The Romance of Plant Life

a patient will recover-Curious properties of a mushroom-The Scythian lamb-Quinine: history and use-Safflower-Romance of ipecacuanha-Wars of the spice trade-Cinnamon, dogwood, and indigo

he Australians of to-day, then it is certain that every person was much interested in plants. Nothin

, bulbs, and fruits. They knew all that were good to eat, all that could possibly be

rying when people had successfully devoured more than they could comfortably digest. The life of a savage meant tremendous meals, followed by days of starvat

were too busy with their hunting and warfare to have time to try experiments with drugs, to m

to make themselves respected and even feared. They would, no doubt, make botanical excursions i

essors going on excursions with medical students has persisted do

ery much, and a mysterious, solemn manner and a quantity of horrible and unusual objects placed about the hut[4]

; witches' mummy; maw and gulf of the ravin'd salt sea shark; root of h

likely to be successful when the patient believed he was being treated

to the prescription. It is not possible to say that a snake's head, the brain of a toad, the gall of a crocodile, and the whiskers of a tiger, were all of them absolutely useless. Within the last few years it has been fo

teenth centuries, suspected or believed that this was the case must remain a rather doubtful hypothesis

ad Dog; take the Leaves and Roots of Cowslips, of the leaves of Box and Pennyroyal of each a like quantity; shred them small to put them into Ho

both contain essences which would be in all probability fatal to the germ

read like our mode

ue of Feeling, and help also against Indige

Scorpions and abateth Toothache and cleanseth the Hair and letteth" (that is, prevents or

t drinking mustard improved the intellect. Many of the remed

with Ivy cann

forteth wagging Teeth th

a barber, and also a "face-speciali

ith Vinegar and laid to a man's Head plaisterwise

grey could employ the

y sod in rainwater

under these heroic remedies, he could easily find out if he w

aid under the Heade of one that is grievouslie Sicke, if he be in danger of Deat

us) which is not very rare in Britain, and which may be easily recognized by the bright red top or

rger dose brings on a trembling of the nerves, intoxication, delirium and melancholy. Linn?us informs us that flies are killed or at least stupefied by an infusion of this fungus in milk an

he fungus is said to

ns. The most learned men of the Middle Ages were almost invariably monks and hermits, for there was nothing in the world of those strenuous times to attract a studious,

about as thick as a lamb's body and grows horizontally on the ground like that of the common fern mentioned; thick furry scales cover the outside of

t of the leaf-stalks, and to make a sort of toy lamb out of th

of nature, as "a plant that became an anima

Middle Ages, and an enormous quantity of literature was produced

ow and fanned

e Barometz, t

h each cloven

ound her flexil

y coralmoss a

osy tongue the

tenderness he

bleat, a veg

of a well-known fer

an "Obi" wizard or red Indian were not fo

rden o

nce may be seen a Scythian Lamb growing on its tree, and in

e discoveries which have been of infinite service to mankind. We remember great men lik

ably experimented with almost every part of every wild tree before they discovered the wonderful properties of this particular species. The quinine in nature is probably intended to prevent some fungus or smal

ously ill of fever and was cured by the use of Jesuit's bark or quinine. It was introduced into Europe about 1638, but for a very long time the entire supply came from South America. The

and Robert Cross resulted in the introduction of the Cinchona now flourishing in Madras, Bombay, and Ceylon. In

ric acid to give a pink dye to silks and satins, and occasionally, in the form of rouge, to ladies' cheeks! How did the ancient Egyptians discover that this particular thistle-lik

nt in Paris obtained a little of the drug in the way of trade. Shortly afterwards he became very ill and was attended by a certain Dr. Helvetius, who was exceedingly attentive to him. The gratefu

the greatest importance. The Dutch, especially, adopted every possible method to keep the spice trade in their own hands. They cut down the clove, cinnamon, and other trees, in all the islands not directly under their control. They imposed the most barbarous penalties on any int

Elizabeth as it did not yield fast colours; this was because the dyers of those times did not know of any mordant to fix them. Yet this is one of the few vegeta

ortant cultivated plant in Europe. In Nuremberg, an oath was administered once a year to all the manufacturers and dyers, by which they bound themselves not to use the "devil's dye," as they called Indigo. Its more recent history shows a very different system. In Assam and other parts o

troying the sale of the British-grown material. The plant has pretty blue flowers and belongs to the Leguminous order. The

rol. They could thus form a corner in pepper, and alter the price as they felt inclined. At one period they doubled the price, raising it from three shillings to six shillings per pound. This annoyed the London merchants so

ws in China on the frontiers of Tibet; it is carried over the mountains of China to Kiaghta in Siberia, and from thence taken right across

since departed botanists who have made our life so full of lux

experiences, we find botanical treatises. The first, and for a very long time the only, botanical b

gyptians thought that "kindly, healing plants," such as opium, almonds, figs, castor-oil, dates, and olives, were derived from the "blood and tears of the gods"; that would be about 3000 B.C.

ubtful if any professor of botany has ever since that time had so large a number of pupils. Dioscorides, who lived about 64 B.C., wrote a book which was copied by the Pliny (78 A.D.), who perished in the eruption of Vesuvius. The botany of the Middle Ages seems

ingly little discovery unti

h the microscope, and with the work of Linn?us in 1731

s been increased of recent years. Theophrastus (300 B.C.) knew about 500 plants. Pliny (78 A.D.) knew 1000 species by

Plants 105

s 28

and Club-

es 4

worts

ens

i 39

eds 1

-

,70

new species have been described, so that we may estimat

ost extraordinary progress. It is true that we are still burdened with medieval terminology. There are such

their life, and that all plants are more or less distant cousins descended from a common ancestor,

stood the effect of sunlight in ripening the vine and producing the growth of plants (Purgatorio, xxv. 77). Goethe seems to have been almost the first to understand how leaves can be changed in appearance when they are intended to act in a different way. Petals, stamens, as well as some tendrils and spines, are all modified leaves. There is also a passage in Virgi

-life persisting all through the Dark Ages, the Middle Ages, and recent times, until about fifty or sixty years ag