CBOWIOOTS. 15 



are very dangerous to be taken into the body. The chiefest 

 vertue is in the roote, which, being stamped with salt, is good 

 for those that have a plague sore if it be presently tied to the 

 leg, by means whereof the poison and malignitie of the disease 

 is drawn off from the inwarde partes, for it presently raiseth a 

 blister to what part soever of the body it be applied. Apuleius 

 saith further, that if it be hanged in a linen cloth about the 

 neck of him that is lunatic, in the waine of the moon, when 

 the signe shall be in the first degree of Taurus or Scorpio, 

 that he shall forthwith be cured." Such was the strong ad-, 

 mixture of ignorance and superstition which tainted the truth 

 three centuries ago. 



There are a great number of species of Crowfoot. The 

 Creeping Crowfoot is the common Buttercup ; and the bulbous 

 and acrid species also receive the name of Buttercup (Ranun- 

 culus bulbosus). I cannot tell you in how many rambles I 

 have found these plants ; from the days when, just able to run, 

 we held the golden cups under each other's chins to see " if 

 we loved butter," to the present time each season has witnessed 



" The Buttercups across the mead 

 Make sunshine rift of splendour." 



When Fanny was searching for wild flowers in the Lizard 

 district last June, she found the Hairy Crowfoot (R. hirsutus), 

 quite abundant in the pastures ; it resembles the Creeping 

 Crowfoot, but is distinguished by its hairs and its rather 

 smaller paler flowers. A Shropshire ramble furnished Edward 

 with the Biting Crowfoot (R. sceleratus), which he found 

 growing on the margin of ponds and ditches about Kemberton. 

 I found it in similar situations in Cheshire some years ago, but 

 it is by no means a common plant. The lower leaves are 

 palmate, or cut in fingers like a hand ; the upper have only 

 three divisions. Both leaves and stem are thick and watery ; 

 the plant grows from one to two feet high, and the flowers are 

 small and uninteresting. It is the most poisonous member of 

 the family. 



