There’s many feet on the moor to-night,And they fall so light as they turn and pass,So light and true, that they shake no dew,From the featherfew and the Hungry-Grass.The Fairy Music.
There’s many feet on the moor to-night,And they fall so light as they turn and pass,So light and true, that they shake no dew,From the featherfew and the Hungry-Grass.
The Fairy Music.
This plant is also called Spanish Cardoon or Cardoon of Tours. It is a kind of artichoke “which becomes a truly gigantic herbaceous vegetable. The tender stalks of the inner leaves are sometimes blanched and stewed, or used in soups and salads”; but it is much less used in England than on the Continent. Cardoons are said to yield a good yellow dye.
Percely, clarey and eke sage,And all other herbage.John Gardener.
Percely, clarey and eke sage,And all other herbage.
John Gardener.
“Clary, or more properly Clear-eyes,” which indicates one of its supposed chief virtues plainly enough. Wild Clary was calledOculus Christi, and was even more valued than the garden kind. Clary was once “used for making wine, which resembles Frontignac, and is remarkable for its narcotic qualities.”[39]It was also added to “Ale and Beere in these Northern regions (I think the Netherlands are meant here) to make it the more heady.” The young plant itself was eaten, and an approved way of dressing it was to put it in an omelette “made up with cream, fried in sweet butter” and eaten with sugar and the juice of oranges or lemons. It is now sometimes used to season soups, and Hogg tells us that it was used “in Austria as a perfume; in confectionery, and to the jellies of fruits, it communicates the flavour of pine-apple.” The herbalists speak of a plant called Yellow Clary or “Jupiter’s Distaff,” and Mr Britten suggests that this wasPhlomus fruticosa.
[39]Timbs.
[39]Timbs.
Dittander or Pepperwort grows wild in a few places in England, but was once cultivated. It was sometimes used as “a sauce or sallet to meate, but is too hot, bitter and strong for everyone’s taste.” These qualities have gained it the names of Poor Man’s Pepper, and from Tusser, Garden Ginger. Culpepper’s opinion is briefly expressed: “Here is another martial herb for you, make much of it.” It is so “hot and fiery sharpe” that it is said to raise a blister on the hand of anyone who holds it for a while, andtherefore(on homœopathic principles) it was recommended “to take away marks, scarres... and the marks of burning with fire or Iron.”
Elecampane, the beauteous Helen’s flower,Mingles among the rest her silver store.Rapin.
Elecampane, the beauteous Helen’s flower,Mingles among the rest her silver store.
Rapin.
“Some think it took the name from the teares ofHelen, from whence it sprang, which is a fable; others that she had her hands full of this herbe whenPariscarried her away; others say it was so called because Helen first found it available against the bitings and stingings of venomous beasts; and others thinke that it tooke the name from the Island Helena, where the best was found to grow.” Parkinson gives a wide choice for opinions on the origin of Elecampane, the two first “fables” are very picturesque. The radiant gold of the flowers would be gorgeous but beautiful, in a loose bunch, in a meadow, though in-doors they would be apt to look big and glaring. Gerarde speaks of them being “in their braverie in June and July,” and adds that the root “is marvellous good for many things.” Since the days of Helen the fairies have laid hold of the plant, and anothername for it (in Denmark) is Elf-Dock. Elecampane has had a great reputation since the days of Pliny, and was considered specially good for coughs, asthma and shortness of breath. Elecampane lozenges were much recommended, and the root was candied and eaten as a sweetmeat till comparatively lately. It is said to have antiseptic qualities, and according to Dr Fernie has been used in Spain as a surgical dressing.
Fenugreek “hath many leaves, but three alwayes set together on a foot-stalke, almost round at the ends, a little dented about the sides, greene above and grayish underneath; from the joynts with the leaves come forth white flowers, and after them, crooked, flattish long hornes, small pointed, with yellowish cornered seedes within them.” This description is very exact, and, indeed, the conspicuous horn-like pods, singularly large for the size of the plant, are its most marked characteristic. Turner says: “This herbe is called in Greek Keratitis, ytis horned, aigō keros ytis gotes horne, and ŏ onkeros, that is cows horne.” Fenugreek was a Favourite of the “antients,” and Folkard gives an account of a festival held by Antiochus Epiphanus, the Syrian king, of which one feature was a procession, where boys carried golden dishes containing frankincense, myrrh and saffron, and two hundred women, out of golden watering-pots, sprinkled perfume on the assembled guests. All who went to watch the games in the gymnasium were anointed with some perfume from fifteen gold dishes, which held saffron, amaracus, lilies, cinnamon, spikenard, fenugreek, etc. In England it was used for more prosaic purposes, “Galen and others say that they were eaten as Lupines, and the Egyptians and others eate the seedes yet to this day asPulse or meate.” The herb, he continues, he has never heard of as being used in England, because it was very little grown, but the seed was used in medicine. Gerarde gives us one of its pleasantest preparations as a drug. In old diseases of the chest, without a fever, fat dates are to be boiled with it, with a great quantitie of honey. In 1868 Rhind[40]writes that the seeds are no longer given in medicine, and but rarely used in “fomentations and cataplasms.” Since that date, I should imagine, it is even more rarely used. Fenugreek was at one time prescribed by veterinary surgeons for horses.
