The Book of Herbs, Rosalind Northcote [best books to read for self development TXT] 📗
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And put the sweet thyme in my hair.
Devonshire Songs.
Thyme that for all your bruising smells more sweet.
N. Hopper.
Some from a grove, the bay that poets crowns.
Br. Pastorals, book ii.
Here, where wild thyme and sea-pinks brave wild weather.
N. Hopper.
Who furrows deeply drew.
He broke soil, destroyed the soil
Of wild thyme wet with dew.
Before his feet, the field was sweet
With flowers and grasses green,
Behind, turn’d down, and bare and brown
By Cupid’s coulter keen.
Devonshire Songs.
“Among the Greeks, thyme denoted graceful elegance of the Attic style,” and was besides an emblem of activity. “‘To smell of Thyme’ was therefore an expression of praise, applied to those whose style was admirable” (Folkard). In the days of chivalry, when activity was a virtue very highly rated, ladies used “to embroider their knightly lovers’ scarves with the figure of a bee hovering about a sprig of thyme.”[35] In the south of France wild thyme or Ferigoule is a symbol of advanced Republicanism, and tufts of it were sent with the summons to a meeting to members of a society holding those views. Gerarde, in his writings, plainly shows that he and his contemporaries did not indiscriminately call all plants “herbs,” but distinguished them with thought and care. “Ælianus seemeth to number wild time among the floures. Dionysius Junior (saith he) comming into the city Locris in Italy, possessed most of the houses of the city, and did strew them with roses, wild time and other such kinds of floures. Yet Virgil, in the Second Eclogue of his Bucolicks doth most manifestly testifie that wilde Time is an herbe.” Here he translates:—
Garlike, wild Time, strong smelling herbs doth beate.
Modern opinion confirms the view that Thymus capitatus was the thyme of the ancients. The affection of bees for thyme has often been noticed, and the “fine flavour to the honey of Mount Hymettus”[36] is said to be due to this plant. Evelyn speaks of it as having “a most agreeable odor,” and a “considerable quantity being frequently, by the Hollanders, brought from Maltha, and other places in the Streights, who sell it at home, and in Flanders for strewing amongst the Sallets and Ragouts; and call it All-Sauce.” Gerarde divides the garden thyme (T. vulgaris) and Wild Thyme or Mother of Thyme (T. serpyllum) into two chapters, but Parkinson takes them together and describes eleven kinds, including Lemmon Thyme, which has the “sent of a Pomecitron or Lemmon”; and “Guilded or embrodered Tyme,” whose leaves have “a variable mixture of green and yellow.” Abercrombie’s information is always given in a concentrated form. “An ever-green, sweet-scented, fine-flavoured, aromatic, under-shrub, young tops used for various kitchen purposes.”
[35] “Flora Symbolica.” Ingram.
[36] Hogg, “The Vegetable Kingdom and its Products.”
Viper’s Grass or Scorzonera (Scorzonera Hispanica).The virtues of this herb were known, but not much regarded, before “Monardus,[37] a famous physician in Sivell,” published a book in which was “set downe that a Moore, a bond-slave, did help those that were bitten of that venomous beast or Viper... which they of Catalonia, where they breed in abundance, call in their language Escuersos (from whence Scorsonera is derived), with the juice of the herb, and the root given them to eate,” and states that this would effect a cure when other well-authorised remedies failed. “The rootes hereof, being preserved with sugar, as I have done often, doe eate almost as delicate as the Eringus roote.” Evelyn is loud in its praise. It is “a very sweete and pleasant Sallet, being laid to soak out the Bitterness, then peel’d may be eaten raw or condited; but, best of all, stew’d with Marrow, Spice, Wine.... They likewise may bake, fry or boil them; a more excellent Root there is hardly growing.” As “Spanish Salsify” it is much recommended by other writers.
[37] Parkinson.
Wood-Sorrel (Oxalis Acetosella).Plucks the Wood-Sorrel with its light green leaves,
Heart shaped and triply folded; and its root
Creeping like beaded coral.
Charlotte Smith.
The Wood-Sorrel has many pretty names: Alleluia, Hearts, Pain de Coucou, Oseille de Bûcheron; in Italy, Juliola. Wood-Sorrel is a plant of considerable interest. It has put forward strong claims to be identified with St Patrick’s shamrock, and it has been painted, Mr Friend says, “in the foreground of pictures by the old Italian painters, notably Fra Angelico.” For the explanation of the names: “It is called by the Apothecaries in their shoppes Alleluia and Lugula, the one because about that time it is in flower, when Alleluja in antient times was wont to be sung in the Churches; the other came corruptly from Juliola, as they of Calabria in Naples doe call it.” By the “Alleluja sung in the churches,” Parkinson means the Psalms, from Psalm cxiii. to Psalm cxvii. (and including these two), for they end with “Hallelujah,” and were specially appointed to be sung between Easter and Whitsuntide.
