PLANTS IN WITCHCRAFT. 831 



as Culpepper * tells us, it was believed to open locks and possess 

 other magic virtues. The mullein, popularly termed the hag-taper, 

 was also in request, and the honesty {Lunaria hiennis), "in sor- 

 ceries excelling," was equally employed. By Scotch witches the 

 woodbine was a favorite plant, f who, in effecting magical cures, 

 passed their patients nine times through a girth or garland of 

 green woodbine. 



Again, a popular means emjjloyed by witches of injuring their 

 enemies was by the bryony. Coles, in his " Art of Simpling," for 

 instance, informs us how "they take likewise the roots of man- 

 drake, according to some, or, as I rather suppose, the roots of 

 briony, which simple folk take for the true mandrake, and make 

 thereof an ugly image, by which they represent the person on 

 whom they intend to exercise their witchcraft." And Lord 

 Bacon, speaking of the mandrake, says : " Some plants there are, 

 but rare, that have a mossie or downy root, and likewise that 

 have a number of threads, like beards, as mandrakes, whereof 

 witches and impostours make an ugly image, giving it the form 

 of a face at the top of the root, and leave those strings to make a 

 broad beard down to the foot." The witchcraft literature of the 

 sixteenth and seventeenth centuries contains numerous allusions 

 to the diabolical practice — a superstition immortalized by Shake- 

 speare. The mandrake, from its supposed mysterious character, 

 was intimately associated with witches, and Ben Jonson, in his 

 " Masque of Queens," makes one of the hags who has been gath- 

 ering this plant say : 



"I last night lay all alone 

 On the ground, to hear the mandrake groan ; 

 And plucked him up, though he grew full low, 

 And, as I had done, the cock did crow." 



We have already incidentally spoken of the vervain, St. John's 

 wort, elder, and rue as antagonistic to witchcraft, but to these 

 may be added many other well-known plants, such as the juniper, 

 mistletoe, and blackthorn. Indeed, the list might be greatly ex- 

 tended — the vegetable kingdom having supplied in most parts of 

 the world almost countless charms to counteract the evil designs 

 of these malevolent beings. In England the little pimpernel, 

 herb-paris, and cyclamen were formerly gathered for this pur- 

 pose, and the angelica was thought to be specially noisome to 

 witches. The snapdragon and the herb-betony had the reputa- 

 tion of averting the most subtle forms of witchcraft, and dill and 

 flax were worn as talismans against sorcery. Holly is said to be 

 antagonistic to witches, for, as Mr. Folkard % says, " in its name 



* " British Herbal." f See Folkard's " riant Lore, Legends, and Lyrics," p. 380. 

 X " Plant Lore, Legends, and Lyrics," p. 376. 



