The North American Indians also held intoxication by tobacco to be supernatural ecstasy.  It is curious to find a survival of this source of superstition in modern European folk-lore.  Thus, on the Continent, many a lover puts the four-leaved clover under his pillow to dream of his lady-love; and in our own country, daisy-roots are used by the rustic maiden for the same purpose.  The Russians are familiar with a certain herb, known as the son-trava, a dream herb, which has been identified with the Pulsatilla patens, and is said to blossom in April, and to have an azure-coloured flower.  When placed under the pillow, it will induce dreams, which are generally supposed to be fulfilled.  It has been suggested that it was from its title of “tree of dreams” that the elm became a prophetic tree, having been selected by Virgil in the Aeneid (vi.) as the roosting-place of dreams in gloomy Orcus: 

  “Full in the midst a spreading elm displayed
  His aged arms, and cast a mighty shade;
  Each trembling leaf with some light visions teems,
  And leaves impregnated with airy dreams.”

At the present day, the yarrow or milfoil is used by love-sick maidens, who are directed to pluck the mystic plant from a young man’s grave, repeating meanwhile this formula: 

“Yarrow, sweet yarrow, the first that I have found, In the name of Jesus Christ I pluck it from the ground; As Jesus loved sweet Mary and took her for His dear, So in a dream this night I hope my true love will appear.”

Indeed, many other plants are in demand for this species of love-divination, some of which are associated with certain days and festivals.  In Sweden, for instance, “if on Midsummer night nine kinds of flowers are laid under the head, a youth or maiden will dream of his or her sweetheart."[3] Hence in these simple and rustic love-charms may be traced similar beliefs as prevail among rude communities.

Again, among many of the American Indian tribes we find, according to Mr. Dorman,[4] “a mythical tree or vine, which has a sacredness connected with it of peculiar significance, forming a connecting-link and medium of communication between the world of the living and the dead.  It is generally used by the spirit as a ladder to pass downward and upward upon; the Ojibways having possessed one of these vines, the upper end of which was twined round a star.”  He further adds that many traditions are told of attempts to climb these heavenly ladders; and, “if a young man has been much favoured with dreams, and the people believe he has the art of looking into futurity, the path is open to the highest honours.  The future prophet puts down his dreams in pictographs, and when he has a collection of these, if they prove true in any respect, then this record of his revelations is appealed to as proof of his prophetic power.”  But, without enumerating further instances of these savage dream-traditions, which are closely allied with the animistic theories of primitive culture, we would turn to those plants which modern European folk-lore has connected with dreamland.  These are somewhat extensive, but a brief survey of some of the most important ones will suffice to indicate their general significance.