pPaat "bofe, "bcge'nb/, ancL 'bijrlc/'. 26, 



exists an old belief among country lads, that they can catch bats 

 by throwing these burs at them. The plant is also known by the 

 names of Great-bur, Hur-bur, and Clot-bur, and has an ancient 



reputation for curing rheumatism. It was under the great leaf of 



a Burdock that the original Hop-o'-my-Thumb, of nursery-rhyme 

 celebrity, sought refuge from a storm, and was, imfortunately, 



swallowed, enclosed in the leaf, by a passing hungry cow. In 



Albania, there is a superstitious belief that, if a man has been 

 influenced by the demons of the forest, the evil spirit must be 

 exorcised by the priest; a portion of the ceremony consisting of 

 the steeping of bread in wine, and spreading it on the broad leaves 



of a Burdock. Venus is the planet under whose rule astrologers 



place Burdock. 



BURITI. — The Buriti Palm {Mauvitia vinifera) attains, in 

 Brazil, gigantic proportions, and its rich red and yellow fruit, "like 

 quilted cannon balls," hang in bunches five feet long. From it 

 flour, wine, and butter are made, whilst the fibre of the leaves 

 supplies thread for weaving, &c. Another species, M . flexnosa, 

 flourishes in the valleys and swamps of South America, where the 

 native Indians regard it with great reverence, living almost entirely 

 on its produdts; and, what is very remarkable, building their 

 houses high up amongst its leaves, where they live during the 

 floods. 



BURNET. — The Burnet Saxifrage {Pimpinella Saxifraga) 

 appears to be considered a magical plant in Hungary, where it is 

 called Chdbairje, or Chaba's Salve, from an old tradition that King 

 Chaba discovered it, and cured the wounds of fifteen thousand of 



his soldiers after a sanguinary battle fought against his brother. 



In a work on astrology, purported to be written by King Solomon, 

 and translated from the Hebrew by Iroe Grego, it is stated that 

 the magician's sword ought to be steeped in the blood of a mole 



and in the juice of Pimpinella. In Piedmont, the Pimpinella 



is thought to possess the property of increasing the beauty of 

 women. Burnet is a herb of the Sun. 



BUTCHER'S BROOM.— A species of Butcher's Broom, 

 Ruscus hypoglossum, was the Alexandrian Laurel of the Romans, who 

 formed of this shrub the so-called Laurel crowns worn by distin- 

 guished personages. It is the Laurel gcnerall}^ depi(5ted on busts, 



coins, &c. The name of Butcher's Broom was given to this plant 



because in olden times butchers were in the habit of sweeping their 

 blocks with hand brooms made of its green shoots. In Italy, 

 branches of the plant, tied together, are commonly employed as 

 besoms for sweeping houses ; and hucksters place boughs of it round 

 bacon and cheese to defend them from the mice. The Ruscus. 

 aculcatus, besides its ordinary name of Butcher's Broom, is called 

 Knee-holme, Knee-pulver, Knee-holly, Pettigree, and sometimes 

 Jews' Myrtle, because it is sold to the Jews for use during the Feast of 



