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These flowers are also frequently used externally in discutient and antiseptic fomentations, and in emollient glysters. The double-flowered variety is usually cultivated for medicine, but the wild kind with single flowers is preferable. Similar Plants. Anthemis arvensis; A. Cotula; Pyrethrum maritimum. ANTHEMIS Pyrethrum. PELLITORY OF SPAIN. The Root.
One species of Barley-grass, which grows very commonly in our sea-marshes, the Hordeum maritimum, is apt to render cattle diseased in the mouth, from chewing the seeds, which are armed with a strong bristly awn not dissimilar to the spike of this grass. LOLIUM perenne. RAY- or RYE-GRASS. This has been long in cultivation, and is usually sown with clover under a crop of spring corn.
The semen is thus a natural stimulant, a physiological aphrodisiac, the type of a class of drugs which have been known and cultivated in all parts of the world from time immemorial. (Dufour has discussed the aphrodisiacs used in ancient Rome, Histoire de la Prostitution, vol. II, ch. 21.) It would be vain to attempt to enumerate all the foods and medicaments to which has been ascribed an influence in heightening the sexual impulse. (Thus, in the sixteenth century, aphrodisiacal virtues were attributed to an immense variety of foods by Liébault in his Thresor des Remèdes Secrets pour les Maladies des Femmes, 1585, pp. 104, et seq.) A large number of them certainly have no such effect at all, but have obtained this credit either on some magical ground or from a mistaken association. Thus the potato, when first introduced from America, had the reputation of being a powerful aphrodisiac, and the Elizabethan dramatists contain many references to this supposed virtue. As we know, potatoes, even when taken in the largest doses, have not the slightest aphrodisiac effect, and the Irish peasantry, whose diet consists very largely of potatoes, are even regarded as possessing an unusually small measure of sexual feeling. It is probable that the mistake arose from the fact that potatoes were originally a luxury, and luxuries frequently tend to be regarded as aphrodisiacs, since they are consumed under circumstances which tend to arouse the sexual desires. It is possible also that, as has been plausibly suggested, the misunderstanding may have been due to sailors the first to be familiar with the potato who attributed to this particular element of their diet ashore the generally stimulating qualities of their life in port. The eryngo (Eryngium maritimum), or sea holly, which also had an erotic reputation in Elizabethan times, may well have acquired it in the same way. Many other vegetables have a similar reputation, which they still retain. Thus onions are regarded as aphrodisiacal, and were so regarded by the Greeks, as we learn from Aristophanes. It is noteworthy that Marro, a reliable observer, has found that in Italy, both in prisons and asylums, lascivious people are fond of onions (La Pubert
It grows in this country, although it is never noticed: the roots are smaller than those imported, but will answer the purpose equally well. SALTWORT. Salicornia europaea. This is gathered on the banks of the Thames and Medway, and brought to London, where it is sold as samphire. It makes a very good pickle, but by no means equal to the true kind. SAMPHIRE. Crithmum maritimum.
SEA-PEAS. Pisum maritimum. These peas have a bitterish disagreeable taste, and are therefore rejected when more pleasant food is to be got. In the year 1555 there was a great famine in England, when the seeds of this plant were used as food, and by which thousands of families were preserved. SEA-WORMWOOD. Artemisia maritima.
Verbascum nigrum; V. Thapsus; Cynoglossum officinale, or, after the above mistake, any other plant with a lanceolate leaf, we fear, may be confounded with it. ERYNGIUM maritimum. SEA-HOLLY. Roots. D. The roots are slender, and very long; of a pleasant sweetish taste, which on chewing for some time is followed by a light degree of aromatic warmth and acrimony.
This plant when eaten by cows communicates a disagreeable taste to milk and butter. ROUND-LEAVED SUN-DEW. Drosera rotundifolia. Very common on marshy commons, and is said to be poisonous to sheep, and to give them the disease called the rot. SEA BARLEY-GRASS. Hordeum maritimum.
Among this and other plants a lovely white amaryllis, the Pancratium Maritimum, with a sweet and powerful perfume, springs up. We often tried to get the bulb, but it lay too deep under the sand. One evening we had gone a long way in search of these flowers, and sat down to rest, though it was beginning to be dark.
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