aphrodisiac
[406] medicine, and has been so described by all herbalists from the
time of Dioscorides.

A tradition is ascribed to the English Orchis Mascula (early Purple),
of which the leaves are usually marked with purple spots. It is said
that these are stains of the precious blood which flowed from our
Lord's body on the cross at Calvary, where this species of Orchis is
reputed to have grown. Similarly in Cheshire, the plant bears the
name of Gethsemane. This early Orchis is the "long Purples,"
mentioned by Shakespeare in Hamlet: and it is sometimes named
"Dead men's fingers," from the pale colour, and the hand-like shape
of its tubers.

"That liberal shepherds give a grosser name,
But our cold maids do 'dead men's fingers' call them."

It is further styled "Cain and Abel" and "Rams' horns," the odour
being offensive, especially in the evening. It thrives wherever the
wild hyacinth flourishes, and is believed by some to grow best
where the earth below is rich in metal. Country people in Yorkshire
call it "Crake feet," and in Kent "Keat legs," or "Neat legs." The
roots of this Orchis abound with a glutinous sweetish juice, of
which a Salep may be made which is quite equal to any brought
from the Levant. The new root should be washed in hot water, and
its thin brown skin rubbed off with a linen cloth. Having thus
prepared a sufficient number of roots, the operator should spread
them on a tin plate in a hot oven for eight or ten minutes, until they
get to look horny, but without shrinking in size: and being then
withdrawn, they may be dried with more gentle heat, or by exposure
to the air. Their concocted juice can be employed with the same
intentions and in the same complaints as gum arabic,--about which
we read that [407] not only has it served to sustain whole negro
towns during a scarcity of other provisions, but the Arabs who
collect it by the river Niger have nothing else to live upon for
months together.

Salep is a most useful article of diet for those who suffer from
chronic diarrhoea.

PARSLEY.

Parsely is found in this country only as a cultivated plant, having
been introduced into England from Sardinia in the sixteenth century.
It is an umbelliferous herb, which has been long of garden growth
for kitchen uses. The name was formerly spelt "Percely," and the
herb was known as March, or Merich (in Anglo-Saxon, Merici). Its
adjective title, _Petroselinum_, signifies "growing on a rock." T