The Folk-lore of Plants eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 288 pages of information about The Folk-lore of Plants.

The Folk-lore of Plants eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 288 pages of information about The Folk-lore of Plants.
has long been considered a sure preventive of mildew in wheat.  Without multiplying further illustrations, there can be no doubt that the therapeutic virtues of these so-called lightning plants may be traced to, in very many cases, their mythical origin.  It is not surprising too that plants of this stamp should have been extensively used as charms against the influences of occult powers, their symbolical nature investing them with a potency such as was possessed by no ordinary plant.

Footnotes: 

1.  See an article on “Myths of the Fire Stealer,” Saturday Review,
   June 2, 1883, p. 689; Tylor’s “Primitive Culture.”

2.  “Myths and Myth Makers,” p. 55.

3.  See Keary’s “Outlines of Primitive Belief,” 1882, p. 98.

4.  “Indo-European Tradition and Folk-lore,” p. 159.

5.  “Mystic Trees and Shrubs,” Fraser’s Magazine, Nov. 1870, p. 599.

6.  “Sacred Trees and Flowers,” Quarterly Review, July 1863, pp. 231, 232.

7.  “Myths and Myth Makers,” p. 55.

8.  See “Flower Lore,” pp. 38, 39.

9.  Kelly’s “Indo-European Folk-lore,” p. 179.

10.  “Natural History and Antiquities of Surrey,” ii. 34.

11.  Kelly’s “Indo-European Folk-lore,” p. 176; Grimm’s “Teutonic
    Mythology,” 1884, chap, xxxii.; Gubernatis’ “Zoological Mythology,”
    ii. 266-7.  See Albertus Magnus, “De Mirab.  Mundi,” 1601, p. 225.

12.  Gubernatis’ “Zoological Mythology,” ii. 230.

13.  “Myths and Mythmakers,” p. 58.  See Baring-Gould’s “Curious
    Myths of the Middle Ages,” 1877, pp. 386-416.

14.  Folkard’s “Plant-lore Legends and Lyrics,” p. 460.

15.  See Kelly’s “Indo-European Folk-lore,” pp. 47-8.

CHAPTER V.

PLANTS IN WITCHCRAFT.

The vast proportions which the great witchcraft movement assumed in bygone years explains the magic properties which we find ascribed to so many plants in most countries.  In the nefarious trade carried on by the representatives of this cruel system of sorcery certain plants were largely employed for working marvels, hence the mystic character which they have ever since retained.  It was necessary, however, that these should be plucked at certain phases of the moon or seasons of the year, or from some spot where the sun was supposed not to have shone on it.[1] Hence Shakespeare makes one of his witches speak of “root of hemlock digg’d i’ the dark,” and of “slips of yew sliver’d in the moon’s eclipse,” a practice which was long kept up.  The plants, too, which formed the witches’ pharmacopoeia, were generally selected either from their legendary associations or by reason of their poisonous and soporific qualities.  Thus, two of those most frequently used as ingredients in the mystic cauldron were the vervain and the rue, these plants having been specially

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The Folk-lore of Plants from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.