OUR COMPOUND FLOWERS. 129 



restore * ; and the inexperienced mother is recommended to give 

 Wormwood, especially the Sea-Wormwood, and cakes and puddings 

 tainted with Tansy f, to her vermigerous child. The diuretic pro- 

 perties of the Dandelion are familiarly known ; and a decoction of 

 the root of the Burdock is in occasional use for the relief of gravel, 

 and the removal of old eruptions and scorbutic spots from the skin J. 

 A decoction of the Coltsfoot is oftener given than the doctor is aware 

 of, in spring coughs and consumptions ; and an ointment for stiff- 

 paste, made from an extract of the roots of this plant, to which Bur- 

 gundy pitch and some other ingredients were added, was in great 

 repute in Roxburghshire as a cure for sprains and all swellings about 

 the joints. The roots of the Butter-bur are used in Berwickshire, in 

 a similar way, for curing white swellings on the knees §. Tansy and 

 Millfoil were reckoned amongst plants averse to fascination ; but we 

 must retrograde two centuries to be present at the trial of Elspeth 

 Reoch, who was supernaturally instructed to cure distempers, by 

 resting on her right knee while pulling "the herb callit melefour" 

 " betwix her mid finger and thombe, and saying of. In nomine Pa- 

 tris, Filii et Spiritus Sancti||." The reputation the plant still retains 

 may be only traditional, but certainly I have seen it gathered in 

 handfuUs, and, on enquiry of an old infirm man so engaged, I was 

 told that it was " a grand thing for inward complaints." The 

 Feather-fuilly owes its place in the cottager's garden to its former 

 fame as " a singular remedy for diseases incident to the matrix", but 

 now I cannot ascertain that it is ever used ; and modern physick 

 supplies, with all deference to Nicholas Culpeper, Student in Physick 

 and Astrology, more grateful antidotes to " melancholy and sad 

 thoughts^." 



* " Wad ye let the bonnie May die i' your hand, 

 And the Mugwort flowering i' the land ? " 



See Chambers' Popular Rhymes, p. 34. 

 In the " History of the Medical Profession " contained in the Medical 

 Annual for 1839, p. 116. and written by William Farr, there is a curious 

 account of the vutues of Mugwort as believed in in Saxon times. See 

 also BuUeyne's Boke of Simples, fol. xix. 



t " On Easter Sunday be the pudding seen. 

 To which the Tansy lends her sober green." 



See Brand's Pop. Antiq. i. p. 166. 

 X The Burdock was formerly much used as a tUuretic, which virtue it 

 possesses in a very considerable degree. Dr. F. Douglas. 

 § Comp. Corresp. of Ray, p. 373. 



II Dalyell on the Darker Superstitions of Scotland, p. 22. — The " Mele- 

 flour" is the Achillea, for in a subsequent part of the volume it is said to 

 be the same as the " Nose-bleed." " It is an old superstition to take a 

 leaf of Achillea millefolium, and tell one to put it up his nose, turn it 

 thrice round, and all the while think of his sweetheart : if his nose bleeds, 

 he is sure to get her. The application scarcely ever fails, at least if the 

 leaf be smartly turned. Hence the old name of ' Nose-bleed' given to 

 this plant." J. Hardy. 



H The Groundsel and Eupatorium deserve to have their properties in- 

 vestigated : they produce powerful effects even in outward application. 

 The former is noted for allaying " swelUngs." 



VOL. I. K 



