s;" and Dr.
Daubeny has published in his "Roman Husbandry" a most curious drawing
from the Vienna MS. of Dioscorides in the fifth century, "representing
the Goddess of Discovery presenting to Dioscorides the root of this
Mandrake" (of thoroughly human shape) "which she had just pulled up,
while the unfortunate dog which had been employed for that purpose is
depicted in the agonies of death."[154:1] All these beliefs have long, I
should hope, been extinct among us; yet even now artists who draw the
plant are tempted to fancy a resemblance to the human figure, and in the
"Flora Graeca," where, for the most part, the figures of the plants are
most beautifully accurate, the figure of the Mandrake is painfully
human.[154:2]

As a garden plant, the Mandrake is often grown, but more for its
curiosity than its beauty; the leaves appear early in the spring,
followed very soon by its dull and almost inconspicuous flowers, and
then by its Apple-like fruit. This is the Spring Mandrake (_Mandragora
vernalis_), but the Autumn Mandrake (_M. autumnalis_ or _microcarpa_)
may be grown as an ornamental plant. The leaves appear in the autumn,
and are succeeded by a multitude of pale-blue flowers about the size of
and very much resembling the Anemone pulsatilla (see Sweet's "Flower
Garden," vol. vii. No. 325). These remain in flower a long time. In my
own garden they have been in flower from the beginning of November till
May. I need only add that the Mandrake is a native of the South of
Europe and other countries bordering on the Mediterranean, but it was
very early introduced into England. It is named in Archbishop AElfric's
"Vocabulary" in the tenth century with the very expressive name of
"Earth-apple;" it is again named in an Anglo-Saxon Vocabulary of the
eleventh century (in the British Museum), but without any English
equivalent; and Gerard cultivated both sorts in his garden.

FOOTNOTES:

[154:1] In the "Bestiary of Philip de Thaun" (12 cent.), published in
Wright's Popular Treatises on Science written during the Middle Ages,
the male and female Mandrake are actually reckoned among living beasts
(p. 101).

[154:2] For some curious early English notices of the Mandrake, see
"Promptorium Parvulorum," p. 324, note. See also Brown's "Vulgar
Errors," book ii. c. 6, and Dr. M. C. Cooke's "Freaks of Plant Life."

MARIGOLD.

(1) _Perdita._

The Marigold that goes to bed wi' the sun,
And with him rises weep