ir. [17] Thus, the walnut was regarded as
clearly good for mental cases from its bearing the signature of the
whole head; the outward green cortex answering to the pericranium, the
harder shell within representing the skull, and the kernel in its figure
resembling the cover of the brain. On this account the outside shell was
considered good for wounds of the head, whilst the bark of the tree was
regarded as a sovereign remedy for the ringworm. [18] Its leaves, too,
when bruised and moistened with vinegar were used for ear-ache. For
scrofulous glands, the knotty tubers attached to the kernel-wort
(_Scrophularia nodosa_) have been considered efficacious. The pith of
the elder, when pressed with the fingers, "doth pit and receive the
impress of them thereon, as the legs and feet of dropsical persons do,"
Therefore the juice of this tree was reckoned a cure for dropsy. Our
Lady's thistle (_Cardmis Marianus_), from its numerous prickles, was
recommended for stitches of the side; and nettle-tea is still a common
remedy with many of our peasantry for nettle-rash. The leaves of the
wood-sorrel (_Oxalis acetosella_) were believed to preserve the heart
from many diseases, from their being "broad at the ends, cut in the
middle, and sharp towards the stalk." Similarly the heart-trefoil, or
clover (_Medicago maculata_), was so called, because, says Coles in his
"Art of Simpling," "not only is the leaf triangular like the heart of a
man, but also because each leaf contains the perfect image of an heart,
and that in its proper colour--a flesh colour. It defendeth the heart
against the noisome vapour of the spleen." Another plant which, on the
same principle, was reckoned as a curative for heart-disease, is the
heart's-ease, a term meaning a _cordial_, as in Sir Walter Scott's
"Antiquary" (chap, xi.), "try a dram to be eilding and claise, and a
supper and heart's-ease into the bargain." The knot-grass (_Polygonum
aviculare_), with its reddish-white flowers and trailing pointed stems,
was probably so called "from some unrecorded character by the doctrine
of signatures," Suggests Mr. Ellacombe, [19] that it would stop the
growth of children. Thus Shakespeare, in his "Midsummer Night's Dream"
(Act iii. sc. 2), alludes to it as the "hindering knot-grass," and in
Beaumont and Fletcher's "Coxcomb" (Act ii. sc. 2) it is further
mentioned:--

"We want a boy extremely for this function,
Kept under for a year with milk and knot-grass."

Ac