T h e S u n .— L o t s : Succulent, with stout stalks, deeply veined,
pleasant green or tawny, with reddish stalks. _ Flowers : Yellow and
gold, or purple, handsome, glittering, and radiant. Roots : Strong,
deeply fixed in the earth, but not laterally. Odour: Agreeable,
acceptable, and pungent, strong, restorative to brain j d eyes.
T h e M o o n .—Leaves: Pale, highly succulent, pith thick, h r m ,
strongly-developed veins, bottle-green. Flowers: Pale yellow or
greenish, watery, mellifiuous, but uninteresting and without beauty.
Roots: Penetrating easily through water and earth, n J dim J l e ,
and easily decayed, spreading neither thickly nor deeply. Odour:
Disagreeable, almost none, without pungency, redolent ot t h e
earth, rain, or soft savour of honey. , , j
According to Indian mythology, herbs are placed under toe
special proteaion of Mitra, the Sun. De Gubernatis tefis us that
there are several Indian plants named after the great lurnmary. in
the Grecian Pantheon, the Solar-god, Apollo, possess J a knowledge
of all the herbs. It was to Phoebus, the Sun-god, toat po j
Clytie lost her heart, and, when changed into a fiower, held firmly
bv the root, she still turned to the Sun she loved, “ and, changed
herself, still kept her love unchanged.” As to the p a r t ijla r
Sunflower, Turnsole, Heliotrope, or Solsequium that is the fioral
embodiment of the love-sick nymph, readers must be referred to
the disquisition under the heading “ S u n f l o w e r . De Gubernatis
gives it as his opinion, that Clytie’s flower is the Hehanthemum
roseum of De Candolle. In a previous chapter, certain plants have
been noticed which were supposed by the ancients to have been
specially under the domination of the Sun and Moon. _ According
to the diitum of wizards and wise folk, plants possessing magical
properties must as a general rule be gathered, if not by m j n J h t ,
vet at any rate before sunrise, for the first appearance of toe
rays immediately dispels all enchantment, and drives back the
spirits to their subterranean abodes. •
We are told in Deuteronomy xxxiii., 14, that precious things
are put forth by the Moon, but precious fruits by toe Su n ; and/t is
certainly very remarkable that, although mankind in all ages have
regarded, and even worshipped, the Sun as being the supreme and
ruling luminary, from whose glorious life-giving rays, vegetation
of all kinds drew its very existence, yet that an idea should have
sprung up, and taken root widely and deeply, that toe growth and
decay of plants were associated intimately with the waxing and
waning of the Moon. We have seen how the plant kingdom was
parcelled out by the astrologers, and consigned to the care ot
different Planets; but, despite this, the Moon was held to have a
singular and predominant influence over vegetation, and it was
supposed that there existed a sympathy between growing and
declining nature and the Moon’s wax and wane. Bacon seems to
have considered that even the “ braine of man waxeth moister and
fuller upon the Full of the Moone;” and, therefore, he continues,
“ it were good for those that have moist braines, and are great
drinkers, to take fume of Lignum, Aloes, Rose-Mary, Frankincense,
&c., about the Full of the Moone.” He also tells us, in his Natural
History, that “ the influences of the Moon are four: the drawing
forth of heat, the inducing of putrefaction, the moisture, and the
exciting of the motions of spirits.”
In respea to this last influence, he goes on to say, “ You must
note that the growth of hedges, herbs, haire, &c., is caused from
the Moone, by exciting of the spirits as well as by increase of the
moisture. But for spirits in particular the great instance is
lunacies.” This lunar influence which Bacon speaks of was, as
already pointed out, fully recognised in olden times, and a belief
was even current that the Moon specially watched over vegetation,
and that when she was propitious—that is, during her^ growth
she produced medicinal herbs ; when she was not propitious—that
is to say, during her wane—she imbued herbs with poisons; her
humidity being, perhaps, more injurious than otherwise.
In old almanacks we find the supremacy of the Moon over
the plant kingdom fully admitted, albeit in a jargon which is rather
puzzling. Thus, in the ‘ Husbandman’s P ra a ic e or Prognostication
for E v e r,’ the reader is advised “ to set, sow seeds, graft, and
plant, the Moone being in Taurus, Virgo, or Capricorne, and all
kinds of Corne in Cancer, to graft in March, at the Mqone’s increase,
she being in Taurus or Capricorne.” Again, in Mn Wing’s
Almanack for 1661, occurs the following passage :—“ It is a common
observation in astrology, and confirmed by experience, that
what Corn or tree soever are set or sown when the Sun or Moon
is eclipsed, and the infortunate planets predominate, seldom or
never come to good. And again he saith thus :—It is a common
and certain observation also, that if any corn, seed, or plant be
either set or sown within six hours either before or after the full
Moon in Summer, or before or after the new Moon in Winter,
having joined with the cosmical rising of Arcturus and Orion, the
Hsedi and the Siculi, it is subject to blasting and canker.
As an illustration of the predominance given to the Moon
over the other planets in matters pertaining to plant culture, it is
worth noticing that, although Culpeper, in his ‘ Herbal, places the
Apple under Venus, yet the Devonshire farmers have frorn time
immemorial made it a rule to gather their Apples for storing at
the wane of the Moon; the reason being that, during the Moon’s
increase, it is thought that the Apples are full, and will not t J r e -
fore keep. It is said that if timber be felled when the Moon is on
the increase, it will decay; and that it should always be cut when
the Moon is on the wane. No reason can be assigned for this;
yet the belief is common in many countries, and what is still more
strange, professional woodcutters, whose occupation is to fell
timber, aver, as the adtual result of their observation, that the belief
is well founded. It was formerly interwoven in the Forest Code