112 OUR ROCK-GARDEN 



for instance, reports it as " of singular force against 

 the Tertian and Quartan Feuers," but cautions 

 his readers to "observe mother Bombies rule, to 

 take iust so many knots or sprigs and no more, 

 lest it fall out that it do you no good, if you catch 

 no harm." The " just so many " that Mrs. Bombey 

 stipulated for being, of course, either three or four, 

 according to the nature and recurrence of the fever. 

 By Gerard's time, however, the belief in the super- 

 natural and magical powers of the vervain had 

 worn rather thin, as he goes on to say, " Many 

 odde olde wives fables are written of vervaine 

 tending to witchcraft and sorcerie, which you may 

 read elsewhere, for I am not willing to trouble 

 your eares with reporting such trifles as honest 

 eares abhore to heare." Few plants were held, 

 for centuries, in greater medicinal reputation than 

 the vervain, while certainly few have been so com- 

 pletely disregarded in these later days. Its use 

 in jaundice, gout, ague, the healing of wounds, 

 ophthalmia, toothache, ulceration of the throat, 

 and many other ailments, was warmly extolled ; 

 hence one old name for the plant was the simpler's 

 joy, the demand for the plant in medicine making 

 the gathering of it by the herbalist a highly lucra- 

 tive business. Those who would seek it may find 

 it readily enough in many localities in England 

 though it is a rare plant in Ireland and Scotland 

 its favourite spot being the roadside. 



