and credulity of mankind, for by these arts they pretended to work miracles and to exhibit astonishing appearances in nature, as well as to penetrate into the counsels of heaven.

Divested of these pretended powers, there is no doubt but that the Druids were better acquainted with the medicinal properties of herbs than any other class of men in their day; since their residences being in the recesses of mountains, groves, and woods, where vegetable productions were constantly courting their attention, it is natural to suppose that they would in some measure become acquainted with the qualities of plants in general. That the Druids of Gaul and Britain applied themselves to this study, and made great use of herbs for medical purposes, we have sufficient evidence, since we learn from scattered hints in Pliny's Natural History, that they sometimes extracted the juice of herbs and plants, by bruising and steeping them in cold water, and sometimes by infusion in wine; that they made potions and decoctions by boiling them in water; and we learn also that they frequently dried certain herbs before infusing them, and that they administered some plants by fumigations, and practised the art of making salves and ointments of vegetables, for which they had great renown even at Rome, to which city they exported the Vervain, and hence it was called Britannica.

Although so many ages have passed away since the Druids and their pretended spells have been abolished, yet we frequently meet with lingering sparks of their imagined light amongst the vulgar, who upon every occasion cling to superstition as eagerly as the intimidated infant clings to the breast of a fond mother.

Madame de Latour tells us that the shepherds in the northern provinces of France still continue to gather the Vervain under different phases of the moon, using certain mysterious ejaculations known only to themselves, whilst in the act of collecting this herb, by whose assistance they attempt to cure not only their fellow-servants, but their masters also, of various complaints, and they profess to charm both the flocks and the rural belles with this plant.

The Germans to this day present a hat of Vervain to the new-married bride, as if to put her under the protection of Venus Victorious, which is evidently the remains of ancient customs.

Vervain is now very properly made the emblem of superstition.

The common Vervain officinalis, is a native of our soil, and is principally found by road sides, in dry sunny pastures and waste places about villages. Mr. Miller remarks, that although Vervain is very common, yet it is never found above a quarter of a mile from a house, which has occasioned its being

called Simpler's Joy. However it appears not to be entirely cofined to such situations, since Dr. Withering observes that it is very plentiful at the foot of St. Vincent's rocks, all along the course of the river. This species grows also in most parts of Europe, Barbary, China, Cochin-China, and Japan. Its flowers form spikes of a pale lilac colour, which continue in blossom during the whole of summer.

The Verbena Supina is also an European species of this genera of plants, and is indigenous to the South of Europe. We have fourteen other species of Vervain, collected principally from America and the Indies; but as these have no connexion with ancient anecdote, we pass them, to observe that the Vervain, which held so high a rank amongst herbs in antique days, has passed almost into total neglect among the modern practitioners of medicine, although all writers seem to agree in attributing to it the property of relieving the most violent chronic head-aches, whether externally applied or internally taken. For this purpose it seems, however, to have been more frequently employed externally, the bruised leaves and stalks being used as a cataplasm. It was also much used for wounds.

Black melancholy rusts, that fed despair

Through wounds long rage, with sprinkled Vervain cleared.

DAVENANT.

SNAP-DRAGON. Antirrhinum.

Natural Order Personata. A Genus of the Didynamia Angiospermia Class.

Of colours, changing from the splendid Rose

To the pale Violet's dejected hue.

AKENSIDE.

The stern and furious lion's gaping mouth.
COLUMELLA.

THIS singular flower is made the emblem of presumption, from its monopetalous corolla forming a mask, which resembles the face of an animal; and it has from hence received various names, as Dog's Mouth, Lion's Snap, Toad's Mouth, and SnapDragon. On pressing the sides of this flower it opens like a gaping mouth, the stigma appearing to represent the tongue; on removing the pressure, the lips of the corolla snap together, and hence it has been named Snap-Dragon. It is frequently called Calf's Snout, from the form of its seed vessel, and the French name it Mufle de Veau on the

same account.

The Snap-Dragon belongs to the family of the Toad-Flax, and is a flower which we cannot examine without admiring how wonderfully it is adapted

for the bleak situations in which it grows naturally, as on the highest rocks, or out of the crevices of the most exposed cliffs, or the chinks of the loftiest towers: in all of these situations its parts of fructification are guarded against the tempest by the singularly-shaped corolla, which defies either wind or rain to enter the flower until impregnation has taken place, when the mask falls off to allow a free access of air to the seed vessel. We have frequently remarked that the bees, and more particularly the humble-bees, have entered this flower by pressing open the lips, as if they were conscious that such an opening existed, although it shuts so close as to deceive the nicest eye, and snaps to the moment the insect has gained admittance, leaving it to revel unobserved within the mask, from which it makes its exit with the same ease as it entered. This species of instinct approaches near to reason, since the bee cannot have been trained or instructed to this habit.

Linnæus placed this plant in the fourteenth class of his sexual system, which he named Didynamia, fron the Greek dis, twice, and duvaus, power, because the flower is furnished with four stamens, two f which are always considerably longer than the t her two, and converging close to the upper lip of the corolla, each pair of anthers approaching, which renders the distinction of this class very striking.