Holly stoud in the hall, fayre to behold,
Ivy stoud without the dore, she ys ful sore a-cold.
Nay my nay.”
Corymbifer was a surname given to Bacchus, from his wearing a crown of corymbi, or Ivy-berries. These berries were recommended by old physicians as a remedy for the plague, and Pliny averred that when taken before wine, they prevented its intoxicating effects.——There is a popular tradition that an Ivy cup has the property of separating wine from water—the former soaking through, and the latter remaining. An old writer remarks that those who are troubled with the spleen shall find much ease by the continual drinking out of a cup made of Ivy, so as the drink may stand some time therein before it be drunk; for, he adds, “Cato saith that wine put into the Ivy cup will soak through it by reason of the antipathy that is between them;” this antipathy being so great that a drunkard “will find his speediest cure if he drunk a draught of the same wine wherein a handful of Ivy-leaves had been steeped.”——The ancient Scottish clan Gordon claim Ivy as their badge.——Ivy is under the dominion of Saturn. It is considered to be exceedingly favourable to dream of the evergreen climber, portending as it does, friendship, happiness, good fortune, honour, riches, and success.
Ground-Ivy is a name which was formerly applied to the Periwinkle, and to the Ground Pine or Yellow Bugle (called till the beginning of the present century the Forget-Me-Not), but which was afterwards transferred to the Nepeta Glechoma, a plant also known by the rustic names of Gill and Gill-by-the-ground, Haymaids, Cat’s-foot, Ale-hoof, and Tun-hoof. In olden times, it was put into ale, instead of hops, and was also used to clear ale. The juice of the leaves, tunned up in ale, was thought to cure the jaundice and other complaints.
Jacinth.—See [Hyacinth].
Jack-by-the-Hedge.—See [Erysimum].
Jack-of-the-Buttery.—See [Stonecrop].
JACOB’S LADDER.—The Polemonium cœruleum, from its leaflets being arranged in successive pairs.
JAMBU.—The Jambu (Eugenia Jambos) is included among the great Indian cosmogonic trees. It is called, says Prof. De Gubernatis, the Fruit of Kings, on account of the great size of its fruit. According to the Vishnu purâna, the continent Jambudvîpa took its name from the tree Jambu. The fruits of this tree are in point of fact very large, but the fruits of the Indian mythological Jambu attain to the size of an elephant; when they have ripened they fall from the mountain, and the juice which exudes feeds the river Jambu, whose waters are consequently richly endowed with salutary properties, and can neither be tainted nor defiled. We learn from the Dîrghâgama-Sûtra, that the four cardinal points were not only represented by the four elephants which sustained the world, but by four trees of colossal bulk and grandeur. These four trees were the Ghanta, the Kadamba, the Ambala, and the Jambu. The Jambu sprang, it is said, from the south of the mountain Meru, of which the summit was believed to represent the zenith. In the cosmogonic forest of the Himalaya towers the stupendous bulk of the Jambu, and from its roots four great rivers, whose waters are inexhaustible, take their source. It bears during the entire kalpa of the renovation an immortal fruit, like unto gold, great as the vase called Mahâkala. This fruit falls into the rivers, and its pips produce the golden seed which is carried away to the sea, and which is sometimes washed up again, and to be found on its shores. This gold is of incalculable value, and has not its equal in the world for purity.——It appears, according to the Saptaçataka of Hâla, that Indian lovers are fond of secreting themselves beneath the leaves of the Eugenia Jambos, and that the young Indian bride becomes sad with jealousy when she sees her young husband approaching, with his ears decked with the leaves of the Jambu.