CHAPTER XIII.

The Doctrine of Plant Signatures.

William Coles, in his ‘Art of Simpling’ (a work published in the year 1656), abandoning for awhile practical instruction, moralises thus:--“Though sin and Sathan have plunged mankinde into an Ocean of Infirmities, yet the mercy of God, which is over all His workes, maketh Grasse to grow upon the Mountaines, and Herbes for the use of men; and hath not only stamped upon them a distinct forme, but also given them particular Signatures, whereby a man may read, even in legible characters, the use of them.” This ancient Doctrine of Signatures was an ingenious system elaborated for discovering from certain marks or appearances on the various portion of a plant’s structure, the supposed medicinal virtue attached to it. A good illustration is to be found in the following passage, translated from P. Lauremberg’s _Apparatus Plantarum_:--“The seed of Garlic is black; it obscures the eyes with blackness and darkness. This is to be understood of healthy eyes, but those which are dull through vicious humidity, from these Garlic drives this viciousness away. The tunic of Garlic is ruddy; it expels blood. It has a hollow stalk, and it helps affections of the wind-pipe.”

Many curious details of the system of Plant Signatures are to be found in the works of Porta, Grollius, Schröder, and Kircher: these authorities tell us that there are given, not only in animals, but also in vegetables, certain sure marks, signs, and indications from which their virtues and powers can be inferred by the sagacious and painstaking student. Kircher is of opinion that the Egyptians derived their first knowledge of the elements of medicine from these signs, which they had patiently and closely studied; and in one of his works he enunciates his views in the following passage:--“Since one and all of the members of the human body, under the wise arrangement of Nature, agree or differ with the several objects in the world of creation, by a certain sympathy or antipathy of nature, it follows that there has been implanted by the providence of Nature, both in the several members and in natural objects, a reciprocal instinct, which impels them to seek after those things which are similar and consequently beneficial to themselves, and to avoid and shun those things which are antagonistic or hurtful. Hence has emanated that more recondite part of medicine which compares the Signatures or Characterisms of natural things with the members of the human body, and by magnetically applying like to like produces marvellous effects in the preservation of human health. In this way, the occult properties of plants--first of those that are endowed with life, and secondly of those destitute of life--are indicated by resemblances; for all exhibit to man, by their Signatures and Characterisms, both their powers, by which they can heal, and the diseases in which they are useful. Not only by their parts (as the root, stem, leaf, flower, fruit, and seed), but also by their actions and qualities (such as their retaining or shedding their leaves, their offspring, number, beauty or deformity, form, and colour), they indicate what kind of service they can render to man, and what are the particular members of the human body to which they are specially appropriate.”

As examples of the practical working of the system of Plant Signatures, Kircher tells us that if the root of the _Chelidonium_ be placed in white wine, it is rendered yellow, resembling bilious humour, and thus discloses a sure and infallible remedy against yellow jaundice. He remarks that he had learned this by personal experience, having advised some persons suffering from that malady to try _Chelidonium_ as a cure; and that as a result they were freed from the disease. Persons liable to apoplexy are said to have a line resembling an anchor traced in their hands. The plant _Acorus_ has a similar mark in its leaves, and is a highly-approved remedy for apoplexy. So again, a certain line or mark is to be found in the hands of persons suffering from colic, similar in character to an outline found traced in the foliage of the _Malobathrum_, a plant which will afford relief to patients suffering from the disorder. Hellebore, which emits a most disagreeable odour, possesses the property of absorbing offensive smells and expelling them. _Dracontium_, or Great Dragon, a plant which bears a resemblance to a dragon, is a most effectual preservation against serpents; Pliny averring that serpents will not come near anyone carrying this plant.

