Sea Holly.—See [Eryngo].
SEA POPPY.—The Sea Poppy or Horned Poppy (Glaucium) is named after Glaucus, a Bœotian fisherman, who, whilst pursuing his calling, observed that all the fishes which he laid on the grass received fresh vigour as they touched the ground, and immediately escaped from him by leaping back into the sea. He attributed the cause of it to some herb growing among the grass, and upon tasting the foliage of the Sea Poppy, he found himself suddenly moved with an intense desire to live in the sea. Upon this he leaped into the water, and was made a sea god by Oceanus and Tethys. This Glaucium or Sea Poppy was called in the middle ages Ficus infernalis: it was supposed to possess magical properties, and was prized by witches and sorcerers, who used it in their incantations. Ben Jonson, in the ‘Witches’ Song,’ says:—
“Yes, I have brought to help our vows,
Horned Poppy, Cypress-boughs,
The Fig-tree wild that grows on tombs,
And juice that from the Larch-tree comes.”
Borlase tells us that, in the Scilly Isles, “this root (the Sea Poppy), so much valued for removing all pains in the breast, stomach, and intestines, is good also for disordered lungs, and is so much better here than in other places, that the apothecaries of Cornwall send hither for it; and some people plant them in their gardens in Cornwall, and will not part with them under sixpence a root. A very simple notion they have with regard to this root, which falls not much short of the Druids’ superstition in gathering and preparing their Selago and Samolus. This root, you must know, is accounted very good both as an emetic and cathartic. If, therefore, they design that it shall operate as the former, their constant opinion is that it should be scraped and sliced upwards—that is, beginning from the root, the knife is to ascend towards the leaf; but if it is intended to operate as a cathartic, they must scrape the root downwards.”
SELAGO.—Selago was the name of a herb held in great repute by the Druids, and intimately connected with some of their mysterious rites. It was known as the Golden Herb or Cloth of Gold, and was reputed to confer the power of understanding the language of birds and beasts. It is variously supposed to have been the Club-Moss (Lycopodium Selago), the Camphorosma Monspeliaca, or a kind of Hedge Hyssop, which used in olden times to be called Gratiola and Dei Gratia, and was regarded as a charm as well as a medicine. Pliny, in his ‘Natural History’ (xxiv., 62), tells us with respect to the Druidic Selago, that it resembles Savin; and that it is gathered as if by stealth, without the use of iron. The person who gathers it must go barefoot, with feet washed, clad in white, having previously offered a sacrifice of bread and wine, and must pluck the plant with his right hand through the left sleeve of his tunic. It is carried in a new cloth. The Druids of the Gauls asserted that it was to be regarded as useful against all diseases, and that its smoke was a remedy for all affections of the eyes.——In Johnson’s edition of Gerarde’s ‘Herbal,’ it is said that the Club Moss, or Heath Cypress, is thought to be the Selago mentioned by Pliny. “The catkins of this plant are described as being of a yellowish colour; and it is stated to be found growing in divers woody, mountainous places of Germany, where they call it Wald Seuenbaum, or Wilde Savine.”——In his work on the Druids, called the ‘Veil of Isis,’ Mr. Reade gives a similar account of the gathering of the Selago, excepting that he states it was cut with a brazen hook. He further tells of a mysterious sisterhood of Druidesses who inhabited the island of Sena (now Sain) at the mouth of the River Loire, where there was a Druidic oracle. These Sibyls devoted themselves chiefly to the service of the Moon, and worshipped her under the name of Kêd or Ceridwen, the Northern name for the Egyptian Isis. They consecrated a herb to her called Belinuncia, in the poisonous sap of which they dipped their arrows to render them deadly. It was one of their rites to procure a virgin, and to denude her as an emblem of the moon in an unclouded sky. Then they sought for the mystic Selago, or Golden Herb. She who pressed it with her foot slept, and heard the language of animals. If she touched it with iron, the sky grew dark and a misfortune fell upon the world.
“The herb of gold is cut: a cloud
Across the sky hath spread its shroud