BOTRYCHIUM LUNAEIA. 319 



Gerarde says, " it is singular to heale green and fresh 

 wounds : * *^' * it hath been vsed among the Alchymists 

 and witches to doe wonders withall, who say that it will loose 

 lockes, and make them to fall from the feet of horses that grase 

 where it doth grow, and hath been called of them Martagon ; 

 whereas in truth they are all but drowsie dreames and illu- 

 sions ; but it is singular for wounds as aforesaid," — Ger. Em. 

 407. Both Gerarde and Eay (Rail Syn. 128) speak of its 

 -pirtues as a remedy for dysentery. Parkinson adds that " some 

 Alhymists also in former times have wonderfuU extolled it to 

 condensate or convert Quicksilver into pure silver, but all these 

 tales were but the breath of idle headed persons, which divers 

 to their cost and losse of time and labour have found true, and 

 and now are vanished away with them, like the air or smoake 

 therein."— Park. The. 508. 



