LYCOPUS. SALVIA. 159 



W. Baird.— D. Near Twizell castle, E. D. Thomson.— B. Hirsel 

 woods. Banks of the Leader at Cowdenknowes, Sir W. Jardine. 

 Wood near Dryburgh, F. Douglas. July. 



421. Lycopus europ^us. Bare. R. Sides of Yetholm and 

 Linton lochs. 



422. Salvia verbenaca. Wild Clary. — Walker's Oxford Fl. 9 : 

 Stokes, Bot. Comment, i. 152. — B. Banks of the Old Castle, abun- 

 dant. — D. Near the ruins of the Priory and about the vicarage in 

 Holy Island. Norham Castle. — An infusion of the dried plant is 

 used by a few old people in lieu of tea. It used to be gathered an- 

 nually, on the Castle bank, by an old man, who cut the stalks so as 

 to leave a little on one side xmdivided, by which means, he said, the 

 strength of the herb was better preserved in drying. From its habi- 

 tats we are led to infer that the Salvia had been cultivated, in days 

 of yore, as a medicinal herb. Its reputation " in helping the diseases 

 of the eies " procured it the name of Oculus Christi ; and " the 

 leaues," says Gerarde, " are good to be put into pottage or brothes 

 among other potherbes, for they scatter congealed bloud, warme the 

 stomacke, and helpe the dimnesse of the eies." — Such an herb was 

 likely enough to be early cultivated, and may stand as the represen- 

 tative of a tribe distinguished for warm aromatic virtues, with a some- 

 what emollient or mucilaginous quality, as Marjoram, Horehound, 

 and Mint. Camden would lead us up to Roman times in search of 

 their introduction, on one of those small traditions which the anti- 

 quary loves to believe, and loathes to cross-examiue. " I purposely 

 omit the vulgar reports," says the Antiquary, about the Picts Wall, 

 " but cannot conceal from the reader this circumstance, which I had 

 from persons of credit. A fixed tradition remains in the neighbour- 

 hood, that the Roman garrisons on the borders planted here up and 

 down for their own use, many plants good for curing wounds. Hence 

 some pretenders to surgery in Scotland resort here every summer to 

 collect plants, whose virtues they have learned by some practice, and 

 extol them as of sovereign efficacy." Cough's Camden, iii. p. 470. 

 See also Edin. Monthly Journ. of Med. Science for April 1851, p. 344. 

 — Another antiquary gives us a list of the plants which were cul- 

 tivated in the physic-garden of the Saxon convents ; and these were 

 Peppermint, Rosemary, Sage, Rue, Penny-royal, Fenugreek, Cum- 

 min, Water-cress, Cornflag, Roses, Loveage, Fennel, Tansy, White 

 Lilies, Kidney Beans, and Savory. Coriander and Poppy were grown 

 in the kitchen garden. Brit. Quart. Rev. Nov. 1851, p. 371*. — 



* " What is very remarkable is, that above 300 species of medical plants 

 were known to the monks and friars, and used by the religious orders in 

 general for medicines, which are now to be found in some of our numerous 

 books of pharmacy and medical botany, by new and less appropriate names, 

 just as if the Protestants of subsequent times had changed the old names 

 with a view to obliterate any traces of Catholic science. Linnseus, how- 

 ever, occasionally restored the ancient names." " The Catholic Friend," 

 as quoted in Forster's Encyclop. Nat. Phen. p. xliv. — A more erudite his- 



