774 THE UNIVERSE. 



error for a naturalist, these pretended fruits from which 

 the birds are issuing are only barnacles {Lepas anatifera), 

 crustaceans which live at the bottom of the sea, and with 

 which he nevertheless overloads the miraculous boughs ! 



After this one may well ask. Which is the most censur- 

 able — the savant who transcribes such absurdities, or the 

 public who believe in them? 



Some plants have also become celebrated in the annals 

 of charlatanism. There were plants that warded off evil, 

 plants that caused injury, and magical plants. Antiquity 

 possessed a long list of these, and we have not fallen be- 

 hind it. 



On one side we find a venerated plant, the Artemisia 

 vulgaris or St. John's-wort, which, gathered at the moment 

 pointed out by the legend and hung over the outer door, 

 preserved the house from lightning. On the other Avas a 

 long list of cabalistic plants, among which the thorn-apple. 

 Datura Stramonium, ought to be mentioned in the first 

 rank. This was the frightful poison which sorcerers made 

 use of to intoxicate their senses, and procure for themselves 

 the spectacle of the Sabbath. 



But no magical herb ever enjoyed more celebrity than 

 the mandrake, an indispensable ingredient in all the philtres 

 employed by the old sorcerers. Antiquity had already 

 conducted us to this dark road, by maintaining that the 

 roots of this plant were of a human form, a fact pointed 

 out by the name antliropomorphos which Theophrastus 

 gave it, whilst Columella called it semiliomo. 



To sjDeak the truth, they in no way resemble a man, but 

 the credulity of the learned and the astuteness of charlatan- 

 ism have supplied what was requisite to give a certain 

 amount of credibility to the opinions of the ancients. It 

 Avas after they had rudely shaped them into human like- 



