380 pPant Isof©, Tsegcl^t)/, ari^ Isqric/, 



cures passed their patients (generally) nine times through a girth 

 or garland of green Woodbine. In Lower Germany, the Honey- 

 suckle is called Albranke, the witch snare. Astrologers consider 



Woodbine to be under the rule of Mercury. 



HOP. — The Hop {Htmttlus Lnpulus) is referred to in an old 

 English proverb : — 



" Till St. James's day be come and gone, 

 There may be Hops and there may be none." 



The cultivated Hop, however, was not brought into England until 

 the reign of Henry VHI., when it was imported from Flanders, as 

 recorded in the distich : — 



" Hops and turkeys, mackerel and beer, 

 Came to England all in one year." 



The Hop-leaf has become in Russia proverbial as the best of 

 leaves. King Vladimir, in 985, when signing a peace with the 

 Bulgars, swore to keep it till stone swam on the water, or Hop-leaves 

 sank to the bottom. It is a very old custom in Russia to cover the 

 head of a bride with Hop-leaves — typifying joy, abundance, and 



intoxication. Astrologers place Hops under the rule of Mars. 



HO RE HOUND. — Horehound (Marrubium) is the Herb which 

 the Egyptians dedicated to their god Horus, and which the priests 

 called the Seed of Horus, or the Bull's Blood, and the Eye of the 

 Star. Strabo attributed to the plant magical properties as a 

 counter-poison. Horehound is one of the five plants which are 

 stated by the Mishna to be the "bitter herbs" ordered to be taken 

 by the Jews at the Feast of the Passover. An infusion of its leaves 

 has an ancient reputation as being valuable in consumptive cases, 

 coughs, and colds, and, according to Gerarde, " is good for them 

 that have drunke poyson, or that have been bitten of serpents." 

 It is a herb of Mercury, hot in the second degree and dry in the 



third. To dream of Horehound indicates that you will suffer 



imprisonment. 



HORNBEAM. — Gerarde tells us that the Horn Beam (Car- 

 pinus Betulus) was so called from its wood having been used to 

 yoke horned cattle, as well by the Romans in olden times as in his 

 own time and country, and growing so hard and tough with age as 

 to be more like horn than wood. Hence it was also called Hard- 

 beam and Yoke-Elm. Evelyn says the tree was called Horse- 

 Beech ; and in Essex it is known as the Witch-Hazel. -In the 



country distri(5ls around Valenciennes, there is a pleasant custom 

 on May-day morning, when, over the doorway of their sweethearts, 

 rustic lovers hasten to suspend, as a sign of their devotion, branches 

 of Hornbeam or Birch. 



HORSE-CHESNUT. — It has been suggested that the 

 Horse-Chesnut {^sculus Hippocastanuni) derived its name from the 

 resemblance of the cicatrix of its leaf to a horse-shoe, with all its 



