CHAPTER VI 



OF HERBS AND MAGIC 



"And first, her fern-seed doth bestow 

 The kernel of the mistletow, 

 And here and there as Puck should go, 

 With terror to affright him. 



The nightshade straws to work him ill. 

 There with her vervain and her dill. 

 That hindreth witches of their "will. 



Of purpose to dispight him. 



Then sprinkled she the juice of rue, 

 That groweth underneath the yew. 

 With nine drops of the midnight dew 

 From iunary distilling." 



Nymfhidia. — Drayton. 



*' Trefoil, vervain, John's wort, dill. 

 Hinders witches of their will." 



Guy Mannering. 



Amongst the account-books of the Physic Garden in 

 Chelsea, there is one on whose fly-leaf is scrawled a 

 list of " Botanical Writers before Christ." It begins : 



Zoroaster. 



Orpheus. 



Moses. 



Solomon. 



Homer. 



Solon. 



Names that one hardly expects to find grouped together, 

 and especially not under this heading. The vegetable 



