286 ON THE TAMARISK, OR TAMARIX. 



I The Romans considered it an accursed plant, and frequently speak 

 of it as the unhappy Tamarisk, as it was used for wreaths to put on 

 the heads of criminals. But as a remedy for diseases of the spleen 

 it was considered of such efficacy that drinking-cups were made out 

 of this wood for those that laboured under this complaint, and the 

 physicians ordered their patients to eat out of dishes formed from 

 Tamarisk wood. 



The magicians used it to impose upon the credulous by their pre- 

 tended magical powers, and they ascribed qualities to this plant too 

 much against common reason and decency to mention. Pliny men- 

 tions its use for besoms amongst the Romans. 



It is found abundantly on the mountains of Dauria and Caucasus 

 in the Russian empire, and the Russians and Tartars use a decoction 

 of the twigs in the gout and rheumatism, and contusions of the limbs, 

 as a fomentation ; they also drink it in case of internal injury. They 

 make handles for whips, &c, of the wood. 



Dr. Smith remarked this plant in great plenty in Italy about 

 Sinigaglia, and all along the hedges near the sea, where the sheep 

 preferred it to every other food, never touching any other vegetable 

 while that remained. It grows plentifully also on the coast in Algiers, 

 as well as in Japan. In some places it grows to a tree of middle 

 size, but in England it remains as a shrub, seldom exceeding three 

 yards in height. 



The Tamarisk thrives in bleak situations by the sea-side, where 

 most other trees and shrubs are cut off by the blast, for the branches 

 of this plant are so pliable that they bend without resisting the 

 slightest gale, thus reminding us of the fable of the reed and the oak, 

 or the lines of Hurdis : — 



" And so the storm, 



That makes the high elm couch, and rends the oak, 

 The humble lily spares. A thousand blows, 

 That shake the lofty monarch on his throne, 

 We lesser folks feel not. Keen are the pains 

 Advancement often brings. To be secure, 

 Be humble ; to be happy, be content." 



We have few shrubs more graceful than the Tamarisk, its slender 

 branches being covered with a chestnut-coloured bark, and garnished 

 with very narrow leaves, lying over each other like the scales of fish, 



