gs.

An Irish cure for warts is to prick them with a Gooseberry thorn
passed through a wedding ring.

By some subtle bodily action wrought through a suggestion made to
the mind, warts undoubtedly disappear as the result of this and
many another equally trivial proceeding; which being so, why not
the more serious skin affections, and larger morbid growths?

The poet Southey wrote a _Pindaric Ode upon a Gooseberry_ [227]
Pie, beginning "Gooseberry Pie is best," with the refrain:--

"And didst thou scratch thy tender arms,
Oh, Jane I that I should dine"?

GOOSEFOOT.

Among Curative Simples, the Goosefoot, or Chenopod order of
British plants, contributes two useful herbs, the _Chenopodium
bonus Henricus_ (Good King Henry), and the _Chenopodium
vulvaria_ (Stinking Goosefoot).

This tribe derives its distinctive title from the Greek words,
_cheen_, a goose, and _pous_, a foot, in allusion to the resemblance
borne by its leaves to the webbed members of that waddling bird
which raw recruits are wont to bless for their irksome drill of the
goose-step. Incidentally, it may be said that goosegrease, got from
the roasted bird, is highly emollient, and very useful in clysters;
it also proves easily emetic.

The Goosefoot herbs are common weeds in most temperate climates,
and grow chiefly in salt marshes, or on the sea-shore. Other plants
of this tribe are esculent vegetables, as the Spinach, Beet,
and Orach. They all afford "soda" in abundance.

The _Good King Henry_ (Goosefoot) grows abundantly in waste
places near villages, being a dark green, succulent plant, about a
foot high, with thickish arrow-shaped leaves, which are cooked as
spinach, especially in Lincolnshire. It is sometimes called Blite,
from the Greek _bliton_, insipid; and, as Evelyn says, in his
_Acetaria_, "it is well named, being insipid enough."

Why the said Goosefoot has been named "Good King Henry," or,
"Good King Harry," is a disputed point. A French writer declares
"this humble plant which grows on our plains without culture will
confer a more lasting [228] duration on the memory of _Henri
Quatre_ than the statue of bronze placed on the Pont Neuf, though
fenced with iron, and guarded by soldiers." Dodoeus says the
appellation was given to distinguish the plant from another, a
poisonous one, called _Malus Henricus_, "Bad Henry." Other
authors have referred it to our Harry the Eighth, and his sore legs,
for which the leaves were app