HERBS USED IN DECORATIONS, ETC. 137 



faith ia it as a " singular wound-hearb." Turner con- 

 sidered that the fumes of it being burned, would drive 

 away serpents, and credits it with many valuable pro- 

 perties, chiefly medicinal ; and Culpepper calls it "a 

 gallant, mercurial plant, worthy of more esteem than it 

 hath." It has also been supposed to have great virtue to 

 prevent the hair falling out. In later days Hogg has 

 declared it to have an agreeable, exhilarating smell," 

 and to be " eminently diaphoretic." But Thornton, who 

 loves to shatter all favourite herbal notions, remarks 

 that these good results are chiefly because it " operates 

 on the mind of the patient," and that as a fomentation it 

 is hardly more useful " than cloths wrung out of hot 

 water." So transitory is good report ! 



WoOD-RUFF {Asperula Odorata). 



The threstlecoc him threteth oo 



A way is huere wynter wo 



When woodrove springeth. Springtide, i 300. 



All that we say, and all we leave unsaid 



Be buried with her . 

 Pansies for thoughts, and wood-rufF white as she, 



And, for remembrance, quiet rosemary. 



Elegy.— 'Hovvz'^. 



The wood-rufF or wood-rowell has its leaves " set 

 about like a star, or the rowell of a spurre," whereby it 

 gains its name. English people also called it Wood-rose 

 and Sweet-Grass ; the French, Hepatique etoilee, and the 

 Germans, Waldmehter and Her-zfreude, and they steep it 

 in " Bohle," a kind of " cup " made of light wine. 



In England it used to be " made up into garlands 

 or bundles and hanged up in houses in the heate of 

 summer, doth very wel attemper the aire, coole and 

 make fresh the place, to the delight and comfort of such 

 as are therein." ^ Wood-rufF was employed to decorate 

 churches, and churchwardens' accounts still exist (at St 



1 Gerard e. 



