The Orchis Tribe. 161 



soms, and so sweetly contrasts its purple spikes with the yellow 

 furze of the English hills. The Greeks named it Orchis from 

 the form of the roots in many of the species ; and this appellation 

 is now general in most European languages. In addition to 

 the Greek name the Latins often called it Satyrion, because the 

 early Romans believed it to be the food of the satyrs, and that it 

 excited them to those excesses to which fabulous history so much 

 addicts them. In mythology ihe Satyri are represented as demi- 

 gods, who chiefly attended upon Bacchus ; but Pliny speaks of 

 them from report as animals which inhabited a part of India. 

 It is related by Pausanias, Plutarch, and other ancient historians, 

 that a satyr was brought to Sylla, as that general returned from 

 Thessaly. The monster was taken alive, and is stated to have an- 

 swered in every degree the descriptions given of the satyrs by 

 the painters and poets. Sylla was so disgusted with the sight 

 of the monster, that he ordered it to be instantly removed. The 

 Orchis root being represented as the favorite diet of the imaginary 

 satyrs, it naturally became celebrated as one of the most stimu- 

 lating medicines known ; and it is so described by all medical 

 writers on simples, from Dioscorides down to the present day ; 

 but most of these accounts are too ridiculous and indelicate to 

 transcribe, and we trust they will be so far disregarded as not 

 to shut this beautiful plant out of the gardens of this enlightened 

 age ; nor would we debar the medical man from ascertaining 

 the real quality of these bulbs, the juice of which is so strongly 

 recommended as a cooling application to inflamed surfaces, and 

 a resolutive to accelerate the suppuration of indolent tumors, to 

 say nothing of its powers in the electuary diasatyrion. It is told 

 us that the Orchis owes its origin to the lascivious son of the 

 satyr Patellanus and the nymph Acolasia, who presided at the 

 feasts celebrated in honor of Priapus. The youth being present 

 at the celebration of the feast of Bacchus, injured one of the 

 priestesses of that god, which so incensed the bacchanalians 

 against him that they tore him in pieces; and all the remedy 

 which his father could obtain from the gods was, that his man- 

 gled corpse should be transformed into a flower, which should 

 retain his name of Orchis as a blot upon his memory. [For a 

 true version of this distorted narrative see 1 Samuel ii. 22.] The 

 Persians and Turks call the roots of the Orchis Salop ; and it is 

 with these bulbs, as well as the palmated roots of other species 



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