48 FAMILIAR WILD FLOWERS. 



Wort was called the H. villosum or the Androsamum 

 Ursutum. Woodville, in his " Medical Botany," published 

 in 1790, tells us that the H. perforatum was "in great 

 request with the ancients, who prescribed it in hysteria, 

 hypochondriasis, and mania. They also imagined that it 

 had the peculiar power of curing demoniacs, and thence 

 obtained the name of Faga dtemonum" Hence its blossoms 

 were hung by the peasantry both of England, France, and 

 Germany in their windows to avert the evil eye and the 

 power of the spirits cf darkness. " Gathered upon a 

 Friday, in the hour of Jupiter, when he comes to his 

 operation, so gathered, or borne, or hung upon the neck, it 

 nightly helps to drive away all phantastical spirits." As 

 we find that the old writers class many of the species of 

 St. John's Wort together, and fail to discriminate the hairy 

 St. John's Wort at all, we may readily assume that the 

 plant we represent often took the place of other species and 

 shared to the full in all their mystic virtues, some of which 

 were of a less sombre character. 



