HERBS CHIEFLY USED IN THE PAST 57 



name for it (in Denmark) is Elf-Doclc. Elecampane 

 has had a great reputation since the days of Pliny, and 

 was considered specially good for coughs, asthma and 

 shortness of breath. Elecampane lozenges were much 

 recommended, and the root was candied and eaten as a 

 sweetmeat till comparatively lately. It is said to have 

 antiseptic qualities, and according to Dr Fernie has been 

 used in Spain as a surgical dressing. 



Fenugreek (Trigonella fcenum gracum). 



Fenugreek " hath many leaves, but three alwayes set 

 together on a foot-stalke, almost round at the ends, a 

 little dented about the sides, greene above and grayish 

 underneath ; from the joynts with the leaves come forth 

 white flowers, and after them, crooked, flattish long 

 homes, small pointed, with yellowish cornered seedes 

 within them." This description is very exact, and, 

 indeed, the conspicuous horn-like pods, singularly large 

 for the size of the plant, are its most marked charac- 

 teristic. Turner says : " This herbe is called in Greek 

 Keratitis, y' is horned, aigo keros y' is gotes home, and 

 o onkeros, that is cows horne." Fenugreek was a 

 Favourite of the " antients," and Folkard gives an 

 account of a festival held by Antiochus Epiphanus, the 

 Syrian king, of which one feature was a procession, 

 where boys carried golden dishes containing frank- 

 incense, myrrh and saffron, and two hundred women, 

 out of golden watering-pots, sprinkled perfume on the 

 assembled guests. All who went to watch the games 

 in the gymnasium were anointed with some perfume 

 from fifteen gold dishes, which held saffron, amaracus, 

 lilies, cinnamon, spikenard, fenugreek, etc. In Eng- 

 land it was used for more prosaic purposes, " Galen and 

 others say that they were eaten as Lupines, and the 

 Egyptians and others eate the seedes yet to this day as 



