172 THE BOOK OF HERBS 



" The water-lily from the marish ground 

 With the wan poppy," 



were both dedicated to the moon. 



Gentian is greatly valued and largely prescribed by 

 our doctors, but Parkinson raises a curious echo from a 

 time when, it is generally supposed, people were less 

 " nice " than they are to-day. " The wonderful whole- 

 someness of Gentian cannot be easily knowne to us, by 

 reason our daintie tastes refuse to take thereof, for the 

 bitternesse sake, but otherwise it would undoubtedly 

 worke admirable cures." Valerian was, and is officinal, 

 but seldom finds its way into "pottage" nowadays. 

 Gerarde, however, writes : "It hath been had (and is to 

 this day among the poore people of our Northerne parts) 

 in such veneration amongst them, that no broths, pottage 

 or physical! meats are worth anything if Setwall were 

 not at an end : whereupon some woman Poet or other 

 hath made these verses : 



" They that will have their heale, 

 Must put Setwall in their keale (kail)." 



The herbalist speaks of "Garden Valerian or Setwall " 

 as if they were one and the same, but Mr Britten says 

 that Setwall was not Valeriana officinalis but V. pyrenaica. 

 All varieties seem to have been used as remedies, and in 

 Drayton's charming " Eclogue," of which Dowsabel is 

 the heroine, he shows that it was used as an adornment. 



"A daughter, ycleapt Dowsabel, 

 A maiden fair and free, 

 And for she was her father's heir. 

 Full well she was ycond the leir. 



Of mickle courtesy. 

 The silk well couth she twist and twine 

 And make the fine march-pine, 

 And with the needle-work ; 

 And she couth help the priest to say 

 His mattins on a holy day 

 And sing a psalm in kirk 



