HEDGEHOG.] NATURAL HISTORY. 149 



Heath. 



TEMPEST, i. I, 70. 



THE tender tops and flowers are good to be laid upon 

 the bitings and stingings of any venomous beast ; of these 

 flowers the bees do gather bad honey. 



Gerard's "Herbal," s.v. 



THE leaf of this plant is an enemy to serpents. 



Holland's Pliny, bk. xxiv. ch. ix. 



IF it be eaten alone, it induces head-ache, therefore it 

 should be eaten with lettuce or endive. If mixed with 

 milk or vinegar and lozenges made of it, it can keep flesh 

 from putrefaction. Hortus Sanitatis, bk. i. 176. 



A KIND of broom, whereof brushes be made. 



Minsherfs Dictionary, s.v. 



Hedgehog. 



MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, ii. 2, 9. 



THE Urchin is a beast heled with pricks, hard and sharp, 

 and his skin is closed about with pikes and pricks, and he 

 closeth himself therewith. And is a beast of purveyance ; 

 for he climbeth upon a vine or an apple-tree, and shaketh 

 down grapes and apples. And when they be felled, he 

 walloweth on them, and sticketh his pricks in them, and 

 so beareth meat to his children in that manner wise. And 

 there is a manner kind of Urchins with a white shell and 

 white pikes, and layeth many eggs. Also the urchin hath 

 feeble hearing, more feeble than other beasts with hard 

 shells, and that go on four feet. In Urchins is wit and 

 knowing of coming of winds north or south ; for he maketh 

 a den in the ground when he is ware that such winds 

 come. And so sometime was one in Constantinople, that 

 had an Urchin, and knew and warned thereby that winds 

 should come, and of what side, and none of his neighbours 

 wist whereby he had such knowledge and warning. Also 

 the Urchin breedeth five eggs better than other, and the eggs 

 of some be much and great, and some be less ; for some 



