243 FLORA HISTORICA. 



tic, and febrifuge. Before hops were so generally 

 used as a bitter to preserve malt liquors, this root 

 was in much greater demand, it being generally 

 used in brewing, under the name of bitterwort 

 and felwort, baldmoyne and baldmoney. 



In the days of Queen Elizabeth, when neither 

 the infusion of the Chinese leaf, nor that of the 

 Arabian berry, was known as a breakfast beverage, 

 the knowledge of a wholesome bitter that would 

 preserve the home-brewed ale from becoming acid, 

 was as necessary as sugar is to our present drink. 

 Gerard, who lived in those days of gallantry, ale, 

 and hospitality, tells us, that " Master Isaac de 

 Lanne, a learned physician, sent him plants of this 

 Gentian, for the increase of his garden, from Bur- 

 gundie." 



Pliny observes, that the Gentian which grows 

 in Illyria is the most efficacious in medicine. This, 

 we presume, is the species now distinguished by 

 the name of Septemfida, Crested Gentian, which 

 grows naturally in the mountains of Persia, near 

 the Caspian Sea, as well as in several places in the 

 Levant. 



As an ornament for the English parterre, we 

 shall notice two that are indigenous to our climes ; 

 for, like Addison, we prefer those plants which 

 grow in all the luxuriance of unaided nature, to 

 those rare exotics whose sickly appearance bespeaks 