Other examples of the application of the Doctrine of Signatures are not difficult to be found among the quaintly-named plants enumerated in English herbals. The Lung-wort (_Pulmonaria_), spotted with tubercular scars, was a specific for consumption. The Bullock’s Lung-wort (_Verbascum Thapsis_), so called from the resemblance of its leaf to a dewlap, was employed as a cure for the pneumonia of bullocks. The Liver-wort (_Marchantia polymorpha_), liver-shaped in its green fructification, was a specific for bilious complaints. The Blood-root (_Tormentilla_), which derives its name from the red colour of its roots, was adopted as a cure for the bloody flux. The throat-like corolla of the Throat-wort (_Campanula Trachelium_), better known as the Canterbury Bell, caused it to be administered for bronchitis. Tutsan (_Hypericum androsæmum_) was used to stop bleeding, because the juice of its ripe capsule is of a claret colour. _Brunella_ (now spelt _Prunella_) was called Brown-wort, having brownish leaves and purple-blue flowers, and was in consequence supposed to cure a kind of quinsy, called in German _die braune_. This plant has a corolla, the profile of which is suggestive of a bill-hook, and therefore it was called Carpenter’s-herb, and supposed to heal the wounds inflicted by edge-tools. _Pimpinella Saxifraga_, _Alchemilla arvensis_, and the genus _Saxifraga_, plants which split rocks by growing in their cracks, have been named “Breakstones,” and were administered in cases of calculus. Clary was transformed into Clear-eye, Godes-eie, Seebright, and _Oculus Christi_, and eye-salves were consequently made of it. Burstwort was thought efficacious in ruptures. The Scorpion-grass, or Forget-Me-Not (_Myosotis_), whose flower-spike is somewhat suggestive of a scorpion’s tail, was an antidote to the sting of that or other venomous creatures. The Briony, which bears in its root a mark significative of a dropsical man’s feet, was adopted as a cure for dropsy. The Moon-daisy averted lunacy; and the Birth-wort, Fig-wort, Kidney-vetch, Nipple-wort, and Spleen-wort were all appropriated as their names suggest, on account of fancied resemblances. The Toad-flax (_Linaria_), it may here be pointed out, owes its name to a curious mistake on the part of some believer in the Doctrine of Signatures. According to Dodoens, it was useful in the treatment of a complaint called buboes, and received its Latin name, _Bubonium_. A confusion between the words _bubo_ and _bufo_ (Latin for toad) gave rise to its present name of Toad-flax; and soon arose legends of sick or wounded toads seeking this plant and curing themselves with its leaves.

The general rules that guided the founders of the system of Plant Signatures, which were supposed to reveal the occult powers and virtues of vegetables, would seem to have been as under:--

Vegetables, as herbs and plants, or their fruit, seed, flowers, &c., which resemble some human member in figure, colour, quality, and consistence, were considered to be most adapted to that member, and to possess medical properties specially applicable to it.

All herbs or plants that in flowers or juice bear a resemblance to one or other of the four humours, viz., blood, yellow bile, phlegm, and black bile, were deemed suitable for treating the same humour, by increasing or expelling it.

All yellow-hued plants, if they were eatable, were thought to increase yellow bile. In this category were included Orach, Melons, Crocus, yellow Turnips, and all other yellow plants which have a sweet flavour.

Plants or herbs of a dull blackish colour, or of a brownish or a spotted hue, were held to be serviceable in the treatment of black bile. Some of them had a tendency to increase it, while others assisted in carrying it off. Thus, Smilax, Mandragora, many kinds of Parsley, Nightshade, and Poppies, having partly black, ash-coloured, and spotted flowers, intermixed with pale tints, by causing bad dreams, excite giddiness, vertigo, and epilepsy. Napellus, also, indicates in a most marked manner its poisonous and virulent nature, for its flower represents the skull of a dead man.

Plants which bear white flowers and have thick juice, which often grow in moist and extremely humid places, and which resemble phlegm or rheum, were thought to increase the very humours they represented. Others of a drier temperament were thought to correct and purify the same. Milky plants, as _Tithymallus_, _Polygala_, _Sonchus_, and _Britalzar Ægyptiaca_, were supposed to increase and accumulate milk in nurses.

