96 FAMILIAR WILD FLOWERS. 



row brother. The name feverfew, like the monkish febri- 

 f uga, testifies to the belief in its remedial powers, for fevers 

 are few, and fly away where this plant is held in proper 

 estimation. With some old writers the name is featherfew, 

 and this suggests some connection between the name and 

 the pinnate character of the leaves ; but there is little 

 doubt but that featherfew is only a perversion and corrup- 

 tion of the more ordinary name. Gerarde, we see, gives 

 it as fedderfew. 



Feverfew "dryed and made into powder, and two 

 drammes of it taken with honey, or other thing, purgeth 

 by siege Melancholy ; wherefore it is very good for such 

 as have the giddinesse and turning in the head or swim- 

 ming ; for them that are purse or troubled with the short- 

 uesse of winde, and for melancholique people, and such as 

 be sadde and pensive and without speach. The greene 

 leaves, with the flowers of feverfew stamped, is good 

 to be layde to the dissease called the wilde fyre, or Saint 

 Anthony's fyre." 



