THE VEGETABLE KINGDOM. 469 



ancients related that at the slightest wound this plant, 

 with human form, gave vent to mournful groans; and 

 those who Avere daring enough to gather it were obliged to 

 employ certain precautions in order that they might not 

 be alarmed at these sounds, and might defy its evil 

 influence. 



The most illustrious botanist of ancient Greece, Theo- 

 phrastus, goes so far as to describe the ceremonies which 

 were imperiously demanded for the conquest of the gloomy 

 Solanea. He says that in order to tear it out it was neces- 

 sary to trace three magic circles round it with the point 

 of a sword, looking all the time towards the east, whilst 

 one of the assistants danced round about, uttering obscene 

 words. ^ 



The theories of credulous antiquity have been repro- 

 duced, and even exceeded, in our own day. Adanson, a 

 daring spirit, if ever there was one, was not satisfied, like the 

 Sicilian sophist, with endowing plants with a mere sensi- 

 tive soul; he contended that each one must have several." 



Hedwig a profound botanist. Bonnet more an orator 



^ The Mandragora, which was one of the most celebrated plants of antiquit^- 

 and the middle ages, was supposed to grow under gibbets, where it was manured 

 with the remains of tbose put to death. It was said that it could not be torn 

 out without danger. The credulous supporters of the cabala, in order to avoid 

 all accidents, taught their adepts to extract it from the ground by means of a 

 dog tied to the plant, and which, as the plant exerted all its malevolence over it, 

 was thus devoted to a certain death. 



The charlatans of our superstitious ages gave the Mandragora a human form 

 before employing it in their sorceries. The idea that this plant naturally ap- 

 pears under this form had procured for it the name of anthropomorphos among 

 the ancients; and it was so entirely considered as such by our superstitious ancestors, 

 that in certain botanical works of the period of the Renaissance, and particularly 

 in the Grand Herhier en Fraiu^au, we find sketches of the Mandragora plants, 

 faithful enough as regards the foliage and aspect, wliile their embellished roots pre- 

 sent a human figure, some representing a man, and others a woman. 



^The following curious passage on this subject is found in Adanson's work: 



"Every plant, although without sensation, beiug animated, possesses a soul, 



