Part 50

A drachm of the powdered leaves of the Mugwort, taken four times a day, has cured chronic hysterical fits otherwise irrepressible. The true Wormwood (Artemisia absinthium) is used for preparing absinthe, a seductive liqueur, which, when taken to excess, induces epileptic attacks. Any habitual use of alcohol flavoured with this herb singularly impairs the mental and physical powers.

"An ointment," says Meyrick, "made of the juice of Mugwort with hogs' lard, disperses hard knots and kernels about the neck and throat."

MULBERRY.

The Mulberry tree (Morus nigra) has been cultivated in England since the middle of the sixteenth century, being first planted at Sion house in 1548. It is now grown commonly in the garden, orchard, or paddock, where its well-known rich syrupy fruit ripens in September. This fruit, abounding with a luscious juice of regal hue, is used in some districts, particularly in Devonshire, for mixing with cider during fermentation, giving to the beverage a pleasant taste, and a deep red colour. The juice, made into syrup, is curative of sore throats, especially of the putrid sort, if it be used in gargles; also of thrush in the mouth, if applied thereto; and the ripe fruit is gently laxative.

Horace recommends that Mulberries be gathered before sunset:--

"AEstatis peraget qui nigris prandia moris Finiet ante gravem quae legerit arbore solem."

The generic name, Morus, is derived from the Celtic mor, "black." In Germany (at Iserlohn), mothers, in order to deter their children from eating Mulberries, tell them the devil requires the juicy berries for the purpose of blacking his boots. This fruit was fabled to have become changed from white to a deep red through absorbing the blood of Pyramus and Thisbe, who were slain beneath its shade.

It is thought by some that "morus" has been derived from the Latin word mora, delay, as shown in a tardy expansion of the buds. Because cautious not to burst into leaf until the last frost of spring is over, the Mulberry tree, as the wisest of its fellows, was dedicated by the ancients to Minerva, and the story of Pyramus and Thisbe owed its origin to the white and black fruited varieties:--

"The Mulberry found its former whiteness fled, And, ripening, saddened into dusky red."

Shakespeare's famous Mulberry tree, planted in 1609, was of the black species. It was recklessly cut down at New Place, Stratford-on-Avon, in 1759. Ten years afterwards, when the freedom of the city was presented to Garrick, the document was enclosed in a casket made from the wood of this tree. Likewise a cup was wrought therefrom, and at the Shakespeare Jubilee, Garrick, holding the cup aloft, recited the following lines, composed by himself for the occasion:--

"Behold this fair goblet: 'twas carved from the tree Which, oh, my sweet Shakespeare, was planted by thee! As a relic I kiss it, and bow at thy shrine, What comes from thy hand must be ever divine."

"All shall yield to the Mulberry tree; Bend to the blest Mulberry: Matchless was he who planted thee, And thou, like him, immortal shall be."

A slip of it was grown by Garrick in his garden at Hampton Court. The leaves of the Mulberry tree are known to furnish excellent food for silk worms.

Botanically, each fruit is a collection of berries on a common pulpy receptacle, being, like the Strawberry, especially wholesome for those who are liable to heartburn, because it does not undergo acetous fermentation in the stomach. In France Mulberries are served at the beginning of a meal. Among the Romans the fruit was famous for maladies of the throat and windpipe.

The tree does not bear until it is somewhat advanced in age. It contains in every part a milky juice, which will coagulate into a sort of Indian rubber, and this has been thought to give tenacity to the filament spun by the silkworm.

The juice of Mulberries contains malic and citric acids, with glucose, pectin, and gum. The bark of the root has been given to expel tapeworm; and the fruit is remarkable for its large quantity of sugar, being excelled in this respect only by the fig, the grape, and the cherry.

We are told in Ivanhoe that the Saxons made a favourite drink, "Morat," from the juice of Mulberries with honey. During the thirteenth century these berries were sometimes called "pynes."

In the memorable narrative of the Old Testament, 2 Samuel, v., 24, "When thou hearest the sound of a going in the tops of the Mulberry trees," the word used (bekhaim) has been mistranslated, really intending the Aspen (Populus tremula).

