glish Herb
garden. It is very frequently mentioned in the Saxon Leech Books, and
entered so largely into their prescriptions that it must have been very
extensively grown. Its strong aromatic smell,[261:1] and bitter taste,
with the blistering quality of the leaves, soon established its
character as almost a heal-all.

"Rew bitter a worthy gres (herb)
Mekyl of myth and vertu is."

_Stockholm MS._, 1305.

Even beasts were supposed to have discovered its virtues, so that
weasels were gravely said, and this by such men as Pliny, to eat Rue
when they were preparing themselves for a fight with rats and serpents.
Its especial virtue was an eye-salve, a use which Milton did not
overlook--

"To nobler sights
Michael from Adam's eyes the filme removed
Which that false fruit which promised clearer sight
Had bred; then purged with Euphrasie and Rue
The visual nerve, for he had much to see:"

_Paradise Lost_, book xi.;

and which was more fully stated in the old lines of the Schola Salerni--

"Nobilis est Ruta quia lumina reddit acuta;
Auxilio rutae, vir lippe, videbis acute;
Cruda comesta recens oculos Caligine purgat;
Ruta facit castum, dat lumen, et ingerit astum;
Cocta facit Ruta et de pollicibus loca tuta."

After reading this high moral and physical character of the herb, it is
rather startling to find that "It is believed that if stolen from a
neighbour's garden it would prosper better." It was, however, an old
belief--

"They sayen eke stolen sede is butt the bette."

_Palladius on Husbandrie_ (c. 1420) iv, 269.

"It is a common received opinion that Rue will grow the better if it
bee filtched out of another man's garden."--HOLLAND'S _Pliny_, xix. 7.

As other medicines were introduced the Rue declined in favour, so that
Parkinson spoke of it with qualified praise--"Without doubt it is a most
wholesom herb, although bitter and strong. Some do rip up a bead-rowl of
the virtues of Rue, . . . but beware of the too-frequent or overmuch use
therof." And Dr. Daubeny says of it, "It is a powerful stimulant and
narcotic, but not much used in modern practise."

As a garden plant, the Rue forms a pretty shrub for a rock-work, if
somewhat attended to, so as to prevent its becoming straggling and
untidy. The delicate green