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, I take thee from the ground.”In the Flax-fields of Flanders, a plant is found called theRoodselken, the crimson spots on the leaves of which betoken the Divine blood which trickled on it from the Cross, and the stain of which neither snow nor rain has ever been able to wash off.——In Palestine, the red Anemone is called “Christ’s Blood-drops,” from the belief that the flower grew on Mount Calvary. In Cheshire, theOrchis maculata, which is there called Gethsemane, is supposed to have sprung up at the foot of the Cross. The Milk-wort, Gang-flower, or Rogation-flower (Polygala vulgaris) is called the Cross-flower from its blooming in Passion week. TheGalium cruciatumis called Cross-wort because its leaves are placed in the form of a cross. The early Italian painters, in their paintings of the Crucifixion, introduced the Wood-Sorrel (Oxalis acetosella), probably from its triple leaf symbolising the Trinity. The four-leaved Clover is an emblem of the Cross. All cruciform flowers are of good and happy augury, having been marked with the sign of the Cross.HERB PARIS.—The narcotic plant called One-berry, Herb True-love, or Herb Paris (Paris quadrifolia), has obtained the latter name from the LatinHerba paris(Herb of a pair—of a betrothed couple), in allusion to the four broad leaves which proceed from the top of its stalk, and form a cross; being, as Gerarde says, “directly set one against another in manner of a Burgundian Crosse or True-love knot: for which cause among the antients it hath been called Herbe True-love.” Herb Paris bears flowers of a palish green—a colour always suggestive of lurking poison. Every part of the herb contains a poisonous principle, but the leaves and berries were formerly used to expel poisons, especially Aconite, as well as the plague and other pestilential diseases. Matthiolus says that “the chymical oil of the black berries is effectual for all diseases of the eyes, so that it is calledAnima oculorum.”——The herb is under the dominion of Venus.HERB PETER.—The Cowslip (Primula veris), theSchlüsselblumeof the Germans, has obtained the name of Herb Peter from its resemblance to the badge of St. Peter—a bunch of keys.HERB ROBERT.—The species of Crane’s Bill called Herb Robert (Geranium Robertianum) is thought to have derived its name from the fact that it was employed in Germany to cure a disease known asRuprechts-Plage, from Robert, Duke of Normandy: hence its old Dutch names ofRuprechts-krautandRobrechts-kraut. The Church, however, connects Herb Robert with St. Robert, Abbot of Molesme, in the eleventh century.——In olden times, the plant was used as a vulnerary; in Wales, it is believed to be a remedy for gout; and in most country places, it is considered efficacious as an insecticide.——Herb Robert is under the rule of Venus.HERB ST. BARBARA.—Herb St. Barbara, or St. Barbara’s Cress (Barbarea vulgaris), was so called from its growing andbeing eaten in the Winter, about the time of St. Barbara’s Day—December 4th, old style.Herb Trinity.—SeePansy.HERB TWOPENCE.—The Money-wort, or Creeping Loosestrife (Lysimachia nummularia), obtained the name of Two-penny Grass, or Herb Twopence, from its circular leaves, which are arranged in pairs, resembling money in their form. The plant was formerly also calledSerpentaria, from a belief that if serpents were hurt or wounded, they healed themselves with this herb. It was highly esteemed as a vulnerary.——Astrologers assign the herb to Venus.HERB WILLIAM.—Bishop’s Weed, or Ameos (Ammi majus), is said by Gerarde to be called by some Bull-wort (Pool-wort) and Herb William, but he does not give any reason for the name. The plant, according to the old herbalist, was noted for its efficacy, when applied with honey, in removing “blacke and blewe spots which come of stripes.” Its seed was good “to bee drunken in wine against the biting of all manner of venomous beasts, and hath power against all manner of poyson and pestilent fevers, or the plague.”——It is under the dominion of Venus.HOLLY.—The Holly or Holme (Ilex Aquifolium) derives its name from the Anglo-SaxonHolegn, whilst another ancient designation, Hulver, or as Chaucer wrote it, Hulfeere, has been taken from the old NorseHulfr. From the use made of its branches in decorating churches at Christmas time, the monks, by an easy corruption, bestowed on the Holly the designation of the Holy-tree.——The disciples of Zoroaster, or Fire Worshippers, believe that the Holly-tree casts no shadow, and both in Persia and India they employ an infusion of its leaves for several purposes connected with their religious observances. They also sprinkle the face of a newly-born child with water impregnated with Holly-bark.—-Pliny states that if the Holly, or Hulver-tree, be planted about a house, it will keep away all malign spells and enchantments, and defend the house from lightning. He also, among other marvels, relates that the flowers of the Holly would freeze water, and would repel poison, and that if a staff of its wood were thrown to any animal, even if it did not touch him, it would so influence the animal as to cause him to lie down beside it.——The custom of decorating houses and churches with Holly at Christmas is probably derived from the Romans, who were wont to send boughs to their friends during the festival of the Saturnalia, which occurred about the same period, and the Oaks being then bare of leaves, the priests obliged the people to bring in boughs of Holly and Evergreens. There is little doubt that the early Roman Christians, disregarding the church’s interdiction, introduced the heathen practice of decorating their houses with Holly, and incourse of time connected it with their own faith.——There is an old English superstition that elves and fairies join the social gatherings at Christmas, and this led to branches being hung up in hall and bower in order that the fays might “hang in each leaf, and cling on every bough during that sacred time when spirits have no power to harm.”——This Evergreen “Christmas” should be taken down on Candlemas Eve. Herrick says:—“Down with the Holly and Ivy allWherewith ye deck the Christmas hall;So that the superstitious findNo one least branch there left behind;For look how many leaves there beNeglected there—maids ’tend to me—So many goblins ye shall see.”De Gubernatis tells us, that in certain parts of France, in Switzerland, at Bologna, and in other Continental countries, there is an old custom extant of cutting branches of Holly on Christmas Eve, and hanging them in houses and stables, in the hope of driving away evil spirits and witchcraft. As the Holly-leaf is prickly, it repulses and drives away enemies. An English mediæval ballad illustrates this custom:—“Her commys Holly, that is so gent,To please all men is his intent. Alleluia!But lord and lady of this hall,Who so ever ageynst Holly call. Alleluia!Who so ever ageynst Holly do crye,In a lepe shall he hang full hie. Alleluia!Who so ever ageynst Holly do syng,He maye wepe and handys wryng. Alleluia!”In Germany, Holly isChristdorn—the Thorn woven into the crown placed on our Saviour’s head at the Crucifixion.——Witches are reputed to detest Holly: in its name they see but another form of the word “holy,” and its thorny foliage and blood-red berries are suggestive of the most Christian associations.