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were found effecflual to cure the staggers in horses. Hence these
plants were dedicated to St. James, the patron of horses, and are
still known as St. James’s Worts ; they also blossom about this
great warrior and pilgrim saint’s day, July 25 th. This connecflion
of the plant with horses probably explains the tradition of its
having been employed as the witches’ steed.
R a m p .—See Arum.
R A M P IO N .—The Rampion [Campanula Rapunculus) was considered
by the ancients as a funereal vegetable or root. In the
temple of Apollo at Delphi, the esculent roots of the Rampion were
highly esteemed as appropriate food, and were carried on golden
plates. Among the Italians, there exists an old superstition that
the possession of a Rampion engenders among children a quarrelsome
disposition, and excites their anger to such a degree, that
unless checked, murder would result. Hence, in ancient dream-
books, a dream in which the Rampion is seen is interpreted as a
sure sign of an impending quarrel.
R A N U N C U L U S .—The name Ranunculus (which is the
diminutive of rnna, a frog) was applied by the Latins to this species
of plants because they were observed to grow in places frequented
by frogs. Rapin tells us that the flower was originally a young
Libyan noted for his sweet voice :—
“ Ranunculus, who with melodious strains
Once charmed the ravished nymphs on Libyan plains,
Now boasts through verdant fields his rich attire,
Whose love-sick look betrays a secret fire ;
Himself his song beguiled and seized his mind
With pleasing flames for other hearts designed.”
The Latin herbalists also called the plant Strumea, because it was
used as a remedy for a complaint similar to the King’s-evil, termed
Strume. With one of the species of Ranunculus the ancients were
wont to poison the points of their arrows. The Buttercup, also
known as King’s Cup, Gold Cup, Gold Knobs, Leopard’s Foot,
and Cuckoo-bud, belongs to the Ranunculus family. The Crowfoot
or Crowflower (the Coronopus of Dioscorides) is also a Ranunculus
: this plant possesses the power of raising blisters on the
skin, and is employed by mendicants to raise wounds on their
limbs, in order to excite sympathy. Cattle generally refuse the
acrid Crowfoot [R. acris), but if they perchance eat it, it will blister
their mouths. The Illyrian Crowfoot [R. Illyricus), Gerarde tells us,
is thought to be the Celotophyllis mentioned by Pliny (Book xxiv.),
“ which being drunk, saith he, with wine and Myrrhe, causeth a
man to see divers strange sights, and not to cease laughing till he
hath drunk Pine-apple kernels with Pepper in wine of the Date-
tree (I think he would have said until he be dead), because the
nature of laughing Crowfoot is thought to kill laughing, but without
doubt the thing is clean contrary, for it causeth such convulp
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sions, crampe, and wringings of the mouth and jaws, that it hath
seemed to some that the parties have died laughing, whereas, in
truth, they have died in great torment.” The Double Crowfoot,
or Bachelor’s Buttons, used formerly to be called St. Anthony’s
Turnip, because of its round bulbous ro o t: this root was reputed
to be very efficacious in curing the plague, if applied to the part
affected. According to Apuleius, it was a sure cure for lunacy,
if hung round the neck of the patient, in a linen cloth, “ in the
wane of the Moon, when the sign shall be in the first degree of
Taurus or Scorpio,” The Persian Ranunculus is the Ranunculus
of the garden. The Turks cultivated it under the name of Taro-
holosCatamarlale, for several ages before it was known in other parts
of Europe. Their account of its introduction is, that a Vizier,
named Cara Mustapha, first noticed among the herbage of the
fields this hitherto neglected flower, and decorated the garden of
the Seraglio with it. The flower attracted the notice of the Sultan,
upon which he caused it to be brought from all parts of the East
where varieties could be found. This collection of Ranunculus
flowers was carefully preserved in the Seraglio gardens alone,
and only through bribery did at last some few roots find their way
into other parts of Europe. Astrologers hold the Ranunculus
to be under the rule of Mars,
R A S R IV T R A V A .—The Rasrivtrava is the Russian name of
a plant which has magical powers, enabling it to fracture chains
and break open locks,—properties which appertain also to the
Primula veris or Key of the Spring, to the Eisenkraut or Vervain, the
Mistletoe, the Lunary or Moonwort, the Springwort, the Fern,
and the Hazel. The word Rasrivtrava means literally the “ Plant
that Opens.”
R A S P B E R R Y , Formerly the Raspberry was very generally
known as the Hindberry; and this name is still retained in
some counties. It is thought that to dream of Raspberries
betokens success, happiness in marriage, fidelity in a sweetheart,
and good news from abroad.
R E E D .—King Midas is said to have expressed the opinion
that the Reed-pipes of the god Pan produced better music than
the lyre of Apollo. The offended god in consequence changed the
king’s ears to those of an ass. Midas concealed his deformity
as long a s . he was able; but at length a barber discovered his
secret, and being unable to keep it, and at the same time dreading
the king’s resentment, he dug a hole in the earth, and after whispering
therein, “ King Midas has the ears of an ass,” he covered
up the hole, and in it, as he hoped, the words divulging the secret.
But on that spot grew a number of Reeds, and when they were
agitated by the wind, instead of merely rustling, they repeated the
buried words—“ King Midas has the ears of an ass.” Cato tells
us the Roman country folks, when they had broken an arm or a
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