and qualities (such as their retaining or shedding their leaves, their offspring, number, beauty or deformity, form, and colour), they indicate what kind of service they can render to man, and what are the particular members of the human body to which they are specially appropriate.” As examples of the practical working of the system of Plant Signatures, Kircher tells us that if the root of the _Chelidonium_ be placed in white wine, it is rendered yellow, resembling bilious humour, and thus discloses a sure and infallible remedy against yellow jaundice. He remarks that he had learned this by personal experience, having advised some persons suffering from that malady to try _Chelidonium_ as a cure; and that as a result they were freed from the disease. Persons liable to apoplexy are said to have a line resembling an anchor traced in their hands. The plant _Acorus_ has a similar mark in its leaves, and is a highly-approved remedy for apoplexy. So again, a certain line or mark is to be found in the hands of persons suffering from colic, similar in character to an outline found traced in the foliage of the _Malobathrum_, a plant which will afford relief to patients suffering from the disorder. Hellebore, which emits a most disagreeable odour, possesses the property of absorbing offensive smells and expelling them. _Dracontium_, or Great Dragon, a plant which bears a resemblance to a dragon, is a most effectual preservation against serpents; Pliny averring that serpents will not come near anyone carrying this plant.