——In Northumberland, Holly is employed in a form of divination. There the prickly variety is called He-Holly, and the smooth, She-Holly. It is the leaves of the latter only that are deemed proper for divining purposes. These smooth leaves must be plucked late on a Friday, by persons careful to preserve an unbroken silence from the time they go out to the dawn of the following morn. The leaves must be collected in a three-cornered handkerchief, and on being brought home, nine of them must be selected, tied with nine knots into the handkerchief, and placed beneath the pillow. Then, sleep being obtained, dreams worthy of all credit will attend this rite. In another form of divination, a maiden places three pails of water on her bedroom floor, then pins to her night-dress, opposite her heart, three leaves of green Holly, and so retires to rest. She will be aroused from her first sleep by three terrible yells, followed by three horse-laughs, after which the form of her future husband willappear. If he is deeply attached to her, he will change the position of the water pails; if not, he will glide from the room without touching them. This spell is only effectual when performed on All Hallowe’en, Christmas Eve, New Year’s Eve, and Beltane, or Midsummer Eve.——Holly is under the dominion of Saturn.HOLY PLANTS.—In England, theAngelica sylvestris, for its “angel-like properties,” was, says Parkinson, called Holy Ghost; the Vervain is the Holy Herb, from its use on ancient altars; the Holly was called by the monks of old Holy-tree; and the Hollyhock, Holy Hoke or Hock (an old name for Mallow); theAnastatica Hierochuntinais the Holy Rose of Jericho; the Lucern (Medicago sativa) is Holy Hay; theHolcus odoratusis the Northern Holy Grass; theHierochloe borealis, the German Holy Grass; the Hemp Agrimony (Eupatorium cannabinum) is Holy Rope, so called from its Hemp-like leaves betokening the rope with which the Saviour was bound; the seed of Wormwood is Holy Seed (Semen sanctum); andCarduus benedictusis the Holy Thistle.HOMA.—Homa, or Haoma, is the sacred Vine of the Zoroastrians, the first of the trees planted by Ormuzd in the fountain of life, and from which one of their religious ceremonials takes its name. This consists in the extraction of the juice of the Homa-plant by the priest during the recital of prayers; the formal presentation of the liquid extracted to the sacrificial fire; the consumption of a small portion of it by one of the officiating priests; and the division of the remainder among the worshippers.——The Iranians describe two kinds of Haoma or Homa, the white and the yellow. The former is a fabulous plant, the latter, which is used in religious rites, and is extolled for its yellow colour, grows on mountains, and was known to Plutarch.——It has been attempted to identify the Zoroastrian Homa with the Vedic Soma, but the Parsees deny that their sacred plant is ever found in India, and those dwelling in Bombay use the branch of a particular tree, having a knotted stem and leaves like those of the Jasmine. To obtain supplies of the Homa-plant for sacred purposes, a priest is despatched from time to time to Kirman, in Persia, where he receives it in a dry state.HONESTY.—Honesty (Lunaria biennis) has a variety of names. It is called Lunary and Moonwort, from the disk-like form of its great flat seed vessels, or their silvery and transparent brightness. This peculiarity accounts for its nicknames of White Satin-flower, Money-flower, and Silver Plate.——TheLunaria biennisis mentioned by Chaucer as one of the plants used in incantations:—
“Some sorcerers do boast they have a rod,Gather’d with words and sacrifice,And, borne aloft, will strangely nodTo hidden treasure where it lies.”
“Some sorcerers do boast they have a rod,Gather’d with words and sacrifice,And, borne aloft, will strangely nodTo hidden treasure where it lies.”
“Some sorcerers do boast they have a rod,
Gather’d with words and sacrifice,
And, borne aloft, will strangely nod
To hidden treasure where it lies.”
Extraordinary and special conditions are necessary to ensure success in the cutting of a divining-rod. It must always be performed after sunset and before sunrise, and only on certain nights, among which are specified those of Good Friday, Epiphany, Shrove Friday, and St. John’s Day, the first night of a new moon, or that preceding it. In cutting it, one must face the east, so that the rod shall be one which catches the first rays of the morning sun; or, as some say, the eastern and western sun must shine through the fork of the rod, otherwise it will be valueless.Both in France and England, the divining-rod is much more commonly employed at the present time than is generally supposed.In the eighteenth century its use was ably advocated by De Thouvenel in France, and soon afterwards in our country by enthusiasts. Pryce, in hisMineralogia Cornubiensis, states that many mines have been discovered by means of the rod, and quotes several. Sir Thomas Browne describes the divining-rod as “a forked Hazel, commonly called Moses’ Rod, which, held freely forth, will stir and play if any mine be under it.” He thinks, however, that the rod is of pagan origin, and writes:—“the ground whereof were the magical rods in poets—that of Pallas, in Homer; that of Mercury, that charmed Argus; and that of Circe, which transformed the followers of Ulysses: too boldly usurping the name of Moses’s rod; from which, notwithstanding, and that of Aaron, were probably occasioned the fables of all the rest. For that of Moses must needs be famous to the Egyptians, and that of Aaron unto many other nations, as being preserved in the Ark until the destruction of the Temple built by Solomon.” In the ‘Quarterly Review,’ No. 44, is a long account (vouched for by the editor), proving that a Lady Noel possessed the faculty of using the divining-rod:—“She took a thin forked Hazel-twig, about sixteen inches long, and held it by the end, the joint pointing downwards. When she came to the place where the water was under the ground, the Hazel-twig immediately bent, and the motion was more or less rapid as she approached or withdrew from the spring. When just over it,the twig turned so quick as to snap, breaking near the fingers, which by pressing it were indented and heated, andalmost blistered; a degree of agitation was also visible in her face. The exercise of the faculty is independent of any volition.”——The use of the forked Hazel-twig as a divining-rod to discover metals is said to have been known in this kingdom as early as the days of Agricola: its derivation is probably to be sought in an ancient custom of the Israelites, to which the Prophet Hosea alludes when he says: “My people ask counsel at their stocks, and their staff declareth unto them.”——In Sweden, Hazel-nuts are believed to have the mystical power of making invisible.——An old-fashioned charm to cure the bite of an adder was to cut a piece of Hazel-wood, fasten a long bit and a short one together in the form of a cross, then to lay it softly on the wound, and say thrice in a loud tone—
“Underneath this Hazelin mote,There’s a Braggotty worm with a speckled throat,Nine double is he.Now from 9 double to 8 double,And from 8 double to 7 double,And from 7 double to 6 double,And from 6 double to 5 double,And from 5 double to 4 double,And from 4 double to 3 double,And from 3 double to 2 double,And from 2 double to 1 double,And from 1 double to no double,No double hath he!”
“Underneath this Hazelin mote,There’s a Braggotty worm with a speckled throat,Nine double is he.Now from 9 double to 8 double,And from 8 double to 7 double,And from 7 double to 6 double,And from 6 double to 5 double,And from 5 double to 4 double,And from 4 double to 3 double,And from 3 double to 2 double,And from 2 double to 1 double,And from 1 double to no double,No double hath he!”
“Underneath this Hazelin mote,
There’s a Braggotty worm with a speckled throat,
Nine double is he.
Now from 9 double to 8 double,
And from 8 double to 7 double,
And from 7 double to 6 double,
And from 6 double to 5 double,
And from 5 double to 4 double,
And from 4 double to 3 double,
And from 3 double to 2 double,
And from 2 double to 1 double,
And from 1 double to no double,
No double hath he!”
To dream of Hazels, and of cracking and eating their Nuts, portends riches and content as the reward of toil. To dream of finding hidden Hazel-nuts predicts the finding of treasure.——Astrologers assign the Hazel to the dominion of Mercury.
Heartsease.—SeePansy.
