112 RUBIACE^— MADDER TRIBE 



It is reported to be put into wine to make a man merrie, and to be good for 

 the heart and liver." We know, too, from churchwardens' accounts of the 

 reign of Edward IV., that " Rose garlandis and Woodrowe garlandis " were 

 hung in churches. 



The Woodrufi' generally grows very closely around the roots of trees, and 

 on a soil so completely formed of vegetable mould, that, as some writer has 

 remarked, it might almost be thought a parasite. The foliage imparts a very 

 pleasant flavour to wine, but in our days and country it is seldom mingled 

 with it, except in villages. It is often, however, laid in drawers among linen 

 or clothes, to which it not only imparts a sweet odour, but is thought to serve 

 as a preservative from moth. Ladies often use it for the contents of 

 ornamental scent-bags. In Germany the plant is much employed in flavour- 

 ing liqueurs. The Germans also gather it in May for the purpose of making 

 a delicious beverage, which they call May-drink. A gentleman, known to 

 the author, was travelling with a friend in Germany, when, stopping at a 

 hotel, this May -drink was brought as a refreshment to the travellers They 

 inquired of what the pleasant beverage was composed, and were informed 

 that sugar, Rhine wine, and Sweet Woodruff, were the ingredients. Next 

 morning, at breakfast, the gentleman missed his companion, and was, some 

 hours after, amused to see him returning to the hotel, accompanied by a 

 peasant laden with a basket of the roots of the Sweet Woodruff, which he 

 had patriotically determined to transplant to the woods of his native land, 

 that Englishmen might henceforth enjoy the delicious May-drink. It was 

 not without some disappointment that he heard from his friend that his early 

 morning labour was wasted, and that he had only need to walk into some 

 woods within a mile of his own home, to find the plant as plentiful as in 

 those of Germany. 



The Sweet Woodruff is eaten by cattle and horses. It contains an acid 

 principle, with much fixed alkaline salt ; and its odour, like the similar one 

 of the Meadow-grass {Antlwxdntlmm odonUum,), is owing to the benzoic acid 

 which it contains. Its power of "making the heart merrie," which our 

 fathers ascribed to it, must, if not altogether imaginary, be owing to the 

 slightly exhilarating principle of theine, to which we owe the refreshing 

 powers of tea, that, as Cowper says, "cheers, but not inebriates," and a 

 smaller portion of which is possessed by the foliage of the Woodruff". 



2. Small Woodruff, or Squinancy-wort (A. cijndnchira). — Leaves 

 very slender, 4 in a whorl, uppermost whorls very unequal ; fruit granular 

 and rough ; root perennial. The general appearance of this plant differs 

 very much from that of the fragrant species. Its leaves are smaller and 

 narrower, and its dense clusters of white flowers, with pink exteriors, are 

 much handsomer. It grows on warm sunny banks, on open downs, or chalk 

 cliffs, and is a common plant on limestone soils ; but it is far more local than 

 A. odorata, and it is not found north of AVestmoreland and Yorkshire. It 

 occurs also in the south and west of Ireland. The stems rarely exceed four 

 inches in height, and the flowers expand in June and July. The odour of 

 this herb is truly disagreeable, but its large patches, when in flower, are very 

 ornamental to the short pasture grasses among which it grows. Its specific 

 name, taken from the Greek, and signifying to choke, as well as its English 