[40]“History of the Vegetable Kingdom.”
[40]“History of the Vegetable Kingdom.”
This plant is otherwise known as Fat Hen, Shoemaker’s Heels, English Mercury, or as Evelyn says, Blite. He begins with praise: “The Tops may be eaten as Sparagus or sodden in Pottage, and as a very salubrious Esculent. There is both a white and red, much us’d in Spain and Italy”; but he finishes lamely for all his praise: “’tis insipid enough.” Gerarde says: “It is called of the GermansGuter Heinrick, of a certaine good qualitie it hath,” and its name is much the most interesting thing about it. Various writers have tried to attach it to our successive kings of that name, with a want of ingenuousness and ingenuity equally deplorable. Grimm[41]traces it back till he finds that this was one of the many plants appropriated to Heinz or Heinrich—the “household goblin,” who plays tricks on the maids or helps them with their work, and asks no more than a bowl of cream set over-night for his reward—who, in fact, holds much the same place as our Robin Goodfellow holds here.
[41]Teutonic Mythology.
[41]Teutonic Mythology.
Sequestered leafy glades,That through the dimness of their twilight showLarge dock-leaves, spiral fox-gloves, or the glowOf the wild cat’s-eyes, or the silvery stemsOf delicate birch trees, in long grass which hemsA little brook.Calidore—Keats.
Sequestered leafy glades,That through the dimness of their twilight showLarge dock-leaves, spiral fox-gloves, or the glowOf the wild cat’s-eyes, or the silvery stemsOf delicate birch trees, in long grass which hemsA little brook.
Calidore—Keats.
Latulipeest pour la fierté,Pour le malheur lapatience.La Petite Corbeille.
Latulipeest pour la fierté,Pour le malheur lapatience.
La Petite Corbeille.
The Herb-Patience does not grow in every man’s garden.Proverb.
The Herb-Patience does not grow in every man’s garden.
Proverb.
Herb-Patience was also called Patience-Dock or Monk’s Rhubarb. The French call Water-Dock,Patience d’eauandParelle des Marais, so the name of the quality that is, in nursery rhyme, a “virtue,” and a “grace,” clings to this dock! Parkinson compares it unfavourably with Bastard Rhubarb, though he says the root is often used in “diet beere”; but Gerarde calls it an “excellent, wholesome pot-herbe,” and relates a tale, in which responsibilities are treated with such delightful airiness that it must be repeated here. He begins by saying that he himself is “no graduate, but a country scholler,” but hopes his “good meaning will be well taken, considering I doe my best, not doubting but some of greater learning will perfect that which I have begun, according to my small skill, especially the ice being broken unto him and the wood rough-hewed to his hands.” Nevertheless, he (who dictates on these matters, to a great extent, through his Herbal) thinks that the learned may gain occasionally from his knowledge. “OneJohn Bennet, a chirurgion, of Maidstone in Kent, a man as slenderly learned as myselfe,” undertook to cure a butcher’s boy of an ague. “He promised him a medicine, and for want of one for the present (he himselfeconfessed unto me) he tooke out of his garden three or four leaves of this plant” and administered them in ale, with entire success. “Whose blunt attempt may set an edge upon some sharper wit and greater judgment in the faculties of plants.” Any anticipation that his experiment might lead to disaster does not seem to have troubled him! The root of Patience-Dock “boiled in the water ofCarduus Benedictus” was also given at a venture for an ague, and this experiment was tried by “a worshipfull gentlewoman, mistresse Anne Wylbraham, upon divers of her poore Neighbours, with good success.” Mistress Anne Wylbraham must have been a woman of temerity!
