,14 pfant "bore, "bcger^/, and. TsLjric/, 



of a Nettle to apply a cold Dock-leaf to the inflamed spot, the 

 following well-known rhyme being thrice repeated : — 



" Out Nettle, in Dock : 

 Dock shall have a new smock." 



Docks are said by astrologers to be under the dominion of Jupiter. 



DRAC-/ENA. — The Dracaena, or Dragon-tree (Draccsna 

 Draco), derives its name from the Greek Drakaina, a female dragon. 

 This tree is found in the East India Islands, the Canaries, Cape 

 Verde, and Sierra Leone. Gerarde thus describes it : — " This 

 strange and admirable tree groweth very great, resembling the Pine- 

 tree." Among its leaves " come forth little mossie floures, of small 

 moment, and turn into berries of the bignesse of Cherries, of a 

 yellowish colour, round, light, and bitter, covered with a threefold 

 skin, or film, wherein is to be seen, as Monardus and divers others 

 report, the form of a dragon, having a long neck and gaping mouth, 

 the ridge, or back, armed with sharp prickles like the porcupine, 

 with a long taile and foure feet, very easie to be discerned .... 

 The trunk, or body of the tree, is covered with a tough bark, very 

 thin and easie to be opened or wounded with any small toole 

 or instrument ; which being so wounded in the dog days, bruised 

 or bored, yields forth drops of a thick red liquor of the name of the 

 tree called Dragon's Tears, or Sanguis Draconis, Dragon's Bloud." 



This Dragon's Blood, or Gum Dragon, is well known in 



medicine as an astringent. The tooth-brushes called Dragon's- 



root, are made from the root of the Dragon-tree, cut into pieces 

 about four inches long, each of which is beaten at one end with a 



wooden mallet to split it into fibres. The venerable Dragon-tree 



of Orotava was for many centuries worshipped as a most sacred 

 tree by the Guanches, or original inhabitants of the Canary Islands. 

 It was considered the twin wonder of the Island of Teneriffe, 

 dividing its interest with the mighty Peak. Humboldt saw it in 

 1 799, when it was considered the oldest and largest of living trees (the 

 giant trees of California being then unknown). The great traveller 

 writes concerning it : — " Its trunk is divided into a great number of 

 branches, which rise in the form of candelabra, and are terminated 

 by tufts of leaves like the Yucca : it still bears every year both 

 leaves and fruit : its aspecfl feelingly recalls to mind that ' eternal 

 youth of Nature,' which is an inexhaustible source of motion and 

 of life." Since then this sacred tree has been entirely shattered 

 and destroyed by successive storms. 



Dream Plant, — See Pulsatilla. 



DRYAS. — The pretty evergreen, Dryas, which blooms on 

 the mountain summits, was so named by Linnaeus after the Dryades, 

 or nymphs of the Oaks, — the leaves bearing some resemblance to 

 those of the Oak. 



DURIAN. — The Durian {Durio Zihethinus) is a native of the 

 East Indies. The fruit of this tree, which is about the size of a 



