THE YOUNG 



NATURALIST. 



foots, the juices of the pilewort are 

 mild, bland, and insipid; the leaves 

 have been eaten as a salad and anti- 

 scorbutic. For this amongst other 

 reasons the older botanists removed it 

 to a separate genus, and called it 

 Ficaria verna or ranunculoides ; verna 

 from its blossoming in early spring, 

 and ranunculoides from its ranunculus 

 like flowers. Most botanists now 

 unite it with Ranunculus, and retain 

 the old generic name Ficaria to identify 

 the species, this is derived from the 

 Latin Ficus, a fig, and is appropriately 

 applied to this plant from the fig-like 

 appearance of the tubers of the root. 

 To this peculiarity it also owes its 

 common English name of pilewort, 

 because the bundle of knobs bears some 

 resemblance to the disease of haemorr- 

 hoids, or piles, and by the old cabalis- 

 tic doctrine of signatures on plants, it 

 at once marked out the pilewort as a 

 remedy for this malady. Old Culpeper 

 as usual waxes eloquent in praise of 

 its virtues. After expatiating on its 

 curative powers, he says : — " Here's 

 another secret for my countrymen and 

 a couple of them together; pilewort 

 made into an oil, ointment, or plaister, 

 readily cures both the piles, or haemorr- 

 hoids, and the KiDg's evil. The very 

 herb borne about one's body, next the 

 skin, helps in such diseases, though it 

 never touch the place grieved ; let poor 

 people make much of it for these uses : 

 with this I cured my own daughter of 



the King's evil, broke the sore, drew 

 out a quarter of a pint of corruption, 

 cured without any scar at all in one' 

 week's time/' There is no doubt it 

 had a wide function at one time, and 

 although of late it has been dropped by 

 the faculty, it still bears a high repute 

 in rustic practice. I know of several 

 " skilly" old wives who cultivate it 

 in their cottage gardens, so as to 

 ensure a supply when wanted. One 

 of my curious botanising experiences 

 was with the keeper of a somewhat 

 neglected nursery, in which there 

 was abundance of Claytonia perfoliata 

 a rather uncommon introduced plant, 

 springing up sporadically in such like 

 situations. It has no botanical affinity 

 with R. ficaria, and it would require a 

 highly imaginative mind to trace even 

 a fanciful resemblance between the two 

 plants ; yet he maintained it was the 

 " he-pilewort," and the other was the 

 " she-pilewort," but when I endeavour- 

 ed to ascertain the connection betwixt 

 the two his mind was a blank, like 

 uncle William "■ he could not tell how 

 that could be." It was as inexplicable 

 as the reason why it should get the 

 common name of " lesser celandine," 

 as it has no visible connection with the 

 common celandine ( Ckelidonium majus) . 

 Culpeper adopts the name, but justly 

 enough satirizes the confusion, he says 

 " I wonder what ailed the ancients to 

 give the name of celandine, which 

 resembles it neither in nature nor 



