236 pPant "bore, 'begc'f|?3/j ctael ki^rie/*. 



ASVATTHA. — The Indian Veda prescribes that for the 

 purpose of kindling the sacred fire, the wood of an Asvattha 

 (Ficus religiosa), growing upon a Sand [Mimosa Smna), should be 

 employed. The idea of a marriage suggested by such a union 

 of the two trees is also developed in the Vedas with much minute- 

 ness of detail. The process by which, in the Plindu temples, 

 fire is obtained from wood resembles churning. It consists in 

 drilling one piece of wood (the Asvattha, symbolising the male 

 element) into another (the Sami, representing the female element). 

 This is effe(fted by pulling a string tied to it, with a jerk, with 

 one hand, while the other is slackened, and so alternately until the 

 wood takes fire. The fire is received on cotton or flax held in 

 the hand of an assistant Brahman. This Indian fire-generator is 

 known as the " chark." (See also Sami and Peepul). 



AURICULA. — The old Latin name of this plant was Auri- 

 cula ursi, from the shape of the leaves resembling a bear's ear. It 

 is thought to be the A lisma of Dioscorides. Matthiolus and Pena call 

 it Sanicula Alpina, from its potency in healing wounds. Old her- 

 balists have also named it Paralytica on account of its being 

 esteemed a remedy for the palsy. Gerarde calls it Bear's-ear, or 

 Mountain Cowslip, and tells us that the root was in great request 

 among Alpine hunters, for the effecft it produced in strengthening 

 the head and preventing giddiness and swimming of the brain over- 

 taking them on high elevations. The plant is reputed to be some- 

 what carnivorous, and cultivators place juicy pieces of meat about 



the roots, so that they may absorb the blood. In Germany, the 



Auricula is considered emblematical of love of home. 



AVAKA. — The Avaka or Slpdla is an India aquatic plant, 

 which plays an important part in their funeral ceremonies. It is 

 placed in a cavity made, according to their custom, to the north- 

 east of the sacred fire Ahavaniya, and it is believed that the soul 

 of the deceased person passes into this cavity, and thence ascends 

 with the smoke to heaven. The Avaka or Sipdla forms the food 

 of the Gandharvas, who preside over the India waters. 



AvENS. — See Herb Bennett. 



AZALEA. — This handsome shrub is narcotic and poisonous 

 in all its parts. Xenophon, in his narrative of the ' Retreat of the 

 Ten Thousand,' in Asia, after the death of Cyrus, tells how his 

 soldiers became temporarily stupefied and delirious, as if intoxi- 

 cated, after partaking of the honey of Trebizond on the Black Sea. 

 The baneful properties of this honey arose from the poisonous 

 nature of the blossoms of the Azalea Pontica, from which the bees 

 had coUedted it. 



BACCHARIS. — This plant is the Inula Conyza, and was 

 called Baccharis after the god Bacchus, to whom it was dedicated. 



