436 CARDAMINE HIRSUTA OR SYLVATICA. [Muyf 



SUPERSTITIOUS USES OE PLANTS. 

 By Geo. Jordan. 



Herbs were first used medicinally by tbe pagan priests^ in tbe 

 earlier ages of the world. They dedicated them to their gods, 

 who endowed each herb with supernatural -vdrtues. In after- times 

 the monks continued to practise physic like the pagan priests, 

 but dedicated the plants to the Saints. They, as did the pagan 

 priests, practised the healing art in all its kinds, using charms, 

 amulets, and many other mystic rites, which still are frequently 

 made use of in rustic practice. 



If a leaf of Potentilla reptans (Creeping Cinquefoil) is laid 

 under the head on Midsummer Night, the person would surely 

 dream of his or her future partner in conjugal felicity. 



For the hooping-cough, seek a Bramble that groweth at both 

 ends, and hold it up while the afflicted is passed under and over 

 nine times. Another remedy for the same complaint is to look 

 for a person riding on a piebald horse, ask him what is good for 

 the chin-cough ; that which he recommends is considered infal- 

 lible. The rider is fully prepared with an answer, for when this 

 disease is prevalent he becomes a person of some importance. 



As an amulet, to cause children to cut their teeth without pain, 

 the roots or stems of Hyoscyamus niger are cut into beads and 

 hung round the child's neck. After the same manner Verbena 

 officinalis is used for the cure of scrofula. For the cure of rup- 

 ture (hernia) seek an Ash-tree which has not lost a branch, care- 

 fully slit it through, then pass the afflicted through this slit nine 

 times, then carefully bind up the tree, and as it heals so will the 

 aperture in the person. It would be much more rational to bind 

 up properly the diseased part ; then a cure might be expected. 

 Nine is a mystic number : medicine must be taken nine times 

 to be of any use. 



CAEDAMINE HIESUTA OE SYLVATICA, OE BOTH. 



Only recently I spent the three last weeks of September and 

 the first week of October among the hills of Clent, in Wor- 

 cestershire and Shropshire. The above plant or plants were 

 flowering in the greatest profusion in the fir-woods between 



