196 THE BOOK OF HERBS 



provide nourishment for fishes. William Browne says 

 of some nymphs : — 



Another from her banks, in sheer good will, 

 Brings nutriment for fish, the camomile. 



Isaac "Walton observes that, "Parsley and Garden 

 earth recovers and refreshes sick fish." The Alder or 

 Aul is indirectly connected with trout in a Herefordshire 

 rhyme : — 



When the bud of the Aul is as big as the trout's eye, 

 Then that fish is in season in the River Wye. 



Among other counsels Piscator speaks of the perch's 

 tastes. " And he hath been observed by some not 

 usually to bite till the mulberry-tree buds — that is to 

 say, till extreme frosts be past in the spring. . . . Some 

 think [of grayling] that he feeds on water-thyme, and 

 smells of it at his first taking out of the water." A pike 

 has a liking for lavender, and the directions for trying 

 for this fish with a dead bait begin : " Dissolve gum of 

 ivy in oil of spike [lavender], and then anoint the bait 

 with it. Wheat boiled in milk and flavoured with 

 Saffron is a choice bait for Roach and Grayling, and 

 Mulberries and those Blackberries which grow upon 

 briars, be good baits for Chubs and Carps." Gerarde says 

 that Balm rubbed over hives will keep the bees there, 

 and cause others to come to them, and Parkinson thought 

 that the " leaves or rootes of Acorus (sweet-smelling " 

 Flagge) tyed to a hive " would have the same effect. 



To turn to the herbs prescribed by men for beasts, 

 we find that Spenser alludes to two of them : — 



Here grows mclampodc everywhere 

 And terebinth good for gotes. 



July — Shtphcard's Calendar. 



A marginal note suggests that the latter meant the 

 " turpentine tree." " The tree that weepeth turpentine " 

 is mentioned by Drayton, and we may suppose that both 

 poets referred to the same tree, the Silver Fir (Pintts 



