94 THE FRUITS OF THE COUNTRY-SIDE 



make an excellent gargle for sore throats. They have also 

 supplied a remedy for jaundice. 



The bark, from its astringency, has been employed in 

 tanning leather, while the stems and roots, prepared with 

 alum, yield a strong yellow dye for fabrics or for staining 

 wood for cabinet-work. In Queen Elizabeth's time we 

 find the ladies steeping barberry and ash roots together, and 

 preparing a compound therefrom for the creation of golden 

 hair. 



The Arab name for the plant is Barbaris, and the 

 botanical name, Berberis, is derived from this. One curious 

 old name that we find for the barberry is the piprage, or 

 pipperidge, meaning literally the red-pip ; the French words 

 pepin and rouge supplying the derivation. It is bestowed 

 in obvious allusion to the hard pip-like scarlet berries. 



Since barberry is a constituent we append another of 

 these tremendous prescriptions of our forefathers. This 

 time it is the Syrupuse Coralliis compositus. "Syrup of 

 Coral restores such as are in consumptions, is of a gallant 

 cooling nature, and very cordial." To make this admirable 

 preparation, so cooling yet so warming, we " take of red 

 Coral six ounces, in very fine powder and levigated upon a 

 marble, add of clarified juice of Lemons sixteen ounces, 

 clarified juice of Barberries eight ounces, sharp white wine 

 Vinegar and juice of Wood-sorrel, of each six ounces ; mix 

 them together and put them in a glass stopped with cork 

 and bladder, shaking it every day till it have digested eight 

 days, then filter it and take juice of Quinces half a pound, 

 sugar of Roses twelve ounces. Make them into a syrup 

 in a bath, adding Syrup of Clove-gilliflowers sixteen ounces." 

 This, we imagine, would be a still more admirable prepara- 



