And twice, by the dogs, was like to be ta'en."

Another plant used by witches in their incantations was the sea or
horned poppy, known in mediaeval times as _Ficus infernolis_; hence it is
further noticed by Ben Jonson in the "Witches' Song":

"Yes, I have brought to help our vows,
Horned poppy, cypress boughs,
The fig tree wild that grows on tombs,
And juice that from the larch tree comes."

Then, of course, there was the wondrous moonwort (_Botrychium lunaria_),
which was doubly valuable from its mystic virtue, for, as Culpepper[22]
tells us, it was believed to open locks and possess other magic virtues.
The mullein, popularly termed the hag-taper, was also in request, and
the honesty (_Lunaria biennis_), "in sorceries excelling," was equally
employed. By Scotch witches the woodbine was a favourite plant,[23] who,
in effecting magical cures, passed their patients nine times through a
girth or garland of green woodbine.

Again, a popular means employed by witches of injuring their enemies was
by the briony. Coles, in his "Art of Simpling," for instance, informs us
how, "they take likewise the roots of mandrake, according to some, or,
as I rather suppose, the roots of briony, which simple folk take for the
true mandrake, and make thereof an ugly image, by which they represent
the person on whom they intend to exercise their witchcraft." And Lord
Bacon, speaking of the mandrake, says--"Some plants there are, but rare,
that have a mossie or downy root, and likewise that have a number of
threads, like beards, as mandrakes, whereof witches and impostours make
an ugly image, giving it the form of a face at the top of the root, and