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ancient of all the paints prepared for the face. Pliny says that the
Anchusa was used by the Romans for colouring and dyeing ; and
adds, that if a person who has chewed this plant should spit in the
mouth of a venomous creature, he would kill it. The Viper’s
Bugloss (Echmm vulgare) derives its name from its seed being like
the head of a viper, and, according to Matthiolus, was celebrated
for curing its bites. Nicander also speaks of the Viper’s Bugloss as
one of those plants which cure the biting of serpents, and especially
of the viper, and that drive serpents away. Dioscorides,
as quoted by Gerarde, writes, “ The root drunk with wine is good
for those that be bitten with serpents, and it keepeth such from
being< stung as have drunk of it before : the leaves and seeds do the
same.” Bugloss is reputed to be under the dominion of Jupiter.
B U L R U S H .—King Midas, having preferred the singing of
Marsyas;' the satyr, to that of Apollo, the god clapped upon him
a pair of ass’s ears. The king’s barber saw them, and, unable to
keep the secret, buried it at the foot of a cluster of Bulrushes,
These Reeds, shaken by the wind, continually murmured, “ King
Midas has ass’s ears.” Both the Scirpus lacustris and Typha latifolia
(the Reed Mace) are popularly known as the Bulrush (a corruption
of Pole Rush or Pool Rush). The Typha is depidted by Rubens, and
the earlier Italian painters, as the Reed put into the hands of Jesus.
Christ upon His crucifixion. The same Reed is, on certain days,
put into the hands of the Roman Catholic statues of our Saviour.
Gerarde calls this Reed Cat’s-tail, and points out that Aristophanes
makes mention of it in his ‘ Comedy of Frogs,’ “ where he bringeth
them forth, one talking with another, being very glad that they
had spent the whole day in skipping and leaping among Galingale
and Cat’S'tail.”— —The Bulrushes, among which the infant Moses
was placed on the banks of the Nile, were Reeds not unlike the
Typha. The ark in which he was laid was probably a small canoe
constructed with the same Reed—the Papyrus Nilotica, which,
according to Egyptian belief, was a protedlion from crocodiles.
Gerarde says: “ It is thought by men of great learning and understanding
in the Scriptures, and set downe by them for truth, that this
plant is the same Reed mentioned in the second chapter of Exodus,
whereof was made that basket or cradle, which was daubed within
and without with slime of that country, called Bitumen Judaicum,
wherein Moses was put, being committed to the water, when Pharaoh
gave commandment that all the male children of the Hebrews should
36 drowned.” Boats and canoes formed of the Papyrus are
common in Abyssinia. In South America, a similar kind of Bulrush
is used for a like purpose, -The Bulrush is under the dominion
of Saturn.
B U R D O C K .'—Everyone is acquainted with the prickly burs
of the Arctium Lappa, or Burdock, which, by means of their
hooks, are apt to cling so tenaciously to the passer-by. There
exists an old belief among country lads, that they can catch bats
by, throwing these burs at them. The plant is also known by the
names of Great-bur, Hur-bur, and Clot-bur, and has an ancient
reputation for curing rheumatism. It was under the great leaf of
a Burdock that the original Hop-o’-my-Thumb, of nursery-rhyme
celebrity, sought refuge from a storm, and was, unfortunately,
swallowed, enclosed in the leaf, by a passing hungry cow. In
Albania, there is a superstitious belief that, if a man has been
influenced by the demons of the forest, the evil spirit must be
exorcised by the priest; a portion- of the ceremony consisting of
the steeping of bread in wine, and spreading it on the broad leaves
of a Burdock. Venus is the planet under whose rule astrologers
place Burdock.
B U R I T I ,—The Buriti Palm {Mauritia vinifera) attains, in
Brazil, gigantic proportions, and its rich red and yellow fruit, “ like
quilted cannon balls,” hang in bunches five feet long. From it
flour, wine, and butter are made, whilst the fibre of the leaves
supplies thread for weaving, &c. Another species, M. flexuosa,
flourishes in the valleys and swamps of South America, where the
native Indians regard it with great reverence, living almost entirely
on its produdts; and, what is very remarkable, building their
houses high up amongst its leaves, where they live during the
floods.
B U R N E T .—The Burnet Saxifrage {Pimpinella Saxifraga)
appears to be considered a magical plant in Hungary, where it is
called Chdbairje, or Chaba’s Salve, from an old tradition that King
Chaba discovered it, and cured the wounds of fifteen thousand of
his soldiers after a sanguinary battle fought against his brother.------
In a work on astrology, purported to be written by King Solomon,
and translated from the Hebrew by Iroe Grego, it is stated that
the magician’s sword ought to be steeped in the blood of a mole
and in the juice of Pimpinella. In Piedmont, the Pimpinella
is thought to possess the property of increasing the beauty of
women. Burnet is a herb of the Sun.
B U T C H E R ’ S B RO O M .—A species of Butcher’s Broom,
Puscus hypoglossum, was the Alexandrian Laurel of the Romans, who
formed of this shrub the so-called Laurel crowns worn by distinguished
personages. It is the Laurel generally depi(5ted on busts,,
coins, &c. The name of Butcher’s Broom was given to this plant
because in olden times butchers were in the habit of sweeping their
blocks with hand brooms made of its green shoots. In Italy,,
branches of the plant, tied together, are commonly employed as
besoms for sweeping houses; and hucksters place boughs of it round
bacon and cheese to defend them from the mice. The Puscuz.
aculeatus, besides its ordinary name of Butcher’s Broom, is called
Knee-holme, Knee-pulver, Knee-holly, Pettigree, and sometimes,
Jew s’ Myrtle, because it is sold to the Jews for use during the Feast of