Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1860-06-23
00(Ortcstrr Daily spp.
From Chambers Edinburg Journal.

secret Influences of Flowers and Plants.
The firm belief in the occult powers of the
flowers and herbs Of the fields and the trees of
the forest, was once superstition in England,
and had its learned professors. The most
popular system was intimately connected with
aStrology. Every plant was supposed to be
under the influence of planet! each planet
regned paramount over certain part of the
human frame, and the herbs under its in
huence were believed to supply the proper
medicine or that portion of the body. An
other method OF detecting the virtue of plants
was by signature, and was founded on the
idea that mature has stamped on divers plants
leglble characters, to discover their uses" So
yellow flowers were held the natural medicine
for yellow jaundice; spotted herbs were dis
TILED for the removal of freckles and the
tooth-ike shape of hen-bane seed was suffi
Gent proof that its jdice would cure the tooth
ache. The medicinal properties attributed to
some plants by the herbalists are indeed as
tonishing. eye bright" will not only enable
old people to read without spectacles, but has
been known to restore sight to the blind va
lerian juice draws iron or wood out of the
flesh cowslip water restores beauty and a
single spoonful of the juice Of the maow is a
preservative forever from all diseases Rue
renders man subtle, quick, and inventive;
sage strengthens the memory, and reloices in
o. many vi lildl OIlt Oh It's DdIe1yIlSIS
asks-"How is it that one who grows sage in
his garden never dies 2"
Some curious recipes were furnished by
these old herbalists. There is one--never in
much demand, we opine-"good against mer-
RE gals, and another ''to kill a man in such
sort as though he seemed TO lie laughing"
Two walnuts, two figs, and twenty leaves of
rue, beaten together and eaten fasting, would
preserve against plague or poison for day.
Dogs, we are told, take grass an emetic
asses, when afflicted with melancholy, recover
their spirits by eating milkwaste wild goats
expel arrows from their flesh by eating ditta-
ny; serpents clear their eyes with fennel, and
have such horror of the ash that they will
rather go through fire than pass under its
shade. Adderstongue, put in the left ear of
horse, will make him fall down as if dead, but
OH its removal he will become liveier than
ever; while if asses feed much on hemock
they fall so fast asleep that 'sOme, thinking
them to be dead indeed, have hayed off their
skins; yet after they have done operating, the
beasts have stirred and walked out of their
sleep, to the grief and amazement of their OWE
ers, and the laughter OF others" Mandrake,
chat prOcureth love, IL poisonous filters
mixed, bore a fearful reputation. 1t was said
to spring under the gibbet, from the blood of
Indicators, to resemble the human form in
shape and not only to shrek when pulled cut
OF the ground, but to punish any man attempt
ing to remove it with madness or death SO
that it was customary to employ dogs for the
purpose.
Omens and auguries of the future were also
found in the vegetable world. Ii the elm or
peach cast its leaves early, it was thought to
prOgnoSticate murrgin among the cattle the
presence of a worm in an oak apple was omi-
nous of scarcity; fly, of plenty spider,
of mortality. A fir tree, struck by lightning,
pretgured its owners speedy death.
OF course love found its tokens in these odd
cOneeits, the vulgar onion furnishing one of
them. On ST. Agnes Eve a species OF divi.
nation was practiced with this unromantic
root which is thus described by an old vers-
fer -
young wanton girls that meet for marriagelbe,
Do search to know the names of them that shall
their husbands be:
Four onions, five. eight, they take, and make in
Such names they do fancy most, and best do
think upon;
Thus near the chimney them they set, and that
That first doth sprout doth surely bear the name of
their goodman"
AT midsummer eve, courageous maidens
went into the churchyard at night, commencing
as the clock struck twelve to run round the
church, scattering hempseed, and singing:
"HempSeed sow,
IempSeeu / noe,
He that is my true love, come after and mow.n
Having repeated the circuit a dozen times,
on looking behind her, the lady would behold
her true love carrying scythe. The rank
of prospective bridegroom was arrived at by
plucking the petals of daisy one by one,
while repeating the formula, erich man, poor
man, farmer, plOwman, thief" the last petal
of course disclosing the important secret
Doubtful SWANS carried bachelors buttons in
their pockets; if the flowers grew in their
strange depository, it was a sign that success
would attend the wooing.