pPant Tsore, "hec^el^f, and. "bqricy. 247 



although the two herbs seem to have small affinity. Culpeper 

 quaintly remarks: "Something is the matter; this herb and Rue 

 will never grow together — no, nor near one another ; and we know 

 the Rue is as great an enemy to poison as any that grows." 

 Gerarde, however, tells us that the smell of Basil is good for the 



heart and for the head. The plant is a paradox: — sacred and 



revered, yet dedicated to the Evil One ; of happy augury, yet 

 funereal ; dear to women and lovers, yet emblem of hatred ; propa- 

 gator of scorpions, yet the antidote to their stings. Astrologers 



rule that Basil is a herb of Mars, and under the Scorpion, and 

 therefore called Basilicon. 



BAUHINIA. — The leaves of the Bauhinia or Ebony-tree 

 are two-lobed, or twin — a character, which suggested to Plumier 

 the happy idea of naming the genus after the two famous brothers, 

 John and Caspar Bauhin, botanists of the sixteenth century. 



BEANS. — Among the ancients, there appears to have been a 

 superstitious aversion to Beans as an article of food, arising from 

 the resemblance of the fruit to a portion of the human body. The 

 Egyptians, among whom the Sacred Bean was an object of actual 

 worship, would not partake of it as food, probably on that account; 

 because by so doing they would be fearful of eating what they 

 considered was human, and of consuming a soul. By some nations 



the seed was consecrated to the gods. The eating of Beans was 



interdicted to the Jewish High Priest on the Day of Atonement 



from its decided tendency to bring on sleep. The goddess Ceres, 



when bestowing her gifts upon mankind, expressly excluded Beans. 

 The unhappy Orpheus refused to eat them ; Amphiaraus, the 

 diviner, in order to preserve a clear vision, always abstained from 

 them; the Flamines, Roman priests, instituted by Numa, would 

 neither touch nor mention them ; and the Grecian philosopher 

 Pythagoras, who lived only on the purest and most innocuous food, 

 invariably declined to partake of Beans of any description, giving 

 as his reason that, in the Bean, he recognised blood, and conse- 

 quently an animal, which, as a vegetarian, he could not consume. 

 According to tradition, the great philosopher, being pursued by his 

 enemies, was overtaken and killed, solely because, having in his 

 flight reached a field of Beans, he would not cross it for fear of 

 trampling upon living beings, the souls of the dead, who had entered 

 temporarily, into the vegetable existence. Cicero considered that 

 the antipathy to Beans as an article of food arose from their being 

 considered impure, inasmuch as they corrupted the blood, dis- 

 tended the stomach, and excited the passions. Hippocrates con- 

 sidered them unwholesome and injurious to the eyesight. They 

 were also believed to cause bad dreams, and, moreover, if seen 



in dreams, were deemed to portend evil. One of the Greek 



words for Bean is Piianos, and at the festival of Puanepsia, held 

 in the month of October, at Athens, in honour of Apollo, Beans 



