THE BETONY. 273 



BETONY. 



Betonica officinnlis. 



Welsh, Cribau St. Ffraid, Llys dw^fawg. French, Betoine. 

 German, Betonie. Dutch, Betonic. Russian, Bukwiza. 

 Italian, Bettonica. Spanish and Portuguese, Betonica. 

 Illyric, Bukvica, Sarpak, Ranjenik, 



NATURAL. 



Didynania. LabiatcK. 



Gymnosperma. Tetrandrcs. 



Betonica. 



" SELL your coat and buy betony," says the old pro- 

 verb, expressing the high estimation in which our 

 forefathers held the plant, in a manner truly cha- 

 racteristic of the practical and business-like traits 

 of its British originators. "He has as many virtues 

 as betony," is the saying of the more sedate, less 

 business-like, and pre-eminently courteous Spaniard, 

 in giving utterance to a similar estimation of the 

 herb, which was formerly considered a sort of pa- 

 nacea for disease, or accident. But (alas ! for the 

 evanescence of herbaceous glories), though the plant 

 is known to possess powerful qualities, it is totally 

 discarded from the modern medicine-chest ; being, in 

 fact, too severe for a more enlightened system of prac- 

 tice ; and it is even fast fading from the memory and 

 the notice of our not over-scrupulous rustic quacks. 

 When given in the smallest doses it is violently 



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