46 FAMILIAR WILD FLOWERS. 



Slan-lus, or plant of healing ; and the old herbal s are full 

 of its commendation, and abound in suggestions for its use 

 in all sorts of directions. Dioscorides, Galen, and many 

 others of the ancient writers, bestowed on it lavish praise 

 for its services in all inflammations, bleedings, the bites of 

 mad dogs, of scorpions, and of venomous serpents, for 

 ophthalmia, insanity, hysteria, asthma, phthisis, fevers, 

 ague, and many others of the ills of suffering humanity, 

 applying it internally, or in poultices, fomentations, gar- 

 gles, and so forth in fact, in every way in which it was 

 possible to turn its services to account. All these details 

 of the ancients are carefully reproduced by the mediaeval 

 writers as, for instance, that " the juice mixed with oyle 

 of roses, and the temples and forehead anointed herewith, 

 easeth the paines of the head proceeding from heate, and 

 helpeth franticke and lunaticke persons very much, as also 

 the bitings of serpents or a madde dogge." Erasmus, in 

 his " Colloquia/' tells a story of a toad, who, being bitten 

 by a spider, was straightway freed from any poisonous 

 effects he may have dreaded by the prompt eating of a 

 plantain leaf; and a relative of our own informed us 

 that in the United States the plant is called snake- 

 weed, from a belief in its efficacy in cases of bites from 

 venomous creatures. A favourite dog of his was one day 

 stung by a rattle-snake, and a preparation of the juice of 

 the plantain and salt was as promptly as possible applied 

 to the wound. The poor animal was in great agony, but 

 quickly recovered, and shook off all trace of its misadventure. 

 The greater, or broad-leaved, plantain is almost cos- 

 mopolitan. It would almost appear to possess a peculiar 

 sense of companionship and domesticity, for it has followed 

 the migrations of our colonists to every part of the world, 



