Thence before to earth it fall,
The Druid in his hallow’d pall
Receives the prize.”
Pliny, in his Natural History (lib. xxiv. cap. 11.) gives a circumstantial account of the ceremonies used by the Druids in gathering the Selago and Samolus, and of the uses to which they were applied:—
“Similis berbæ huie sabinæ est Selago appellata. Legitur sine ferro dextra manu per tunicam, qua sinistra exuitur velut a furante, candida veste vestito, pureque lotis nudis pedibus, saero facto priusquam legatur, pane vinoque. Fertur in mappa nova. Hanc contra omnem perniciem habendam prodidere Druidæ Gallorum, et contra omnia oculorum vitia fumum ejus prodesse.
“Iidem Samolum herbam nominavere nascentem in humidis: et hanc sinistra manu legi a jejunis contra morbos suum boumque, nec respicere legentem: nec alibi quam in canali, deponere, ibique conterere poturis.”
From the very slight manner in which these plants are described by Pliny, it is next to impossible to identify them with any degree of certainty, though many attempts for the purpose have been made. So far as I know, Pliny is the only ancient author who mentions them, and we have therefore nothing to guide us beyond what he has said in this passage.
The word Selago is supposed to be derived from se and lego, i.e. quid certo ritu seligeretur. Linnæus appropriated the name to a pretty genus of Cape plants, but which can have nothing whatever to do with the Selago of the Druids. It has been thought to be the same as the Serratula Chamæpeuce of Linnæus, but without sufficient reason, for Pliny says it resembles the savine; and Matthiolus, in his Commentary on Dioscorides, when speaking of the savine (Juniperus Sabina), says:—
“Siquidem vidi pro Sabina assumi quandam herbam dodrantalem quæ quibusdam in montibus plurima nascitur, folio tamaricis, licet nec odore nec sapore Sabinam Hanc sæpius existimavi esse Selaginem referat. a Plinio lib. xxiv. c. 11. commemoratam.”
Samolus, or as some copies read Samosum, is said to be derived from two Celtic words, san, salutary, and mos, pig; denoting a property in the plant which answers to the description of Pliny, who says the Gauls considered the Samolus as a specific in all maladies of swine and cattle. But there is not less difficulty in identifying this plant than in the former case. Some have thought it the same as the little marsh plant, with small white flowers, which Linnæus calls Samolus Valerandi, while others consider it to be the Anemone Pulsatilla. I am ignorant of the salutary properties of these plants, and must leave it to be decided which of them has the greatest claims to be considered the Samolus of Pliny.
G.M.