SUPPOSED QUALITIES OF VERVAIN. 95 



produces this plant is such as the " tree doth ex- 

 cerne and cannot assimilate. 1 ' These circumstances, 

 and its great dissimilarity from the plant on which 

 it vegetates, all combine to render it a subject of 

 superstitious wonder : but that a lowly, ineffective 

 herb like our vervain should have stimulated the 

 imaginations of the priests of Rome, of Gaul, and 

 of Greece, the magi of India, and the Druids of 

 Britain, is passing comprehension ; and, as Pennant 

 observes, " so general a consent proves that the 

 custom arose before the different nations had lost all 

 communication with each other. 31 We might with 

 some appearance of reason, perhaps, name the 

 Druids of Gaul as the point, whence certain mys- 

 teries and observances were conveyed to the priest- 

 hood of various nations ; but it would be difficult 

 to assign a motive for their fixing upon such plants 

 as vervain, and some others, to give efficacy to their 

 ceremonies and rites. In some of the Welsh coun- 

 ties vervain is known by the name of u llyssiaur 

 hudol," the enchanter's plant. It seems to have 

 had ascribed to it the power of curing the bites of 

 all rabid animals, arresting the progress of the 

 venom of serpents, reconciling antipathies^ concili- 

 ating friendships, &c. Gerard, after detailing some 

 of its virtues from Pliny, observes^ that " many 

 odde old wives' fables are written of vervaine tend- 

 ing to witchcraft and sorcerie, which you may read 

 elsewhere, for I am not willing to trouble you with 

 reporting such trifles as honest ears abhorre to 

 hear." To us moderns its real virtues are unknown ; 



