[172] The leaves made into a poultice will resolve swellings and relieve contusions. The odour of the green leaves will drive away mice from granaries. To the Dwarf Elder have been given the names Danewort, Danesweed, and Danesblood, probably because it brings about a loss of blood called the "Danes," or perhaps as a corruption of its stated use _contra quotidianam_. The plant is also known as Walewort, from _wal_--slanghter. It grows in great plenty about Slaughterford, Wilts, where there was a noted fight with the Danes; and a patch of it thrives on ground in Worcestershire, where the first blood was drawn in the civil war between the Parliament and the Royalists. Rumour says it will only prosper where blood has been shed either in battle, or in murder. ELECAMPANE. "Elecampane," writes William Coles, "is one of the plants whereof England may boast as much as any, for there grows none better in the world than in England, let apothecaries and druggists say what they will." It is a tall, stout, downy plant, from three to five feet high, of the Composite order, with broad leaves, and bright, yellow flowers. Campania is the original source of the plant (_Enula campana_), which is called also Elf-wort, and Elf-dock. Its botanical title is _Helenium inula_, to commemorate Helen of Troy, from whose tears the herb was thought to have sprung, or whose hands were full of the leaves when Paris carried her off from Menelaus. This title has become corrupted in some districts to Horse-heal, or Horse-hele, or Horse-heel, through a double, blunder, the word _inula_ being misunderstood for _hinnula_, a colt; and the term _Hellenium_ being thought to have something to do with healing, or [173] heels; and solely on this account the Elecampane has been employed by farriers to cure horses of scabs and sore heels. Though found wild only seldom, and as a local production in our copses and meadows, it is cultivated in our gardens as a medicinal and culinary herb. The name _inula_ is only a corruption of the Greek _elenium_; and the herb is of ancient repute, having been described by Dioscorides. An old Latin distich thus celebrates its virtues: _Enula campana reddit proecordia sana_--"Elecampane will the spirits sustain." "Julia Augusta," said Pliny, "let no day pass without eating some of the roots of _Enula_ condired, to help digestion, and cause mirth." The _inula_ was noticed by Horace, _Satire_ viii., 51:-- "Erucos virides inulas ego primus amaras Monstravi incoquere." Also the _Enula campana_ has been identified with the herb Moly (of Homer), "_apo tou moleuein_, from its mitigating pain."