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Calvary, bearing his cross, he passed by the door of Veronica, a compassionate
woman, who beholding with pity the Lord’s distressed
condition, and the drops of agony on His brow, wiped His face with a
kerchief, or napkin, and the features of the Redeemer remained
miraculously impressed upon the linen. The kerchief itself was
styled the Sudarium, and from some resemblance of the blossom of
the Germander Speedwell to this saintly relic, bearing the features
ofChrist, the plant received the name of Veronica.------Francus wrote
an entire work on the virtues of the Veronica orientalis, which is said
to have cured a King of France of the leprosy and to have given
children to a barren wife, R. Turner calls the plant Fluellin, or
Lluellin—a name, he remarks, “ the Shentleman of Wales have
given it because it saved her nose, which disease had almost gotten
from her.”
S P IG N E L .—Spignel (Meum athamanticum) is also known as
Mew, Bear-wort, or Bald-money, The latter name is of obscure
etymology, but we may safely re je a the derivation which some
writers have suggested from the name of the god Baldr, the Scandinavian
Apollo. ^Spignel is held to be under the rule of Venus.
(See B a l d m o n e y ).
S P IK E N A R D .—We read in Canticles: “ While the king
Sitteth at his table, my Spikenard sendeth forth the smell thereof.”
And again: “ Thy plants are an orchard of Pomegranates, with
pleasant fruits; Camphire, with Spikenard, Spikenard and Saffron.”
The true nature of Spikenard has for ages been the subjecfl of much
controversy ; but it is now generally accepted that it was obtained
from the Valeriana Jatamansi. Ptolemy notices these odoriferous
plants, the best of which grew at Rangamati, and on the borders of
the country now called Bootan. Pliny says there are twelve
varieties of it—the best being the Indian, the next in quality the
Syriac, then the Gallic, and in the fourth place, that of Crete. He
thus describes the Indian Spikenard : “ It is a shrub with a heavy
thick root, but short, black, brittle, and yet unctuous as well; it
has a musty smell, too, very much like that of the Cyperus, with a
sharp acrid taste, the leaves being small, and growing in tufts.
The heads of the Nard spread out into ears; hence it is that Narcj
is so^famous for its two-fold producflion, the spike or ear, and the
leaf.” The price of genuine Spikenard was then one hundred
denarii per pound, and all the other sorts, which were merely
herbs, were infinitely cheaper, some being only worth three denarii
per pound. Galen and Dioscorides give a somewhat similar
account of Spikenard or Nardostachys, but the latter states that
the so-called Syrian Nard came in reality from India, whence it
was brought to Syria for shipment. Mr. E . Rimmel, in his ‘ Book
of Perfumes,’ points out that “ the ancients appear to have
confounded Spikenard with some of the fragrant Grasses of India,
which would account forthe report that Alexander the Great, when
p l a n t bot'e, b e g e q b / , Onol bLjric/. 5 5 1
he invaded Gedrosia, could smell from the back of his elephant the
fragrance of the Nard as it was trod upon by the horses feet. This
error was shared by Linnaeus, who did not attempt to classify thè plant
but was inclined to think it was the same as the Androòogon Nardus'
commonly called Ginger Grass. Sir William Jones, the learned
orientalist, turned his serious attention to this question, and after
a laborious investigation succeeded in establishing beyond doubt
that the Spikenard of the ancients was a plant of the Valerianic order
called by the Arabs Sumbul, which means ‘ spike,’ and by the Hindus
Jatamansi which signifies ‘ locks of hair,’ both appellations being
denved irom its having a stem which somewhat resembles the tail
of an ermine, or of a small weasel. He, consequently, gave it the
name of Valeriana Jatamansi, nndex which it is now generally classed
by botanists. It is found in the mountainous regions of India
principally in Bootan and Nepaul. Its name appears to be derived
irom the Tamil language, in which the syllable nàr denotes any
thing possessing fragrance, such as nartum pillu, ‘ Lemon Grass • ’
narum panel, ‘ Indian Ja sm in e;’ nàrtum manum, ‘ Wild Orange ’ 8cc
It IS highly propable, however, that the word Spikenard was éfteè
applied by the ancients as a generic name for every sort of per-
iume, as the Chinese now d e sin a te all their scents by the. name of
heang, which properly means incense, it being for them the type of
all perfumes.”-— In an Indian poem, the hero, compelled to go
upon his travels immediately after wedding the girl of his heart
takes leave of her m his garden, and showing her a Spikenard
of his own planting, enjoins her to watch over it with loving
care] for as long as it thrives all will go well with him, but should
It wither some fatal misfortune will certainly befall him. Years
pass away before he can turn his steps homewards. Then he
assumes the garb of a mendicant, goes to his home, gains admission
to the garden, and there sees his faithful wife weeping over
the pr^ious Spkenard, grown into a mighty plant, telling its own
tale. The finish can well be guessed.
S P R IN G W O R T .—The Springwort, or Blasting-root, is
famed in German legends for its magical power of opening loèks
however strong, hidden doors, rocks, and secret entrances tè
caves where are stored inexhaustible treasures. In Kelly’s ‘ Indo
European Tradition,’ we read that as a rule the Springwort has
been ^^S fd ed as an n n fo w n species of plants, and therefore
most difficult to find; but some few accounts specify known
plants, and Grimm mentions the Euphorbia Lathyris, which he
Kfentifies with the Sferracavallo of the Italians, so named because it
affis so potently on metals, that horses, if they tread on it, have their
shoes drawn off. (The Sferracavallo, however, was stated by Mentzel
m 1682 to be a Vetch now known as the Hippocrepis), The Spring-
wort IS procured by plugging up the hole in a tree in which a green
or black woodpecker has its nest with young ones in it. As soon
as the bird is aware of what has been done, it flies off in quest o f
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