go THE BOOK OF HERBS 



myrrh in it. It is a pretty plant, with " divers great and 

 fair spread wing leaves, very like and resembling the 

 leaves of Hemlocke . . . but of sweet pleasant and 

 spice-hot taste. Put among herbes in a sallet it addeth 

 a marvellous good rellish to all the rest. Some 

 commend the green seeds sliced and put in a sallet of 

 herbes. The rootes are eyther boyled and eaten with oyle 

 and vinegare or preserved or candid." Sweet Cicely is 

 very attractive to bees, and was often " rubbed over the 

 insides of the hives before placing them before newly- 

 cast swarms to induce them to enter," and in the North 

 of England Hogg says the seeds are used to polish 

 and scent oak floors and furniture. 



Tansy (Tanacetum vulgare). 



Lclifa — Then burnet shall bear up with this 

 Whose leaf I greatly fancy, 

 Some camomile doth not amiss 

 With savory and some tansy. 



JMuses' Elysium, 

 The hot muscado oil, with milder maudlin cast 

 Strong tansey, fennel cool, they prodigally waste. 



Polyolhion, Song xv. 



The name Tansy comes from Athanasia, Immortality, 

 because its flower lasts so long, and it is dedicated to 

 St Athanasius. It is connected with various interesting 

 old customs, and especially with some observed at 

 Easter time. Brand quotes several old rhymes in 

 reference to this. 



Soone at Easter cometh Alleluya. 

 With butter, cheese and a tansay. 



From Douce^s Collection of Carols 

 On Easter Sunday be the pudding seen 

 To which the Tansey lends her sober green. 



The Oxford Sausage, 

 Wherever any grassy turf is view'd. 

 It seems a tansie all with sugar strew'd. 



From Shifman's Poems. 



