60 On the Medical Virtues, $s>c. 



powers of this vegetable, may consult the Botanolo- 

 gia Medica of Zorn ; a dissertation, by Houckius, 

 de Hyperico, alii s fug a daemonum, &c. ; and the Ap- 

 paratus Medicaminum of Murray*. It is, unques- 

 tionably, a plant of no mean powers, though its use 

 may (as Dr. Withering says) be " very much unde- 

 termined." 



Mr. Bingley informs us, in his Tour, that on the 

 Eve of St. John the Baptist, the inhabitants of North- 

 Wales fix sprigs of this plant over their doors, and 

 sometimes over their windows, in order to purify 

 their houses, and by that means drive away all fiends, 

 and evil spirits, in the same manner as the Druids 

 were accustomed to do with the Verbena, or Ver- 

 vain. Similar notions concerning the anti-daemonic 

 virtue of the St. John's- Wort have prevailed in Ger- 

 many, and other countries of Europe. A history of 

 the superstitious opinions and practices of mankind, con- 

 cerning different species of plants, is a desideratum in 

 science and literature. Such a work, if well execut- 

 ed, might serve to throw considerable light upon the 

 original and migrations of nations, and would even 

 enlarge the stock of our knowledge concerning the 

 operations of the human mind. 



Editor, 



* Vol. iii. p. 518 — 525. 



