How herbs got their names

The names of herbs such as pilewort, birthwort and goutwort, all advertise their old usefulness. The word wort means a plant which was used. Other herbs owe their names to mythology. Iris was the "many-coloured messenger of the gods" and elecampane takes its Latin name Inula helenium from Helen of Troy. Sage bears the Latin name Salvia officinalis because of its healing powers. Officinalis as a species name indicates that it was once sold in apothecary shops.
Early man was convinced of the connection between herbs and the stars. Plants grew and died with the seasons just as stars and planets wandered through the sky. Ancient Assyrian priests plotted these heavenly movements with great accuracy. They began to fit them into the system we call the Zodiac. The planet Venus was sacred to their love goddess and Mars to their god of war. As late as 1650 the herbalist Nicholas Culpeper said "All men are unfit to be physicians, who are not artists in astrology."
Herbal prescription was made more complicated by the belief in the Doctrine of Signatures, a treatise which stated that the healing virtues of plants could be discerned from their appearance. The parallel veins on plantain leaves looked like human ribs and so were used to cure rheumatism. Scarlet pimpernel, burdock and red clover, being red, were said to be good for purifying the blood. Agrimony and celandine had yellow flowers so they were used to relieve jaundice. Pliny said that herbs growing on the heads of statues would stop a headache. But he did not say how the sufferer should reach them.

Herbal magic

A belief in the magical power of herbs was a natural reaction to the speedy death or blissful hallucination that can result from eating a few leaves or berries. "The Golden Ass" is a delightful novel written in ancient Rome which illustrates the awe in which a person who understood herbs was held.
The hero falls in love with a witch's servant. Each night the witch eats herbs which turn her into an owl. Having seen her fly, the hero begs his girl friend to steal some herbs for him. By mistake she turns him into a donkey. Only after many perilous adventures does he succeed in re-gaining his human shape, by munching rose petals.
The rose was always a sign of spiritual purity, but angelica and mallow also supposedly offered protection against witch-craft, the wild garlic which still en-circles the ruins of many old monasteries was planted there to fend off the devil.
The plant most used for evil purposes was mistletoe growing on a hawthorn bush. Mistletoe is more revered than al-most any other plant. Pliny said that it would cure epilepsy. It was sacred to the Druids when found on an oak tree, for they believed that whatever grew in an oak tree was sent from heaven. It is also sacred to the Ainu of Northern Japan, but they hope to find it on a willow, which is their tree of life.
The Christmas kiss under the mistletoe is a survival of old Nordic fertility rites. Its white fruits appear when all nature seems dead; a kiss symbolizes human fertility and this midwinter rite was believed to encourage dormant plants to come back to life.