iJRe ©ocfr'me o^ pfaat Signature/. 



159 



The Spleen. Spleenwort or Ceterach {Asplenium), Agrimony, 



Shepherd's Purse, Dandehon, Devil's Bit 

 Scabious, Fern, Broom, Hawk-weed, Turnip, 

 Treacle Mustard, &c. 



The Stomach. Roots of Acorus, Cyclamen, Elecampane, Iris, 

 and Galingale, Earth-nut, Parsnip, Radish, 

 Chives, Ginger, &c. 



The Kidneys. Kidney-wort, Agnus Castus, seeds of Broom, 

 Bonibax, Jasmine, and Lupine, Beans, Cur- 

 rants, Ground Ivy, root of Leopard's Bane, &c. 



The Intestines, Navel-wort, Chickweed, Briony, Dodder, Bitter- 

 &c. sweet (Nightshade), Fenugreek, Nasturtium, 



Honeysuckle, Chamomile-flowers, Alpine Sa- 

 nicle, roots of Polypody, &c. 



The Hands, Agnus Castus, Garlick, Briony, Shepherd's Purse, 



Fingers, and Fig, Geranium, Ash-bark, Cinquefoil {Hepta- 

 Nerves. />/;}'//«;«), Tormentilla, Water Hellebore, Lupine, 



Melon, Ophrys, Hoary Clover, Satyrion, Plan- 

 tain, Currants, Sanicle, Soap-wort, Wolf's Bane, 

 Swallow-wort, Vitis Idaa, Asiatic Ranunculus, 

 with gummy root, &c. 



The Docftrine of Signatures did not exclusively apply to the 

 medicinal virtues of herbs and plants : for example, Hound's-tongue 

 Cynoglossum officinale, named from the shape and softness of its leaf, 

 was (if we may believe William Coles) thought to " tye the tongues 

 of hounds, so that they shall not bark at you, if it be laid under the 

 bottom of your feet, as Miraldus writeth." Garlic (from the Anglo- 

 Saxon words gar, a spear, and ledc, a plant) was, from its acute 

 tapering leaves, marked out as the w^ar plant of the warriors and 

 poets of the North. The heavenly blue of the flower of the Ger- 

 mander Speedwell won for it the Welsh appellation of the Eye of 

 Christ. Even abstra(5t virtues were to be learnt by an attentive 

 study of the Signatures of certain plants, according to the diclum of 

 that loyal and godly herbalist Robert Turner, who naively tells us 

 that " God hath imprinted upon the Plants, Herbs, and Flowers, 

 as it were in Hieroglyphicks, the very Signature of their Vertues; 

 as the learned Grolhus and others well observe: as the Nutmeg, 

 being cut, resembles the Brain; the Papaver erraticum, or red 

 Poppy Flower, resembleth at its bottom the setling of the 

 Blood in the Plurisie ; and how excellent is that Flower in 

 Diseases of the Plurisie, and Surfeits hath sufficiently been expe- 

 rienced. In the Heliotrope and Marigold subjects niay learn their 

 duty to their Sovereign: which his Sacred Majesty King Charles 

 the First mentions in his Princely Meditations, walking in a 

 Garden in the Isle of Wight, in the following words, viz.: — 



" ' The Marigold observes the Sun 



More than my subjects me have done,' &c." 