Garden-patience used to be a good deal cultivated as spinach, but is now very much ignored, partly because few people know how to cook it. The leaves should be used early in the spring while they are still tender, and the flavour will be very much improved if about a fourth part of common sorrel is added to them. This way of dressing patience-dock was very popular in Sweden, and is described as “forming an excellent spinach dish.” Patience is sometimes spoken of as “passions,” but this name properly belongs toPolygonum Bistorta, the leaves of which were the principal ingredient in a herb-pudding, formerly eaten on Good Friday in the North of England. Parkinson also speaks in this chapter of the “true rhubarb of Rhapontick,” which has “leaves of sad or dark-greene colour... of a fine tart or sourish taste, much more pleasant than the garden or wood sorrell.” Dr Thornton, however, says that Parkinson was mistaken, and that the first seeds of true rhubarb were sent “by the great Boerhaave to our famous gardener, Miller, in 1759”—more than a hundred years later. Very soon after Miller had it, rhubarb was cultivated in many parts of England and in certain localities in Scotland.
A FIELD OF ENGLISH RHUBARB
A FIELD OF ENGLISH RHUBARB
Here hore-hound ’gainst the mad dog’s illBy biting, never failing.Muses Elysium.
Here hore-hound ’gainst the mad dog’s illBy biting, never failing.
Muses Elysium.
Pale hore-hound, which he holds of most especiall use.Polyolbion, Song xiii.
Pale hore-hound, which he holds of most especiall use.
Polyolbion, Song xiii.
Folkard says that horehound is one of the five plants stated by the Mishna to be the “bitter herbs,” which the Jews were ordered to take for the Feast of the Passover, the other four being coriander, horse-radish, lettuce and nettle. The nameMarrubiumis supposed to come from the HebrewMarrob, a bitter juice. De Gubernatis writes that horehound was once regarded as a “contre-poison magique,” but very little is said about it on the whole, and it is an uninteresting plant to look at, and much like many others of the labiate tribe. Long ago the Apothecaries sold “sirop of horehound” for “old coughs” and kindred disorders, and horehound tea and candied horehound are still made to relieve the same troubles. Candied horehound is made by boiling down the fresh leaves and adding sugar to the juice thus extracted, and then again boiling the juice till it has become thick enough to pour into little cases made of paper.
Then comes Daffodil besideOur ladye’s smock at our Ladye-tide.An Early Calendar of English Flowers.
Then comes Daffodil besideOur ladye’s smock at our Ladye-tide.
An Early Calendar of English Flowers.
When daisies pied and violets blueAnd lady-smocks all silver whiteAnd cuckoo-buds of yellow hueDo paint the meadows with delight.Love’s Labour Lost, v. 2.
When daisies pied and violets blueAnd lady-smocks all silver whiteAnd cuckoo-buds of yellow hueDo paint the meadows with delight.
Love’s Labour Lost, v. 2.
And some to grace the show,Of lady-smocks do rob the neighbouring mead.Wherewith their looser locks most curiously they braid.Polyolbion, Song xx.
And some to grace the show,Of lady-smocks do rob the neighbouring mead.Wherewith their looser locks most curiously they braid.
Polyolbion, Song xx.
And now and then among, of eglantine a spray,By which again a course of lady-smocks they lay.Song xv.
And now and then among, of eglantine a spray,By which again a course of lady-smocks they lay.
Song xv.
The honeysuckle round the porch has wov’n its wavy bowers,And by the meadow-trenches blow the faint, sweet cuckoo flowers,And the wild march-marigold shines like fire on swamps and hollows gray.The May Queen.—Tennyson.
The honeysuckle round the porch has wov’n its wavy bowers,And by the meadow-trenches blow the faint, sweet cuckoo flowers,And the wild march-marigold shines like fire on swamps and hollows gray.
The May Queen.—Tennyson.
