"
The hound's-tongue (_cynoglossum_) has been reputed to have the magical
property of preventing dogs barking at a person, if laid beneath the
feet; and Gerarde says that wild goats or deer, "when they be wounded
with arrows, do shake them out by eating of this plant, and heal their
wounds." Bacon in his "Natural History" alludes to another curious idea
connected with goats, and says, "There are some tears of trees, which
are combed from the beards of goats; for when the goats bite and crop
them, especially in the morning, the dew being on, the tear cometh
forth, and hangeth upon their beards; of this sort is some kind of
laudanum." The columbine was once known as _Herba leonis_, from a belief
that it was the lion's favourite plant, and it is said that when bears
were half-starved by hybernating--having remained for days without
food--they were suddenly restored by eating the arum. There is a curious
tradition in Piedmont, that if a hare be sprinkled with the juice of
henbane, all the hares in the neighbourhood will run away as if scared
by some invisible power.
Gerarde also alludes to an old belief that cats, "Are much delighted
with catmint, for the smell of it is so pleasant unto them, that they
rub themselves upon it, and swallow or tumble in it, and also feed on
the branches very greedily.
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