pfant bore, Tsegel^/, cToi. Isijric/". 237 



Virgil speaks of Baccharis as being used for making garlands, and 

 recommends it as a plant which is efficacious as a charm for re- 

 pelling calumny — 



' ' Bacch a ri /ton tent 

 Cingite, ne -tali noceat mala lingiia fuluro." 



Its English name is the Ploughman's Spikenard; and it was highly 

 esteemed by the old herbalists on account of the sweet and 

 aromatic qualities of its root, from which the ancients compounded 

 an ointment which was also known as Baccharis. 



Bachelor's Buttons. — See Ranunculus. 



BALBAGA, — The Indian Grass, Eleusine Indica, had, accord- 

 ing to De Gubernatis, the Vedic name of Balbaja: and, as a 

 sacred herb, was employed in Indian religious festivals for litter, 

 in ceremonials connecfted with the worship of the sacred Cow. 



BALDMONEY. — According to Gerarde, the Gentian was 

 formerly called Baldmoyne and Baldmoney; but Dr. Prior con- 

 siders that the name appertains to Meum athamanticum, and that it 

 is a corruption of the Latin valde bona, very good. The Grete 

 Herball, speaking of Sistra, he says, gives the following explana- 

 tion : — "Sistra is Dyll, some call it Mew; but that is not so. 

 Howbeit they be very like in properties and vertue, and be put 

 eche for other; but Sistra is of more vertue then Mew, and the 

 leaves be lyke an herbe called Valde Bona, and beareth smaller 

 sprigges as Spiknarde. It groweth on hyehylles" (See Feldwode), 



BALIS. — This herb was believed by the ancients to possess 

 the property of restoring the dead to life. By its means /Esculapius 

 himself was said to have been once resuscitated; and Pliny reports 

 that, according to the Greek historian Xanthus, a little dog, killed 

 by a serpent, was brought back to life by this wonderful herb Balis. 



BALSAM. — The seed vessel of this plant contains five cells. 

 \\^hen maturity approaches, each of these divisions curls up at the 

 slighest touch, and darts out its seeds by a spontaneous movement : 

 hence its generic name Impaticns, and its English appellation Noli 

 me tangere — Touch me not. Gerarde calls it the Balsam Apple, or 

 Apple of Jerusalem, and tells us that its old Latin name was Pomum 

 Mivabile, or Marvellous Apple. He also states that the plant was 

 highly esteemed for its property of alleviating the pains of mater- 

 nity, and that it was considered a valuable agent to remove sterility 

 — the patient first bathing and then anointing herself with an oil 



compounded with the fruit. The Turks represent ardent love 



by this flower. Balsam is under the planetary influence of 



Jupiter. 



BALM. — The Melissa, or Garden Balm, was renowned among 

 the Arabian physicians, by whom it was recommended for hypochon- 

 dria and affections of the heart, and according to Paracelsus the 

 pHmtim ens Melissa promised a complete renovation of man. Drunk 