HEATHER.—Included under the term Heather are the six English species of Heath (Erica) and the Ling (Calluna). Although, in the Scriptures, the Prophet Jeremiah exclaims, “And he shall be like the Heath in the desert,” it is probable that the Juniper is really referred to.——In Germany, the Heath is believed to owe its colour to the blood of the slain heathen, for in that country the inhabitants of the uncultivated fields, where the Heath (heide) grew, came in time to be known as heathen, orheiden.——Heather was the badge of “Conn of a hundred fights.” The Highlanders consider it exceedingly lucky to find white Heather, the badge of the captain of Clanronald.——The Picts made beer from Heather.
“For once thy mantling juice was seen to laughIn pearly cups, which monarchs loved to quaff;And frequent waked the wild inspired layOn Teviot’s hills beneath the Pictish sway.”—Leyden.
“For once thy mantling juice was seen to laughIn pearly cups, which monarchs loved to quaff;And frequent waked the wild inspired layOn Teviot’s hills beneath the Pictish sway.”—Leyden.
“For once thy mantling juice was seen to laugh
In pearly cups, which monarchs loved to quaff;
And frequent waked the wild inspired lay
On Teviot’s hills beneath the Pictish sway.”—Leyden.
The secret of the manufacture of Heather beer was lost when the Picts were exterminated, as they never divulged it to strangers. Tradition says that after the slaughter by Kenneth, a father and son, the sole survivors, were brought before the conqueror, who offered the father his life, provided that he would divulge the secret of making this liquor, and the son was put to death before the old man’s eyes, in order to add emphasis to the request. Disgusted with such barbarity, the old warrior said: “Your threats might, perhaps, have influenced my son, but they have no effect on me.” Kenneth then suffered the Pict to live, and he carried his secret with him to the grave. At the present time, the inhabitants of Isla, Jura, and other outlying districts, brew a very potable liquor by mixing two-thirds of the tops of Heath with one of malt.
HELENIUM.—The flower of the Helenium resemble small suns of a beautiful yellow. According to tradition, they sprang up from the tears shed by Helen of Troy. On this point Gerarde writes in his ‘Herbal’:—“Some report that this plant tooke the name ofHeleniumfrom Helena, wife to Menelaus, who had her hands full of it when Paris stole her away into Phrygia.”
HELIOTROPE.—The nymph Clytie, enamoured of Phœbus (the Sun), was forsaken by him for Leucothea. Maddened with jealousy, the discarded and love-sick Clytie accused Leucothea of unchastity before her father, who entombed his daughter, and thus killed her. Phœbus, enraged with Clytie for causing the death of his beloved Leucothea, heeded not her sighs and spurned her embraces. Abandoned thus by her inconstant lover, the wretched and despairing Clytie wandered half distraught, until at length—
“She with distracted passion pines away,Detesteth company; all night, all day,Disrobed, with her ruffled hair unboundAnd wet with humour, sits upon the ground;For nine long days all sustenance forbears;Her hunger cloy’d with dew, her thirst with tears:Nor rose; but rivets on the god her eyes,And ever turns her face to him that flies.At length to earth her stupid body cleaves;Her wan complexion turns to bloodless leaves,Yet streaked with red: her perished limbs begetA flower resembling the pale Violet;Which, with the Sun, though rooted fast, doth move;And, being changed, yet changeth not her love.”—Sandys’ Ovid.
“She with distracted passion pines away,Detesteth company; all night, all day,Disrobed, with her ruffled hair unboundAnd wet with humour, sits upon the ground;For nine long days all sustenance forbears;Her hunger cloy’d with dew, her thirst with tears:Nor rose; but rivets on the god her eyes,And ever turns her face to him that flies.At length to earth her stupid body cleaves;Her wan complexion turns to bloodless leaves,Yet streaked with red: her perished limbs begetA flower resembling the pale Violet;Which, with the Sun, though rooted fast, doth move;And, being changed, yet changeth not her love.”—Sandys’ Ovid.
“She with distracted passion pines away,
Detesteth company; all night, all day,
Disrobed, with her ruffled hair unbound
And wet with humour, sits upon the ground;
For nine long days all sustenance forbears;
Her hunger cloy’d with dew, her thirst with tears:
Nor rose; but rivets on the god her eyes,
And ever turns her face to him that flies.
At length to earth her stupid body cleaves;
Her wan complexion turns to bloodless leaves,
Yet streaked with red: her perished limbs beget
A flower resembling the pale Violet;
Which, with the Sun, though rooted fast, doth move;
And, being changed, yet changeth not her love.”—Sandys’ Ovid.
Rapin, in error, alludes to the Sunflower (Helianthus) as owing its origin to Clytie. He says:—
“But see where Clytie, pale with vain desires,Bows her weak neck, and Phœbus still admires;On rushy stems she lifts herself on high,And courts a glance from his enliv’ning eye.”
“But see where Clytie, pale with vain desires,Bows her weak neck, and Phœbus still admires;On rushy stems she lifts herself on high,And courts a glance from his enliv’ning eye.”
“But see where Clytie, pale with vain desires,
Bows her weak neck, and Phœbus still admires;
On rushy stems she lifts herself on high,
And courts a glance from his enliv’ning eye.”
The flower into which the hapless Clytie was metamorphosed was not the scented Heliotrope, common to modern gardens, which does not turn with the Sun, and, being of Peruvian origin, was of course unknown to the ancients; neither was it theHelianthus, or Sunflower, for that plant also came to us from the new world, and was therefore equally unknown in the days when Ovid wrote the tragic story of Clytie’s love and death. TheHerba Clytiæis identified in an old German herbal (Hortus Medicus Camerarii) withHeliotropium Tricoccon. Gerarde figures four Heliotropiums, or “Tornesoles,” one of which he namesHeliotropium Tricoccum; and in his remarks on the Heliotrope or Turnsole, he says: “Some think it to beHerba Clytiæinto which the poets feign Clytia to be metamorphosed; whence one writeth these verses:—
‘Herba velut Clitiæ semper petit obvia solem,Sic pia mens Christum, quo prece spectet, habet.’”
‘Herba velut Clitiæ semper petit obvia solem,Sic pia mens Christum, quo prece spectet, habet.’”
‘Herba velut Clitiæ semper petit obvia solem,
Sic pia mens Christum, quo prece spectet, habet.’”
