COMPOUND FLOWERS 165 



" herb of vertue " like this should have been used for the purpose of incanta- 

 tions, as some lines of Michael Drayton's lead us to infer that it was : — 



" There is my nioly of much fame, 

 In magic often used ; 

 Mugwort and nightshade for the same, 

 But not by me abused.' 



This plant is tonic and stimulating, and is used in some places with hops 

 in brewing, and is said to increase the intoxicating properties of ale. Its 

 chief use, however, is in the down of its leaves, which in former days, when 

 light was visually procured by flint and steel, made good tinder, and which 

 is still employed in some countries in surgical operations. The substance 

 called Moxa is made sometimes either of this down, or of that on the 

 Artemisia sinSnds, and is in much use among surgeons in the East. It is in 

 Japan prepared by rubbing the dried tops and leaves of this plant between 

 the hands until the fine Avoody fibres are the only portion left of the leaf. 



The Mugwort bears, from July to September, clusters of small yellowish 

 flowers, sometimes tinted with a rich reddish-purple colour. Its stem is often 

 three feet high, and it generally grows in masses. It is readily eaten by 

 cattle and sheep. This species, as well as several others which grow on 

 alpine heights, near to the region of eternal snows, is included by the Swiss 

 under the general name of Genipa. These plants are highly prized by the 

 mountaineers for their medicinal properties, and believed to be a balm for 

 almost every mortal ill. 



Referring to our Mugwort, Lupton, in his "Notable Things," says : "It 

 is certainly commonly afBrmed, that on Midsummer Eve there is found 

 under the roote of Mugwort a coal which keeps safe from the plague, 

 carbuncle, lightning, and the quartan ague them that bear the same about 

 them ; and Mizaldus, the writer hereof, saith that it is to be found the same 

 day, under the roote of plantaine ; Avhich I know for a truth, for I have 

 found them the same day, under the roote of plantaine, which is especially 

 and chiefly to be found at noon." Several respectable authors of that 

 period held the same notion; but Paul Barbette, Avriting in 1675, says, 

 " These authors are deceived, for they are not coales, but old acid rootes, 

 consisting of much volatile salt, and are almost always to be found under 

 Mugwort; so that it is only a certain superstition that old dead roots 

 ought to be pulled up on the Eve of St. John the Baptist about twelve at 

 night." 



3. Common Worm.wood (A. absinthium). — Leaves twice pinnatifid, 

 with bluntish segments, covered with soft silky down ; heads hemispherical, 

 drooping; perennial. This bushy plant, with its silky stems and leaves, 

 bears its leafy panicle of dull yellow flowers from July to September. The 

 stem is about a foot or a foot and a half high, and the whole plant is bitter 

 and aromatic. It grows in waste places, especially near towns and villages, 

 and is used in various ways as a medicine by country people, though the 

 medical practitioner generally employs the cultivated plant. The upper part 

 of the stem and the unexpanded flowers are the useful portions of the herb. 

 They are bitter, and contain in a great degree the usual aroma of the worm- 

 woods ; the lower part of the plant, though aromatic, possessing little of the 