Some plants of a red colour were believed to increase blood; some to correct and purify it; and others to benefit hemorrhoidal and dysenteric affections from a similarity of colour.

Plants of a mixed colour, as they unite in themselves a diversity of temperaments, were thought to produce a diversity of effects; whence two-coloured herbs were believed to possess and exercise a double virtue. On this principle, diverse colours were said to cure diverse humours in the human body; for example, _Tripolium_, _Panacæa_, and _Triphera_ were considered beneficial for all humours.

Plants whose decoction and infusion, as well as colour and consistence, were like some humour of the human body, were declared to be appropriate for the purpose of evacuating that humour by attraction, or increasing it by incorporation.

Certain plants were deemed to represent some disease or morbid condition, and were judged to be helpful in its cure. Thus those were administered in cases of calculus which represented stones, such as _Milium solis_, the root of the White Saxifrage, the shells of Nuts, and Nuts themselves. Spotted plants and herbs were thought to eradicate spots, and scaly plants to remove scales. Perforated herbs were selected for the cure of wounds and perforations of the body. Plants which exude gums and resins were considered available for the treatment of pus and matter. Swelling plants were thought good for tumours; those that permit the cutting or puncturing of the stem were employed for closing up wounds; and those that shed bark and skin were thought adapted for the cleansing of the skin.

Accordingly as plants and herbs exhibited peculiarities in their actions, so were they supposed to operate on man. Thus, sterile plants, such as Lettuce, Fern, Willow, Savin, and many others, were believed to conduce to the procuring of sterility in men; whilst salacious and fecund plants were considered to confer fecundity. On the same principle, long-lived and evergreen plants were said to procure vigour for the human body.

Helvetius has left a list of classified herbs and plants which in his time were considered by experts in herbcraft to exhibit peculiar marks and Signatures by which they could be identified with the several parts and members of the human body. This may be said to have formed the basis of the system embraced in the Doctrine of Plant Signatures, and as it epitomises the results of the protracted and laborious researches of the old herbalists, who may fairly be said to have laid the foundations of our present system of Botany, it has been thought worth while to give an abbreviation of it.

The Head. Antirrhinum, Crocus, Geranium, Walnuts, Lily of the Valley, Marjoram, Poppy, Violet, Rose, Lime-blossom, the genus Brassica, &c.

The Hair. Asparagus, Goat’s-beard, Fennel, Nigella, Flax, Tree Musk, the Vine, and Vine-roots, &c.

The Eyes. The flowers of Acacia, Euphrasy, Daisy, Bean, Hyacinth, Geranium, Mallow, Narcissus, Hyacinth, Ranunculus, Cornflower, &c.

The Ears. Bear’s Ear (_Auricula ursi_), Mountain Bindweed, _Cyclamen Doronicum_, Gentian, rough Viper’s Bugloss, Hypericum, Organy, Egyptian Beans, &c.

The Tongue. Horse-tongue (_Hippoglossum_), Adder’s-tongue (_Ophioglossum_), Hound’s-tongue (_Cynoglossum_), Hart’s-tongue, Frog-bit, Grass of Parnassus, Prunella, Salvia, Sempervivum, &c.

The Teeth. The leaves of Fir and Juniper, Sunflower-seed, Toothed Moss (_Muscus denticulatus_), Toothed Violet (_Dentaria_), Dandelion (_Dens Leonis_), &c.

The Heart. Borage, Motherwort (_Cardiaca_), Malaca Beans (_Anacardium_), Strawberries, Pomegranate-blossom, Hepatica, Violet, Peony, Rose, Iris, Egyptian Lotus, &c.

The Lungs. Lung-wort, (_Pulmonaria_), Beet, the stalks of Anise, Garden Teasel, Cresses, Fennel, Curled Lettuce, Scabious, Rhubarb, Valerian, the Sea Moss _Muscus marinus virens latifolius_, &c.

