THE SWALLOW’S HERB. 279 
Old authors tell us that when the young swallows are 
hatched, they are blind for some time, and that the parent 
birds bring to the nest a plant called Chelidonium, or 
Swallow’s herb, which has the property of restoring sight. 
This popular fallacy appears to be widely disseminated. 
The plant is the well-known Celandine (Chelidonium majus). 
It belongs to the Papaveracee, or poppies, and may be 
found growing in waste places to the height of two feet 
or more. It is brittle, slightly hairy, and full of a yellow, 
foetid juice, and bears small yellow flowers in long-stalked 
umbels. 
The name Chelidonium is derived no doubt from the 
Greek x2Adwv, a swallow ; but the reason for its being thus 
named is not so obvious. Some authors assert that it was 
‘so called on account of its flowering about the time of the 
arrival of the swallow, while others maintain that it derived 
its appellation from being the plant medicinally made use 
of by that bird. 
The belief that animals and birds possess a knowledge 
of certain plants which will cure a disease, or benefit them 
in some way, is very ancient, and this particular plant is 
alluded to by old authors as being especially selected for 
the purpose. Pliny observes (Hist. Nat. fol. 1530, p. 461, 
xv.): “Animalia quoque invenire herbas, cprimisque 
chelidoniam. ac enim hirundines oculis pullorum in nido 
restituunt visum, ut quidam volunt, etiam erutis oculis.” (!) 
And the same author further remarks: ‘“ Chelidoniam visui 
