THE MANDRAKE. 



times he is pleased to make their wavy hair the veil which 

 screens from observation the cave, in which the solitary 

 naiad sleeps from the earliest period ; at others he bears 

 them upon his wings and makes them radiant stars of green 

 in the turrets of an ancient castle, or else arranges them as 

 light festoons, and decorates with them the cool resorts and 

 loved shades of shepherds. Thus this fern puts science at 

 fault, and hides her secret origin from eyes the most pene- 

 trating ; while she hastens to reward by her beauty the hand 

 that nurses her. 



THE MANDRAKE {Mandragora officinalis).— Kk^yiy. 



The ancients attributed remarkable virtues to the Man- 

 drake ; but as they have not left any accurate description of 

 the plant, we do not know to what species they gave the 

 name. Mountebanks who are able to make a profit out of 

 popular errors, know how to give the appearance of a little 

 man to the roots of bryony and other plants, which, they 

 assure the credulous, are genuine roots of the Mandrake. 

 They allege that they are only found in a small canton of 

 China, which is almost inaccessible. They assert that these 

 Mandrakes utter the most lamentable cries when torn up by 

 the roots, a statement made use of by Longfellow, where he 

 says, — 



" teach me where that wondrous Mandrake grows, 

 Whose magic root, torn from the earth with groans, 

 At midnight hour, can scare the fiends away, 

 And make the mind proHfic in its fancies !" 



133 