The Liver. Noble Liver-wort (_Hepatica trifolia_), Ground Liver-wort (_Hepatica terrestris_), Garden Endive, Portulaca, Aloe, Our Lady’s Thistle (_Carduus Mariæ_), Gentian, Lettuce, Alpine Sanicle, &c.

The Bladder. Bladder-wort, Winter Cherry, Black Hellebore, Nasturtium, Persicaria, Leaves of Senna, root of True Rhubarb, broad-leaved Tithymallus, Botrys, &c.

The Spleen. Spleenwort or Ceterach (_Asplenium_), Agrimony, Shepherd’s Purse, Dandelion, Devil’s Bit Scabious, Fern, Broom, Hawk-weed, Turnip, Treacle Mustard, &c.

The Stomach. Roots of Acorus, Cyclamen, Elecampane, Iris, and Galingale, Earth-nut, Parsnip, Radish, Chives, Ginger, &c.

The Kidneys. Kidney-wort, Agnus Castus, seeds of Broom, Bombax, Jasmine, and Lupine, Beans, Currants, Ground Ivy, root of Leopard’s Bane, &c.

The Intestines, Navel-wort, Chickweed, Briony, Dodder, Bitter-sweet &c. (Nightshade), Fenugreek, Nasturtium, Honeysuckle, Chamomile-flowers, Alpine Sanicle, roots of Polypody, &c.

The Hands, Agnus Castus, Garlick, Briony, Shepherd’s Purse, Fig, Fingers, and Geranium, Ash-bark, Cinquefoil (_Heptaphyllum_), Nerves. Tormentilla, Water Hellebore, Lupine, Melon, Ophrys, Hoary Clover, Satyrion, Plantain, Currants, Sanicle, Soap-wort, Wolf’s Bane, Swallow-wort, _Vitis Idæa_, Asiatic Ranunculus, with gummy root, &c.

The Doctrine of Signatures did not exclusively apply to the medicinal virtues of herbs and plants: for example, Hound’s-tongue _Cynoglossum officinale_, named from the shape and softness of its leaf, was (if we may believe William Coles) thought to “tye the tongues of hounds, so that they shall not bark at you, if it be laid under the bottom of your feet, as Miraldus writeth.” Garlic (from the Anglo-Saxon words _gár_, a spear, and _leác_, a plant) was, from its acute tapering leaves, marked out as the war plant of the warriors and poets of the North. The heavenly blue of the flower of the Germander Speedwell won for it the Welsh appellation of the Eye of Christ. Even abstract virtues were to be learnt by an attentive study of the Signatures of certain plants, according to the dictum of that loyal and godly herbalist Robert Turner, who naively tells us that “God hath imprinted upon the Plants, Herbs, and Flowers, as it were in Hieroglyphicks, the very Signature of their Vertues; as the learned Grollius and others well observe: as the Nutmeg, being cut, resembles the Brain; the _Papaver erraticum_, or red Poppy Flower, resembleth at its bottom the setling of the Blood in the Plurisie; and how excellent is that Flower in Diseases of the Plurisie, and Surfeits hath sufficiently been experienced.” In the Heliotrope and Marigold subjects may learn their duty to their Sovereign: which his Sacred Majesty King Charles the First mentions in his Princely Meditations, walking in a Garden in the Isle of Wight, in the following words, viz.:--

“‘The Marigold observes the Sun More than my subjects me have done,’ &c.”

That great naturalist, John Ray, whilst expressing his disbelief of the Doctrine of Plant Signatures as a whole, admitted that there were tangible grounds for the formation of the system. He wrote:--“Howbeit, I will not deny but that the noxious and malignant plants do, many of them, discover something of their nature by the sad and melancholick visage of their leaves, flowers, or fruits. And that I may not leave that head wholly untouched, one observation I shall add, relating to the virtues of plants, in which I think is something of truth; that is, that there are, by the wise dispensation of Providence, such species of plants produced in every country, as are made proper and convenient for the meat and medicine of the men and animals that are bred and inhabit therein. Insomuch that Solenander writes that, from the frequency of the plants that spring up naturally in any region, he could easily gather what endemical diseases the inhabitants thereof are subject to. So in Denmark, Friesland, and Holland, where the scurvy usually reigns, the proper remedy thereof, Scurvy-grass, doth plentifully grow.”

