1859.] CHAPTERS ON BRITISH BOTANY. 207 



eartli by way of expiation. They say also that a circle must he 

 traced arouud it with iron, after which it must he taken up with 

 the left hand, etc. If the banqueting-couch be sprinkled with 

 water wherein it has been steeped, merriment and hilarity will be 

 greatly promoted.^^ 



It is probable, after all, that this "holy herb,'' hierobotane, 

 was not the name of any particular plant, but rather a name 

 Avhich was indifferently applied to all plants used in sacred or 

 sacrificial rites. 



The Selago was also renowned in Druidical mythology, and is 

 now so obscure that the most discordant species, genera, and even 

 Orders, have been conjectured to be the plant. " Most authors,^' 

 Dr. Pulteney says, " have agreed, from this resemblance (viz. that 

 of the leaves to Savin-leaves) , that it is Lycopodium Selago, a spe- 

 cies of Club-moss." The likeness is not great between a shrub 

 several feet high or long — for it is usually prostrate — and a plant 

 only a few inches high, and found only on boggy parts of lofty 

 mountains. The Druids were too good judges of what was likely 

 to impose on the credulity of their disciples to make choice of so 

 insignificant a plant as the L. Selago. Juniper is far more likely 

 to have been the Selago of the Druids than a Club-moss is. This 

 does grow in Britain plentifully, in most mountainous and hilly 

 parts of the country. The plant might have been what we now 

 call Herb -of- Grace, in Cambro-British Gras Duw, or Ruta gra- 

 veolens. This is not a native, but it is well known at the Old 

 Bailey as the Herb-of-Repentance. It has a very strong smell. 

 It might have been our Meadow Rue, Thalictrum flavum or T. 

 minus, or it may have been some member of the Labiate family. 

 " It was to be gathered without the use of iron, with the right 

 hand passed through the left sleeve of the tunic ; the feet of the 

 gatherer were to be bare, and washed clean, and a sacrifice of 

 bread and wine must be offered before gathering it. It was car- 

 ried also in a new napkin. The Druids of Gaul pretended that 

 it was a preservative against accidents of all kinds, and that the 

 smoke of it is good for all maladies of the eyes." (Pliny^ book 

 xxiv. ch. 62.) 



Equally doubtful is the identity of Samolus, another Druidical 

 plant. Sprengel says it was the same as our modern Samolus 

 Valerancli, because it grows in humid situations. But for the 

 same reason it might be Menyanthes trifoliata, or Bog-bean, or 



