194 THE BOOK OF HERBS 



magical root fall." Le petit Albert, to procure Spring- 

 wort suggests tying up a magpie's nest with new cords, 

 but merely says that she brings une herhe to release her 

 nestlings, without giving its name. 



Several legends are attached to the Wood-pecker. 

 Amongst others there is an idea that the root of the Peony 

 is good for epilepsy, but should a Wood-pecker be in 

 sight when the patient tastes it he would be forthwith 

 struck blind ! In Piedmont there is a little plant called 

 the Herb of the Blessed Mary, which is fatal to birds, 

 and there it is said that when young wild birds are 

 caught and caged their parents bring them a sprig of 

 it, that death rather than imprisonment may be their 

 lot. De Gubernatis speaks of an oriental bird of greater 

 resource, the Paperone, for when his little ones are 

 imprisoned he seeks and brings a root which breaks the 

 iron bars and releases them. Parkinson tells of an 

 Indian herb which "cast to the birds causeth as many as 

 take it to fall downe to the ground as being stoned for 

 a time, but if any take it too greedily it will kill them, 

 if they bee not helped by cold water put on their 

 heads, but Dawes above all other birds are soonest 

 kild thereby." There is a suggestion of comedy in 

 this picture of a seventeenth century herbalist in a 

 foreign land pouring cold water on the heads of wild 

 birds. 



"The raven, when he hath killed the chameleon, 

 and yet perceiving he is hurt and poisoned by him, flyeth 

 for remedy to the Laurell," which " represseth and 

 extinguisheth the venom," says Pliny.^ The elephant, 

 under the same circumstances, recovers himself by 

 eating " wild Olive, the only remedy he hath of this 

 poison . . . The storke, feeling himself amisse, goeth 

 to the herbe Organ for remedy," and Parkinson quotes 

 Antigonas as saying that ring-doves cured their wounds 



^ Philemon Holland's Translation. 



