32 THE GLORY OF THE GARDEN 



allow; remedies are not necessarily so much more 

 effective for being done up with all the chemist's 

 skill and cunning of white paper, scarlet sealing-wax, 

 and pink string. These are attractive, no doubt, 

 and aids to faith (which is half the battle); but 

 supposing that customary and orthodox medicines 

 happened to be out of reach, it might be very useful 

 indeed to possess some old-time knowledge of the 

 herbal remedies of our forefathers. Some people 

 are inclined to raise objections on the score that 

 herbalism is a quack or empirical system of medicine 

 unworthy of support or serious consideration. 

 They believe it to be a mere tissue of " old wives' 

 lore " and silly superstition, and are probably not 

 aware that modern pharmaceutical research has 

 vindicated the reputation of many an old-fashioned 

 " simple," and has winnowed herbalism of its 

 ignorant elements, raising the practice of herbal 

 pharmacy to a scientific element. 



Hozu did the herbal ideas of healing arise P Simply 

 by watching the self-cure of animals, whose instinct 

 led them to the plants with healing properties for 

 various complaints. 



An interesting old superstition centres round the 

 Goat, from which we learn that he was supposed 

 to be the " Herbalist Quadruped,''^ clever in finding 

 herbs that were good for physic. 



In the Middle Ages every monastery and convent 

 had its physic garden, and it is to the untiring skill 

 and energy of the monks that we owe much of our 

 knowledge of medicinal plants and their uses. The 

 monks were, indeed, the grand pioneers of gardening 

 in all its branches, and we owe them a very large 

 debt for their skill and practice in these matters. 