“Cuckoo-flower” is a name laid claim to by many flowers, and authorities differ as to which one Shakespeare meant by it. Certainly not the plant under discussion, which is the one we most generally call Cuckoo-flower to-day, for there can be no doubt that this is the “lady’s-smocks” of the line above,—letting alone the fact that the “cuckoo-buds” in the song being of “yellow hue” put the idea out of court. Lord Tennyson’s lines point equally clearly to theCardamine pratensis. Lady’s-smock is said to be a corruption of “Our Lady’s Smock,” and to be one of the plants dedicated to the Virgin, because it comes into blossom about Ladytide; though as a matter of fact the flower is seldom seen so early. It is remarkable how many attentions this graceful, but humble and scentless flower has received; and besides all the poets Isaac Walton mentions it twice: “Look! down at the bottom of the hill there, in that meadow, chequered with water-lilies and lady-smocks.”[42]And later: “Looking on the hills, I could behold them spotted with wood and groves—looking down in the meadow, could see there a boy gathering lilies and lady’s-smocks, and there, a girl cropping culverkeys and cowslips, all to make garlands suitable to this present month of May.” It is difficult to be positive about culverkeys. Columbines, bluebells, primroses and an orchis have all been called by this name at different times. The primrose is cut out of the question here by its colour, for in the poem which has been quoted alittle while before Davors sings of “azure culverkeys.” The columbine is rarely found in a wild state and flowers later in the year, the orchis is hardly “azure,” so on the whole it looks as if the likeliest flower would be the wild hyacinth. To return to the lady’s-smocks, Gerarde says they are of “a blushing, white colour,” and like the “white sweet-john.” In the seventeenth century their titles were various and he gives some of them, and in doing so he shows an ingenuous, very pleasing clinging to the names familiar to his youth. “In English, cuckowe flowers, in Northfolke, Canterbury bells, at Namptwich in Cheshire, where I had my beginning, ladiesmocks which hath given me cause to christen it after my country fashion.” Parkinson finds that “these herbes are seldom used eyther as sauce or sallet or in physick, but more for pleasure to decke up the garlands of the country-people, yet divers have reported them to be as affectuall in the scorbute or scurvy as the water-cresses.” The plant was regarded as an excellent remedy for these evils by the inhabitants of those northern countries where salted fish and flesh are largely eaten. The leaves are slightly pungent and somewhat bitter; and in the early part of the nineteenth century it was regarded as an ordinary salad herb, so that its reputation in that respect must have risen since Parkinson’s days.
[42]Complete Angler.
[42]Complete Angler.
Langdebeefe is mentioned with scanty praise. “The leaves are onely used in all places that I knew or ever could learne, for an herbe for the pot among others.” It is difficult to be absolutely certain as to the identity of the plant, for Gerarde places it with Bugloss, and Parkinson, among the Hawkweeds. Mr Britten says, however, that both writers referred toHelminthia echoides, but thatEchium vulgare, Viper’s Bugloss, is the plantthat Turner called Langdebeefe, and Viper’s Bugloss is still called Langdebeefe in Central France. Near Paris, however,Langue de bœufmeansAnchusa Italica. “The leaves,” says Gerarde, “are like the rough tongue of an oxe or cow, whereof it took its name,” and he gives another instance of theinsoucianceof contemporary physicians. They “put them both into all kindes of medicines indifferently, which are of force and vertue to drive away sorrow and pensiveness of the minde, and to comfort and strengthen the heart.” “Both” refers to Bugloss and “little wilde Buglosse,” which he has just informed us grows upon “the drie ditch bankes about Pickadilla.” Times change!
Gerarde describes two kinds of Liquorice: the first has “woody branches... beset with leaves of an overworne greene colour, and small blew floures of the colour of an English Hyacinth.” From the peculiar shape and roughness of the seed-pods it was distinguished by the name of “Hedge-hogge Licorice.” This kind was very little used. Common Liquorice resembles it very closely, but has less peculiar seed-vessels.
The cultivation oflicorishin England began about the year of Queen Elizabeth’s reign, and it has been much grown at Pontefract (whence Pontefract lozenges are named), Worksop, Godalming and Mitcham. It must have been once an extremely profitable crop. “There hath been made from fifty Pound to an hundred Pound of an Acre, as some affirm.” The caution expressed in the last three words is rather nice. “I. W.,” the author of this bit of information (he gives no other signature), published his book in 1681, and was evidently of a very patriotic disposition. He is indignant that “although our English Liquorice exceeds anyForeign whatsoever,” yet we “yearly buy of other Nations,” and Parkinson is of much the same opinion: “The root grown in England is of a fame more weake, sweete taste, yet far more pleasing to us than Licorice that is brought us from beyond Sea,” which is stronger and more bitter. A later writer prefers English roots on the ground that those imported are often “mouldy and spoiled.” “With the juice of Licorice, Ginger and other spices there is made a certaine bread or cakes called Gingerbread, which is very good against the cough.” It is not the light in which Gingerbread is usually looked upon. Liquorice administered in many ways was a great remedy against coughs. Boiled in faire water, with Maiden-haire and Figges, it made a “good ptisane drinke for them that have any dry cough,” and the “juice of Licoris, artificially made with Hyssoppe water,” was recommended against shortness of breath. Extract of Liquorice is to be found in the Pharmacopœia, and it is imported as “Spanish juice.” The extract must be made from thedriedroot, or else it will not be so bright when it is strained. Dr Fernie says that Liquorice is added to porter and stout to give thickness and blackness.
