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cures passed their patients (generally) nine times through a girth
or garland of green Woodbine. In Lower Germany, the Honeysuckle
IS called Albranke, the witch snare. Astrologers consider
Woodbine to be under the rule of Mercury.
„ {Humulus Lupulus) is referred to in an old
English proverb:—
“ Till St. James’s day be come and gone.
There may be Hops and there may be none.”
The cultivated Hop, however, was not brought into England until
the reign of Henry V H L , when it was imported from Flanders as
recorded in the distich :— ’
“ Hops and turkeys, mackerel and beer,
Came to England all in one year.”
The Hop-leaf has become in Russia proverbial as the best of
ffiayes. King Vladimir, in 985, when signing a peace with the
Bulgars, swore to keep it till stone swam on the water, or Hop-leaves
sank to the bottom. It is a very old custom in Russia to cover the
head of a bride with Hop-leaves—typifying joy, abundance, and
intoxication. Astrologers place Hops under the rule of Mars.
H O R EH O U N D .—Horehound {Mavmbium) is the Herb which
the Egyptians dedicated to their god Horus, and which the priests
called the Seed of Horus, or the Bull’s Blood, and the Eye of the
Star. Strabo attributed to the plant magical properties as a
counter-poison. Horehound is one of the five plants which are
stated by the Mishna to be the “ bitter herbs” ordered to be taken
by the Jews at the Feast of the Passover. An infusion of its leaves
has an ancient reputation as being valuable in consumptive cases
coughs, and colds, and, according to Gerarde, “ is good for them
that have drunke poyson, or that have been bitten of serpents ”
It IS a herb of Mercury, hot in the second degree and dry in the
third. lo dream of Horehound indicates that you will suffer
imprisonment.
H O R N B E A M .—Gerarde tells us that the Horn Beam (Car-
Pinus Betulus) was so called from its wood having been used to
yoke horned cattle, as well by the Romans in olden times as in his
own time and country, and growing so hard and tough with a^e as
to be more like horn than wood. Hence it was also called Hard-
beam and Yoke-Elm._ Evelyn says the tree was called Horse-
Beech ; and in Essex it is known as the Witch-Hazel In the
country distriAs around Valenciennes, there is a pleasant custom
on May-day morning, when, over the doorway of their sweethearts
rusüc lovers hasten to suspend, as a sign of their devotion, branches
of Hornbeam or Birch.
H O R S E -C H E S N U T .—It has been suggested that the
Horse-Chesnut [cEsculus Hippocastanum) derived its name from the
resemblance of the cicatrix of its leaf to a horse-shoe, with all its
I
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nails evenly placed. The old writers, however, seem to have considered
that the Horse-Chesnut was so called from the Nuts being
used in Turkey (the country from which we first received the tree)
as food for horses touched in the wind. Thus we read in P a rkinson’s
‘ Paradisus ’ ;—“ They are usually in Turkey given to horses
in their provendex to cure them of coughs, and help them being
broken winded.” E v lia Effendi, a Moslem Dervish, who travelled
over a large portion of the Turkish empire in the beginning of the
seventeenth century, says : “ The Santon Akyazli lived forty years
under the shade of a wild Chesnut-tree, close to which he is buried
under a leaden-covered cupola. The Chesnuts, which are as bigas
an egg, are wonderfully useful in the diseases of horses.” T ra dition
says that this tree sprang from a stick which the saint once
thrust in the ground, that he might roast his meat on it. The
Venetians entertain the belief that one of these Nuts carried in the
pocket is a sure charm against hemorrhoids. When Napoleon I.
returned to France on March 20th, 1814, a Horse-Chesnut in the
Tuileries garden was found to be in full blossom. The Parisians
regarded this as an omen of welcome, and in succeeding years
hailed with interest the early flowering of the Marronnier du Vingt
Mars. (See also Che snut ) ,
H O R S E -K N O T .—The flowers of the Horse-knot Centaurea
nigra are also called Hard-heads and Iron-Heads, from the resemblance
of the knotted involucre to an old weapon called Loggerhead,
which consisted of a ball of iron fixed to a long handle, the precursor
of the life-preserver, and the origin of the expression “ coming to
loggerheads.” In the Northern Counties, the following rite is
frequently observed by young people as a divination ;—Let a
youth or maiden pull from its stalk the flower of the Horse-Knot,
cut the tops of the stamens with a pair of scissors, and lay the
flower by in a secret place, where no human eye can see it. Let
him (or her) think through the day, and dream through the night, of
the beloved one : then, on looking at the flower the next day, if the
stamens have shot out, the anxious sweetheart may expeél success
in love ; but if not, disappointment. (See Centaury ) .
H O R S E R A D I S H .—The Horseradish [Cochlearia Armoracia)
is stated to be one of the five plants referred to by the Mishna, as
the “ bitter herbs ” ordered to be partaken of by the Jews during
the Feast of the Passover; the other four being Coriander, Horehound,
Lettuce, and Nettle. Horseradish is under the dominion
of Mars.
H O R S E - SH O E P L A N T .—The Horse-shoe Vetch {Hippocrepis)
derives its scientific name from the Greek words,
hippos, a horse, and crepis, a shoe, in allusion to its singular pods,
which resemble a number of horse-shoes united at their extremities,
Gerarde grew this plant in his garden, but he tells us that it is a
native of Italy and Languedoc, where it flourishes in certain