154 THE OLD ENGLISH HERBALS 



13. Grasses Rushes and Reeds. 



14. Marsh Water and Sea plants and Mosses and Mushromes. 



15. The Unordered Tribe. 



16. Trees and Shrubbes. 



17. Strange and Outlandish Plants. 



Under " The Unordered Tribe " we find the naive remark : 

 " In this tribe as in a gathering campe I must take up all those 

 straglers that have either lost their rankes or were not placed 

 in some of the foregoing orders that so I may preserve them from 

 losse and apply them to some convenient service for the worke " \ 



It is surprising how much folk lore survives even in Parkin- 

 son's Herbal. Like Gerard, he pours scorn on a good many 

 contemporary beliefs, but many he accepts unquestioningly, 

 especially those concerning the use of herbs as amulets and also 

 for the promotion of happiness. He gives also some old garden- 

 ing beliefs not to be found in other herbals, but very common 

 in contemporary books on gardening and husbandry, and more 

 bee lore tha'n most herbals contain. Nearly all the old herbahsts 

 believed in the value of growing balm near the beehives, and 

 also of rubbing the hive with this herb, but Parkinson alone 

 tells us of the harmful effects of woad : ^ " Some have sowen 

 it but they have founde it to be the cause of the Destruction 

 of their Bees, for it hath been observed that they have dyed as 

 it were of a Fhx that have tasted hereof." Of balm,^ however, 

 he writes : " it is an hearbe wherein Bees do much delight 

 both to have their Hives rubbed therewith to keepe them 

 together and draw others and for them to suck and feed upon." 

 Elsewhere he tells us that " it hath been observed that bees 

 will hardly thrive well where many Elmes doe grow or at least 

 if they upon their first going forth abroad after Winter doe 

 light on the bloomings or seed thereof." ^ Of the sweet-smelling 

 flag he says : " it is verily believed of many that the leaves 



1 Thealrum Boianicum, p. 601. 



2 Ibid., p. 43. 3 75^-^^ p 1^05. 



