Plant Lore, Legends, and Lyrics Embracing the Myths,...

Two centuries ago there existed a very general belief that every plant was under the direct influence of a particular Planet, and therefore that all the details connected with its cultivation and utilisation were to be conducted with a strict regard to this supposition. Aubrey has recorded his opinion, that if a plant “be not gathered according to the rules of astrology, it hath little or no virtue in it;” and the Jesuit Rapin, in his Latin poem on ‘Gardens,’ says, with respect to flowers—

Culpeper, who was a profound believer in astrology, has given at the commencement of his ‘British Herbal and Family Physician,’ a list of some five hundred plants, and the names of the Planets which govern them; and in his directions as to the plucking of leaves for medical purposes, the old herbalist and physician remarks:—“Such as are astrologers (and indeed none else are fit to make physicians) such I advise: let the planet that governs the herb be angular, and the stronger the better; if they can, in herbs of Saturn, let Saturn be in the ascendant; in the herb of Mars, let Mars be in the mid-heaven, for in those houses they delight; let the Moon apply to them by good aspect, and let her not be in the houses of her enemies; if you cannot well stay till she apply to them, let her apply to a Planet of the same triplicity; if you cannot meet that time neither, let her be with a fixed Star of their nature.”

The classification of Plants under the planets Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Venus, Mercury, the Sun, and the Moon, appears to have been made according to the Signatures or outward appearances of the plants themselves. The stalks, stems, branches, roots, foliage, flowers, odour, taste, native places, death, and medical virtues, were also considered; and, according to the character of the plant thus deduced, it was placed under the government of the particular Planet with which it was considered to be most in consonance.

Plants allotted to Saturn had their Leaves: hairy, hard, dry, parched, coarse, and of ill-favoured appearance. Flowers: Unprepossessing, gloomy, dull, greenish, faded or dirty white, pale red, invariably hirsute, prickly, and disagreeable. Roots: Spreading widely in the earth and rambling around in discursive fashion. Odour: Fœtid, putrid, muddy.

Jupiter.—Leaves: Smooth, even, slightly cut and pointed, the veins not prominent, and the lines not strongly marked. Colour, greyish blue-green. Flowers: Graceful, pleasing, bright, succulent, transparent, ruddy, flesh-colour, blue, yellow. Roots: Rather small, with short hairy filaments, spread about in the ground. Odour: Highly subtle, grateful to the brain; the kernels comforting; easily fermented.

Mars.—Leaves: Hard, long, somewhat heavy, pointed and pendulous, harsh and hot to the tongue, not of good appearance. Flowers: Of a colour between yellow, vermilion, or blue, green, purple, red, changing quickly, abundance of flowers and seeds. Roots: Highly fibrous and creeping underground. Odour: Oppressive to the brain, potent, sharp, acrid.

Venus.—Leaves: Large, handsome, bright, rich green or roseate, soft, plentiful. Flowers: Pleasing to the eyes, white, blue, rosy, charming, fine, abundant. Roots: Of early growth, but not deeply fixed. Quickly and freely produced. Odour: Subtle, delightful, pungent, refreshing to the brain.

Mercury.—Leaves: Different kinds, but pleasing to the eye. Flowers: Of various descriptions and colours, refreshing, agreeable, and pleasant. Roots: Abiding deep in the earth, and spreading far and wide. Odour: Highly subtle and penetrating, refreshing to the heart and brain.

The Sun.—Leaves: Succulent, with stout stalks, deeply veined, pleasant green or tawny, with reddish stalks. Flowers: Yellow and gold, or purple, handsome, glittering, and radiant. Roots: Strong, deeply fixed in the earth, but not laterally. Odour: Agreeable, acceptable, and pungent, strong, restorative to brain and eyes.

The Moon.—Leaves: Pale, highly succulent, pith thick, firm, strongly-developed veins, bottle-green. Flowers: Pale yellow or greenish, watery, mellifluous, but uninteresting and without beauty. Roots: Penetrating easily through water and earth, not durable, and easily decayed, spreading neither thickly nor deeply. Odour: Disagreeable, almost none, without pungency, redolent of the earth, rain, or soft savour of honey.

According to Indian mythology, herbs are placed under the special protection of Mitra, the Sun. De Gubernatis tells us that there are several Indian plants named after the great luminary. In the Grecian Pantheon, the Solar-god, Apollo, possessed a knowledge of all the herbs. It was to Phœbus, the Sun-god, that poor Clytie lost her heart, and, when changed into a flower, held firmly by the root, she still turned to the Sun she loved, “and, changed herself, still kept her love unchanged.” As to the particular Sunflower, Turnsole, Heliotrope, or Solsequium that is the floral embodiment of the love-sick nymph, readers must be referred to the disquisition under the heading “Sunflower.” De Gubernatis gives it as his opinion, that Clytie’s flower is the Helianthemum roseum of De Candolle. In a previous chapter, certain plants have been noticed which were supposed by the ancients to have been specially under the domination of the Sun and Moon. According to the dictum of wizards and wise folk, plants possessing magical properties must as a general rule be gathered, if not by moonlight, yet at any rate before sunrise, for the first appearance of the Sun’s rays immediately dispels all enchantment, and drives back the spirits to their subterranean abodes.

