No heart can think, no tongue can tell,

The virtues of the pimpernell.

Gerard enumerates several complaints for which this plant was considered useful, and he adds, that country people prognosticated fine or bad weather by observing in the morning whether its flowers were spread out or shut up.—Herbal, first ed. p. 494. According to a MS. on magic, preserved in the Chetham Library at Manchester, "the herb pimpernell is good to prevent witchcraft, as Mother Bumby doth affirme;" and the following lines must be used when it is gathered:

Herbe pimpernell, I have thee found

Growing upon Christ Jesus' ground:

The same guift the Lord Jesus gave unto thee,

When he shed his blood on the tree.

Arise up, pimpernell, and goe with me,

And God blesse me,

And all that shall were thee. Amen.

"Say this fifteen dayes together, twice a day, morning earlye fasting, and in the evening full." MS. ibid.