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tion extended to England, as is shown by the following lines in a
ballad:—“
The first Spring-blown Anemone she in his doublet wove,
To keep him safe from pestilence wherever he should rove.”
The Anemone was held sacred to Venus, and the flower was highly
esteemed by the Romans, who formed it into wreaths for the
head. In some countries, people have a strong prejudice against
the flowers of the field Anemone: they believe the air to be so
tainted by them, that those who inhale it often incur severe illness.
Shakspeare has given to the Anemone the magical power of producing
love. In ‘ A Midsummer Night’s Dream ’ (Act 2), Oberon
bids Puck place an Anemone-flower on the eyes of Titania, who,
on her awakening, will then fall in love with the first objedt she
sees. A once famed Parisian florist, named Bachelier, having
procured some rare Anemones from the East, would not part with
a root, either for love or money. For ten years he contrived to
keep the treasures to himself, until a wily senator paid him a visit,
and, walking round the garden, observed that the cherished
Anemones were in seed. Letting his robe fall upon the plants as
if by accident, he so swept off a number of the little feathery
seeds, which his servant, following close upon his heels, brushed
off his master’s robe and secretly appropriated; and before long
the niggardly florist had the mortification of seeing his highlyprized
“ strain” in the possession of his neighbours and rivals.-----
The Anemone is held to be under the dominion of Mars.
A N G E L IC A .—The strong and widely-diffused belief in the
manifold virtues of this plant is sufficient to account for its angelic
name, although Fuchsius was of opinion that it was called Angelica
either from the sweet scent of its root, or its value as a remedy
against poisons and the plague. Its old German name of Root
of the Holy Ghost is still retained in some northern countries. The
Laplanders believe that the \ise of it strengthens life, and they
therefore chew it as they would do Tobacco ; they also employ it
to crown their poets, who fancy themselves inspired by its odour.
——Parkinson says that “ it is so goode an herbe that there is
no part thereof but is of much use.” Du Bartas wrote—
“ Contagious aire ingendering pestilence
Infects not those that in their mouths have ta’en
Angelica, that happy counterbane
Sent down from heav’n by some celestial scout,
As well the name and nature both avowt.”
Sylvester's trans., 1641.
Angelica was fpopularly believed to remove the effecits of intoxication
; according to Fuchsius, its roots, worn suspended round the
neck, would guard the wearer against the baneful power of witches
and enchantments; and Gerarde tells us that a piece of the root
held in the mouth, or chewed, will drive away pestilential air, and
that the plant, besides being a singular remedy against poisons,
p F a n t k o r e , T s e g e l^ /, a n il b tjn o /, 2 17
the plague, and pestilent diseases in general, cures the biting of
mad dogs and all other venomous beasts. Regarding its astrological
government, Culpeper observes that it is a “ herb of the
Sun in Leo. Let it be gathered when he is there, the moon
applying to his good aspedt; let it be gathered either in his hour,
or in the hour of Jupiter; let Sol be angular.”
A N T H Y L L I S .—The English names of this plant are Kidney
Vetch, Lamb Toe, L ad y ’s Fingers, Silver Bush, and Jupiter’s Beard
(from the thick woolly down which covers the calyxes of a species
growing in the South of Europe). It was formerly employed as a
vulnerary, and was recommended by Gesner as useful in staunching
the effusion of blood: hence its old English names of Staunch
and Wound-Wort. Clare says of i t :—
“ The yellow Lambtoe I have often got
Sweet creeping o’er the banks in sunny time ”
A N T IR R H IN U M . —Columella alludes to this flower as
“ the stern and furious lion’s gaping mouth.” Its English names
are Snap Dragon, Lion’s Snap, Toad’s Mouth, Dog’s Mouth, and
Calf’s Snout. In many rural districts the Snap Dragon is
believed to possess supernatural powers, and to be able to destroy
charms. It was formerly supposed that when suspended about the
person, this plant was a protedtion from witchcraft, and that
it caused a maiden so wearing, it to appear “ gracious in the sight
of people.”
A P P L E .—Whether the Apple, the Orange, the Pomegranate,
the Fig, the Banana, or the Grape was the adtual fruit of the
Tree of Knowledge, which tempted E v e in Paradise, will possibly
never be settled; but it is certain that not only is the Apple
mystical above all the fruits of the earth, but it is the supreme
fruit. To it has been given the Latin name Pomona, which is the
generic name of fruit, just as Pomona is the goddess of all the
fruit trees.
The Scandinavian goddess Iduna is in a measure identified
with the Tree of Immortality, which was an Apple-tree. Iduna
religiously guarded in a box the Apples which the gods, when
they felt old age approaching, had only to taste the juice of to
become young again. The evil genius, Loki, having been instrumental
in the abdudtion of Iduna and her renovating Apples, the
gods became old and infirm, and were unable properly to govern
the world; they, therefore, threatened Loki with condign punishment
unless he succeeded in bringing back Iduna and her mystic
Apples; this he fortunately succeeded in doing.
The golden Apples which Juno presented to Jupiter on the
day of their nuptials were placed under the watchful care of a
fearful dragon, in the garden of the Hesperides; and the obtaining
of some of these Apples was one of the twelve labours of Hercules.
B y stooping to pick up three of these golden Apples presented by