ENCYCLOPÆDIA OF PLANTS. (continued 3)
Project Gutenberg EPUB3 edition
Folkard, Richard
For that of Moses must needs be famous to the Egyptians, and that of Aaron unto many other nations, as being preserved in the Ark until the destruction of the Temple built by Solomon.” In the ‘Quarterly Review,’ No. 44, is a long account (vouched for by the editor), proving that a Lady Noel possessed the faculty of using the divining-rod:—“She took a thin forked Hazel-twig, about sixteen inches long, and held it by the end, the joint pointing downwards. When she came to the place where the water was under the ground, the Hazel-twig immediately bent, and the motion was more or less rapid as she approached or withdrew from the spring. When just over it, the twig turned so quick as to snap, breaking near the fingers, which by pressing it were indented and heated, and almost blistered; a degree of agitation was also visible in her face. The exercise of the faculty is independent of any volition.”——The use of the forked Hazel-twig as a divining-rod to discover metals is said to have been known in this kingdom as early as the days of Agricola: its derivation is probably to be sought in an ancient custom of the Israelites, to which the Prophet Hosea alludes when he says: “My people ask counsel at their stocks, and their staff declareth unto them.”——In Sweden, Hazel-nuts are believed to have the mystical power of making invisible.——An old-fashioned charm to cure the bite of an adder was to cut a piece of Hazel-wood, fasten a long bit and a short one together in the form of a cross, then to lay it softly on the wound, and say thrice in a loud tone—
“Underneath this Hazelin mote,
There’s a Braggotty worm with a speckled throat,
Nine double is he.
Now from 9 double to 8 double,
And from 8 double to 7 double,
And from 7 double to 6 double,
And from 6 double to 5 double,
And from 5 double to 4 double,
And from 4 double to 3 double,
And from 3 double to 2 double,
And from 2 double to 1 double,
And from 1 double to no double,
No double hath he!”
To dream of Hazels, and of cracking and eating their Nuts, portends riches and content as the reward of toil. To dream of finding hidden Hazel-nuts predicts the finding of treasure.——Astrologers assign the Hazel to the dominion of Mercury.
Heartsease.—See Pansy.
HEATHER.—Included under the term Heather are the six English species of Heath (Erica) and the Ling (Calluna). Although, in the Scriptures, the Prophet Jeremiah exclaims, “And he shall be like the Heath in the desert,” it is probable that the Juniper is really referred to.——In Germany, the Heath is believed to owe its colour to the blood of the slain heathen, for in that country the inhabitants of the uncultivated fields, where the Heath (heide) grew, came in time to be known as heathen, or heiden.——Heather was the badge of “Conn of a hundred fights.” The Highlanders consider it exceedingly lucky to find white Heather, the badge of the captain of Clanronald.——The Picts made beer from Heather.
“For once thy mantling juice was seen to laugh
In pearly cups, which monarchs loved to quaff;
And frequent waked the wild inspired lay
On Teviot’s hills beneath the Pictish sway.”—Leyden.
The secret of the manufacture of Heather beer was lost when the Picts were exterminated, as they never divulged it to strangers. Tradition says that after the slaughter by Kenneth, a father and son, the sole survivors, were brought before the conqueror, who offered the father his life, provided that he would divulge the secret of making this liquor, and the son was put to death before the old man’s eyes, in order to add emphasis to the request. Disgusted with such barbarity, the old warrior said: “Your threats might, perhaps, have influenced my son, but they have no effect on me.” Kenneth then suffered the Pict to live, and he carried his secret with him to the grave. At the present time, the inhabitants of Isla, Jura, and other outlying districts, brew a very potable liquor by mixing two-thirds of the tops of Heath with one of malt.
HELENIUM.—The flower of the Helenium resemble small suns of a beautiful yellow. According to tradition, they sprang up from the tears shed by Helen of Troy. On this point Gerarde writes in his ‘Herbal’:—“Some report that this plant tooke the name of Helenium from Helena, wife to Menelaus, who had her hands full of it when Paris stole her away into Phrygia.”
HELIOTROPE.—The nymph Clytie, enamoured of Phœbus (the Sun), was forsaken by him for Leucothea. Maddened with jealousy, the discarded and love-sick Clytie accused Leucothea of unchastity before her father, who entombed his daughter, and thus killed her. Phœbus, enraged with Clytie for causing the death of his beloved Leucothea, heeded not her sighs and spurned her embraces. Abandoned thus by her inconstant lover, the wretched and despairing Clytie wandered half distraught, until at length—
“She with distracted passion pines away,
Detesteth company; all night, all day,
Disrobed, with her ruffled hair unbound
And wet with humour, sits upon the ground;
For nine long days all sustenance forbears;
Her hunger cloy’d with dew, her thirst with tears:
Nor rose; but rivets on the god her eyes,
And ever turns her face to him that flies.
At length to earth her stupid body cleaves;
Her wan complexion turns to bloodless leaves,
Yet streaked with red: her perished limbs beget
A flower resembling the pale Violet;
Which, with the Sun, though rooted fast, doth move;
And, being changed, yet changeth not her love.”—Sandys’ Ovid.
Rapin, in error, alludes to the Sunflower (Helianthus) as owing its origin to Clytie. He says:—
“But see where Clytie, pale with vain desires,