CHAPTER VIII 



A BUNDLte OF BITTER HERBS 



' Some Camomile doth not amiss. 

 With Savory and some Tansey.' 



'Many Herbes and flowers that have small beautie or savour 

 to commend them have much more good use and vertue.' 



Wormwood, Artemisia absinthium; Rue, Ruta 

 graveolens ; Camomile, Anthemis nobilis ; Hore- 

 hound, Marrubium vulgare ; and Tansy, Tanacetum 

 vulgare — all these are bitter Herbs indeed, but no 

 Herb-garden would be complete without them : 

 great is their virtue. 



Worm,wood, with the exception of Rue, is the 

 bitterest Herb known ; but everyone must look 

 on it with interest, if only because of its respon- 

 sibility for the world-famous absinthe. In France 

 whole fields of it are grown for no other object 

 than the making of this terrible cordial, or poison 

 — which should we call it? The plant is not 



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