288 WILD FLO WEES. 



The whole plant is intensely bitter, as is in- 

 timated by its popular Italian and Welsh names, 

 Fide di terra and Bustl y ddaer, both signifying 

 gall of the earth ; and the medicinal principle extends 

 throughout the whole plant, though, I believe, that 

 in the shops it is the corymb only which is sold. 

 The best time for gathering it is in July and August, 

 when it is in flower, and when, consequently, its 

 juices are most vigorous, and its secretions most 

 abundant ; so that the so-called " superstition " 

 respecting the two lady-days is in reality little more 

 than an assertion of the proper time for gathering it, 

 a sort of memoria technica to prevent the careful 

 housewife from neglecting to store it up in due sea- 

 son. I may add that a decoction of the plant is 

 employed as a wash for the purpose of destroying 

 insects, and that the " leeches " of Southern Europe 

 employed it in the sixteenth century, for the same 

 purposes as their descendants still do. Battista 

 Guarini, in his " Pastor Fido/' after alluding to an 

 herb which the woodgoat seeks when wounded, 

 adds 



# * * " e quivi 



Tratone succo, e misto 



Con seme di verbena, e la radice 



Giuntavi del centauro, un molle emplastro 



Ne feo sopra la piaga. 



Oh, mirabil virtu ! cessa il dolore 



Subiamente, e si ristagna il sangue ; 



E '1 ferro indi a non molto, 



Senza fatica o pena, 



La man seguendo, ubbidiente n'esce. 



Torn6 il vigor nella donzella, come 



Se non avesse mai piaga sofferta : 



