352 WILD FLOWERS. 



East the artemisia is used as a charm against witch- 

 craft ; and after certain ceremonies have been duly 

 performed in gathering it, such as plucking it on 

 the fifth day of the fifth moon, it is hung up in 

 doorways for the purpose. 



The wormwoods are successfully employed by the 

 peasantry in cases of pulmonary weakness, and even 

 of consumption ; and any old woman on the Scot- 

 tish coast can tell how it happened that the herb 

 was first tried for these complaints. The univer- 

 sally-believed story is, that, in the good old days, 

 a young and lovely girl lay dying of consumption, 

 when her lover, wandering out disconsolately on the 

 silent shore, was attracted by the sound of a gently 

 murmured song, to which, for some time, he paid no 

 attention: until, on turning round the point of a 

 rock, he observed a mermaid sporting in the ebbing 

 waves. Arousing himself from his all-absorbing 

 grief, he soon discovered the burden of her song 

 to be the following words : 



" For why should maidens die, 



When the nettle grows in March, 

 And mug-wort in July ?" 



and naturally obeying the oracular advice, he has- 

 tened home to administer an infusion of mug-wort 

 to her in whom his every hope was centred. This 

 done, she fell into a quiet and natural sleep, and, by 

 a continued use of the prescribed remedy, she was 

 ultimately restored to health ; from which time, as 

 may be supposed, the injunctions of the benevolent 

 mermaid were implicitly followed in similar cases. 

 As, in common with all the corymblferce, the 



