262 pfant "bore, "begef^O/, anil "bLjrfe/, 



ancient of all the paints prepared for the face. Pliny says that the 



A nchusa was used by the Romans for colouring and dyeing ; and 

 adds, that if a person who has chewed this plant should spit in the 



mouth of a venomous creature, he would kill it. The Viper's 



Bugloss (Echhim vulgare) derives its name from its seed being like 

 the head of a viper, and, according to Matthiolus, was celebrated 

 for curing its bites. Nicander also speaks of the Viper's Bugloss as 

 one of those plants which cure the biting of serpents, and es- 

 pecially of the viper, and that drive serpents away. Dioscorides, 

 as quoted by Gerarde, writes, " The root drunk with wine is good 

 for those that be bitten with serpents, and it keepeth such from 

 being stung as have drunk of it before : the leaves and seeds do the 

 same." Bugloss is reputed to be under the dominion of Jupiter. 



BULRUSH. — King Midas, having preferred the singing of 

 Marsyas, the satyr, to that of Apollo, the god clapped upon him 

 a pair of ass's ears. The king's barber saw them, and, unable to 

 keep the secret, buried it at the foot of a cluster of Bulrushes. 

 These Reeds, shaken by the wind, continually murmured, " King 

 Midas has ass's ears." Both the Scivpus lamstvis and Typha latifolia 

 (the Reed Mace) are popularly known as the Bulrush (a corruption 

 of Pole Rush or Pool Rush). The Typha is depi(51:ed by Rubens, and 

 the earlier Italian painters, as the Reed put into the hands of Jesus 

 Christ upon His crucifixion. The same Reed is, on certain days, 

 put into the hands of the Roman Catholic statues of our Saviour. 

 Gerarde calls this Reed Cat's-tail, and points out that Aristophanes 

 makes mention of it in his 'Comedy of Frogs,' " where he bringeth 

 them forth, one talking with another, being very glad that they 

 had spent the whole day in skipping and leaping among Galingale 



and Cat's-tail." The Bulrushes, among which the infant Moses 



was placed on the banks of the Nile, were Reeds not unlike the 

 Typlia. The ark in which he was laid was probably a small canoe 

 constructed with the same Reed — the Papyrus Nilotica, which, 

 according to Egyptian belief, was a proteeftion from crocodiles. 

 Gerarde says: "It is thought by men of great learning and under- 

 standing in the Scriptures, and set downe by them for truth, that this 

 plant IS the same Reed mentioned in the second chapter of Exodus, 

 whereof was made that basket or cradle, which was daubed within 

 and without with slime of that country, called Bitumen Judaicum, 

 wherein Moses was put, being committed to the water, when Pharaoh 

 gave commandment that all the male children of the Hebrews should 



be drowned." Boats and canoes formed of the Papyrus are 



common in Abyssinia. In South America, a similar kind of Bulrush 



is used for a like purpose. The Bulrush is under the dominion 



of Saturn. 



BURDOCK. — Everyone is acquainted with the prickly burs 

 of the Arctium Lappa, or Burdock, which, by means of their 

 hooks, are apt to cling so tenaciously to the passer-by. There 



