SHEPHERD'S PURSE 171 



Greek chelidon, a swallow, in allusion to its flowering when these birds 

 appear; and majus is Latin for greater. 



The English names are Celandine, Celidony, Cock-foot, Devil's 

 Milk, Fellon-wort, Jacob's Ladder, Killwart, Saladine, Selendine, 

 Swallow-wort, Tetter-wort, Wart-flower, Wartweed, Wartwort, Wret- 

 weed. It is named Sollendine in Ireland, where it is used for sore 

 eyes. In allusion to the name Celandine it was believed the swallow 

 found it to be an eye salve, and used it for its young. The acrid juice 

 gave rise to the name Devil's Milk. It was also named Kenning Herb, 

 a kenning being an ulcer in the corner of the eye, which it was held to 

 cure. Gerarde calls it Swallow-wort "because it first springeth at the 

 coming in of the swallows, or dieth when they go away, for it may be 

 found all the year, but because some hold opinion that with this herbe 

 the dams restore eyesight to their young ones when their eye be put 

 out ". Such was the peculiar belief our forefathers had about this 

 peculiar plant. Thus further Coles, in The Art of Simples, says: 

 " The swallow cureth her dim eyes with Celandine, the Wesell knoweth 

 well the virtues of herb-grace, the dove the verven, the dogge dis- 

 chargeth his mawe with a kind of grasse ". Probably Pliny was 

 the first to suggest the swallow legend, if he did not copy it from 

 Aristotle. 



The yellow juice is poisonous, and by the Doctrine of Signatures 

 was used in the Middle Ages as a remedy for jaundice. It was used 

 to make a plaster for sores in the head or eyes, and a drink made from 

 it was used for the blood. The root is bitter, and used medicinally 

 in Cochin China by the natives. The juice is bitter, and used for 

 ringworm, and it was said to destroy warts and cure the itch; but it is 

 not employed now except by the unexperienced as an eye salve. 



ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: 



20. Chelidonium majus, L. Stem glaucous, delicate, with yellow 

 juice; leaves pinnate; flowers small, yellow, in an umbel; petals 4, 

 capsule linear, valved; stigma 2-lobed. 



Shepherd's Purse (Capsella Bursa-pastoris, Medic.) 



Unlike flax, which is equally a weed of cultivation, Shepherd's 

 Purse is not known in any early seed-bearing deposits. It is distri- 

 buted throughout all Temperate and Arctic Europe, North Africa, and 

 Asia to the Himalayas, and has become introduced into all temperate 

 countries. This ubiquitous variable weed is found in every vice-county 

 in Great Britain, and ascends to 1200 ft. in some parts. 



