PLANT LORE

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 25, 30 January 1932, Page 19

PLANT LORE

ALL ABOUT HERBS

.'.'; It is. a. far; cry frpm./, f A , Mbdern •Herbal," an- interesting, and beauWful-ly-illustrated book' by^'Mrs.: Grieve. ,aiid Mrs. Leyel, to the oldest herbals in our language, the Saxon, manuscripts which, aie :o£ such profound- interest to those who are enthusiastic students of the earliest herbals. It is a remarkable if act and has been pointed out by various authorities, that, the Anglo-Saxons had name?, for and nscd a far larger number of--plants than \the continental nations. To go further back in history it' is.interesting to member Pliny's statement that the Britons gathered herbs with such striking ceremonies that it was possible that the Persians mayi ;have learned them from the Britons. ;:■.:." ;.-■.

In the Saxon manuscripts about herbs are embodied tetter's of. very ancient and probably \ Eastern origin. Some of these beliefs are so old as to be strikingly modern. For instance, our Saxon ancestors ascribed many diseases to ths fact that the victim had been "elf-shot." What is this but a picturesque phraseology describing the malignant activity of unfriendly germs? We talk of "catching a cold," but to out Saxon ancestors'this would have, been a ludicrous idea, for who would voluntarily "catch'».a cold! 'According to them, the cold caught the victim—a far more accurate) statement.

The herbal was in itszenith in Tudor and Stewart days: this j new publication is up-to-date, a mime of information of botanical. classification .and plant lore, and a treatisa on the modern scientific use of hetba. It deserves the same' success as the first American herbal—Monardes' . famous.' "Joyfnil newes out of the new'fbunde world" (1577), which went through four, editions in-the English language alone.