We are told in Deuteronomy xxxiii., 14, that precious things are put forth by the Moon, but precious fruits by the Sun; and it is certainly very remarkable that, although mankind in all ages have regarded, and even worshipped, the Sun as being the supreme and ruling luminary, from whose glorious life-giving rays, vegetation of all kinds drew its very existence, yet that an idea should have sprung up, and taken root widely and deeply, that the growth and decay of plants were associated intimately with the waxing and waning of the Moon. We have seen how the plant kingdom was parcelled out by the astrologers, and consigned to the care of different Planets; but, despite this, the Moon was held to have a singular and predominant influence over vegetation, and it was supposed that there existed a sympathy between growing and declining nature and the Moon’s wax and wane. Bacon seems to have considered that even the “braine of man waxeth moister and fuller upon the Full of the Moone;” and, therefore, he continues, “it were good for those that have moist braines, and are great drinkers, to take fume of Lignum, Aloes, Rose-Mary, Frankincense, &c., about the Full of the Moone.” He also tells us, in his Natural History, that “the influences of the Moon are four: the drawing forth of heat, the inducing of putrefaction, the moisture, and the exciting of the motions of spirits.”

In respect to this last influence, he goes on to say, “You must note that the growth of hedges, herbs, haire, &c., is caused from the Moone, by exciting of the spirits as well as by increase of the moisture. But for spirits in particular the great instance is lunacies.” This lunar influence which Bacon speaks of was, as already pointed out, fully recognised in olden times, and a belief was even current that the Moon specially watched over vegetation, and that when she was propitious—that is, during her growth—she produced medicinal herbs; when she was not propitious—that is to say, during her wane—she imbued herbs with poisons; her humidity being, perhaps, more injurious than otherwise.

In old almanacks we find the supremacy of the Moon over the plant kingdom fully admitted, albeit in a jargon which is rather puzzling. Thus, in the ‘Husbandman’s Practice or Prognostication for Ever,’ the reader is advised “to set, sow seeds, graft, and plant, the Moone being in Taurus, Virgo, or Capricorne, and all kinds of Corne in Cancer, to graft in March, at the Moone’s increase, she being in Taurus or Capricorne.” Again, in Mr. Wing’s Almanack for 1661, occurs the following passage:—“It is a common observation in astrology, and confirmed by experience, that what Corn or tree soever are set or sown when the Sun or Moon is eclipsed, and the infortunate planets predominate, seldom or never come to good. And again he saith thus:—It is a common and certain observation also, that if any corn, seed, or plant be either set or sown within six hours either before or after the full Moon in Summer, or before or after the new Moon in Winter, having joined with the cosmical rising of Arcturus and Orion, the Hædi and the Siculi, it is subject to blasting and canker.”

As an illustration of the predominance given to the Moon over the other planets in matters pertaining to plant culture, it is worth noticing that, although Culpeper, in his ‘Herbal,’ places the Apple under Venus, yet the Devonshire farmers have from time immemorial made it a rule to gather their Apples for storing at the wane of the Moon; the reason being that, during the Moon’s increase, it is thought that the Apples are full, and will not therefore keep. It is said that if timber be felled when the Moon is on the increase, it will decay; and that it should always be cut when the Moon is on the wane. No reason can be assigned for this; yet the belief is common in many countries, and what is still more strange, professional woodcutters, whose occupation is to fell timber, aver, as the actual result of their observation, that the belief is well founded. It was formerly interwoven in the Forest Code of France, and, unless expunged by recent alterations, is so still. The same opinion obtains in the German forests, and is said to be held in those of Brazil and Yucatan. The theory given to account for this supposed fact is, that as the Moon grows, the sap rises, and the wood is therefore less dense than when the Moon is waning, because at that time the sap declines.

The belief in the Moon’s influence as regards timber extends to vegetables, and was at one time universal in England, although, at the present day, the theory is less generally entertained in our country than abroad, where they act upon the maxim that root crops should be planted when the Moon is decreasing, and plants such as Beans, Peas, and others, which bear the crops on their branches, between new and full Moon. Throughout Germany, the rule is that Rye should be sown as the Moon waxes; but Barley, Wheat, and Peas, when it wanes.

In ‘The Boke of Husbandry,’ by Mayster Fitzherbarde, published in 1523, we read with respect to the sowing of Peas, that “moste generally to begyn sone after Candelmasse is good season, so that they be sowen ere the begynnynge of Marche, or sone upon. And specially let them be sowen in the olde of the Mone. For the opinion of old husbandes is, that they shoulde be better codde, and sooner be rype.”