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 Papaveracece, 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 ^eXiJojv, 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, inprimisque 

 chelidoniam. Hac enim hirundines oculis pullorum in nido 

 restituunt visum, ut quidam volunt, etiam erutis oculis." (!) 

 And the same author further remarks : " Chelidoniam visui 



