Trans. from Meleager.
The healthful balm and mint from their full laps do fly,
The scentful camomile.
Polyolbion, Song xv.
Falstaff. Though the Camomile the more it is trodden on the faster it grows, yet youth the more it is wasted the sooner it wears.—I. Henry IV. ii. 4.
The camomile is dedicated to St Anne, mother of the Virgin Mary, and Mr Friend thinks that the Latin name of wild camomile, Matricaria, comes from a “fanciful derivation” of this word, from mater and cara, or “Beloved Mother.” The name camomile itself is derived from a Greek word meaning “earth-apples,” and its pleasant, refreshing smell is rather like that of ripe apples. The Spaniards call it Manzanilla, “a little apple.” It was grown “both for pleasure and profit, both inward and outward diseases, both for the sicke and the sound,” and was “planted of the rootes in alleys, in walks, and on banks to sit on, for that the more it is trodden upon and pressed down in dry weather, the closer it groweth and the better it will thrive.” This was a common belief in earlier days, as Falstaff’s remark shows.
Culpepper is as trenchant as usual on the subject. “Nichersor, saith the Egyptians, dedicated it to the sun, because it cured agues, and they were like enough to do it, for they were the arrantest apes in their religion I have ever read of.” Why his indignation is so much excited is not clear, but probably it is because Agues (being watery diseases) were under the moon, and therefore they should have dedicated a herb that cured agues to the Moon. However, he holds to the view that camomile is good for all agues, although it is an herb of the sun—who has nothing to do with such diseases, as a rule. Turner criticises Amatus Lusitanus with some shrewdness. This writer, who had apparently taken upon him to teach “Spanyardes, Italians, Frenchmen and Germans the name of Herbes in their tongues, writeth that Camomile is commonlye knowne,” and with this bald statement contented himself. “Wherefore it is lykely he knoweth nether of both [kinds of Camomile]. Wherefore he had done better to have sayde, ‘I do knowe nether of both, then thus shortly to passe by them.’ Camomile is still officinal, and is used for fomentations. ‘If taken internally it should be infused with cold water, as heat dissipates the oil.’”
Feverfew is so nearly related to camomile that it may be mentioned here. Indeed some writers call it “a Wild Camomile,” and give it Matricaria Parthenum for a Latin name. Most botanists, however, place it “in the genus Pyrethrum.” Mr Britten calls it Pyrethrum Parthenium. “Feverfew” comes from “febrifuge,” for it was supposed to have wonderful power to drive away fevers and agues; and it is still a favourite remedy with village people. Nora Hopper brings it in among the fairies:—
There’s many feet on the moor to-night,
And they fall so light as they turn and pass,
So light and true, that they shake no dew,
From the featherfew and the Hungry-Grass.
The Fairy Music.