Herbs used in the present time 23 



wonderful Purifier of the Blood." Culpepper, whose fiery 

 frankness it is impossible to resist quoting, manages on this 

 subject to get his knife into the doctors, as, to do him 

 justice, he seldom loses an opportunity of doing. " You 

 see what virtues this common herb hath, and this is the 

 reason the French and Dutch so often eate them in the 

 spring, and now, if you look a little further, you may 

 see plainly, without a pair of spectacles, that foreign 

 physicians are not so selfish as ours are, but more com- 

 municative of the virtues of plants to people." The 

 Irish used to call it Heart-Fever-Grass. The root, 

 when roasted and ground, has been substituted for 

 coffee, and gave satisfaction to some of those who drank 

 it. Hogg relates a tale of woe from the island of 

 Minorca, how that once locusts devoured the harvest 

 there, and the inhabitants were forced to, and did subsist 

 on this root, but does not mention for what length of 

 time. 



Dill (^Anethum graveolens). 



The nightshade strews to work him ill, 

 Therewith her vervain and her dill. 



Nymphidia DraYTON. 



Here holy vervayne and here dill, 

 'Gainst witchcraft much availing, 



The Muses Elysium. 



The wonder-working dill he gets not far from these. 



Polyolbion. Song xiii. 



Dill is supposed to have been derived from a Norse 

 word to " dull," because the seeds were given to babies 

 to make them sleep. Beyond this innocent employment 

 it was a factor in working spells of the blackest magic ! 

 Dill is a graceful, umbelliferous plant — not at all sugges- 

 tive of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde — and the seeds resemble 

 caraway seeds in flavour, but are smaller, flatter and 

 lighter. There is something mysterious about it, because. 