The Old Herbals and Herbalists.

It is impossible to make an attentive examination of the old Herbals without being astonished at the extraordinary number and nature of the ills which their authors professed to cure by means of plants and simples. Every conceivable disease and ailment appears to be enumerated, and each has a number of specifics allotted for its treatment and cure. The contents of these ancient works, indeed, are apt to heat the imagination, and to cause one to form a conception that the merrie England of our forefathers was a land swarming with wild beasts, so venomous in their nature, and ferocious in their proclivities, that the unfortunate inhabitants were constantly being grievously maimed and wounded by their malicious “bitings.” Be this as it may, however, it is evident that the old herbalists deemed themselves fully equal to any emergency. Leopards, Wolves, and venomous beasts of all kinds, as well as Dragons, Serpents, Vipers, and Scorpions, could all, by means of herbs, be driven away, kept at bay, or killed, and the venom of their bites be quickly and effectually cured. Such simple things as the stings of Hornets, Wasps, and Bees, were of course easily extracted by men who professed themselves able and willing to draw out arrow-heads from wounds, or remove broken bones, glue them together, and cover them when bare of flesh. They could provide counterpoisons against deadly medicines, poisoned arrows, noxious herbs, and the bitings and stingings of venomous creatures; they could cure the bites of sea Dragons and mad Dogs, and could keep Dogs from growing great. They could cause troublesome and dangerous dreams, and they could cure nightmare. They could drive away dulness and melancholy, and consume proud and superfluous flesh. They could preserve the eyesight, “helpe blacke eies comming by blowes,” and take away redness and yellowness. They could prevent the hair falling off, and restore it to the bald pate, and knew how to turn it yellow, red, or black. They could cause hens to lay plentifully, and refresh a weary horse. They could cure lunatics, relieve madness, and purge melancholy; to say nothing of counteracting witchcraft and the malignant influence of the mysterious Evil Eye. They could destroy warts, remove freckles, and beautify young wenches’ faces. In fine, the herbalist of old was one

“Who knew the cause of everie maladie, Were it of colde or hote, or moist or drie.”

A remarkable characteristic of the herbarists (as they were called of yore) was a habit of ascribing extraordinary and fabulous properties to the herbs and plants whose merits they descanted upon. Just as the Druids taught the people of their time to call the sacred Mistletoe the “All-heal,” and to look upon it as a panacea for all bodily ailments, so did the herbalists, in the pages of their ponderous tomes, set forth the marvellous virtues of Betony, Agrimony, Angelica, Garlic, Fennel, Sage, Rue, and other favourite medicinal plants. Johannes de Mediolano, a doctor, of the Academy of Salerno, once wrote of Rue, that it diminishes the force of love in man, and, on the contrary, increases the flame in women. When eaten raw, it both clears the sight and the perceptions of the mind, and when cooked it destroys fleas. The English herbalists called it Herb Grace and Serving-men’s Joy, because of the multiplicity of ailments that it was warranted to cure; Mithridates used the herb as a counterpoison to preserve himself against infection; and Gerarde records that Serpents are driven away at the smell of Rue if it be burned, and that “when the Weesell is to fight with the Serpent, shee armeth herselfe by eating Rue against the might of the Serpent.” The virtues of Rue, however, are cast into the shade by those of Sage. Says witty Alphonse Karr--“Rue is nothing in comparison with Sage. Sage preserves the human race; and the _whole school_ of Salerno, after a long enumeration of the virtues of Sage, seriously exclaims: ‘How can it happen that a man who has Sage in his garden yet ends by dying?’” Perhaps this exclamation was the foundation of the English proverb--

“He that eats Sage in May Shall live for aye.”

