84 PLANTAGINE^ 



a dwarf variety (var. intermedia) with downy leaves which have onl}^ three 

 nerves or ribs. 



This Plantain is so especially a wayside herl) that its old name of Way- 

 bred or Way-bread seems very appropriate, and the G-ermans call it JFegerich, 

 and the Dutch, jreeghree. Our English name is, however, of Saxon origin, 

 and was originally Wabron, or Wabret, and the plant is still in Teviotdale 

 called Wabret-leaf. Leyden thus refers to it: — 



" As every prospect opens to my view 

 I seem to live departed years anew ; 

 When in these wilds a jocund sportive child 

 Each flower self-sown my heedless hours beguiled ; 

 The Wabret-leaf that by the pathway grew, 

 The wild-briar rose, of pale and blushful hue, 

 The thistle's rolling wheel of silken down, 

 The blue-bell or the daisy's pearly crown, 

 The gaudy butterfly in wanton round, 

 That, like a living pea-flower, skinim'd the ground." 



The Plantain often grows on pasture lands, and some animals eat its 

 herbage, though it yields but a small amount of nutriment. It is a common 

 plant all over Europe, and so'generally follows in the train of the cultivator, 

 that wherever an English colony is founded it is sure to spring up among the 

 weeds, and it may consequently be seen in almost CA^ery climate, receiving in 

 some of our settlements the name of the Englishman's Foot. 



Some degree of astringency exists in the leaves and roots of this Plantain, 

 but not enough to warrant the praises bestowed on the herb by the old 

 waiters. Pliny handed down the repute of its sanative powers, and though 

 this is lessened, yet it is not altogether lost in our day. In the words of 

 his translator, Pliny records that "Themison, a famous physician, sets forthe 

 a whole booke of the hearbe AYail)red or Plantaine, wherein he highly praiseth 

 it ; and challengeth to himselfe the honour of first finding it out, notwith- 

 standing it be a triviall and common hearbe trodden under everie man's 

 foote." The juice of the plant was considered good for various ills, and 

 Dioscorides imagined that the water derived from three roots cured the 

 tertian, and from four, the quartan ague ; while grave and learned writers of 

 later days set it down in their books as a well-ascertained fact that the toad 

 when about to encounter the spider ate of the Plantain-leaf, and that if 

 H^ounded, it sought again the same remedy. George Herbert mentions the 

 Plantain as an herb to be used medicinally by the "parson," who in those 

 days was to regard as his province the bodily as well as the spiritual maladies 

 of his flock. It was, however, more especially as a vulnerary that the plant 

 was held in universal esteem, and from Chaucer downwards we find it alluded 

 to as an application to wounds. It Avas not Eomeo alone who would, when 

 referring to the "broken shin," say, 



"Your Plantain-leaf is excellent for that ;" 

 it was the common opinion. Shenstone also mentions it : 



" And pungent radish, biting infant's tongue, 

 And Plantain ribb'd, that heals the reaper's wound." 



And it is likely that the wound would heal, not simply by means of the 

 astringent juices, but also by being bound together by the broad cool leaf. 