Parkinson calls the same plant the Turnesole Scorpion Tayle. Theophrastus alludes to the same Heliotropium under the name ofHerba Solaris. But we do not find that the flowers of this common European species of Heliotrope answer the description given by Ovid—“A flower most like a Violet”—or by Pliny, who says of it: “The Heliotrope turns with the Sun, in cloudy weather even, so great is its sympathy with that luminary: at night, as though in regret, it closes itsblueflowers.” The insignificant Heliotropium or Turnsole, with its diminutive whitish blossom, cannot be the flower depicted by Ovid, or the plant with “blue flowers” referred to by Pliny. Moreover, Gerarde tells us that the European Turnsole he figures “is named Heliotropium, not because it is turned about at the daily motion of the sunne,but by reason it flowereth in the Summer solstice, at which time the sunne being farthest gone from the equinoctial circle, returneth to the same.” In Mentzel’s ‘Index Nominum Plantarum Multilinguis’ (1682) we find that the old Italian name of the Turnsole wasVerrucaria(Wart-wort), and Gerarde, in the index to his ‘Herbal,’ states thatVerrucariaisTithymalus(Spurge), orHeliotropium minus. Referring to his description of the Spurges, we note that he figures twenty-three varieties, the first of which is called Wart-wort; and the second, Sun Spurge, which is thus described:—“The second kinde (calledHelioscopiusorSolisequius, and in English, according to his Greeke name, Sunne Spurge, or Time Tithymale,of turning or keeping time with the sunne) hath sundry reddish stalkes of a foot high; the leaves are like unto Purslane, not so great nor thicke, but snipt about the edges: the flowers are yellowish, and growing in little platters.” Here, then, we have perhaps a sufficiently near approach to the pale flower of Ovid; but nothing like the blue flower of Pliny. Among the Spurges described by Gerarde, however, is one which he calls the Venetian Sea Spurge, and this plant is stated to have bell-shaped flowers of a dark or blackish purple colour, so that possibly this was the flower indicated by Pliny.——De Gubernatis, in hisMythologie des Plantes, states that the flower into which Clytia was transformed is theHelianthemum roseumof Decandolle. The author of ‘Flower Lore’ says, “The classic Sunflower is an annual of an insignificant appearance, having many fabulous properties assigned to it. The Heliotrope belongs to the natural orderBoraginæ, and is a native of the south-west of Europe.” The late Mr. H. A. Bright, in ‘A Year in a Lancashire Garden,’ tells us that one of our very best living authorities on such a subject sent him “the suggestion that the common Salsafy, or possibly the Anagallis, may be the flower.” Turner, in his ‘Brittish Physician’ (1687), calls the yellow-flowered Elecampane, the Sunflower. Other botanists suggest an Aster or Calendula (Marigold): if this last suggestion be correct, the flower called by Parkinson, in his ‘Paradisus,’ the Purple Marigold, and by Gerarde Italian Starwort (Aster Italorum), comes nearest to Pliny’s description. This flower is stated by Gerarde to have been called by some the Blue Marigold, whose yellow European brother Shakspeare describes as
“The Marygold, that goes to bed with the sun,And with it rises weeping.”
“The Marygold, that goes to bed with the sun,And with it rises weeping.”
“The Marygold, that goes to bed with the sun,
And with it rises weeping.”
We may include the blue or purple Marigold among those flowers of which Bacon writes: “For the bowing and inclining the head, it is found in the great Flower of the Sunne, in Marigolds, Wart Wort, Mallow Flowers, and others.”——Albertus Magnus accords to the Heliotrope the following wonderful properties: “Gather in August the Heliotropon, wrap it in a Bay-leaf with a wolf’s tooth, and it will, if placed under the pillow, show a man who has been robbed where are his goods, and who has taken them. Also, if placed in a church, it will keep fixed in their places all the women present who have broken their marriage vow. This last is most tried and most true.” According to another version, in order to work this last charm, the Heliotrope-flower must be gathered in August when the sun is in Leo, and be wrapped in a Laurel-leaf before being deposited in the church.
HELLEBORE.—The Christmas Rose (Helleborus niger) has also been called Black Hellebore, from the colour of its roots, and Melampodium, in honour of Melampus, a learned physician who flourished at Pylos, in Peloponnesus, 1530 years before the birth of Christ. Melampus travelled into Egypt, then the seat of science, in order to study the healing art, and there he became acquainted with the cathartic qualities of the Hellebore, by noticing the effect it had upon some goats which had fed upon the herb. He afterwards cured with Hellebore the mental derangement of the daughters of Prœtus, King of Argos—ancient writers affirm by causing the princesses to bathe in a cold fountain after taking the drug; but according to Pliny, by prescribing the milk of goats which had eaten this vegetable. From this circumstance, Hellebore became celebrated as a medicine, and was speedily regarded with superstitious reverence by the ignorant populace. Thus, Black Hellebore was used to purify houses, and to hallow dwellings, and the ancients entertained the belief that by strewing or perfuming their apartments with this plant, they drove away evil spirits. This ceremony was performed with great devotion, and accompanied with the singing of solemn hymns. In similar manner, they blessed their cattle with Hellebore, to keep them free from the spells of the wicked: for these purposes it was dug up with certain attendant mystic rites; the devotee first drawing a circle round the plant with a sword, and then, turning to the east, offering a prayer to Apollo and Æsculapius, for leave to dig up the root. The flight of the eagle was anxiously watched during the performance of these rites, for if the bird approached the spot, it was considered so ominous as to predict the certain death of the persons who took up the plant, in the course of the year. In digging up the roots of certain species of Hellebore, it was thought necessary to eat Garlic previously, to counteract the poisonous effluvia of the plant. Yet the root was eventually dried and pounded to dust, in which state it was taken in the manner of snuff.——R. Turner, writing in 1663, says that at that time Hellebore was thought to cure such as seemed to be possessed with the Devil, and therefore was by some calledFuga Dæmonum.——The ancient Gauls are said to have invariably rubbed the points of their arrows with Hellebore, believing that it rendered all the game killed with them more tender.——Hellebore in ancient times was considered a certain antidote against madness. In his ‘Anatomy of Melancholy,’ Burton introduces the Hellebore among the emblematical figures of his frontispiece, with the following lines:—
“Borage and Hellebore fill two scenes,Sovereign plants to purge the veinsOf melancholy, and cheer the heartOf those black fumes which make it smart;To clear the brain of misty fogs,Which dull our senses, and soul clogs;The best medicine that e’er God madeFor this malady, if well assaid.”
“Borage and Hellebore fill two scenes,Sovereign plants to purge the veinsOf melancholy, and cheer the heartOf those black fumes which make it smart;To clear the brain of misty fogs,Which dull our senses, and soul clogs;The best medicine that e’er God madeFor this malady, if well assaid.”
“Borage and Hellebore fill two scenes,
Sovereign plants to purge the veins
Of melancholy, and cheer the heart
Of those black fumes which make it smart;
To clear the brain of misty fogs,
Which dull our senses, and soul clogs;
The best medicine that e’er God made
For this malady, if well assaid.”
Hellebore formerly grew in great abundance on the Island of Anticyra, in the Gulf of Corinth: henceNaviga ad Anticyramwas a common proverb applied to hypochondriacal persons.——Pausanias tells us that when the Cirrhæans besieged Athens, Solon recommended that Hellebore should be thrown in the river Plistus: this was done, and the Cirrhæans, from drinking the water, were so powerfully attacked with dysentery, that they were forced to abandon the siege.——The Hellebore has long been considered a plant of evil omen, growing in dark and lonely places. Thus Campbell says of it:—
“By the witches’ tower,Where Hellebore and Hemlock seem to weaveRound its dark vaults a melancholy bowerFor spirits of the dead at night’s enchanted hour.”
“By the witches’ tower,Where Hellebore and Hemlock seem to weaveRound its dark vaults a melancholy bowerFor spirits of the dead at night’s enchanted hour.”
“By the witches’ tower,
Where Hellebore and Hemlock seem to weave
Round its dark vaults a melancholy bower
For spirits of the dead at night’s enchanted hour.”
The plant, with certain accompanying exorcisms, was reputed to be efficacious in cases of deafness caused by witchcraft. In Tuscany, the peasantry divine the harvest from the appearance of the Hellebore-plant. If it has four tufts, it will be good; if three, mediocre; if two, bad.——Astrologers say that Hellebore is a herb of Saturn.
HELMET-FLOWER.—TheScutellaria, or Skull-cap flower, is generally known by the name of the Helmet-flower, the blossoms being shaped similar to those of the Snap-Dragon. It is used in curing the tertian ague.
