Herb of Grace.—See [Rue].
HERB OF THE CROSS.—In Brittany, the Vervain (Verbena officinalis) is called the Herb of the Cross, and is supposed to be endowed with remarkable healing qualities. J. White (1624) writes thus of it:—
“Hallow’d be thou, Vervain, as thou growest in the ground,
For on the Mount of Calvary thou first was found.
Thou healedst our Saviour Jesus Christ,
And staunchedst His bleeding wound.
In the name of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, I take thee from the ground.”
In the Flax-fields of Flanders, a plant is found called the Roodselken, the crimson spots on the leaves of which betoken the Divine blood which trickled on it from the Cross, and the stain of which neither snow nor rain has ever been able to wash off.——In Palestine, the red Anemone is called “Christ’s Blood-drops,” from the belief that the flower grew on Mount Calvary. In Cheshire, the Orchis maculata, which is there called Gethsemane, is supposed to have sprung up at the foot of the Cross. The Milk-wort, Gang-flower, or Rogation-flower (Polygala vulgaris) is called the Cross-flower from its blooming in Passion week. The Galium cruciatum is called Cross-wort because its leaves are placed in the form of a cross. The early Italian painters, in their paintings of the Crucifixion, introduced the Wood-Sorrel (Oxalis acetosella), probably from its triple leaf symbolising the Trinity. The four-leaved Clover is an emblem of the Cross. All cruciform flowers are of good and happy augury, having been marked with the sign of the Cross.
HERB PARIS.—The narcotic plant called One-berry, Herb True-love, or Herb Paris (Paris quadrifolia), has obtained the latter name from the Latin Herba paris (Herb of a pair—of a betrothed couple), in allusion to the four broad leaves which proceed from the top of its stalk, and form a cross; being, as Gerarde says, “directly set one against another in manner of a Burgundian Crosse or True-love knot: for which cause among the antients it hath been called Herbe True-love.” Herb Paris bears flowers of a palish green—a colour always suggestive of lurking poison. Every part of the herb contains a poisonous principle, but the leaves and berries were formerly used to expel poisons, especially Aconite, as well as the plague and other pestilential diseases. Matthiolus says that “the chymical oil of the black berries is effectual for all diseases of the eyes, so that it is called Anima oculorum.”——The herb is under the dominion of Venus.
HERB PETER.—The Cowslip (Primula veris), the Schlüsselblume of the Germans, has obtained the name of Herb Peter from its resemblance to the badge of St. Peter—a bunch of keys.