Mr Britten says: In Lyte and other early works, this [name] is applied toLevisticum officinale, but in modern British books it is assigned toLigusticum Scoticum. It grows wild near the sea-shore in Scotland and Northumberland. Lovage “has many long and great stalkes of large, winged leaves, divided into many parts, ... and with the leaves come forth towards the toppes, long branches, bearing at their toppes large umbells of yellow flowers. The whole plant and every part of it smelleth somewhat strongly and aromatically, and of anhot, sharpe, biting taste. TheGermansand other Nations in times past used both the roote and seede instead of Pepper to season their meates and brothes, and found them as comfortable and warming.”[43]Turner mentions Lovage amongst his medical herbs and Culpepper says: “It is an herb of the Sun, under the sign Taurus. If Saturn offend the throat... this is your cure.”
[43]Parkinson.
[43]Parkinson.
With many a curve my banks I fret,By many a field and fallowAnd many a fair by foreland set,With willow, weed and mallow.The Brook.—Tennyson.
With many a curve my banks I fret,By many a field and fallowAnd many a fair by foreland set,With willow, weed and mallow.
The Brook.—Tennyson.
The spring is at the door,She bears a golden store,Her maund with yellow daffodils runneth o’er........After her footsteps followThe mullein and the mallow,She scatters golden powder on the sallow.Spring Song.—N. Hopper.
The spring is at the door,She bears a golden store,Her maund with yellow daffodils runneth o’er........After her footsteps followThe mullein and the mallow,She scatters golden powder on the sallow.
Spring Song.—N. Hopper.
Parkinson praises mallows both for beauty and virtue. “The double ones, which for their Bravery are entertained everywhere into every Countrywoman’s garden. The Venice Mallow is called Good-night-at-noone, though the flowers close so quickly that you shall hardly see a flower blowne up in the day-time after 9A.M.” Some medical advice follows, in which “All sorts of Mallowes” are praised. “Those that are of most use are most common. The rest are buttaken upon credit.” The last remark comes quite casually, and apparently those that were “but taken upon credit,” would be comprehended in the “all sorts” and administered without hesitation. French Mallows (Malva crispa) ismost highly recommended as an excellent pot-herb! indeed all wild mallows may be used in that capacity, and the Romans are said to have considered them a delicacy.
Marsh Mallow (Althæa officinalis) has very soothing qualities, and was, and is, much used by country people for inflammation outwardly and inwardly. It contains a great deal of mucilage, in the root particularly. Timbs says: “Dr Sir John Floyer mentions a posset (hot milk curdled by some infusion) in which althœa roots are boiled”; and it must have been a “comforting” one. In France, the young tops and leaves are used in spring salads. “Many of the poorer inhabitants of Syria, especially the Fellahs, the Greeks, and the Armenians, subsist for weeks on herbs, of which the Marsh Mallow is one of the most common. When boiled first, and then fried with onions and butter, they are said to form a palatable dish, and in times of scarcity, consequent upon the failure of the crops, all classes may be seen striving with eagerness to obtain the much desired plant, which fortunately grows in great abundance.”[44]In Job xxx. 3, 4 we read: “For want and famine they were solitary, fleeing into the wilderness in former time desolate and waste. Who cut up mallows by the bushes.” Smith’s “Dictionary of the Bible,” however, casts doubt on this mallow being a mallow at all, and though admitting that it would be quite possible, decides that the evidence points most clearly toAtriplex Halimus.
Gerarde says the Tree Mallow “approacheth nearer the substance and nature of wood than any of the others; wherewith the people of Olbia and Narbone in France doe make hedges, to sever or divide their gardens and vineyards which continueth long;” and these hedges must have been a beautiful sight when in flower.
The Hollyhock, of course, belongs to this tribe, andwas once apparently eaten as a pot-herb, and found to be an inferior one. It has been put to other uses, for Hogg says that the stalks contain a fibre, “from which a good strong cloth has been manufactured, and in the year 1821 about 280 acres of land near Flint in Wales were planted with the Common Holyhock, with the view of converting the fibre to the same uses as hemp or flax.” It was also discovered in the process of manufacture, that the plant “yields a blue dye, equal in beauty and permanence to that of the best indigo.” This experiment however successful in results, cannot have been justified from a commercial point of view, and was not often repeated, and there is now no trace of its having been ever tried.
In other languages, the Hollyhock has very pretty names; “in low Dutch, it was calledWinter Rosen, and in French,Rose d’outremer.”
[44]Hogg.
[44]Hogg.
Hark! hark! the lark at heaven’s gate singsAnd Phœbus ’gins to rise,His steeds to water at those springsOn chalic’d flowers that lies;And winking Mary-buds beginTo ope their golden eyes.Cymbeline, ii. 3.
