WILD FLOWERS. 



vailed that if taken in great excess it would pro- 

 duce death by involuntary laughter. "Saffron/' 

 we are told by Machet, is esteemed, " en medicine, 

 comme carminatif, cephalique, cordial, stomachique, 

 &c., mais on ne doit en faire usage interieurement 

 qu'a tris petites doses, et a propos" Maister 

 Christopher Cattan, in his "Geomancie"* thus 

 enlarges on, and explains these enlivening proper- 

 ties ; " The saffron hath power to quicken th e 

 spirits ; and the virtue thereof pierceth by and by 

 to the heart, provoking laughter and merrines [mer- 

 riment] : and they say, that these properties come 

 by the influence of the sun, vnto whome it is sub- 

 ject, from whom she is ayded, by his subtill nature 

 bright and sweete smellinge." Hill, in his "Herbal/' 

 declares that " the whole compass of medicine does 

 not afford a nobler cordial or sudorifick ; " and 

 Gerarde says, that though it causes headache, and 

 hurts the brain if taken in very large quantities, 

 its moderate use is good for the head, maketh 

 the senses more quick, and lively, merry, and less 

 sleepy, strengthening the heart and lungs, and being 

 " especial good " for consumption, even if the patient 

 be " at death's door/' For yellow jaundice, too, he 

 commends it following the Rosicrucian doctrine of 

 signatures and for "plasters to sores;" adding, 

 that it is much used in illuminating, and other 

 painting. These praises Blanchard ridicules, adding 

 however that it " undoubtedly does much hurt 

 many times by inflaming the blood." It was also 



* "The Geomancie of Maister Christopher Cattan, Gentle- 

 man," London, V. Yoolfe, 1591. A rare and curious volume 

 on Astrology. 