HEMLOCK.—The common Hemlock (Conium maculatum) is described by Dioscorides as a very evil, dangerous, hurtful, and poisonous herb, “insomuch that whosoever taketh of it into his body dieth remediless, except the party drank some wine before the venom hath taken the heart.” It is theConeionof the ancients: that deadly poison distilled from the juices of the Hemlock, that was drunk by Socrates, Theramenes, and Phocion—the fatal drug given to him whom the Areopagus had condemned to death—the unfailing potion gulped down by ancient philosophers, who were weary of their lives, and dreaded the infirmities of old age. Resolved on their fate, these men crowned themselves with garlands, and with a smile upon their lips tossed off the fatalConeion—dying respected by their countrymen for their fortitude and heroism.——The Hemlock is one of the deadly poisons that kills by its cold quality. Hence Pliny tells us that serpents fly from its leaves, because they also chill to the death: on this account probably it has been calledHerba benedicta, or Herb Bennett.——The Eleusinian priests, who were required to remain chaste all their lives, were wont to rub themselves with Hemlock.——In Russia, the Hemlock under the name ofBeh, is looked upon as a Satanic herb; and in Germany, it is regarded as a funereal plant, and as a representative of the vegetation of the infernal regions. In England, it was a favourite plant of the witches, gathered by them for use in their potions and hell-broths: it is still considered a plant of ill-omen, growingamong ruins and in waste places, and being unsavoury and offensive tothe senses.
“By the witches’ tower,Where Hellebore and Hemlock seem to weaveRound its dark vaults a melancholy bowerFor spirits of the dead at night’s enchanted hour.”
“By the witches’ tower,Where Hellebore and Hemlock seem to weaveRound its dark vaults a melancholy bowerFor spirits of the dead at night’s enchanted hour.”
“By the witches’ tower,
Where Hellebore and Hemlock seem to weave
Round its dark vaults a melancholy bower
For spirits of the dead at night’s enchanted hour.”
The Hebrew prophet Hosea says of this sinister plant: “Judgment springeth up as Hemlock in the furrows of the field.”——At the end of Summer the dead stalks of the Hemlock rattle in the wind, and are called by country folk Kecksies, an old English word applied to the dry hollow stalks of umbelliferous plants. Formerly the Hemlock was called Kex.——Astrologers assign the plant to Saturn.
HEMP.—Herodotus speaks of Hemp (Cannabis sativa) as a novelty in his time, lately introduced into Thrace from Scythia.——A curious prophecy relating to English kings and queens, and the prosperity of England, has been preserved by Lord Bacon, who heard of it when Queen Elizabeth was “in the flower of her age”:—
“When Hempe is spun,England’s done.”
“When Hempe is spun,England’s done.”
“When Hempe is spun,
England’s done.”
“Whereby it was generally conceived that, after the princes had reigned, which had the principal letters of that word Hempe (which were Henry, Edward, Mary, Philip, and Elizabeth), England should come to utter confusion, which is verified in the change of the name; for that the king’s style is now no more of England, but of Britain.”——In some parts of the country, on Midsummer Eve, but in Derbyshire on St. Valentine’s Eve, as the clock strikes twelve, young women desirous of knowing their future husbands go into a churchyard, and run round the church, scattering Hemp-seed, and repeating the while, without stopping, these lines:—
“I sow Hemp-seed: Hemp-seed I sow:He that loves me the bestCome after me and mow.”
“I sow Hemp-seed: Hemp-seed I sow:He that loves me the bestCome after me and mow.”
“I sow Hemp-seed: Hemp-seed I sow:
He that loves me the best
Come after me and mow.”
The sowing of Hemp-seed is performed by maidens, at midnight, on Midsummer Eve in Cornwall, on St. Martin’s night in Norfolk, and on All Hallow Eve in Scotland; the incantation being completed by the recital of the following or similar lines:—
“Hemp-seed I sow thee,Hemp-seed grow thee:And he who will my true-love beCome after me and show thee.”
“Hemp-seed I sow thee,Hemp-seed grow thee:And he who will my true-love beCome after me and show thee.”
“Hemp-seed I sow thee,
Hemp-seed grow thee:
And he who will my true-love be
Come after me and show thee.”
The figure of the girl’s lover, it is then supposed, will appear and run after her. In the poem of ‘The Cottage Girl,’ the rite of sowing Hemp-seed is thus described:—
“To issue from beneath the thatch,With trembling hand she lifts the latch,And steps, as creaks the feeble door,With cautious feet the threshold o’er;Lest, stumbling on the horseshoe dim,Dire spells unsinew ev’ry limb.“Lo! shudd’ring at the solemn deed,She scatters round the magic seed,Andthrice repeats, ‘The seed I sow,My true-love’s scythe the crop shall mow.’Straight, as her frame fresh horrors freeze,Her true love with his scythe she sees.“And next, she seeks the Yew-tree shade,Where he who died for love is laid;There binds, upon the verdant sodBy many a moonlight fairy trod,The Cowslip and the Lily-wreathShe wove her Hawthorn hedge beneath;And whisp’ring, ‘Ah! may Colin proveAs constant as thou wast to love!’Kisses, with pale lip full of dread,The turf that hides his clay-cold head!”
“To issue from beneath the thatch,With trembling hand she lifts the latch,And steps, as creaks the feeble door,With cautious feet the threshold o’er;Lest, stumbling on the horseshoe dim,Dire spells unsinew ev’ry limb.“Lo! shudd’ring at the solemn deed,She scatters round the magic seed,Andthrice repeats, ‘The seed I sow,My true-love’s scythe the crop shall mow.’Straight, as her frame fresh horrors freeze,Her true love with his scythe she sees.“And next, she seeks the Yew-tree shade,Where he who died for love is laid;There binds, upon the verdant sodBy many a moonlight fairy trod,The Cowslip and the Lily-wreathShe wove her Hawthorn hedge beneath;And whisp’ring, ‘Ah! may Colin proveAs constant as thou wast to love!’Kisses, with pale lip full of dread,The turf that hides his clay-cold head!”
“To issue from beneath the thatch,With trembling hand she lifts the latch,And steps, as creaks the feeble door,With cautious feet the threshold o’er;Lest, stumbling on the horseshoe dim,Dire spells unsinew ev’ry limb.
“To issue from beneath the thatch,
With trembling hand she lifts the latch,
And steps, as creaks the feeble door,
With cautious feet the threshold o’er;
Lest, stumbling on the horseshoe dim,
Dire spells unsinew ev’ry limb.
“Lo! shudd’ring at the solemn deed,She scatters round the magic seed,Andthrice repeats, ‘The seed I sow,My true-love’s scythe the crop shall mow.’Straight, as her frame fresh horrors freeze,Her true love with his scythe she sees.
“Lo! shudd’ring at the solemn deed,
She scatters round the magic seed,
Andthrice repeats, ‘The seed I sow,
My true-love’s scythe the crop shall mow.’
Straight, as her frame fresh horrors freeze,
Her true love with his scythe she sees.
“And next, she seeks the Yew-tree shade,Where he who died for love is laid;There binds, upon the verdant sodBy many a moonlight fairy trod,The Cowslip and the Lily-wreathShe wove her Hawthorn hedge beneath;And whisp’ring, ‘Ah! may Colin proveAs constant as thou wast to love!’Kisses, with pale lip full of dread,The turf that hides his clay-cold head!”
