-5 2 2 pfant "bore, iQeger^j, an^ Isijcic/. 



either for sickness or wound." And he goes on to describe a 

 variety of medicinal uses for the bark, buds, berries, leaves, and 

 flowers; summing up the virtues of the Elder with the remark that 

 " every part of the tree is useful, as may be seen at large in Block- 

 witzius's anatomic thereof." In this work is the following descrip- 

 tion of an amulet for the use of an epileptic subjedt, which is to be 

 made of the Elder growing on a Sallow : — " If in the month of Odto- 

 ber, a little before the full moon, you pluck a twig of the Elder, and 

 cut the cane that is betwixt two of its knees, or knots, in nine pieces, 

 and these pieces, being bound in a piece of linen, be in a thread so 

 hung about the neck that they touch the spoon of the heart, or the 

 sword-formed cartilage ; and, that they may stay more firmly in that 

 place, they are to be bound thereon with a linen or leather roller 

 wrapt about the body, till the thread break of itself. The thread 

 being broken, and the roller removed, the amulet is not at all to be 

 touched with bare hands, but it ought to be taken hold on by some 

 instrument, and buried in a place that nobody may touch it." 



One mode of charming warts away is to take an Elder-shoot, 

 and rub it on the part, then cut as many notches on the twig as 

 you have warts, bury it in a place where it will soon decay, and as 

 it rots away the warts will disappear. Another plan is to obtain a 

 green Elder-stick, and rub the warts well with it, after which bury 

 the stick to rot away in muck. 



The black berries of the Elder are full of a deep violet-coloured 

 juice, which, according to Virgil, the god Pan had his face smeared 

 with, in compliance with the old Roman custom of painting their 

 gods on solemn occasions. 



To dream of Elder-berries denotes sickness. The tree is under 

 the dominion of Venus. 



ELECAMPANE. — Of the Elecampane {Inula Helenimn), 

 Rapin writes : — 



" Elecampane, the beauteous Helen's flower, 

 Mingles among the rest her silver store ; 

 Helen, whose charms could royal breasts inspire 

 With such fierce flames as set the world on fire." 



When Paris carried off the celebrated Helen, the lovely wife of 

 Menelaus was said to have had in her hand a nosegay of the bright 

 yellow flowers of the Elecampane, which was thenceforth named 

 Helenium, in her honour. The Romans employed the roots of 

 Elecampane as an edible vegetable ; the monks, who knew it as 

 Inula campana, considered it capable of restoring health to the 

 heart ; and the herbalists deemed it marvellously good for many 

 disorders, and admirable as a pedloral medicine. Elecampane 

 lozenges have long been popular. Turner, in his ' Brittish Physi- 

 cian,' calls the Inula campana, the Sun-flower, and says that the 

 root chewed fastens loose teeth, and preserves them from rotting, 

 and that the distilled water of the green leaves makes the face 



