Not in the human family alone does eccentricity 
win credit for unusual and transcendent talents. 
Innumerable trees and plants have for years imposed 
on a credulous and trusting world by means of 
peculiarities in dress and habits. Prescriptions of the 
present day are not like the medicine our mothers 
used to make. And when a nauseating remembrance 
of the horrible decoctions brings back the sinking, 
vacant sensations of early childhood, the thought that 
the ill-flavoured herbs were imposing on confiding 
motherhood by their eccentricities provokes a feeling 
of indignation. No wonder the present generation 
delights in exposing the pretences of alleged medicinal 
herbs whose reputations were sustained by unusual 
habits alone. The memory of catnip tea, wormwood, 
elecampane, senna, and other nauseating tastes on 
the sensitive palate of early childhood can never be 
effaced. And it is irritating to reflect that the faith 
of our good grandmothers had no foundation except 
161 l 