“And next, she seeks the Yew-tree shade,
Where he who died for love is laid;
There binds, upon the verdant sod
By many a moonlight fairy trod,
The Cowslip and the Lily-wreath
She wove her Hawthorn hedge beneath;
And whisp’ring, ‘Ah! may Colin prove
As constant as thou wast to love!’
Kisses, with pale lip full of dread,
The turf that hides his clay-cold head!”
Perhaps the origin of this custom of Hemp-sowing is the fact that from Hemp is made cord, which is used to bind, attach, or secure an object. The Sicilians, indeed, employ Hemp as a charm to secure the affection of those they love. De Gubernatis tells us that, on Friday (the day consecrated to the remembrance of our Lord’s Passion), they take a Hempen thread, and twenty-five needlefuls of coloured silk; and at midnight they plait this, saying:
“Chistu è cánnava di Christu,Servi pi attaccari a chistu.”
“Chistu è cánnava di Christu,Servi pi attaccari a chistu.”
“Chistu è cánnava di Christu,
Servi pi attaccari a chistu.”
Forthwith they go to the church with the plait in their hands, and enter at the moment of the Consecration: then they tie three knots in the plait, previously adding a little of the hair of the loved one; after which they invoke all evil spirits to entice the person beloved towards the person who craves his or her love.——In Piedmont, there is a belief that Hemp spun on the last day of Carnival will bring bad luck. On that day, in some districts, the following ceremony is gone through to divine what sort of Hemp crop may be expected:—A bonfire is lighted, and the direction of the flames is attentively watched: if the flames mount straight upwards, the crop will be good; but if they incline either way, it will be bad.——In the Côtes-du-Nord, France, there is a belief that Hemp enrages those who have been bitten by dogs. When fowls eat Hemp-seed, they cease to lay, and commence to sit. It is customary to leave the finest sprig of Hemp, that the bird St. Martin may be able to rest on it.——The Egyptians prepare an intoxicating substance from Hemp, calledHashîsh. This they roll into balls the size of a Chesnut, and after having swallowed a few of these, they experience ecstatic visions.——The Arabians concoct a preparation of Hemp, which produces the most varied hallucinations, so that those who are intoxicated by it imagine that they are flying, or that they are changed into a statue, that their head is cut off, that their limbs stretch out to immense lengths, or that they can see, even through stone walls, “the colour of the thoughts of others” and the words of their neighbours.——In theChineseLiao chai chih ye(A.D.60–70), it is recorded that two friends wandering among the mountains culling simples, find at a fairy bridge two lovely maidens guarding it; at their invitation, the two friends cross this “azure bridge” and are regaled with Huma (Hemp—the ChineseHashîsh); forthwith they fall deeply in love with their hostesses, and spend with them in the Jasper City what appears to them a few blissful days: at length, becoming home-sick, they return, to find that seven generations have passed, and that they have become centenarians.——To dream of Hemp betokens ill-luck.——Astrologers assign Hemp to the rule of Saturn.
HENBANE.—There are two species of Henbane (Hyoscyamus), the black and the white: the black or common Henbane grows on waste land by roadsides, and bears pale, woolly, clammy leaves, with venomous-looking cream-coloured flowers, and has a fœtid smell. Pliny calls this black Henbane a plant of ill omen, employed in funeral repasts, and scattered on tombs. The ancients thought that sterility was the result of eating this sinister plant, and that babes at the breast were seized with convulsions if the mother had partaken of it.——Henbane was calledInsana, and was believed to render anyone eating it stupid and drowsy: it was also known asAlterculum, because those that had partaken of it became light-headed and quarrelsome.——According to Plutarch, the dead were crowned with chaplets of Henbane, and their tombs decorated with the baneful plant, which, for some unknown reason, was also employed to form the chaplets of victors at the Olympic games. Hercules is sometimes represented with a crown of Henbane. Priests were forbidden to eat Henbane, but the horses of Juno fed on it; and to this day, on the Continent, Henbane is prescribed for certain equine disorders.——Albertus Magnus calls Henbane the sixth herb of Jupiter, and recommends it especially for liver complaints.——In Sanscrit, Henbane is calledAj’amoda, or Goat’s Joy. Both sheep and goats will eat the plant sparingly, but swine are said really to like it, and in England it is well known as Hog’s Bean.——In Piedmont, there is a tradition that if a hare be sprinkled with Henbane juice, all the hares in the neighbourhood will run away. They also have a saying, when a mad dog dies, that he has tasted Henbane.——In Germany, there is a superstitious belief that Henbane will attract rain.——The English name of Henbane was given to the plant on account of the baneful effects of its seed upon poultry, for, according to Matthiolus, birds that have eaten the seeds perish soon after, as do fishes also.——Anodyne necklaces, made of pieces of this root, are sometimes worn by infants to facilitate teething, and the leaves are smoked by country people to allay toothache. Gerarde says, “The root boiled with vinegre, and the same holden hot in the mouth, easeth the pain of the teeth. The seed is used by mountebank tooth-drawers, which run about the country, to cause worms to come forth of the teeth, by burning it in a chafing-dish of coles, the party holding his mouth over thefume thereof; but some crafty companions, to gain money, convey small lute-strings into the water, persuading the patient that those small creepers came out of his mouth or other parts which he intended to cure.”——The plant was one of those sought for by witches, and used in their potions.
“And I ha’ been plucking plants amongHemlock, Henbane, Adder’s-tongue.”—Ben Jonson.
“And I ha’ been plucking plants amongHemlock, Henbane, Adder’s-tongue.”—Ben Jonson.
“And I ha’ been plucking plants among
Hemlock, Henbane, Adder’s-tongue.”—Ben Jonson.
Astrologers place Henbane under the rule of Saturn.
HENNA.—In the Canticles, the royal poet says: “My beloved is unto me as a cluster of Camphire in the vineyards of Engedi.” The Camphire mentioned here, and in other parts of Scripture, is the same shrub which the Arabs call Henna (Lawsonia inermis), the leaves of which are still used by women in the East to impart a ruddy tint to the palms of their hands and the soles of their feet. Throughout Egypt, India, Persia, Arabia, and Greece, it is held in universal estimation for its beauty and sweet perfume. Mohammed pronounced it the chief of the sweet-scented flowers of this world and of the next. In Egypt, the flowers are sold in the street, the vendor calling out as he proceeds—“O, odours of Paradise! O flowers of the Henna!” The Egyptian women obtain from the powdered leaves a paste, with which they stain their fingers and feet an orange colour that will last for several weeks. This they esteem an ornament. Gerarde describes the Henna, or Henne-bush, as a kind of Privet, which in his day grew in Syria near the city Ascalon, and he says “Bellonius writeth that not onely the haire, but also the nether parts of man’s body, and nailes likewise, are colored and died herewith, which is counted an ornament among the Turks.”——The Hindus call the Henna-flowerMindi, and the females, like the Egyptians, employ it to colour their nails, fingers, and the soles of their feet an orange hue. The miraculous stone, which they callGauri, orParvati, received its name and its ruddy colour from being touched by the foot of the divine wife of Siva, which had previously been stained with the juice ofMindi. Henna-flowers are of a pale yellow tint, and emit a sweet perfume; they are made into garlands by the Hindus, and offered to travellers in official ceremonies; thus we read that at the reception of M. Rousselet by the King of Gwalior, the ceremony concluded by the guests being decked with garlands of Henna-flowers, placed around their necks and hands. An extract prepared from these flowers is employed in religious ceremonies.
