"Whose roots show half a man, whose juice
With madness strikes."
Shakespeare speaks of it as an opiate, and on the Continent it was
much used for amulets.
Again, certain plants seem to have been specially in high repute in
olden times from the marvellous influence they were credited with
exercising over the human frame; consequently they were much valued
by both old and young; for who would not retain the vigour of his youth,
and what woman would not desire to preserve the freshness of her
beauty?
One of the special virtues of rosemary, for instance, was its ability to
make old folks young again. A story is told of a gouty and crooked old
queen, who sighed with longing regret to think that her young dancing-
days were gone, so:--
"Of rosmaryn she took six pownde,
And grounde it well in a stownde,"
And then mixed it with water, in which she bathed three times a day,
taking care to anoint her head with "gode balm" afterwards. In a very
short time her old flesh fell away, and she became so young, tender, and
fresh, that she began to look out for a husband. [13]
The common fennel (Foeniculum vulgare) was supposed to give
strength to the constitution, and was regarded as highly restorative.
Longfellow, in his "Goblet of Life," apparently alludes to our fennel:--
"Above the lowly plant it towers,
The fennel, with its yellow flowers;
And in an earlier age than ours
Was gifted with the wondrous powers
Lost vision to restore.
It gave new strength and fearless mood,
And gladiators, fierce and rude,
Mingled it in their daily food,
And he who battled and subdued,
The wreath of fennel wore."
The lady's-mantle, too (Alchemilla vulgaris), was once in great
request, for, according to Hoffman, it had the power of "restoring
feminine beauty, however faded, to its early freshness;" and the wild
tansy (Tanacetum vulgare), laid to soak in buttermilk for nine days, had