Hark! hark! the lark at heaven’s gate singsAnd Phœbus ’gins to rise,His steeds to water at those springsOn chalic’d flowers that lies;And winking Mary-buds beginTo ope their golden eyes.
Cymbeline, ii. 3.
The marigold that goes to bed wi’ the sun,And with him rises weeping.Winter’s Tale, iv. 3.
The marigold that goes to bed wi’ the sun,And with him rises weeping.
Winter’s Tale, iv. 3.
The purple Violets and MarigoldsShall, as a carpet, hang upon thy graveWhile summer days do last.Pericles, iv. 1.
The purple Violets and MarigoldsShall, as a carpet, hang upon thy graveWhile summer days do last.
Pericles, iv. 1.
Marigolds on death-beds blowing.Two Noble Kinsmen.Introd. Song.
Marigolds on death-beds blowing.
Two Noble Kinsmen.Introd. Song.
The Marigold observes the sun,More than my subjects me have done.So shuts the marigold her leavesAt the departure of the sun;So from the honeysuckle sheavesThe bee goes when the day is done.Br. Pastorals, book iii.
The Marigold observes the sun,More than my subjects me have done.So shuts the marigold her leavesAt the departure of the sun;So from the honeysuckle sheavesThe bee goes when the day is done.
Br. Pastorals, book iii.
But, maiden, see the day is waxen old,And ’gins to shut in with the marigold.Br. Pastorals, book i.
But, maiden, see the day is waxen old,And ’gins to shut in with the marigold.
Br. Pastorals, book i.
Open afresh your round of starry foldsYe ardent marigolds!Dry up the moisture from your golden lidsFor great Apollo bidsThat in these days your praises should be sung.I stood tiptoe, etc.—Keats.
Open afresh your round of starry foldsYe ardent marigolds!Dry up the moisture from your golden lidsFor great Apollo bidsThat in these days your praises should be sung.I stood tiptoe, etc.—Keats.
The marigold above, t’ adorn the arched bar,The double daisy, thrift, the button batchelor,Sweet William, sops-in-wine, the campion.Polyolbion, Song xv.
The marigold above, t’ adorn the arched bar,The double daisy, thrift, the button batchelor,Sweet William, sops-in-wine, the campion.
Polyolbion, Song xv.
The crimson darnel flower, the blue bottle andgold.Which though esteemed but weeds, yet for their dainty huesAnd for their scent not ill, they for this purpose choose.Ibid.
The crimson darnel flower, the blue bottle andgold.Which though esteemed but weeds, yet for their dainty huesAnd for their scent not ill, they for this purpose choose.
Ibid.
The yellow kingcup Flora then assigned.To be the badges of a jealous mind,The orange-tawny marigold.Br. Pastorals.
The yellow kingcup Flora then assigned.To be the badges of a jealous mind,The orange-tawny marigold.
Br. Pastorals.
The Marigold has enjoyed great and lasting popularity, and though the flower does not charm by its loveliness, the indomitable courage, with which, after even a sharp frost, it lifts up its hanging head, and shows a cheerful countenance, leads one to feel for it affection and respect. In the end of January (1903) here in Devon there were some flowers and opening buds, though ten days before the ice bore for skating. The Latin name refers to its reputed habit of blossoming on the first days of every month in the year, and in a fairly mild winter this is no exaggeration. Marigolds are dedicated to the Virgin, but this fact is not supposed to have had anything to do with the giving of their name, whichhad probably been bestowed on them before the Festivals in her honour were kept in England, “Though doubtless,” says Mr Friend, “the name of Mary had much to do with the alterations in the name of Marigold, which may be noticed in its history.” There is an idea that they were appropriated to her because they were in flower at all of her Festivals; but on this notion other authorities throw doubt. In ancient days Marigolds were often called Golds, or Goules, or Ruddes; in Provence, a name for them was “Gauche-fer[45](left-hand iron) probably from its brilliant disc, suggestive of a shield worn on the left arm.” Chaucer describes Jealousy as wearing this flower: “Jealousy that werede of yelwe guides a garland”; and Browne calls the “orange-tawny marigold” its badge.
There was a very strong belief that the flowers followed the sun, and many allusions are made to this; amongst them, two melancholy lines which are said to have been drawn from some “Meditations” by Charles I., written at Carisbrooke Castle.
“The marigold observes the sun,More than my subjects me have done.”
“The marigold observes the sun,More than my subjects me have done.”
