BOTANY AS APPLIED TO VETERINARY SCIENCE. 663 
* Redgauntlet’ (chap, v), where Summertrees, addressing 
Provost Crosbie, says, “ Your wife’s a witch, man ; you should 
nail a horse-shoe on your chamber door.” 
It was once considered a good omen to find an old horse¬ 
shoe, for one thus acquired was regarded as being peculiarly 
efficacious against witches.* A miniature horse-shoe of gold 
was formerly worn as an amulet by ladies, and this bauble 
has of late been revived as an ornament for the modern- 
antique chatelaines. In 1848 the horse-shoe was adopted 
as the form of ladies’ shawl-brooches; they were wrought 
of both polished steel and silver, and of a size large enough 
in some instances to have been nailed on to the hoof of 
a Shetland pony. 
These reminiscences might be continued to an interminable 
length, but must now be brought to a close; for I do not pre¬ 
tend for an instant that these rough notes embody anything 
like a detailed history of horse-shoes. My only aim has been 
to show that the practice of shoeing horses in England is of a 
far higher antiquity than the eleventh century, and to bring 
forward a few ancient examples and remarks, with the hope 
of awaking the archaeologist to an investigation of the sub¬ 
ject, and to prove to you that some interest is even to be 
found in a “rusty old horse-shoe.” 
BOTANY AS APPLIED TO VETERINARY SCIENCE. 
By W. Watson, M.R.C.V.S., Rugby. 
(Continued from p. 506 .) 
The consideration of the botanical characters of the plants 
which yield a supply of food for our domestic animals has 
already brought under our notice two of the three great 
divisions into which, according to the Linnean system, the 
vegetable kingdom is divided, viz., Exogens and Endogens, 
and the four principal characters of stem, leaf, flower, and 
embryo, by which they are distinguished from each other. 
We have also, in considering the different natural orders 
under which the plants are classed, been enabled to notice 
* In the present day, in the south of Ireland, it is considered very fortu¬ 
nate to meet with a bit of old iron; it must be picked up and thrown over 
the left shoulder, “just to bring good luck ” to the finder. 
