THE BETONY AND BUTCHER'S BROOM 427 



The virtues of the wood betony were formerly 

 believed to be so numerous as to have given rise 

 to more than one proverb. * Sell your coat and 

 buy betony ;' ' He has more virtues than betony,' 

 etc., serve to show how highly it was esteemed, and 

 it is doubtless not without some medicinal value 

 as a mild tonic. Not the least of its supposed 

 good qualities was the power it was credited with 

 of being an efficient charm against the influence 

 of evil spirits, and for this purpose it was often 

 planted in churchyards. Gout, dropsy, jaundice, 

 palsy, convulsions for each and all of these, and 

 ever so many more ailments, it was believed to be 

 a sovereign remedy. In olden times 'faith-heal- 

 ing' must have flourished exceedingly, since the 

 use of the betony, and the majority of the plants 

 in which so much confidence was anciently reposed, 

 is now almost abandoned. The red-purple flowers 

 of the betony are conspicuous in most of our woods 

 and moorlands from June to August. 



The butcher's broom is nowhere very common 

 in England, and chiefly to be met with in the 

 Southern counties, where the soil is sandy and 

 gravelly. The red berries of this shrub are as 

 brilliant as those of the holly, though less numerous, 

 and less visible by reason of their peculiar growth, 

 being borne on the leaves themselves, and not on 

 the stems of the plant. The name of butcher's 

 broom is derived from the sprays having been 

 used by butchers for the purpose of sweeping 

 their blocks ; it also is termed knee-holly, Jews' 



