vni] Astrological Botany 2.1^ 



connection, was by no means the first writer on botanical 

 astrology. A book called 'De virtutibus herbarum,' errone- 

 ously attributed to Albertus Magnus, had a wide circulation 

 from early times, being first printed in the fifteenth century. 

 It was translated into many languages, one English version 

 appearing about 1560 under the title ' The boke of secretes 

 of Albartus Magnus, of the vertues of Herbes, stones and 

 certaine beastes.' It does not contain very much informa- 

 tion about plants, being mostly occupied with animals and 

 minerals, but there are very definite references to astrology. 

 For instance we are told that if the Marigold "be gathered, 

 the Sunne beynge in the sygne Leo, in August, and be 

 wrapped in the leafe of a Laurell, or baye tree, and a wolves 

 tothe be added therto, no man shal be able to have a word to 

 speake agaynst the bearer therof, but woordes of peace." 

 Concerning the Plantain we read, "The rote of this herbe is 

 mervalous good agaynst the payne of the headde, because 

 the signe of the Ramme is supposed to be the house of 

 the planete Mars, which is the head of the whole worlde." 



The herbal of Bartholomaeus Carrichter (1575), in which 

 the plants are arranged according to the signs of the Zodiac, 

 is considerably more complete and elaborate than the book 

 to which we have just referred. It seems however impossible 

 to discover the principle, if any, which guided the author 

 in connecting any given herb with one sign of the Zodiac 

 rather than another. 



Much stress is laid in this herbal on the hour at which 

 the herbs ought to be gathered, great importance being 

 ascribed to the state of the moon at the time. We are 

 reminded of a passage in 'The Merchant of Venice' where 

 Jessica says of a bright moonlight evening — 



" In such a night 

 Medea gather'd the enchanted herbs 

 That did renew old ^son." 



This aspect of the subject is emphasised in a curious 

 little book published in 1571, Nicolaus Winckler's 'Chronica 

 herbarum,' which is an astrological calendar giving informa- 

 tion as to the appropriate times for gathering different roots 

 and herbs. 



Almost contemporaneously with Carrichter's ' Kreutter- 

 buch,' the first part of a work on astrological botany was 



