110 POPULAR NAMES 



HERB BENNETT, L. Herba benedicta, Blessed Herb, the 

 avens, so called, Platearius tells us, as quoted in Ort. San. 

 c. clxxix, because " where the root is in the house the devil 

 can do nothing, and flies from it : wherefore it is blessed 

 above all other herbs." He adds that if a man carries this 

 root about him, no venomous beast can harm him. The 

 author of the Ortus says further, that, where it is growing 

 in a garden, no venomous beast will approach within scent 

 of it. Geum urbanum, L. 



alst) the hemlock from the same cause perhaps, 

 since we learn from Ort. San. c. Ixxxvii, that, on Pliny's 

 authority, serpents fly from its leaves, because they also 

 chill to the death, " sye auch kelten biss auf den tod." 

 Pliny, however, alludes to a different plant from this. 



Conium maculatum, L. 



also the valerian, Sp. yerva benedetta as being a 

 preservative against all poisons, Tab. i. p. 471 ; and there- 

 fore " gut fur die biss der bosen vergifftigen thieren," says 

 Brunschwygk. Valeriana officinalis, L. 



But in point of fact the proper name of these plants was 

 not Herba benedicta, but S u - Benedicti herba, St. Benedict's 

 herb, G. Sanct Benedicten-kraut, and was assigned to such 

 as were supposed to be antidotes, in allusion to a legend of 

 St. Benedict, which represents, that upon his blessing a cup 

 of poisoned wine, which a monk had given him to destroy 

 him, the glass was shivered to pieces. (Mrs. Jameson, 

 Mon. Ord. p. 9). 



HERB CHRISTOPHER, a name vaguely applied to many 

 plants which have no qualities in common. The three to 

 which it has been given by our own writers are 

 1st, the baneberry, "but," says Parkinson, "from what 

 cause or respect it is called so, I cannot learn," 



Actsea spicata, L. 



2nd, the Osmund fern, Osmunda regalis, L. 



3rd, the fleabane, Pulicaria dysenterica, Cass. 



