Latin rhyme, “ Ego Borago gaudia semper ago.” All the old herba*
lists praise the plant for its exhilarating effetfls, and agree with
Pliny that when put into wine the leaves and flowers of Borage
make men and women glad and merry, driving away all sadness,
dulness, and melancholy. The “ cool tankard ” of our forefathers
was a beverage composed of the young shoots and blossoms of
Borage mingled with wine, water, lemon, and sugar. Lord Bacon
was of opinion that “ if in the must of wine or wort of beer, while
it worketh, before it be tunned, the Burrage stay a short time, and
be changed with fresh, it will make a sovereign drink for melancholy
passion.” Borage, astrologers tell us, is one of Jupiter’s
cordials.
B O X .—The evergreen Box {Buxus semperviva) was specially
consecrated by the Greeks to Pluto, the protedtor of all evergreen
trees, as being symbolical of the life which continues through
the winter in the infernal regions, and in the other world.____
A curious superstition existed among the ancients in regard
to the Box : although it very much resembles the Myrtle, which
was held sacred to Venus, yet they carefully refrained from
dedicating the Box to that goddess, because they were afraid that
through such an offering they would lose their virility. They
also, according to Bacon, entertained the belief that the Box produced
honey, and that in Trebizonde the honey issuing from this
tree was so noxious, that it drove men mad. Corsican honey was
supposed to owe its ill repute to the fa^ that the bees fed upon Box.
The Box is referred to by the Prophet Isaiah in his description of
the glory of the latter days of the Church : “ The glory of Lebanon
shall come unto thee, the Fir-tree, the Pine-tree, and the Box-tree
together, to beautify the place of my sandtuary.” It is thought,
also, to be the Ashur-wood of the Scriptures, and to be referred to
by Ezekiel when, in describing the splendour of Tyre, he alludes
to the benches of the rowers as made of Ashur wood, inlaid with
ivory. That the ancients were accustomed to inlay Box-wood with
ivory we know from Virgil and other writers, who allude to this
pradtice. The Jews employ branches of Box in eredting their
tents at the Feast of Tabernacles. Boughs of Box were used
formerly for decorative purposes, instead of the Willow, on Palm
Sundays. According to Herrick, it was once a time-honoured
custom on Candlemas Day to replace the Christmas evergreens with
sprigs of Box, which were kept up till Easter Eve, when they gave
place to Yew.
“ Down with the Rosemary and Bays,
Down with the Mistletoe ;
Instead of Holly now upraise
The greener Box for show.”
Box-boughs were also in olden times regularly gathered at Whitsuntide
for decking the large open fire-places then in vogue.____
In several parts of the North of England, when a funeral takes
place, a basin full of sprigs of Box is placed at the door of the
house from which the coffin is taken up, and each mourner is
expedted to take a sprig, and afterwards cast it on the grave of the
deceased. In Turkey, it is a pradtice with widows, who go weekly
to pray at their husbands’ tomb, to plant a sprig of Box at the head
of the grave. The monastery of St. Christine, in the Pyrenees,
assumes the arms of the Knights of St. Christine, viz., a white
pigeon with a cross in its beak, to which is attached the following
legend The workmen who were employed to build the monastery
had the greatest difficulty in finding a suitable foundation. After
several ineffedtual attempts, they one morning perceived a white
pigeon flying with a cross in its beak. They pursued the bird,
which perched on a Box-tree, but though it flew away on their near
approach, they found in the branches the cross which it had left :
this they took as a good omen, and proceeded successfully to lay
the foundation on the spot where the Box-tree had stood, and completed
the edifice. To dream of Box denotes long life and prosperity,
also a happy marriage.
B R A C K E N F E R N .—There was formerly a proverb respecting
the Pteris aquilina, or common Brake Fern, popular in
the country:—
“ When the Fern is as high as a spoon.
You may sleep an hour at noon ;
When the Fern is as high as a ladle,
You may sleep as long as your’re able ;
When the Fern begins to look red,
Then milk is good with brown bread.’
In Ireland, the Bracken Fern is called the Fern of God, from an
old belief that if the stem be cut into three pieces, there will be
seen on the first slice the letter G, on the second O, and on the
third D,—the whole forming the sacred word G o d . There is still
a superstition in England, probably derived from some holy father,
that in the cut stem of the Bracken Fern may be traced the sacred
letters I.H .S . In Kent, and some other counties, these letters
are deciphered as J.C . In other parts of the country, the marks
are supposed to delineate an Oak, and to have first grown there in
memory of the tree in which King Charles sought shelter during
his flight. An old legend is yet told, that James, the unfortunate
Duke of Monmouth, after the battle of Sedgemoor, was able to lie
concealed for some days beneath the dense Bracken Ferns; but
one day, emerging from his retreat, he sat down and began cutting
some of the Fern-stems which had sheltered him. Whilst doing this,
he was seen by some peasants, who noticed the flash of a diamond
ring on one of his fingers. When, therefore, a reward was offered
soon afterwards for the Duke’s capture, they recalled the circumstance,
and sought for him where he lay concealed among the Brakes.
Connected with this figure of an Oak in the Bracken-stem,
there is a saying, that if you cut the Bracken slantwise, you’ll see a
■s
I 1 i