The Stone in the Nest of the Swallow

Abstract

THE swallow stone is the agate pebble, called in French chéledoine—the name given to the chalcedony (NATURE, vol. xxi. p. 494), but the same virtue is attributed to the swallow herb. This is the Chelidonium majus, about which Britten and Holland, in their “English Plant Names,” give the following quotation from Lyte:—“Chelidonium, that is to say, swallow-herbe, bycause (as Plinie writeth) it was first found out by swallowes and hath healed the eyes and restored sight to their young ones that had harme in their eyes or have bene blinde.”