Currants, Succulents and Roses 135have been treasured as much, if not more, for employment as a medicine. At
what period or periods it was brought over from continental Europe can only
be guessed at—as the common vernacular name for it, sengreen, is its Anglo-
Saxon one (and the plant features in theLacnungaas an ingredient in a cough
medicine2a), the post-Roman invasions rather suggest themselves, but ear-
lier and possibly even much earlier importations cannot be ruled out. Cer-
tainly it is no latecoming usurper of the place in folk medicine presumptively
occupied previously byUmbilicus,for not only has its use in rural Wales and
Ireland and even the Highlands been widespread and to all appearances
deeply established, but it even bears names of its own in the Gaelic languages.
Because the folk uses recorded for Umbilicus are not found outside the
western areas where that species abounds, those for Sempervivum,the range
of which is not determined climatically, predictably far out-
number them; those for the latter are in fact twice as
numerous, and perhaps partly thanks to its magical rep-
utation they also extend to a greater diversity of ailments.
The one outstanding difference between the two is the
very much greater popularity ofSempervivum as a
treatment for sore eyes. That constitutes indeed the
single greatest use of the plant by a very wide margin,
accounting for 41 of the 147 records traced. Most of
those 41 are from a wide spread of Irish counties, but in
proportion to their area Wales and south-west-
ernmost England are also well represented. By
contrast,Umbilicus has been recorded in
use for the eyes solely from some unspeci-
fied part(s) of Wales^3 as far as Britain is
concerned (but that use did not feature in
a more recent field survey^4 of Welsh folk
medicine in which this herb emerged
prominently in connection with other
ailments). Sempervivum also has a
monopoly of the relatively few records of
treating earache or deafness with drops
of the juice and for the application of
the leaves to staunch bleeding—
both of which emerge as British
rather than Irish practices, the former
Umbilicus rupestris, navelwort
(Green 1902, fig. 214)