112 pPant Tsore, T9ege'r|ti/, dnsL "bijric/'. 



teeth of the goats and other animals that grazed upon it. Niebuhr 

 thinks this may be the herb which the Eastern alchymists em- 

 ployed as a means of making gold. Father Dundini noticed that 

 the animals living on Mount Ida ate a certain herb that imparted 

 a golden hue to the teeth, and which he considered proceeded from 

 the mines underground. It was an old belief in Germany, by the 

 shores of the Danube, and in Hungary, that the tendrils and leaves 

 of the Vines were plated with gold at certain periods, and that 

 when this was the case, it was a sure sign that gold lay hidden 

 somewhere near. 



Plutarch speaks of a magical herb called Zaclon, which, when 

 bruised and thrown into wine, would at once change it into 

 water. 



Some few plants, like the well-known Sesame of the 'Arabian 

 Nights,' are credited with the power of opening doors and obtaining 

 an entry into subterranean caverns and mountain sides. In 

 Germany, there is a very favourite legend of a certain blue Luck- 

 flower which gains for its fortunate finder access to the hidden 

 recesses of a mountain, where untold riches lie heaped before his 

 astonished eyes. Hastily filling his pockets with gold, silver, and 

 gems, he heeds not the presence of a dwarf or Fairy, who, as he 

 unknowingly drops the Luck-flower whilst leaving the treasure- 

 house, cries " Forget not the best of all." Thinking only of the 

 wealth he has pocketed, he unheedingly passes through the portal 

 of the treasure cave, only just in time to save himself from being 

 crushed by the descending door, which closes with an ominous clang, 

 and shuts in for ever the Luck-flower, which can alone open the 

 cave again. 



In Russia, a certain herb, which has the power of opening, is 

 known as the Rasviv-trava. The peasants recognise it in this 

 manner : they cut a good deal of grass about the spot where the 

 Rasriv'trava is thought to grow, and throw the whole of it into the 

 river ; thereupon this magic plant will not only remain on the 

 surface of the water, but it will float against the current. The 

 herb, however, is extraordinarily rare, and can only be found by 

 one who also possesses the herb Plahin and the Fern Papowtnik. 

 The Fern, like the Hazel, discovers treasures, and therefore 

 possesses the power of opening said to belong to the Rasriv-trava, 

 but the latter is the only plant that can open the locks of subter- 

 ranean entrances to the infernal regions, which are always guarded 

 by demons. It also has the special property of being able to reduce 

 to powder any metal whatsoever. 



The Primrose is in Germany regarded as a ScJih'issclblume, or 

 Key-flower, and is supposed to provide the means of obtaining 

 ingress to the many legendary treasure-caverns and subterranean 

 passages under hill and mountain sides dating back from the remote 

 times when the Goddess Bertha was wont to entice children to 

 enter her enchanted halls by off"ering them pale Primroses. 



