The Folk-lore of Plants Part 23

"Poppies a sanguine mantle spread For the blood of the dragon that Margaret shed."

Archdeacon Hare says the Sweet-William, designated the "painted lady,"

was dedicated to Saint William (June 25), the term "sweet" being a subst.i.tution for "saint." This seems doubtful, and some would corrupt the word "sweet" from the French _oeillet_, corrupted to w.i.l.l.y, and thence to William. Mr. King, however, considers that the small red pink (_Dianthus prolifer_), found wild in the neighbourhood of Rochester, "is perhaps the original Saint Sweet-William," for, he adds, the word "saint" has only been dropped since days which saw the demolition of St.

William's shrine in the cathedral. This is but a conjecture, it being uncertain whether the ma.s.ses of bright flowers which form one of the chief attractions of old-fashioned gardens commemorate St. William of Rochester, St. William of York, or, likeliest perhaps of the three, St.

William of Aquitaine, the half soldier, half monk, whose fame was so widely spread throughout the south of Europe.

Roses were said to fade on St. Mary Magdalene's Day (July 20), to whom we find numerous flowers dedicated, such as the maudlin, a nickname of the costmary, either in allusion to her love of scented ointment, or to its use in uterine affections, over which she presided as the patroness of unchaste women, and maudlin-wort, another name for the moon-daisy.

But, as Dr. Prior remarks, it should, "be observed that the monks in the Middle Ages mixed up with the story of the Magdalene that of another St.

Mary, whose early life was pa.s.sed in a course of debauchery."

A German piece of folk-lore tells us that it is dangerous to climb a cherry-tree on St. James's Night, as the chance of breaking one's neck will be great, this day being held unlucky. On this day is kept St.

Christopher's anniversary, after whom the herb-christopher is named, a species of aconite, according to Gerarde. But, as Dr. Prior adds, the name is applied to many plants which have no qualities in common, some of these being the meadow-sweet, fleabane, osmund-fern, herb-impious, everlasting-flower, and baneberry.

Throughout August, during the ingathering of the harvest, a host of customs have been kept up from time immemorial, which have been duly noticed by Brand, while towards the close of the month we are reminded of St. Bartholomew's Day by the gaudy sunflower, which has been nicknamed St. Bartholomew's star, the term "star" having been often used "as an emblematical representation of brilliant virtues or any sign of admiration." It is, too, suggested by Archdeacon Hare that the filbert may owe its name to St. Philbert, whose festival was on the 22nd August.

The pa.s.sion-flower has been termed Holy Rood flower, and it is the ecclesiastical emblem of Holy Cross Day, for, according to the familiar couplet:--

"The pa.s.sion-flower long has blow'd To betoken us signs of the Holy Rood."

Then there is the Michaelmas Day, which:--

"Among dead weeds, Bloom for St. Michael's valorous deeds,"

and the golden star lily, termed St. Jerome's lily. On St. Luke's Day, certain flowers, as we have already noticed, have been in request for love divinations; and on the Continent the chestnut is eaten on the festival of St. Simon, in Piedmont on All Souls' Day, and in France on St. Martin's, when old women a.s.semble beneath the windows and sing a long ballad. Hallowe'en has its use among divinations, at which time various plants are in request, and among the observance of All Souls'

Day was blessing the beans. It would appear, too, that in days gone by, on the eve of All Saints' Day, heath was specially burnt by way of a bonfire:--

"On All Saints' Day bare is the place where the heath is burnt; The plough is in the furrow, the ox at work."

From the shape of its flower, the trumpet-flowered wood-sorrel has been called St. Cecilia's flower, whose festival is kept on November 22. The _Nigella damascena_, popularly known as love-in-a-mist, was designated St. Catherine's flower, "from its persistent styles," writes Dr.

Prior,[5] "resembling the spokes of her wheel." There was also the Catherine-pear, to which Gay alludes in his "Pastorals," where Sparabella, on comparing herself with her rival, says:--

"Her wan complexion's like the withered leek, While Catherine-pears adorn my ruddy cheek."

Herb-Barbara, or St. Barbara's cress (_Barbarea vulgaris_), was so called from growing and being eaten about the time of her festival (December 4).

Coming to Christmas, some of the princ.i.p.al evergreens used in this country for decorative purposes are the ivy, laurel, bay, arbor vitae, rosemary, and holly; mistletoe, on account of its connection with Druidic rites, having been excluded from churches. Speaking of the holly, Mr. Conway remarks that, "it was to the ancient races of the north a sign of the life which preserved nature through the desolation of winter, and was gathered into pagan temples to comfort the sylvan spirits during the general death." He further adds that "it is a singular fact that it is used by the wildest Indians of the Pacific coast in their ceremonies of purification. The ashen-f.a.ggot was in request for the Christmas fire, the ceremonies relating to which are well known."

Footnotes:

1. By D. Moore and A.G. Moore, 1866.

2. See "Journal of the Arch. a.s.soc.," 1832, vii. 206.

3. See "British Popular Customs."

4. "Plant Lore Legends and Lyrics," p. 504.