MULLEIN.

The great Mullein (Verbascum thapsus) grows freely in England on dry banks and waste places, but somewhat sparingly in Scotland. It belongs to the scrofula-curing order of plants, having a thick stalk, from eighteen inches to four feet high, with large woolly mucilaginous leaves, and with a long flower-spike bearing plain yellow flowers, which are nearly sessile on the stem. The name "Molayne" is derived from the Latin, mollis, soft.

In most parts of Ireland, besides growing wild, it is carefully cultivated in gardens, because of a steady demand for the plant by sufferers from pulmonary consumption. Constantly in Irish newspapers there are advertisements offering it for sale, and it can be had from all the leading local druggists. The leaves are best when gathered in the late summer, just before the plant flowers. The old Irish method of administering Mullein is to put an ounce of the dried leaves, or a corresponding quantity of the fresh ones, in a pint of milk, which is boiled for ten minutes, and then strained. This is afterwards given warm to the patient twice a day, with or without sugar. The taste of the decoction is bland, mucilaginous, and cordial. Dr. Quinlan, of Dublin, treated many cases of tubercular lung disease, even when some were far advanced in pulmonary consumption, with the Mullein, and with signal success as regards palliating the cough, staying the expectoration, and increasing the weight.

Mullein leaves have a weak, sleepy sort of smell, and rather a bitter taste. In Queen Elizabeth's time they were carried about the person to prevent the falling sickness; and distilled water from the flowers was said to be curative of gout.

The leaves and flowers contain mucilage, with a yellowish volatile oil, a fatty substance, and sugar, together with some colouring matter. Fish will become stupefied by eating the seeds. Gerard says "Figs do not putrifie at all that are wrapped in the leaves of Mullein. If worn under the feet day and night in the manner of a sock they bring down in young maidens their desired sicknesse."

The plant bears also the name of Hedge Taper, and used to be called Torch, because the stalks were dipped in suet, and burnt for giving light at funerals and other gatherings. "It is a plant," says the Grete Herball, "whereof is made a manner of lynke if it be tallowed."

According to Dodoeus the Mullein was called "Candela." Folia siquidem habet mollia hirsuta ad lucernarum funiculos apta. "It was named of the Latines, Candela Regia and Candelaria." The modern Romans style it the "Plant of the Lord," Other popular English names of the plant are "Adam's flannel," "Blanket," "Shepherd's club," "Aaron's rod," "Cuddie's lungs"; and in Anglo-Saxon, "Feldwode." Gower says of Medea:--

"Tho' toke she feldwode, and verveine, Of herbes ben nought better tweine."

The name Verbascum is an altered form of the Latin barbascum, from barba, "a beard," in allusion to the dense woolly hairs on both sides of the leaves; and the appellation, Mullein, is got from the French molene, signifying the "scab" in cattle, and for curing which disease the plant is famous. It has also been termed Cow's Lung Wort, Hare's Beard, Jupiter's Staff, Ladies' Foxglove, and Velvet Dock from its large soft leaves. The Mullein bears the title "Bullock's lung wort," because of its supposed curative powers in lung diseases of this animal, on the doctrine of signatures, because its leaf resembles a dewlap; and the term "Malandre" was formerly applied to the lung maladies of cattle. Also the "Malanders" meant leprosy, whence it came about that the epithet "Malandrin" was attached to a brigand, who, like the leper, was driven from society and forced to lead a lawless life.

An infusion of the flowers was used by the Roman ladies to tinge their tresses of the golden colour once so much admired in Italy; and now in Germany, a hair wash made from the Mullein is valued as highly restorative. A decoction of the root is good for cramps and against the megrims of bilious subjects, which especially beset them in the dark winter months. The dried leaves of the Mullein plant, if smoked in an ordinary tobacco pipe, will completely control the hacking cough of consumption; and they can be employed with equal benefit, when made into cigarettes, for asthma, and for spasmodic coughs in general.