“It is called Cuckowbreade, either because the Cuckowes delight to feed thereon, or that it beginneth to flower when the Cuckow beginneth to utter her voyce.” Another name was Stubwort, from its habit of growing over old “stubs” or stumps of trees, and in Wales it was called Fairy Bells, because people thought that the music which called the elves to “moonlight dance and revelry” came from the swinging of the tiny bells. The Latin name is a reminder that oxalic acid is obtained from this plant.
As Evelyn includes it amongst his salad herbs, I mention it here, though feeling bound to add that anyone must be a monster who could regard the graceful leaves and trembling, delicately-veined bells of this plant, full of poetry, with any other sentiment than that of passive admiration!
CHAPTER IIOF HERBS CHIEFLY USED IN THE PAST
She toke the Priores by the honde, “Madam, wol ye stalk
Pryvely into the garden to se the herbis growe?”
. . . And forth on they wend
Passing forth softly into the herbery.
Prologue to Beryn—Urry’s Edition.
Alexanders (Smyrnum Olusatrium).Alexanders, Allisanders, the black Pot-herb or Wild Horse-Parsley, as it is variously called, grows naturally near the sea, and has often been seen growing wild near old buildings. The Italians call it Herba Alexandrina, according to some writers, because it was supposed originally to have come from Alexandria; according to others, because its[38] old name was Petroselinum Alexandrinum, or Alexandrina, “so-called of Alexander, the finder thereof.” The leaves are “cut into many parcells like those of Smallage,” but are larger; the seeds have an “aromaticall and spicy smell”; the root is like a little radish and good to be eaten, and if broken or cut “there issueth a juice that quickly waxeth thicke, having in it a sharpe bitterness, like in taste unto Myrrh.” The upper parts of the roots (being the tenderest) and leaves were used in broth; the young tops make an “excellent Vernal Pottage,” and may be eaten as salad, by themselves or “in composition in the Spring, or, if they be blanched, in the Winter.” They were chiefly recommended for the time of Lent, in a day when Lent was more strictly kept than it is now, because they are supposed to go well with fish. Alexanders resemble celery, by which it has been almost entirely supplanted, and if desired as food should be sown every year, for though it continues to grow, it produces nothing fit for the table after the second year. Pliny says it should be “digged or delved over once or twice, yea, and at any time from the blowing of the western wind Favonius in Februarie, until the later Equinox in September be past.” The reference to Favonius reminds one of those lines of exquisite freshness translated from Leonidas.
Who chattering down the soft west wind is come.
The fields are all a-flower, the waves are dumb,
Which ersts the winnowing blast of winter stirred.
Crowd all your canvas at Priapus’ hest,
Who tells you from your harbours, “Now, ’twere best,
Sailor, to sail upon your merchandise.”
[38] Britten, “Dictionary of English Plant-Names.”
ANGELICA
Angelica (Archangelica officinalis).Infects not those that in their mouths have ta’en,
Angelica that happy Counterbane,
Sent down from heav’n by some celestial scout,
As well the name and nature both avow’t.
Du Bartas—Sylvester’s Translation, 1641.
With her, who an Angelick Title bears.
Of Plants, book ii.—Cowley.
As these lines declare, Angelica was believed to have sprung from a heavenly origin, and greatly were its powers revered. Parkinson says, “All Christian nations likewise in their appellations hereof follow the Latine name as near as their Dialect will permit, onely in Sussex they call the wilde Kinde Kex, and the weavers wind their yarne on the dead stalkes.” The Laplanders crowned their poets with it, believing that the odour inspired them, and they also thought that the use of it “strengthens life.” The roots hung round the neck “are available against witchcraft and inchantments,” so Gerarde says, and thereby makes a concession to popular superstition, which he very rarely does. A piece of the root held in the mouth drives away infection of pestilence, and is good against all poisons, mad dogs or venomous beasts! Parkinson puts it first and foremost in a list of specially excellent medicinal herbs that he makes “for the profit and use of Country Gentlewomen and others,” and writes: “The whole plante, both leafe, roote, and seede is of an excellent comfortable sent, savour and taste.” No wonder with such powers that it gained its name. Angelica comes into a remedy for a wound from an arquebusade or arquebuse, called Eau d’Arquebusade, which was first mentioned by Phillippe de Comines in his account of the battle of Morat, 1476. “The French still prepare it very carefully from a great number of aromatic herbs. In England, where it is the Aqua Vulneria of the Pharmacopœias, the formula is: Dried mint, angelica tops and wormwood, angelica seeds, oil of juniper and spirit of rosemary distilled with rectified spirit and water (Timbs).” It must be borne in mind that Timbs wrote some time ago, and that the knowledge of modern French scientists, like that of our own, has increased since then.
Although it is of no value in medicine (it is next to none when cultivated) our garden angelica also grows wild, and can be safely eaten. Gerarde is amusing on this point. He says it grows in an “Island in the North called Island (Iceland?). It is eaten of the inhabitants, the barke being pilled off, as we understand by some that have travelled into Island, who were sometimes compelled to eate hereof for want of other food; and they report that it hath a good and pleasant taste to them that are hungry.” The last words
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