pPant T^ore, Iscgel^^/, anil l^ijric/*, 277 



been blinde." Celandine has long been popular among village 

 simplers as a remedy when diluted with milk against thick spots in 



the eye. It is said that the lack of medical knowledge among 



the ancients induced the belief in the magical properties of Celan- 

 dine. They saw in the Chelidoniiim a Call donum, and hence were 



anxious to endow it with celestial properties. The red and 



violet Celandines, or Horned Poppies, are mentioned by Ben 

 Jonson among the plants used by witches in their incantations. 



The Lesser Celandine [Ranunculus Ficaria) is perhaps better 

 known as the Pile-wort, a name given to it in allusion to the small 

 tubers on the roots, which, on the dodlrine of plant signatures, 

 indicated that the plant was a remedial agent in this complaint. 



Astrologers assign Celandine to the Sun, and the Pile-wort to 



Mars. 



CENTAURY.— This flower, the well known Blue-bottle of 

 the cornfields, is fabled to have derived its name from Chiron, a 

 centaur, who is stated to have taught mankind the use of plants 

 and medicinal herbs. According to Pliny, Chiron cured himself with 

 this plant from a wound he had accidentally received from an arrow 

 poisoned with the blood of the hydra. M. Barthelemy writes how, 

 when Anacharsis visited the cave of Chiron, the centaur, on Mount 

 Pelion, he was shown a plant which grew near it, of which he was 

 informed that the leaves were good for the eyes, but that the secret 

 of preparing them was in the hands of only one family, to whom it 



had been lineally transmitted from Chiron himself. Mythology 



has another origin for the Centaurea Cyamis. According to this 

 account, the flower was called Cyanus, after a youth so named, who 

 was so enamoured of Corn-flowers, that his favourite occupation was 

 that of making garlands of them ; and he would scarcely ever leave 

 the fields, whilst his favourite blue flowers continued to bloom. 

 So devoted was his admiration, that he always dressed himself in 

 clothes of the same brilliant hue as the flower he loved best. Flora 

 was his goddess, and of all the varied gifts, her Corn-flower was 

 the one he most appreciated. At length he was one day found 

 lying dead in a cornfield, surrounded with the blue Corn-flowers he 

 had gathered: and soon after the catastrophe, the goddess Flora, 

 out of gratitude for the veneration he had for her divinity, trans- 

 formed his body into the Centaurea Cyanus, the Blue-bottle of English 



cornfields. In Lucan's ' Pharsalia,' the Centaury is one of the 



plants named as being burned with the objecl: of driving away 

 serpents. 



" Beyond the farthest tents rich fires they build, 

 That healthy medicinal odours yield : 

 There foreign Galbanum dissolving fries, 

 And crackling flames from humble Wallwort rise ; 

 There Tamarisk, which no green leaf adorns, 

 And there the spicy Syrian Costos bums : 

 There Centaur^' supplies the wholesome flame, 

 That from Thessalian Chiron takes its name ; 



