The Queer, the Quaint and the Quizzical Part 47

Strychnia, the active principle of the nux vomica bean, which has become so famous in the annals of criminal poisoning, is so intensely bitter that it will impart a sensibly bitter taste to six hundred thousand times its weight of water.

_Copied from Nature._

The remarkably pleasing patterns which adorn the Cashmere shawls from the foot of the Himalaya mountains are copied from the leaves of the begonia.

_Rose of Jericho._

Under this trivial name is known one of the most singular forms of plant-life. It is an annual, and is found in northern Africa, Syria and Arabia. It presents nothing strange during the growing season, but, as the pods begin to ripen on the approach of dry weather, the branches drop their leaves and curl inward, appearing like dead twigs. When completely ripe the whole plant presents the aspect of a ball of curious wicker-work at the top of a short stem. The roots die away, and the wind carries the plant to great distances. When the apparently dead, worthless ball reaches the sea or other water, or becomes wedged somewhere till a rain comes, then the curled and dried ball, under the influence of water, unbends, and the branches resume their proper places. The pods open and discharge their seeds perhaps hundreds of miles from the place of original growth.

The monks of Palestine call it "Mary's Flower," from the belief that it expands each year on the day and hour of the birth of the Saviour. It is also known as the resurrection plant, and women in Palestine, about to undergo the pangs of childbirth, place it in water at the beginning of their pains in the hope that the blooming may be the signal of their deliverance.

_Curious Oranges._

There are many oranges, of curious shape and flavor, which we seldom or never see in this country. Such are the pear-shaped kind grown in the far East; the orange of the Philippines, which is no larger than a good-sized cherry; the double orange, in which two perfect oranges appear, one within the other; and the "fingered citron" of China, which is very large, and is placed on the table by the Celestials rather for its exquisite fragrance than for its flavor.

_Trifoliated Plants considered Sacred._

Many trifoliated plants have been held sacred from a remote antiquity.

The trefoil was eaten by the horses of Jupiter, and a golden, three-leaved, immortal plant, affording riches and protection, is noticed in Homer's Hymn _in Mercurium_. In the palaces of Nineveh, and on the medals of Rome, representations of triple branches, triple leaves and triple fruit are to be found. On the temples and pyramids of Gibel-el-Birkel, considered to be much older than those of Egypt, there are representations of a tri-leaved plant, which, in the ill.u.s.trations of Hoskin's "Travels in Ethiopia," seem to be nothing else than the shamrock. The triad is still a favorite figure in national and heraldic emblems.

_The Belladonna Lily._

This flower (the _Amaryllis formosissima_), in a strong light, has a yellow l.u.s.tre like gold. It was originally named _flos Jacobbus_, because some imagined that they discovered in it a likeness to the badge of the knights of the order of St. James, founded in Spain in the fourteenth century.

_Thirty Years in Blossoming._

The bamboo tree does not blossom until it attains its thirtieth year, when it produces seed profusely and then dies. It is said that a famine was prevented in India, in 1812, by the sudden flowering of the bamboo trees, where fifty thousand people resorted to the jungles to gather the seed for food.

_Mouse-Ear._

Lupton, in his third "Book of Notable Things," 1660, says: "Mousear, any manner of way administered to horses, brings this help unto them, that they cannot be hurt while the smith is shoeing of them; therefore it is called of many, herba clavorum, the herb of nails."

_Mugwort._

Coles, in his "Art of Simpling," says: "If a footman take mugwort and put into his shoes in the morning, he may goe forty miles before noon, and not be weary."

_The Shoe-black Plant._

There is a species of hibiscus growing in New South Wales, the showy flowers of which contain a large proportion of mucilaginous juice of a glossy, varnish-like appearance. Chinese ladies use the juice for dyeing their hair and eyebrows. In Java the flowers are used for blacking shoes.

