"Cradled in snow, and fanned by Arctic air Shines, gentle Barometz, thy golden hair; Rooted in earth each cloven hoof descends, And found and round her flexile neck she bends: Crops the green coral moss, and hoary thyme, Or laps with rosy tongue the melting rime; Eyes with mute tenderness her distant dam, Or seems to bleat--a vegetable Lamb." FEVERFEW. The Feverfew is one of the wild Chamomiles (_Pyrethrum Parthenium_), or _Matricaria_, so called because especially useful for motherhood. Its botanical names come from the Latin _febrifugus_, putting fever to flight, and _parthenos_, a virgin. The herb is a Composite plant, and grows in every hedgerow, with numerous small heads of yellow flowers, having outermost white rays, but with an upright stem; whereas that of the true garden Chamomile is procumbent. The whole plant has a pungent odour, and is particularly disliked by bees. A double variety is cultivated in gardens for ornamental purposes. The herb Feverfew is strengthening to the stomach, preventing hysteria and promoting the monthly functions of women. It is much used by country mediciners, though insufficiently esteemed by the doctors of to-day. [193] In Devonshire the plant is known as "Bachelor's buttons," and at Torquay as "Flirtwort," being also sometimes spoken of as "Feathyfew," or "Featherfull." Gerard says it may be used both in drinks, and bound on the wrists, as of singular virtue against the ague. As "Feverfue," it was ordered, by the Magi of old, "to be pulled from the ground with the left hand, and the fevered patient's name must be spoken forth, and the herbarist must not look behind him." Country persons have long been accustomed to make curative uses of this herb very commonly, which grows abundantly throughout England. Its leaves are feathery and of a delicate green colour, being conspicuous even in mid-winter. Chemically, the Feverfew furnishes a blue volatile oil; containing a camphoraceous stearopten, and a liquid hydrocarbon, together with some tannin, and a bitter mucilage.