upon their hasty husbands’ fists.”  For the same reason it was called by the French herbalists “l’herbe de la rupture.”  The specific name of the tutsan [14] (Hypericum androsoemum), derived from the two Greek words signifying man and blood, in reference to the dark red juice which exudes from the capsules when bruised, was once applied to external wounds, and hence it was called “balm of the warrior’s wound,” or “all-heal.”  Gerarde says, “The leaves laid upon broken skins and scabbed legs heal them, and many other hurts and griefs, whereof it took its name ‘toute-saine’ of healing all things.”  The pretty plant, herb-robert (Geranium robertianum), was supposed to possess similar virtues, its power to arrest bleeding being indicated by the beautiful red hue assumed by the fading leaves, on account of which property it was styled “a stauncher of blood.”  The garden Jerusalem cowslip (Pulmonaria offinalis) owes its English name, lungwort, to the spotting of the leaves, which were said to indicate that they would be efficacious in healing diseases of the lungs.  Then there is the water-soldier (Stratiotes aloides), which from its sword-shaped leaves was reckoned among the appliances for gun-shot wounds.  Another familiar plant which has long had a reputation as a vulnerary is the self-heal, or carpenter’s herb (Prunella vulgaris), on account of its corolla being shaped like a bill-hook.

Again, presumably on the doctrine of signatures, the connection between roses and blood is very curious.  Thus in France, Germany, and Italy it is a popular notion that if one is desirous of having ruddy cheeks, he must bury a drop of his blood under a rose-bush. [15] As a charm against haemorrhage of every kind, the rose has long been a favourite remedy in Germany, and in Westphalia the following formula is employed:  “Abek, Wabek, Fabek; in Christ’s garden stand three red roses—­one for the good God, the other for God’s blood, the third for the angel Gabriel:  blood, I pray you, cease to flow.”  Another version of this charm is the following [16]:—­“On the head of our Lord God there bloom three roses:  the first is His virtue, the second is His youth, the third is His will.  Blood, stand thou in the wound still, so that thou neither sore nor abscess givest.”

Turning to some of the numerous plants which on the doctrine of signatures were formerly used as specifics from a fancied resemblance, in the shape of the root, leaf, or fruit, to any particular part of the human body, we are confronted with a list adapted for most of the ills to which the flesh is heir. [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