ogen of this and other cruciferous plants serves to make them
emit offensive stinks when they lie out of doors and rot.

For the purulent scrofulous ophthalmic inflammation of infants, by
cleansing the eyes thoroughly every half-hour with warm water,
and then packing the sockets each time with fresh Cabbage leaves
cleaned and bruised to a soft pulp, the flow of matter will be
increased for a few days, but a cure will be soon effected. Pliny
commended the juice of the raw Cabbage with a little honey for
sore and inflamed eyes which were moist and weeping, but not for
those which were dry and dull.

In Kent and Sussex, when a Cabbage is cut and the stalk left in the
ground to produce "greens" for the table, a cottager will carve an x
on the top flat surface of the upright stalk, and thus protect it
against mischievous garden sprites and demons.

Some half a century ago medical apprentices were taught the art of
blood-letting by practising with a lancet on the prominent veins of
a Cabbage leaf.

Carlyle said "of all plants the Cabbage grows fastest to
completion." His parable of the oak and the Cabbage conveys the
lesson that those things which are most richly endowed when they
come to perfection, are the slowest in their production and
development.

CAPSICUM (CAYENNE).

The _Capsicum_, or Bird Pepper, or Guinea Pepper, is a native of
tropical countries; but it has been cultivated throughout Great
Britain as a stove plant for so many years (since the time
of Gerard, 1636) as to have become practically indigenous.
Moreover, its fruit-pods are so highly useful, whether as a
condiment, or as a medicine, [79] no apology is needed for
including it among serviceable Herbal Simples. The Cayenne
pepper of our tables is the powdered fruit of Bird Pepper, a variety
of the Capsicum plant, and belonging likewise to the order of
Solanums; whilst the customary "hot" pickle which we take with
our cold meats is prepared from another variety of the Capsicum
plant called "Chilies." This plant--the Bird Pepper--exercises an
important medicinal action, which has only been recently
recognized by doctors. The remarkable success which has attended
the use of Cayenne pepper as a substitute for alcohol with hard
drinkers, and as a valuable drug in _delirium tremens_, has lately
led physicians to regard the Capsicum as a highly useful,
stimulating, and restorative medicine. For an intemperate person,
who really desires to wean himself