means of which Mr. Whitlaw is now making many excellent cures of diseases.” He then proceeds to 
mention certain plants noted by the monks, as flowering about the time of certain religious festivals : “ The 
Snowdrop, Galanthus nivalis, whose pure white and pendant flowers are the first harbingers of spring, is 
noted down in some calendars as being an emblem of the purification of the spotless virgin, as it blows 
about Candlemas, and was not known by the name of Snowdrop till lately, being formerly called Fair Maid of 
February, in honour of our lady. Sir James Edward Smith, and other modern botanists, make this plant 
a native of England, but I can trace most of the wild specimens to some neighbouring garden, or old dila- 
pidated monastery; and I am persuaded it was introduced into England by the monks subsequent to the 
conquest, and probably since the time of Chaucer, who does not notice it, though he mentions the daisy, 
and various less striking flowers. The Ladysmock, Cardamine pratensis, is a word corrupted of f our lady’s 
smock/ a name by which this plant (as well as that of Chemise de notre Dame) is still known in parts of 
Europe: it first flowers about Lady Tide, or the festival of the Annunciation, and hence its name. Cross 
Flower, Poly gala Vulgaris, which begins to flower about the invention of the Cross, May 3, was also called 
Rogation flower, and was carried by maidens in the processions in Rogation week, in earlier times. The 
monks discovered its quality of producing milk in nursing women, and hence it was called milkivort. In- 
deed so extensive was the knowledge of botany, and of the medical power of herbs among the monks of old, 
that a few examples only can be adduced in a general essay, and indeed it appears that many rare species 
of exotics were known by them, and were inhabitants of their monastery gardens, which Beckmann, in his 
‘Geshiete der Erfindungen ,’ and Dryander in the ‘Hortus Kewensis,’ have ascribed to more modern intro- 
ducers. What is very remarkable is, that above three hundred species of medical plants were known to the 
monks and friars, and used by the religious orders in general for medicines, which are now to be found in 
some of our numerous books of pharmacy and medical botany, by new and less appropriate names ; just as 
if the Protestants of subsequent times had changed the old names with a view to obliterate any traces of 
catholic science. Linnaeus, however, occasionally restored the ancient names. The following are some 
familiar examples which occur to me, of all medicinal plants, whose names have been changed in latter 
times. The virgin’s bower, of the' monastic physicians, was changed into flammula Jovis, by the new 
pharmaciens; the hedge hyssop, into gratiola; the St. John’s ivort (so called from blowing about St. John the 
Baptist’s day) was changed into hyperipum; fleur de St. Louis, into iris; palma Christi, into ricinus; our 
master ivort, into imperatoria; sweet bay, into laurus ; our lady’s smock, into cardamine; Solomon’s seal, 
into convallaria; our lady’s hair, into trichomanes; balm, into melissa; marjorum, into origanum; croivfoot, 
into ranunculus; herb Trinity, into viola tricolor ; avens into caryophyllata ; coltsfoot, into tussilago; knee 
holy, into rascus; ivormivood, into absinthium; rosemary, into rosmarinus ; marygold, into calendula, and so 
on. Thus the ancient names were not only changed, but in this change all the references to religious sub- 
jects, which would have led people to a knowledge of their culture among the monastic orders, were care- 
fully left out. The Thorn Apple, datura stramomum, is not a native of England ; it was introduced by the 
friars in early times of pilgrimage; and hence we see it on old waste lands near abbeys, and on dunghills, 
&c. Modern botanists, however, have ascribed its introduction to gipsies, although it has never been seen 
among that wandering people, nor used by them as a drug. I could adduce many other instances of the 
same sort. But vain indeed would be the endeavour to over-shadow the fame of the religious orders in 
medical botany and the knowledge of plants ; go into any garden and the common name of marygold, our 
lady’s seal, our lady’s bedstraiv, holy oak, (corrupted into holyhock,) the virgin’s thistle, St. Burnaby’s thistle, 
herb Trinity, herb St. Christopher, herb St. Robert, herb St. Timothy, Jacob’s ladder, star of Bethlehem, 
star of Jerusalem, now made goatsbeard : passion flower, now passiflora; Lent lily, now daffodil; Canterbury 
bells, (so called in honour of St. Augustine,) is now made into Campanula; cursed thistle , now carduus ; 
besides archangel apple of Jerusalem, St. Paid’s betony, Basil, St. Berbe, herb St. Barbara, bishopsweed, herba 
Christi, herba Benedict, herb St. Margaret, (erroneously converted into la belle Marguerite ,) god’s flower flos 
Jovis, Job’s tears, our lady’s laces, our lady’s mantle, our lady’s slipper, monk’s hood, friar’s cowl, St. Peter’ s herb, 
and a hundred more such. — Go into any garden, I say, and these names will remind every one at once of the 
knowledge of plants possessed by the monks. Most of them have been named after the festivals and saints’ 
days on which their natural time of blowing happened to occur ; and others were so called, from the ten- 
dency of the minds of the religious orders on those days to convert every thing into a memento of sacred 
history, and the holy religion which they embraced.” 
It will be perceived that Crito is a Catholic. His floral enumeration is amusing and instructive ; but 
deceptive views, false reasonings, and perverted facts, cannot be used, by either Protestant or Catholic, with 
impunity to himself, or avail to the cause he espouses. 
