354 WILD FLOWERS. 



from it ; though the fellows of All Souls' College, 

 Oxford, pride themselves in the belief that this 

 drink is unknown except at that particular abode 

 of learning. They even give to their silver cups 

 the peculiar title of " ox-eyes/' and speak distinct- 

 ively of their favourite beverage as "an ox-eye of 

 wormwood." This drink, with a slice of lemon, 

 and herb of grace, "taken fasting/' is put forth 

 as a preventive of plague in a broadsheet of the 

 seventeenth century, which is most profanely en- 

 titled, " Lord have mercy upon us." The Germans 

 also prepare a similar beverage, called Wermuth- 

 bier; and the French liqueur, eau d'absynthe, is 

 well known throughout Europe. 



We possess four, or perhaps five, wormwoods : one 

 of which, the lavender-leaved (A . ccerulescens), is re- 

 corded as occurring on the coast near Boston, and 

 also in the Isle of Wight; though, as Sir W. Hooker 

 observes, it is no longer found in either place ; 

 another, the common wormwood (A. absinthium), 

 which, from its plentiful growth and the spots it 

 selects for its habitat, is that most usually employed 

 in medicine, abounds in dry waste places about houses 

 and villages ; and marks out so definitely the dwell- 

 ings of man, that in the Pyrenees and other places 

 the spots where shepherds' huts formerly stood are 

 indicated by the occurrence of the plant, though no 

 other trace of them remains. The common mug- 

 wort (A. vulgaris), also frequents similar places, but 

 may be distinguished by its ranker growth, as it 

 usually attains a height of from three to four feet, 

 or about double that of the A. absinthium, as well 