5. "Popular Names of British Plants," 1879, p. 204.

CHAPTER XVIII.

CHILDREN'S RHYMES AND GAMES.

Children are more or less observers of nature, and frequently far more so than their elders. This, perhaps, is in a great measure to be accounted for from the fact that childhood is naturally inquisitive, and fond of having explained whatever seems in any way mysterious. Such especially is the case in the works of nature, and in a country ramble with children their little voices are generally busy inquiring why this bird does this, or that plant grows in such a way--a variety of questions, indeed, which unmistakably prove that the young mind instinctively seeks after knowledge. Hence, we find that the works of nature enter largely into children's pastimes; a few specimens of their rhymes and games a.s.sociated with plants we quote below.

In Lincolnshire, the b.u.t.ter-bur (_Petasites vulgaris_) is nicknamed bog-horns, because the children use the hollow stalks as horns or trumpets, and the young leaves and shoots of the common hawthorn (_Cratoegus oxyacantha_), from being commonly eaten by children in spring, are known as "bread and cheese;" while the ladies-smock (_Cardamine pratensis_) is termed "bread and milk," from the custom, it has been suggested, of country people having bread and milk for breakfast about the season when the flower first comes in. In the North of England this plant is known as cuckoo-spit, because almost every flower stem has deposited upon it a frothy patch not unlike human saliva, in which is enveloped a pale green insect. Few north-country children will gather these flowers, believing that it is unlucky to do so, adding that the cuckoo has spit upon it when flying over. [1]

The fruits of the mallow are popularly termed by children cheeses, in allusion to which Clare writes:--

"The sitting down when school was o'er, Upon the threshold of the door, Picking from mallows, sport to please, The crumpled seed we call a cheese."

A Buckinghamshire name with children for the deadly nightshade (_Atropa belladonna_) is the naughty-man's cherry, an ill.u.s.tration of which we may quote from Curtis's "Flora Londinensis":--"On Keep Hill, near High Wycombe, where we observed it, there chanced to be a little boy. I asked him if he knew the plant. He answered 'Yes; it was naughty-man's cherries.'" In the North of England the broad-dock (_Rumex obtusifolius_), when in seed, is known by children as curly-cows, who milk it by drawing the stalks through their fingers. Again, in the same locality, children speaking of the dead-man's thumb, one of the popular names of the _Orchis mascula_, tell one another with mysterious awe that the root was once the thumb of some unburied murderer. In one of the "Roxburghe Ballads" the phrase is referred to:--

"Then round the meadows did she walke, Catching each flower by the stalke, Suche as within the meadows grew, As dead-man's thumbs and harebell blue."

It is to this plant that Shakespeare doubtless alludes in "Hamlet" (Act iv. sc. 7), where:--

"Long purples That liberal shepherds give a grosser name, But our cold maids do dead-men's fingers call them."

In the south of Scotland, the name "doudle," says Jamieson, is applied to the root of the common reed-gra.s.s (_Phragmites communis_), which is found, partially decayed, in mora.s.ses, and of "which the children in the south of Scotland make a sort of musical instrument, similar to the oaten pipes of the ancients." In Yorkshire, the water-scrophularia (_Scrophularia aquatica_), is in children's language known as "fiddle-wood," so called because the stems are by children stripped of their leaves, and sc.r.a.ped across each other fiddler-fashion, when they produce a squeaking sound. This juvenile music is the source of infinite amus.e.m.e.nt among children, and is carried on by them with much enthusiasm in their games. Likewise, the spear-thistle (_Carduus lanceolatus_) is designated Marian in Scotland, while children blow the pappus from the receptacle, saying:--

"Marian, Marian, what's the time of day, One o'clock, two o'clock--it's time we were away."

In Cheshire, when children first see the heads of the ribwort plantain (_Plantago lanceolata_) in spring, they repeat the following rhyme:--

"Chimney sweeper all in black, Go to the brook and wash your back, Wash it clean, or wash it none; Chimney sweeper, have you done?":--

Being in all probability a mode of divination for insuring good luck.

Another name for the same plant is "c.o.c.ks," from children fighting the flower-stems one against another.

The common hazel-nut (_Corylus avellana_) is frequently nicknamed the "cob-nut," and was so called from being used in an old game played by children. An old name for the devil's-bit (_Scabiosa succisa_), in the northern counties, and in Scotland, is "curl-doddy," from the resemblance of the head of flowers to the curly pate of a boy, this nickname being often used by children who thus address the plant:--

"Curly-doddy, do my biddin', Soop my house, and shoal my widden'."

In Ireland, children twist the stalk, and as it slowly untwists in the hand, thus address it:--

"Curl-doddy on the midden, Turn round an' take my biddin'."

In c.u.mberland, the _Primula farinosa_, commonly known as bird's-eye, is called by children "bird-een."

"The lockety-gowan and bonny bird-een Are the fairest flowers that ever were seen."

And in many places the _Leontodon taraxac.u.m_ is designated "blow-ball,"