THE ALKANETS 89 



more especially in our northern and eastern districts. 

 Dioscorides and other venerable authorities held it 

 good as an antidote against the bites and stings of 

 noxious and venomous things. As our ancestors 

 had a morbid terror of such attacks from the adder, 

 shrew-mouse, spider, scorpion, and other creatures, 

 the alkanet was held by them in high esteem. Its 

 name is Greek in its origin, and refers to its sup- 

 posed constringent power. The somewhat bitter 

 root was, according to Parkinson, 1 " thereby fit both 

 to condensate the thinne humours in the body and 

 to extenuate those that are thicke, and as well to 

 cleanse the chollericke as to wash the salt humours 

 therein." " The oyntment that is made with a pint 

 of good sallet oyle, wherein two ounces of the rootes 

 of alkanet and twenty earthworms hath beene boyled 

 and afterward strayned forth and kept in a pot, is a 

 singular good salve to use for any fresh wounds, 

 made either crosse the flesh, or deepe thrusts there- 

 into, as also where nerves and sinewes are, to con- 

 solidate and knit them againe. Workemen of all 

 sorts, that use sharpe and pointed tooles, ought to 

 have it familiar among them, to use upon all 

 occasiones of harme." The flowers are very 

 attractive to bees and other insects. 



Our second alkanet, the Anchusa sempervirens, 

 which we have figured on Plate VI., is a particularly 



1 Or according to a dozen other old writers, as they all 

 copied from each other. 



