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of a Nettle to apply a cold ;Dock-leaf to the inflamed spot, the
following well-known rhyme being thrice repeated :—
“ Out Nettle, in Dock :
Dock shall have a new smock.”
Docks are said by astrologers to be under the dominion of Jupiter.
D R A C A EN A .—The Dracaena, or Dragon-tree (Dmcena
Draco), derives its name from the Greek Drakaina, a female dragon.
This tree is found in the East India Islands, the Canaries, Cape
Verde, and Sierra Leone. Gerarde thus describes i t : ^ “ This
strange and admirable tree groweth very great, resembling the Pine-
tree.” Among its leaves “ come forth little mossie floures, of small
moment, and turn into berries of the bignesse of Cherries, of a
yellowish colour, round, light, and bitter, covered with a threefolc.
skin, or film, wherein is to be seen, as Monardus and divers others
report, the form of a dragon, having a long neck and gaping mouth,
the ridge, or back, armed with sharp prickles like the porcupine,
with a long taile and foure feet, very easie to be discerned . . . .
The trunk, or body of the tree, is covered with a tough bark, very
thin and easie to be opened or wounded with any small toole
or instrument; which being so wounded in the dog days, bruised
or bored, yields forth drops of a thick red liquor of the name of the
tree called Dragon’s Tears, or Sanguis Draconis, Dragon’s Blond.”
This Dragon’s Blood, or Gum Dragon, is well known in
medicine as an astringent. The tooth-brushes called Dragon’sroot,
are made from the root of the Dragon-tree, cut into pieces
about four inches long, each of which is beaten at one end with a
wooden mallet to split it into fibres. The venerable Dragon-tree
of Orotava was for many centuries worshipped as a most sacred
tree by the Guanches, or original inhabitants of the Canary Islands.
It was considered the twin wonder of the Island of Teneriffe,
dividing its interest with the mighty Peak. Humboldt saw it in
1799, when it was considered the oldest and largest ofliving trees (the
giant trees of California being then unknown). The great traveller
writes concerning i t “ Its trunk is divided into a great number of
branches, which rise in the form of candelabra, and are terminated
by tufts of leaves like the Yucca ; it still bears every year both
leaves and fru it: its aspecfl feelingly recalls to mind that ‘ eternal
youth of Nature,’ which is an inexhaustible source of motion and
of life.” Since then this sacred tree has been entirely shattered
and destroyed by successive storms.
D r e am P l a n t .— See Pulsatilla.
D R Y A S .—The pretty evergreen, Dryas, which blooms on
the mountain summits, was so named by Linnaeus after the Dryades,
or nymphs of the Oaks,—the leaves bearing some resemblance to
those of the Oak.
D U R IA N .—The Durian [Durio Zihethinus) is a native of the
East Indies. The fruit of this tree, which is about the size of a
man’s head, is regarded by-the Malays as the king of fruit, and is
reputed to be the most delicious of all the fruits of India. The
custard-like pulp in which the large seeds are imbedded, is the
part eaten fresh, and resembles cream; yet it is accompanied by
such an intolerable stench that, according to Rumphius and
Valentyn, it is by law forbidden to throw them out near any public
path in Amboyna. The smell is said to resemble certain putrid
animal subtances, yet all agree that if the first repugnance is once
overcome, the fruit is most enjoyable. This fruit is employed as a
bait to catch the civet c a t ; the outer covering is boiled down, and
used as a wash for the skin. The seeds are converted into flour,
and also used as vegetable ivory.
D U R V A .—According to Wilson, Durva is the Sanscrit name
of the Agrostis linearis, but Carey applies the name to Panicum
Dactylon. This species of Millet, like the sacred Kusa grass, is held
in much reverence by the Hindus. In De Gubernatis’ Mythologie
des Plantes, the author states that in the Atharvaveda, they implore
the Durva, which grows in the water [i.e., in marshy places), and
which has a hundred roots and a hundred stems, to give absolution
for a hundred faults, and to prolong for a hundred years the life of
him who invokes it. The fact that this herb is the tenderest, the
freshest, and the most substantial food for cattle, added to its
beauty, has gained it respect; but the Indians think, besides, that
a nymph is hidden in the plant. When they celebrate, in India,
the festival of the god Indra, on the 14th day of the lunar month
Bhadra, they sing and dance, and offer fourteen different kinds of
fruit to the god. In that ceremony, the devotees wear, attached to
the right arm, leaves of the Durva. At Indian weddings, the women
bind together the right arm of the husband and the left arm of
his bride with the leaves of Durva. In the Vedic age (and the
custom still exists in certain parts of India), before building a
house, it was customary to place on the four corner foundation
stones some Durva. This plant figures, also, among the eight
ingredients which compose the Arghya, that is to say, the symbolic
offering of Indian hospitality. According to a stanza of the
Panchatantra, the Durva sprang from the hair of the cow, as the
blue Lotus arose from the cow’s evacuations. The leaf of the
Durva is so highly esteemed, that it has passed into a proverb or
familiar saying. This leaf is especially attractive to gazelles. The
preceding stanza proclaims how happy are those gazelles who eat
the herb Durva, for they will never gaze on the face of a man
whom riches have made false.
E B O N Y .— The Diospyros Ehenaster is generally considered
to be the true Ebony-tree. This Date-Plum is a native of Ceylon,
Cochin China, and the East Indies. Bishop Heber describes the
Ebony-tree of Ceylon as a magnificent forest tree, with a tall,
black, slender stem, spotted with white. Some judges, however.