Shakespeare refers often to this idea, and the flower was obviously “to earlier writers the emblem of constancy in affection and sympathy in joy and sorrow, though it was also the emblem of the fawning courtier who could only shine when everything is bright.” (Canon Ellacombe). Marigolds have figured in heraldry, for Marguerite of Valois, grandmother of Henri IV., chose for her armorial device a marigold turning towards the sun, with the motto,Je ne veux suivre que lui seul. About the fifteenth century the Marigold was calledSouvenir, and ladies wore posies of marigolds and heartsease mingled, that is, a bunch of “happiness stored inrecollections,” a very pretty allegorical meaning. But it has been the symbol of memories anything but happy, for curiously enough, this sun’s flower means Grief in the language of flowers, and in many countries is connected with the idea of death. This thought occurs in Pericles and in the song in “Two noble Kinsmen.” In America, one name for them is death-flowers, because there is a tradition that they “sprang upon ground stained by the life-blood of these unfortunate Mexicans who fell victims to the love of gold and arrogant cruelty of the early Spanish settlers in America.”[46]However, to restore the balance of happiness, one learns that to dream of Marigolds augurs wealth, prosperity, success, and a rich and happy marriage! In Fuller’s “Antheologia, or the Speech of Flowers”—a most amusing tale—the Marigold occupies a prominent place. The scene opens with a dispute in the Flowers’ Parliament between the Tulip and the Rose. “Whilst this was passing in theUpper House of Flowers, no less were the transactions in theLower Houseof theHerbs; where there was a general acclamation againstWormwood. Wormwood’s friends were casually absent that day, making merry at an entertainment, her enemies (let not that sex be angry for making Wormwood feminine) appeared in full body and made so great a noise, as if some mouths had two tongues in them.” Wormwood and the Tulip were eventually both cast out of the garden, and lying by the roadside addressed themselves to a passing Wild Boar, telling him of a hole in the hedge, by which he may creep into the garden and revenge them, and amuse himself by destroying the flowers. At the moment he enters, “Thrift, a Flower-Herb, was just courting Marigold as follows: ‘Mistress of all Flowers that grow on Earth, give me leave to profess my sincerest affections to you.... I have taken signal notice of youraccomplishments, and among other rare qualities, particularly of this, your loyalty and faithfulness to the Sun, ... but we all know the many and sovereign virtues in your leaves, theHerb Generallin all pottage.” He then proceeds to praise himself, “I am no gamester to shake away with a quaking hand what a more fixed hand did gain and acquire. I am none of those who in vanity of clothes bury my quick estate as in a winding sheet.” The Marigold demurely hung her head and replied, “I am tempted to have a good opinion of myself, to which all people are prone, and we women most of all, if we may believe your opinions of us, which herein I am afraid are too true.” But she is not deceived by his flattery. “The plain truth is you love me not for myself, but for your advantage. It isGoldenthe arrear of myname, which makethThriftto be my suitor. How often and how unworthily have you tendered your affections even to aPenny royalitself, had she not scorned to be courted by you. But I commend the girl that she knew her own worth, though it was but apenny, yet it is aRoyalone, and therefore not a match for every baseSuitor, but knew how to value herself; and give me leave to tell you thatMatchesfounded onCovetousnessnever succeed.” At this point in her spirited reply the Boar approached. “There is no such teacher as extremity; necessity hath found out more Arts than ever ingenuity invented. The Wall Gillyflower ran up to the top of the Wall of the Garden, where it hath grown ever since, and will never descend till it hath good security for its own safety.” Other thrilling scenes follow, and finally the Boar is put an end to by the gardener and “aGuardof Dogs.”
Marigolds stood as a standard of comparison, and Isaac Walton uses the common saying, “As yellow as a Marigold.” Among the various titles of different kinds of Marigold Gerarde gives the oddest, for he calls one variety Jackanapes-on-horseback; Fuller calls it the“Herb-Generall of all pottage,” and it was much esteemed in this capacity. Gay says:
Fair is the gillyflour, for gardens sweet,Fair is the marigold, for pottage meet.The Squabble.
Fair is the gillyflour, for gardens sweet,Fair is the marigold, for pottage meet.
The Squabble.
