CHAPTER XIV. 



pPaal/ aT^ tFie pPaaei/. 



WO centuries ago there existed a very general 

 belief that every plant was under the direct 

 influence of a particular Planet, and therefore 

 that all the details connected with its cultivation 

 and utilisation were to be condudted with a 

 stricfl regard to this supposition. Aubrey has 

 recorded his opinion, that if a plant "be not 

 gathered according to the rules of astrology, it 

 hath little or no virtue in it;" and the Jesuit Rapin, in his Latin 

 poem on ' Gardens,' says, with respedl: to flowers — 



*' This frequent charge I give, whene'er you sow 

 The flow'ry kind, be studious first to know 

 The monthly tables, and with heedful eye 

 Survey the lofly volumes of the sky ; 

 Observe the tokens of foreboding Stars, 

 What store of wind and rain the Moon prepares ; 

 What weather Eurus or moist Auster blows. 

 What both in east and west the Sun foreshows; 

 What aid from Helice the trees obtain, 

 What from Bootes with his tardy wain ; 

 Whether the wat'ry Pleiades with show'rs 

 Kindly refresh alone, or drown the flow'rs ; 

 For Stars neglected fatal oft we find, 

 The Gods to their dominion have assign'd 

 The products of our earth and labours of mankind." 



Michael Drayton, in whose time the doctrine of planetary 

 .influence on plants was generally accepted, says, in reference to 

 the longevity of antediluvian men : — 



" Besides, in medicine simples had the power 

 That none need then the planetary hour 

 To helpe their working, they so juiceful were." 



Culpeper, who was a profound believer in astrology, has 

 given at the commencement of his ' British Herbal and Family 

 Physician,' a list of some five hundred plants, and the names of 

 the Planets which govern them; and in his direcftions as to the 

 plucking of leaves for medical purposes, the old herbalist and 