HERB BENNETT.—The Avens, Herb Bennett, orHerba Benedicta(Geum urbanum), occurs as an architectural decoration towards the end of the thirteenth century, and is found associated with old church paintings. The Holy Trinity and the five wounds of our Lord are thought to be symbolised in its trefoiled leaf and the five golden petals of its blossom. The flower has several rural names, such as Star of the Earth, Goldy-flower, and Blessed Herb(a translation of the LatinHerba Benedicta, of which Herb Bennett is simply a corruption). This last name was given to it from an ancient belief that when the root is in the house, the Devil is powerless and flies from it; wherefore it was considered blessed above all herbs. Herb Bennett was also reported to be hostile to all venomous beasts: if grown in a garden, no such creature would approach within scent of it, and the root carried about the person of any man ensured his immunity from the attacks of monsters or reptiles.——Formerly, the appellationHerba Benedicta, was applied not only to the Avens, but also to the Hemlock and the Valerian. Dr. Prior remarks that “in point of fact the proper name of these plants was notHerba Benedicta, butSti. Benedicti herba, St. Benedict’s herb (German,Sanct Benedicten-kraut), and was assigned to such as were supposed to be antidotes, in allusion to a legend of St. Benedict, which represents that, upon his blessing a cup of poisoned wine which a monk had given to destroy him, the glass was shivered to pieces.”——By astrologers, Avens is deemed a herb of Jupiter.
HERB CARPENTER.—ThePrunella vulgaris, from its efficacy in healing wounds inflicted by chisels, sickles, and other sharp instruments used by working-men, was formerly known as Herb Carpenter, Sickle-wood, and Hook-weed, as well as by the name it is still called by—Self-heal.——It is a herb of Venus.
HERB CHRISTOPHER.—The name of Herb Christopher is applied by Gerarde to a species of Aconite, and to the Osmund Fern. Parkinson gives the Baneberry the same title.
HERB GERARD.—Aishweed, Gout-wort, or Herb Gerard (Ægopodium Podagraria), was named after St. Gerard, who used to be invoked against the gout, a disease for which this plant was highly esteemed as a remedy.
Herb Impious.—SeeEverlasting Flower.
HERB MARGARET.—The Daisy (Bellis perennis) was also formerly calledHerba Margarita, Herb Margaret, or Marguerite (French). The flower is erroneously supposed to have been named after the virtuous St. Margaret of Antioch, “Maid Margarete, that was so meeke and milde”—who was invoked because in her martyrdom she prayed for lying-in women; whereas it derives its name from St. Margaret of Cortona. (SeeMarguerite).
Herb of Grace.—SeeRue.
HERB OF THE CROSS.—In Brittany, the Vervain (Verbena officinalis) is called the Herb of the Cross, and is supposed to be endowed with remarkable healing qualities. J. White (1624) writes thus of it:—
“Hallow’d be thou, Vervain, as thou growest in the ground,For on the Mount of Calvary thou first was found.Thou healedst our Saviour Jesus Christ,And staunchedst His bleeding wound.In the name of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, I take thee from the ground.”
“Hallow’d be thou, Vervain, as thou growest in the ground,For on the Mount of Calvary thou first was found.Thou healedst our Saviour Jesus Christ,And staunchedst His bleeding wound.In the name of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, I take thee from the ground.”
“Hallow’d be thou, Vervain, as thou growest in the ground,
For on the Mount of Calvary thou first was found.
Thou healedst our Saviour Jesus Christ,
And staunchedst His bleeding wound.
In the name of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, I take thee from the ground.”
In the Flax-fields of Flanders, a plant is found called theRoodselken, the crimson spots on the leaves of which betoken the Divine blood which trickled on it from the Cross, and the stain of which neither snow nor rain has ever been able to wash off.——In Palestine, the red Anemone is called “Christ’s Blood-drops,” from the belief that the flower grew on Mount Calvary. In Cheshire, theOrchis maculata, which is there called Gethsemane, is supposed to have sprung up at the foot of the Cross. The Milk-wort, Gang-flower, or Rogation-flower (Polygala vulgaris) is called the Cross-flower from its blooming in Passion week. TheGalium cruciatumis called Cross-wort because its leaves are placed in the form of a cross. The early Italian painters, in their paintings of the Crucifixion, introduced the Wood-Sorrel (Oxalis acetosella), probably from its triple leaf symbolising the Trinity. The four-leaved Clover is an emblem of the Cross. All cruciform flowers are of good and happy augury, having been marked with the sign of the Cross.
HERB PARIS.—The narcotic plant called One-berry, Herb True-love, or Herb Paris (Paris quadrifolia), has obtained the latter name from the LatinHerba paris(Herb of a pair—of a betrothed couple), in allusion to the four broad leaves which proceed from the top of its stalk, and form a cross; being, as Gerarde says, “directly set one against another in manner of a Burgundian Crosse or True-love knot: for which cause among the antients it hath been called Herbe True-love.” Herb Paris bears flowers of a palish green—a colour always suggestive of lurking poison. Every part of the herb contains a poisonous principle, but the leaves and berries were formerly used to expel poisons, especially Aconite, as well as the plague and other pestilential diseases. Matthiolus says that “the chymical oil of the black berries is effectual for all diseases of the eyes, so that it is calledAnima oculorum.”——The herb is under the dominion of Venus.
HERB PETER.—The Cowslip (Primula veris), theSchlüsselblumeof the Germans, has obtained the name of Herb Peter from its resemblance to the badge of St. Peter—a bunch of keys.
HERB ROBERT.—The species of Crane’s Bill called Herb Robert (Geranium Robertianum) is thought to have derived its name from the fact that it was employed in Germany to cure a disease known asRuprechts-Plage, from Robert, Duke of Normandy: hence its old Dutch names ofRuprechts-krautandRobrechts-kraut. The Church, however, connects Herb Robert with St. Robert, Abbot of Molesme, in the eleventh century.——In olden times, the plant was used as a vulnerary; in Wales, it is believed to be a remedy for gout; and in most country places, it is considered efficacious as an insecticide.——Herb Robert is under the rule of Venus.
HERB ST. BARBARA.—Herb St. Barbara, or St. Barbara’s Cress (Barbarea vulgaris), was so called from its growing andbeing eaten in the Winter, about the time of St. Barbara’s Day—December 4th, old style.
Herb Trinity.—SeePansy.
HERB TWOPENCE.—The Money-wort, or Creeping Loosestrife (Lysimachia nummularia), obtained the name of Two-penny Grass, or Herb Twopence, from its circular leaves, which are arranged in pairs, resembling money in their form. The plant was formerly also calledSerpentaria, from a belief that if serpents were hurt or wounded, they healed themselves with this herb. It was highly esteemed as a vulnerary.——Astrologers assign the herb to Venus.
HERB WILLIAM.—Bishop’s Weed, or Ameos (Ammi majus), is said by Gerarde to be called by some Bull-wort (Pool-wort) and Herb William, but he does not give any reason for the name. The plant, according to the old herbalist, was noted for its efficacy, when applied with honey, in removing “blacke and blewe spots which come of stripes.” Its seed was good “to bee drunken in wine against the biting of all manner of venomous beasts, and hath power against all manner of poyson and pestilent fevers, or the plague.”——It is under the dominion of Venus.