“The yellow leaves of the flowers are dried and kept throughout Dutchland against winter, to put into broths, in physical potions, and for divers other purposes in such quantity that in some Grocers or Spice Sellers houses are to be found barrels filled with them and retailed by the penny more or less, insomuch that no broths are well made without Marigolds.” One is reminded of the childish heroine in Miss Edgeworth’s charming story “Simple Susan” and how she added the petals of Marigolds, as the last touch, to the broth she had made for her invalid mother! Parkinson observes that the flowers “green or dryed are often used in possets, broths and drinks as a comforter to the heart and spirits,” and that Syrup and Conserve are made of the fresh flowers; also “the flowers of Marigold pickt clean from the heads and pickled up against winter make an excellent Sallet when no flowers are to be had in a garden, which Sallet is nowadays in the highest esteem with Gentles and Ladies of the greatest note.” There is a tone of patronage in this last remark which is rather irritating. “Some used to make their heyre yellow with the floure of this herbe,” says Turner, and severely censures the impiousness of such an act. A hundred years ago, according to Abercromby, the flowers were chiefly used to flavour broth and to adulterate Saffron, but they must be even less employed now than then.
Dr Fernie says that the flowers of Marigold were much used by American surgeons during the Civil War, in treating wounds, and with admirable results. “Calendulaowes its introduction and first use altogether to homœopathic practice, as signally valuable for healingwounds, ulcers, burns, and other breaches of the skin surface.” Personal experience leads me to suggest that it is an excellent household remedy.
The Corn Marigold(Chrysanthemum segetum) used to be called Guildes, and it was once so rampant that a law was passed by the Scottish Parliament to fine negligent farmers who allowed it to overrun their lands. Hence the old Scotssaying—
The Gordon, the Guild, and the WatercrawAre the three worst ills the Moray ever saw.
The Gordon, the Guild, and the WatercrawAre the three worst ills the Moray ever saw.
[45]Ingram, “Flora Symbolica.”[46]Folkard.
[45]Ingram, “Flora Symbolica.”
[46]Folkard.
Peniriall is to print your love,So deep within my heart,That when you look this nosegay onMy pain you may impart,And when that you have read the same,Consider wel my woe.Think ye then how to recompenseEven him that loves you so.A Handful of Pleasant Delites.C. Robinson.
Peniriall is to print your love,So deep within my heart,That when you look this nosegay onMy pain you may impart,And when that you have read the same,Consider wel my woe.Think ye then how to recompenseEven him that loves you so.A Handful of Pleasant Delites.
C. Robinson.
Then balm and mint helps to make upMy chapter, and for trial,Costmary, that so likes the cup,And next it, pennyroyal.Muses’ Elysium.
Then balm and mint helps to make upMy chapter, and for trial,Costmary, that so likes the cup,And next it, pennyroyal.
Muses’ Elysium.
Lavender, Corn-rose, Pennyroyal sate,And that which cats[47]esteem so delicateAfter a while slow-pac’d with much ado,Ground pine, with her short legs, crept hither too.Of Plants, book ii.—Cowley.
Lavender, Corn-rose, Pennyroyal sate,And that which cats[47]esteem so delicateAfter a while slow-pac’d with much ado,Ground pine, with her short legs, crept hither too.
Of Plants, book ii.—Cowley.
In France, Italy, and Spain, the children make acrêche de noëlat Christmas time; that is, they make a shed with stones and moss, and surround it with evergreens powdered with flour and cotton-wool, to make a little landscape. In and about this shed are placed thegensde la crêche; little earthen figures representing the Holy Family, and the Three Kings with their camels, and the Shepherds with their flocks, the sheep being disposed among the miniature rocks and bushes. On Christmas eve, or else sometimes on Twelfth Night, I think, these are saluted with the music of pipes and carol singing. De Gubernatis says that the children of Sicily always put pennyroyal amongst the green things in theircrêches, and believe that exactly at midnight it bursts into flower for Christmas Day.
Other names for it are Pulioll Royal and Pudding-grasse, “and in the west parts, as aboutExeter, Organs.” It is still called organs in the “West parts,” and organ-tea used to be a favourite drink to take out to the harvesters. In Italy pennyroyal is a protection against the Evil Eye, and in Sicily, they tie it to the branches of the fig-tree, thinking that this will prevent the figs falling before they are ripe. It is there also offered to husbands and wives who are in the habit of “falling out” with each other. “The Ancients said that it causeth Sheepe and Goates to bleate when they are eating of it.” To produce all those wonderful effects, it must have a great deal of magic about it. Gerarde says it grows “in the Common neare London, called Miles End, about the holes and ponds thereof in sundry places, from whence poore women bring plentie to sell in London markets.” Would that it could be found at “Miles End” now! He gives in passing a sidelight on the comfort in travelling, in the good old days: “If you have when you are at the sea Penny Royal in great quantitie, drie and cast it into corrupt water, it helpeth it much, neither will it hurt them that drinke thereof.” This inevitable state of things, in making a voyage, is faced with philosophic calm. “A Garland of Pennie Royal made and worne on the head is good against headache and giddiness.”