58 THE BOOK OF HERBS 



Pulse or meate." The herb, he continues, he has never 

 heard of as being used in England, because it was very 

 little grown, but the seed was used in medicine. Gerarde 

 gives us one of its pleasantest preparations as a drug. 

 In old diseases of the chest, without a fever, fat dates 

 are to be boiled with it, with a great quantitie of honey. 

 In 1868 Rhind^ writes that the seeds are no longer 

 given in medicine, and but rarely used in " fomentations 

 and cataplasms." Since that date, I should imagine, it is 

 even more rarely used. Fenugreek was at one time 

 prescribed by veterinary surgeons for horses. 



Good King Henry {Chenopodium Bonus Henricus). 



This plant is otherwise known as Fat Hen, Shoe- 

 maker's Heels, English Mercury, or as Evelyn says. 

 Elite. He begins with praise : " The Tops may be 

 eaten as Sparagus or sodden in Pottage, and as a very 

 salubrious Esculent. There is both a white and red, 

 much us'd in Spain and Italy " ; but he finishes lamely 

 for all his praise : " 'tis insipid enough." Gerarde says : 

 " It is called of the Germans Guter Heinrick, of a certaine 

 good qualitie it hath," and its name is much the most 

 interesting thing about it. Various writers have tried 

 to attach it to our successive kings of that name, with a 

 want of ingenuousness and ingenuity equally deplorable. 

 Grimm ^ traces it back till he finds that this was one of 

 the many plants appropriated to Heinz or Heinrich — the 

 "household goblin," who plays tricks on the maids or 

 helps them with their work, and asks no more than a 

 bowl of cream set over-night for his reward — who, in 

 fact, holds much the same place as our Robin Good- 

 fellow holds here. 



' " History of the Vegetable Kingdom." 

 2 Teutonic Mythology. 