_St. John's Wort._

The common people in France and Germany gather this plant with great ceremony on St. John's day, and hang it in their windows as a charm against thunder and evil spirits. In Scotland it is carried about as a charm against witchcraft and enchantment, and the people fancy it cures ropy milk, which they suppose to be under some malignant influence. As the flowers, when rubbed between the fingers, yield a red juice, it has obtained the name of _Sanguis hominis_ (human blood) among some fanciful medical writers.

The young maid stole through the cottage door, And blushed as she sought the plant of pow'r- "Thou silver glow-worm, O lend me thy light, I must gather the mystic St. John's wort to-night."

_Vegetable Fungus._

At the beginning of the present century Sir Joseph Banks, of London, had a cask of wine which was too sweet for immediate use, and it was placed in the cellar to become mellowed by age. At the end of three years he directed his butler to ascertain the condition of the wine, when, on attempting to open the cellar door, he could not effect it in consequence of some powerful resistance. The door was cut down, and the cellar was found completely filled with a firm fungus vegetable production-so firm that it was necessary to use an ax for its removal.

This had grown from and had been nourished by the decomposed particles of the wine. The cask was empty and touched the ceiling, where it was supported by the surface of the fungus.-_Hone._

_The Rose at Midsummer._

The gathering of a rose on midsummer eve was once superst.i.tiously a.s.sociated with the choice of a husband. The custom is stated to be a relic of Druidical times, and is thus mentioned in the _Connoisseur_, No. 50:-

"Our maid Betty tells me, that if I go backward, without speaking a word, into the garden, upon midsummer eve, and gather a rose, and keep it in a clean sheet of paper without looking at it until Christmas day, it will be as fresh as in June; and if I then stick it in my bosom, he that is to be my husband will come and take it out."

Another custom was to gather the rose and seal it up while the clock was striking twelve at mid-day.

_The House Leek._

A superst.i.tion used to exist that the house leek preserved a house from lightning. It is still common in many parts of England to plant it on top of the houses.

_Ordeal of the Cross._

When a person accused of crime had declared his innocence upon oath, and appealed to the cross for its judgment in his favor, he was brought into church before the altar. The priest previously prepared two sticks exactly alike, upon one of which was carved the figure of a cross. They were both wrapped up with great care and much ceremony in a quant.i.ty of wool, and laid upon the altar, or upon the relics of the saints. A solemn prayer was then offered up to G.o.d, that he would be pleased to discover, by the judgment of his holy cross, whether the accused person was innocent or guilty. A priest then approached the altar and took up one of the sticks, and the a.s.sistants reverently unswathed it. If it was marked with the cross, the accused person was innocent; if unmarked, he was guilty. It would be unjust to a.s.sert that the judgments delivered were in all cases erroneous, and it would be absurd to believe that they were left altogether to chance.

_Ordeal of the Eucharist._

This ordeal was in use among the clergy. The accused party took the sacrament in attestation of innocence, it being believed that, if guilty, he would be immediately visited with divine punishment for the sacrilege. A somewhat similar ordeal was that of the _corsned_, or consecrated bread and cheese. If the accused swallowed it freely, he was p.r.o.nounced innocent; if it stuck in his throat, he was presumed to be guilty. G.o.dwin, Earl of Kent, in the reign of Edward the Confessor, when accused of the murder of the king's brother, is said to have appealed to the ordeal of the corsned, and was choked by it.

_Ordeals in Africa._

Ordeals seem to be prevalent in Africa. "When a man," says Dr.

Livingstone, "suspects that any of his wives have bewitched him, he sends for the witch-doctor, and all the wives go forth into the field, and remain fasting till that person has made an infusion of a plant called goho. They all drink it, each one holding up her hand to heaven in attestation of her innocence. Those who vomit it are considered innocent, while those whom it purges are p.r.o.nounced guilty, and put to death by burning. The innocent return to their homes, and slaughter a c.o.c.k as a thank-offering to their guardian spirits. The Barotse pour the medicine down the throat of a c.o.c.k or dog, and judge of the innocence or guilt of the person accused by the vomiting or purging of the animal."

_Ordeal of Cold Water._

The suspected person was flung into the river. If he floated, without any appearance of swimming, he was judged guilty; while if he sank he was acquitted.