Regarding the wondrous curative properties of Betony, Antonius Musa, physician to the Emperor Augustus, wrote a volume setting forth the excellencies of the herb, which he demonstrated would cure no less than forty-seven different disorders; and in England an old advice to the sufferer is, “Sell your coat, and buy Betony.” Agrimony is another herb whose praises were loudly proclaimed by the herbalists; it formed an ingredient in most of the old-fashioned herb teas, and Drayton speaks of it as “All-heal, and so named of right.” Of Angelica, or Holy Ghost, Parkinson writes that it is “so goode an herbe that there is no part thereof but is of much use.” Fennel, in addition to its uses as a medicine, was recommended by old writers, when boiled in wine, as a counterpoison for use by such as had been bitten by those terrible reptiles, serpents, and scorpions that seem to have so exercised the ancient herbalists. Treacle-Mustard, or Triacle, was also highly esteemed as a cure for “all those that were bitten or stung by venomous beasts, or had drunk poison, or were infected with pestilence: it formed one of seventy-three ingredients in making “Venice treacle”--a famous vermifuge and antipoison in the Middle Ages. The Vervain, or Holy Herb, was credited with almost supernatural healing powers. English Mercury was called All-good; and other herbs obtained the names of All-heal, Clown’s All-heal, Self-heal, Poor-man’s Treacle, Poor-man’s Parmacetty, the Blessed Herb, Grace of God, Master-Wort, Ploughman’s Spikenard, &c., on account of the numerous virtues which the herbalists had discovered in them. One of these old worthies (the compiler of a Herbal, and a believer in astrology) has, indeed, stated in rhyme, his conviction that there was no disease but what would yield to the virtues of herbs and the skill of the herbalist. “In his book,” he confidently says--

“He hath a method plain devised, All parts of it, so curiously comprised; That vulgar men, which have but skill to read, May be their own physicians at need; The better sort are hereby taught, how all Things springing from earth’s bowels safely shall By love or hatred (as the Stars dispose) Each sickness cure, that in the body grows.”

The poet Michael Drayton has drawn the portrait of an ancient simpler, and has given a list of the remedies of which he made the most frequent use; the lines are to be found in his ‘Polyolbion,’ and as they contain examples of herbs selected under the system of the Doctrine of Plant Signatures, they may be appropriately introduced at the conclusion of this chapter:--

“But, absolutely free, His happy time he spends the works of God to see, In those so sundry herbs which there in plenty grow, Whose sundry strange effects he only seeks to know; And in a little maund, being made of Osiers small, Which serveth him to do full many a thing withal, He very choicely sorts his simples, got abroad; Here finds he on an Oak rheum-purging Polypode; And in some open place that to the sun doth lie, He Fumitory gets, and Eyebright for the eye; The Yarrow wherewithal he stays the wound-made gore, The healing Tutsan then, and Plantaine for a sore; And hard by them, again, he holy Vervain finds, Which he about his head that hath the megrim binds; The wonder-working Dill he gets not far from these, Which curious women use in many a nice disease; For them that are with Newts, or Snakes, or Adders stung He seeketh out a herb, that is called Adder’s-tongue; As Nature it ordain’d its own like hurt to cure, And sportive did herself to niceties inure. Valerian then he crops, and purposely doth stamp To apply unto the place that’s haled with the cramp; The Chickweed cures the heat that in the face doth rise, For physic some again he inwardly applies; For comforting the spleen and liver, gets for juice Pale Horehound, which he holds of most especial use. And for the labouring wretch that’s troubled with a cough, Or stopping of the breath by phlegm that’s hard and tough, Campana here he crops, approved wondrous good; Or Comfrey unto him that’s bruised, spitting blood; And for the falling ill by Five-leafe doth restore, And melancholy cures by sovereign Hellebore: Of these most helpful herbs yet tell we but a few To those unnumbered sort of simples here that grew, What justly to set down even Dodon short doth fall, Nor skilful Gerarde yet shall ever find them all.”

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