88 Observations on some of the Medical Plants 
Thy natural magie and dire property 
On wholesome life usurp immediately.’’—Act ii. se. 1. 
(Pours the poison into the sleeper’s ears. ) 
Being a native of the countries of Circe and Medea, it was 
no doubt one of those which the latter collected to renovate 
A®son. 
«Tn such a night 
Medea gathered the enchanted herbs 
That did renew old 4son.’’ 
The Parisian Circea Lutetiana is by our botanists denomi- 
nated Enchanter’s, or Enchantress’s nightshade; but I gene- 
tally give it the shorter name of Hagwort, and, in the manner 
of Pythagoras, I dedicate it to the number 2, as the Horse- 
chestnut and Ragwort tothe numbers 7 and 13, expressive of 
the major and minor modes in music, and of the weeks and 
lunations in astronomy. 
The mandrake of Scripture, which had a remarkable 
smell, was evidently the flewer of a different plant. In Hebrew 
it is Dudain or Davidaim, as it were Flos amoris, or Flor- 
amor; and hence probably our word Daffodils . 
«That come before the swallow dares, and take 
The winds of March with beauty.”— Winter's Tale, act iv. sc. 3. 
The daffodils of Milton were, however, our Crown imperials, 
as, lamenting the death of Lycidas, he says, alluding to the 
nectaries of that flower, 
««Bid Amaranthus all his beauties shed, 
And Daffodillies fill their cups with tears, 
To strew the laureate hearse where Lycid lies.”’ 
Poppy. Waving found that our Foxglove is denominated 
poppies in the New Forest, I have inquired in this neigh- 
bourhood also, and find that it bears the same name here; 
and sometimes it is contracted into pops. A reason is given, 
that the flowers can be popped upon the hand. The Papaver 
therefore is improperly called in English by that name. The 
seeds of the purple Papaver are known by the name of maw- 
seed, which indicates the proper English appellation of that 
plant; and this agrees with its name in the different lan- 
guages that are dialects of the Teutonic, and also with the 
Greek mecon, &c. Shakspeare, however, when he alludes 
to its entering into the composition of drowsy syrups, must 
have meant the Papaver somniferum. 
Long purples. The name of Foxglove, or Folk’s-gloves, 
Finger-flower, or Digitalis, and Dogfingers, as it is called in 
Wales, together with the magnificent spike of purple flowers 
borne by the Digitalis purpurea, induce me to conjecture that 
this plant is alluded to by our illustrious poet as long purples: 
