74 FAMILIAR WILD FLOWERS. 



such esteem by the monks and mediaeval herbalists that 

 when they came across the passage in Lucian where 

 Jupiter," speaking to Mercury of Ganymede, says, "Take 

 him hence, and when he has tasted immortality let him 

 return to us," they at once concluded that the tansy 

 was the plant intended, and it became the Athanasia. 

 Unfortunately, however, with all these old names, one has 

 no sooner fairly accepted a definition than another at once 

 springs up to upset it, and other writers, as Gerarde and 

 Parkinson, tell us that the tansy is so called " because the 

 yellow floures gathered in due time dye not of a long 

 time after." 



The tansy was largely employed in the mediaeval herb 

 garden, both as a medicine and for culinary purposes ; and 

 we have heard, though we have never really brought the 

 matter to the test of practical experience, that any meat 

 rubbed over with it during the warm weather is safe from 

 the attacks of the flies, the essential oil which it contains 

 giving it a strong odour, which we presume is objectionable 

 to these small plagues of the housekeeper. Cooking probably 

 removes this, or the meat might be considered equally 

 objectionable when brought to table. Boerhaave declares 

 that "this balsamic plant may well supply the place 

 of nutmegs and cinnamon, for I believe that Asia does not 

 supply a plant of greater fragrance than the tansy." Its 

 leaves are even now, by some old-fashioned cooks, used in 

 omelettes, and it used formerly to be much eaten with 

 other foods during Lent as a representative bitter herb. 

 Culpepper, writing in 1652, waxes indignant on this quasi- 

 religious use of the plant. " Now, forsooth, tansies must 

 be eaten only on Palm and Easter Sundays and their 

 neighbour days," and he foresees " that want of commonly 



