148 FAMILIAR WILD FLOWERS. 



this one name, and that, too, not only in England, hut on 

 the Continent. With the monks it was the' llorsiis 

 diaboli, while in Germany it is the Teufels abbiss, and 

 in France the Morsure du (liable. The Satanic motive 

 influencing the destruction is accounted for in two dif- 

 ferent directions, that are rather contradictory. In the 

 " Ortus Sanitatis " Oribasius says that " with this root 

 the devil practised such power that the Mother of God, 

 out of compassion for man, took from him the means to do 

 so with it any more, and in the great vexation that he had 

 that the power was gone from him he bit it off, so that it 

 grows no more to this day." Here it will be seen that the 

 plant was accredited with evil powers ; but another version 

 ascribes an entirely different origin to the diabolic malevo- 

 lence. Gerarde, no believer in the story evidently, says that 

 " old fantasticke charmers report that the divell did bite it 

 for enuie, because it is an herbe that hath so many good 

 vertues, and so beneficiall to mankinde." Parkinson quotes 

 the legend in the same way, but adds, " which is so grosse 

 and senselessea relation that I merveile at the former times' 

 stupidity to receive as true such a fiction." 



