DICTIONARY. 293 
utility of its wood. It grows in any situation, 
and shoots up with such rapidity that it is com¬ 
mon to say you may see it grow. 
Protection, Juniper. Page 258. 
Purity, Star of Bethlehem. Nothing can be more 
pure and pleasing than the appearance of this 
lovely plant, which throws up in the month of 
June a long bunch of star-like flowers, as white 
as milk. 
Rarity, Mandrake. The ancients attributed extra¬ 
ordinary virtues to the Mandragora, or Mandrake, 
but, as they have not left any accurate description 
of this plant, we know not the species to which 
they gave the name. Our quacks, ever eager to 
profit by ignorance, contrive, by a gross artifice, 
to give the miniature figure of a man to different 
roots, which they show to the credulous, assuring 
them that these are real Mandrakes, which are 
found only in a small and almost inaccessible dis¬ 
trict of China. They tell them also that the 
Mandrake cries lamentably when pulled up out 
of the ground ; that the person who pulls up one 
of these roots is sure to die soon afterwards: that, 
in order to procure it, the earth must be dug away 
