264 SFaat kiors, k/egel^^/, aael "bijric/. 



the Tabernacles. In combination with Horse-radish, the plant, boiled 

 for a deco(5tion, is said to be serviceable in cases of dropsy ; and its 



boughs are often used in this country for flogging chilblains. 



Butcher's Broom has been used and claimed by the Earls of Suther- 

 land as the distinguishing badge of their followers and clan. The 

 present Duke retains it, and every Sutherland volunteer still wears 



a sprig of Butcher's Broom in his bonnet on field days. 



Butcher's Broom is under the dominion of Mars. 



Buttercups. — See Ranunculus. 



CABBAGE. — A Grecian legend recounts that the Cabbage 

 {Brassica] sprang from the tears of Lycurgus, Prince of Thrace, 

 whom Dionysus had bound to a Vine-stock as a punishment for 

 the destrucftion of Vines of which the Prince had been guilty. 

 Perhaps this ancient legend may account for the belief that the 

 Cabbage, like the Laurel, is inimical to the Vine ; and it may also 

 have given rise to the emplo3'ment by the Egyptians and the 

 Greeks of this vegetable as a most powerful remedy for the intoxi- 

 cation produced by the fruit of the Vine. Bacon, in his Sylva Syl- 

 vanim, says: "So the Colewort (Cabbage) is not an enemy (though 

 that were anciently received) to the Vine onely ; but it is an enemy 

 to any other plant, because it draweth strongly the fattest juyce 

 of the earth." He also tells us that " it is reported that the shrub 

 called Our Ladle's Seal (which is a kinde of Briony) and Coleworts, 

 set neare together, one or both will die." Gerarde says that the 

 Greeks called the Cabbage Ametlnistos, "not onely because it 

 driveth away drunkennesse, but also for that it is like in colour to the 



pretious stone called the Amethyst." The ancient lonians, in 



their oaths, invoked the Cabbage. Nicander calls the Cabbage a 



sacred plant. In Scotland, young women determine the figure 



and size of their future husbands by drawing Cabbages, blind- 

 folded, on Hallowe'en. In some country places, the housewife 



considers it a lucky omen if her Cabbages grow "double," z.e., with 

 two shoots from one root ; or " lucker," that is, with the leaves spread- 

 ing open. A Cabbage stalk or stump is a favourite steed upon 



which the "good people," or fairies, are wont to travel in the air. Mr. 

 Croker, in his ' Fairy Legends of Ireland,' relates that at Dundaniel, 

 a village near Cork, in a pleasant outlet called Blackrock, there 

 lived not many years ago a gardener named Crowley, who was 

 considered by his neighbours as under fairy control, and suffered 

 from what they termed " the falling sickness " resulting from the 

 fatigue attendant on the journeys which he was compelled to take ; 

 being forced to travel night after night with the good people on one 



of his own Cabbage-stimips. The Italian expressions, "Go among 



the Cabbages," and "Go hide among the Cabbages," mean to die. 

 In the North, however, children are told that " Baby was fetched out 

 of the Cabbage-bed." In Jersey, the Palm Cabbage is much culti- 

 vated, and reaches a considerable height. In La Vendee, the Caesa- 



