392 MEALS MEDICINAL. 
The herb Rue (Ruta graveolens), which is cultivated in our 
kitchen gardens, deserves passing mention as a useful medicament, 
though it scarcely comes into our culinary service with food. 
This shrub has a pungent aromatic odour, and a hot, bitter, 
penetrating taste, with leaves of a bluish-green colour which 
are ever green, and are so acrid that if they be much handled 
they inflame the skin. If a leaf or two of Rue be chewed, a 
refreshing aromatic flavour will pervade the mouth, and any 
nervous headache, giddiness, hysterical spasm, or cardiac 
palpitation will be speedily relieved. The most important 
chemical constituents of the herb are its volatile oil, which 
contains caprinic, pelargonic, caprylic, and cenanthylic acids, 
also oxygenated caprinic aldehyde. Gerarde says: “ The Wild 
Rue venometh the hands that touch it, and will also infect the 
face ; therefore it is not to be admitted to meat, or medicine.” 
Nevertheless, it is not infrequently made into a tea (from the 
garden herb) in country districts. “ Pliny,” says Evelyn, 
“reports Rue to be of such effect for the preservation of sight 
that the painters of his time used to devour a great quantity 
of it; and the herb is still eaten by the Italians as frequently 
mingled amongst their salads.” Again, Gerarde relates that 
this herb grows most profitably under a fig tree. Country people 
boil its leaves with treacle, thus making a conserve thereof. 
These leaves are curative of croup in poultry. During the early 
part of last century it was customary for our Judges, when sitting 
at Assize, to have sprigs of Rue placed before them on the bench 
of the Dock as defensive against the pestilential infection brought 
into Court from gaol (then altogether neglected as to its sanita- 
tion) by the wretched prisoners. A quaint old rhyme says of 
the plant :— 
“ Nobilis est Ruta 
Quia lumina reddit acuta.” 
“ Noble is Rue: it makes the sight of eyes both sharp and clear : 
With help of Rue, oh ! blear-eyed man ! thou,shalt see far and near.” 
This 1s especially the case when the vision has become dim 
through over-exertion of the eyes. It was with “ Euphrasy, 
and Rue” that the vision of Adam in Paradise was purged by 
the Angel, according to Milton. Other popular names for 
the plant are Herbe grass, Herbigrass, and Horby grass. In 
Lincolnshire countryfolk say it must be given only in the 
morning, because as the afternoon supervenes it becomes 
