the reputation of "making the complexion very fair." [14] Similarly, also,
the great burnet saxifrage was said to remove freckles; and according to
the old herbalists, an infusion of the common centaury (Erythroea
centaurium) possessed the same property. [15] The hawthorn, too, was
in repute among the fair sex, for, according to an old piece of proverbial
lore:--
"The fair maid who, the first of May,
Goes to the fields at break of day,
And washes in dew from the hawthorn tree,
Will ever after handsome be;"
And the common fumitory, "was used when gathered in wedding
hours, and boiled in water, milk, and whey, as a wash for the
complexion of rustic maids." [16] In some parts of France the water-
hemlock (Œnanthe crocata), known with us as the "dead-tongue," from
its paralyzing effects on the organs of voice, was used to destroy moles;
and the yellow toad-flax (Linaria vulgaris) is described as "cleansing the
skin wonderfully of all sorts of deformity." Another plant of popular
renown was the knotted figwort (Scrophularia nodosa), for Gerarde
censures "divers who doe rashly teach that if it be hanged about the
necke, or else carried about one, it keepeth a man in health." Coles,
speaking of the mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris), says that, "if a footman
take mugwort and put it in his shoes in the morning, he may go forty
miles before noon and not be weary;" but as far back as the time of Pliny
its remarkable properties were known, for he says, "The wayfaring man
that hath the herb tied about him feeleth no weariness at all, and he can
never be hurt by any poisonous medicine, by any wild beast, neither yet
by the sun itself." The far-famed betony was long credited with
marvellous medicinal properties, and hence the old saying which
recommends a person when ill "to sell his coat and buy betony." A
species of thistle was once believed to have the curious virtue of driving
away melancholy, and was hence termed the "melancholy thistle."
According to Dioscorides, "the root borne about one doth expel
melancholy and remove all diseases connected therewith," but it was to
be taken in wine.
On the other hand, certain plants have been credited at most periods
with hurtful and injurious properties. Thus, there is a popular idea that
during the flowering of the bean more cases of lunacy occur than at any
other season. [17] It is curious to find the apple--such a widespread
curative--regarded as a bane, an illustration of which is given by Mr.
Conway. [18] In Swabia it is said that an apple plucked from a graft on
the whitethorn will, if eaten by a pregnant woman, increase her pains.
On the Continent, the elder, when used as a birch, is said to check boys'