pfanC "bore, T^egc'r^t)/, cmel 'bqric/'. 495 



sidered efficacious in complaints of the eyes, and in hypochondriacal 

 cases. Its manifold virtues have passed into a proverb : — 



" No ear hath heard, no tongue can tell, 

 The virtues of the Pimpernell." 



Pliny records that sheep avoided the blue, and ate the scarlet. Pim- 

 pernel, and that if, by mistake, they ate the blue, they immediately 

 sought for a plant which is now unknown. In Dyer's ' English 

 Folk Lore,' it is stated that, according to a MS. on magic, pre- 

 served in the Chetham Library, Manchester, " the herb Pimpernell 

 is good to prevent witchcraft, as Mother Bumby doth affirme." 

 The following lines may be used when it is gathered : — 



" Herbe Pimpernell, I have thee found, 

 Growing upon Christ Jesus' ground : 

 The same guift the Lord Jesus gave unto thee, 

 When lie shed His blood on the tree. 

 Arise up, Pimpernel, and goe with me, 

 And God blesse me. 

 And all that shall were thee. Amen." 



" Saying this fifteen daj-es together, twice a day, morning earlye 



fasting, and in the evening full." Pimpernel is considered to be 



a herb of the Sun. 



PINE. — The Pine was called the tree of Cybele (or Rhea), 

 the mother of the gods. She was passionately fond of Atys, a 

 Phrygian shepherd, and entrusted him with the care of her temple, 

 under a vow that he should always live in celibacy. This vow, 

 however, Atys violated by an amour with the nymph Sangaris, upon 

 which he became delirious, and mutilated himself with a sharp 

 stone. Then, as he was about to lay violent hands upon himself, 

 Cybele transformed him into a Pine-tree. Ovid records that — 



"To Rhea grateful still the Pine remains, 

 For Atys still some favour she retains ; 

 He once in human shape her breast had warmed, 

 And now is cherished to a tree transformed." 



Rapin considers the Pine to have been regarded by the ancients as 

 a sacred tree. He says — 



" Old Cybele changed her Atys to a Pine, 

 Which, sacred there to her, was held divine." 



After the metamorphosis of Atys into the Pine, Cybele sought 

 refuge beneath the tree's branches, and sat mourning there the loss 

 of her faithless lover, until Jupiter promised that the Pine should 

 remain ever green. It was tied to a Pine-tree, that Marsyas, the 

 Phrygian flute-player, met his death. He became enamoured of 

 Cybele, and journeyed with her as far as Nj^sa. Here 



" He Phoebus' self, the harmonious god, defied, 

 And urged to have their skill in music tried. 

 Phoebus accepts the challenge, but decreed. 

 The boaster vanquished should alive be flayed ( 

 And Marsyas vanquished (so the poet sung) 

 Was tlayed alive, and on a Pine-tree hung." — Ra/>iH. 