HOLLY.—The Holly or Holme (Ilex Aquifolium) derives its name from the Anglo-SaxonHolegn, whilst another ancient designation, Hulver, or as Chaucer wrote it, Hulfeere, has been taken from the old NorseHulfr. From the use made of its branches in decorating churches at Christmas time, the monks, by an easy corruption, bestowed on the Holly the designation of the Holy-tree.——The disciples of Zoroaster, or Fire Worshippers, believe that the Holly-tree casts no shadow, and both in Persia and India they employ an infusion of its leaves for several purposes connected with their religious observances. They also sprinkle the face of a newly-born child with water impregnated with Holly-bark.—-Pliny states that if the Holly, or Hulver-tree, be planted about a house, it will keep away all malign spells and enchantments, and defend the house from lightning. He also, among other marvels, relates that the flowers of the Holly would freeze water, and would repel poison, and that if a staff of its wood were thrown to any animal, even if it did not touch him, it would so influence the animal as to cause him to lie down beside it.——The custom of decorating houses and churches with Holly at Christmas is probably derived from the Romans, who were wont to send boughs to their friends during the festival of the Saturnalia, which occurred about the same period, and the Oaks being then bare of leaves, the priests obliged the people to bring in boughs of Holly and Evergreens. There is little doubt that the early Roman Christians, disregarding the church’s interdiction, introduced the heathen practice of decorating their houses with Holly, and incourse of time connected it with their own faith.——There is an old English superstition that elves and fairies join the social gatherings at Christmas, and this led to branches being hung up in hall and bower in order that the fays might “hang in each leaf, and cling on every bough during that sacred time when spirits have no power to harm.”——This Evergreen “Christmas” should be taken down on Candlemas Eve. Herrick says:—
“Down with the Holly and Ivy allWherewith ye deck the Christmas hall;So that the superstitious findNo one least branch there left behind;For look how many leaves there beNeglected there—maids ’tend to me—So many goblins ye shall see.”
“Down with the Holly and Ivy allWherewith ye deck the Christmas hall;So that the superstitious findNo one least branch there left behind;For look how many leaves there beNeglected there—maids ’tend to me—So many goblins ye shall see.”
“Down with the Holly and Ivy all
Wherewith ye deck the Christmas hall;
So that the superstitious find
No one least branch there left behind;
For look how many leaves there be
Neglected there—maids ’tend to me—
So many goblins ye shall see.”
De Gubernatis tells us, that in certain parts of France, in Switzerland, at Bologna, and in other Continental countries, there is an old custom extant of cutting branches of Holly on Christmas Eve, and hanging them in houses and stables, in the hope of driving away evil spirits and witchcraft. As the Holly-leaf is prickly, it repulses and drives away enemies. An English mediæval ballad illustrates this custom:—
“Her commys Holly, that is so gent,To please all men is his intent. Alleluia!But lord and lady of this hall,Who so ever ageynst Holly call. Alleluia!Who so ever ageynst Holly do crye,In a lepe shall he hang full hie. Alleluia!Who so ever ageynst Holly do syng,He maye wepe and handys wryng. Alleluia!”
“Her commys Holly, that is so gent,To please all men is his intent. Alleluia!But lord and lady of this hall,Who so ever ageynst Holly call. Alleluia!Who so ever ageynst Holly do crye,In a lepe shall he hang full hie. Alleluia!Who so ever ageynst Holly do syng,He maye wepe and handys wryng. Alleluia!”
“Her commys Holly, that is so gent,
To please all men is his intent. Alleluia!
But lord and lady of this hall,
Who so ever ageynst Holly call. Alleluia!
Who so ever ageynst Holly do crye,
In a lepe shall he hang full hie. Alleluia!
Who so ever ageynst Holly do syng,
He maye wepe and handys wryng. Alleluia!”
In Germany, Holly isChristdorn—the Thorn woven into the crown placed on our Saviour’s head at the Crucifixion.——Witches are reputed to detest Holly: in its name they see but another form of the word “holy,” and its thorny foliage and blood-red berries are suggestive of the most Christian associations.——In Northumberland, Holly is employed in a form of divination. There the prickly variety is called He-Holly, and the smooth, She-Holly. It is the leaves of the latter only that are deemed proper for divining purposes. These smooth leaves must be plucked late on a Friday, by persons careful to preserve an unbroken silence from the time they go out to the dawn of the following morn. The leaves must be collected in a three-cornered handkerchief, and on being brought home, nine of them must be selected, tied with nine knots into the handkerchief, and placed beneath the pillow. Then, sleep being obtained, dreams worthy of all credit will attend this rite. In another form of divination, a maiden places three pails of water on her bedroom floor, then pins to her night-dress, opposite her heart, three leaves of green Holly, and so retires to rest. She will be aroused from her first sleep by three terrible yells, followed by three horse-laughs, after which the form of her future husband willappear. If he is deeply attached to her, he will change the position of the water pails; if not, he will glide from the room without touching them. This spell is only effectual when performed on All Hallowe’en, Christmas Eve, New Year’s Eve, and Beltane, or Midsummer Eve.——Holly is under the dominion of Saturn.
HOLY PLANTS.—In England, theAngelica sylvestris, for its “angel-like properties,” was, says Parkinson, called Holy Ghost; the Vervain is the Holy Herb, from its use on ancient altars; the Holly was called by the monks of old Holy-tree; and the Hollyhock, Holy Hoke or Hock (an old name for Mallow); theAnastatica Hierochuntinais the Holy Rose of Jericho; the Lucern (Medicago sativa) is Holy Hay; theHolcus odoratusis the Northern Holy Grass; theHierochloe borealis, the German Holy Grass; the Hemp Agrimony (Eupatorium cannabinum) is Holy Rope, so called from its Hemp-like leaves betokening the rope with which the Saviour was bound; the seed of Wormwood is Holy Seed (Semen sanctum); andCarduus benedictusis the Holy Thistle.
HOMA.—Homa, or Haoma, is the sacred Vine of the Zoroastrians, the first of the trees planted by Ormuzd in the fountain of life, and from which one of their religious ceremonials takes its name. This consists in the extraction of the juice of the Homa-plant by the priest during the recital of prayers; the formal presentation of the liquid extracted to the sacrificial fire; the consumption of a small portion of it by one of the officiating priests; and the division of the remainder among the worshippers.——The Iranians describe two kinds of Haoma or Homa, the white and the yellow. The former is a fabulous plant, the latter, which is used in religious rites, and is extolled for its yellow colour, grows on mountains, and was known to Plutarch.——It has been attempted to identify the Zoroastrian Homa with the Vedic Soma, but the Parsees deny that their sacred plant is ever found in India, and those dwelling in Bombay use the branch of a particular tree, having a knotted stem and leaves like those of the Jasmine. To obtain supplies of the Homa-plant for sacred purposes, a priest is despatched from time to time to Kirman, in Persia, where he receives it in a dry state.
HONESTY.—Honesty (Lunaria biennis) has a variety of names. It is called Lunary and Moonwort, from the disk-like form of its great flat seed vessels, or their silvery and transparent brightness. This peculiarity accounts for its nicknames of White Satin-flower, Money-flower, and Silver Plate.——TheLunaria biennisis mentioned by Chaucer as one of the plants used in incantations:—