Plant Lore, Legends, and Lyrics: Embracing the Myths, Traditions, Superstitions, and Folk-Lore of the Plant KingdomFolkard, Richard
History
Plant Lore, Legends, and Lyrics: Embracing the Myths, Traditions, Superstitions, and Folk-Lore of the Plant Kingdom
Folkard, Richard
Plants -- Folklore
Angelica was popularly believed to remove the effects of intoxication;
according to Fuchsius, its roots, worn suspended round the neck,
would guard the wearer against the baneful power of witches and
enchantments; and Gerarde tells us that a piece of the root held in
the mouth, or chewed, will drive away pestilential air, and that the
plant, besides being a singular remedy against poisons, the plague,
and pestilent diseases in general, cures the biting of mad dogs and all
other venomous beasts. Regarding its astrological government, Culpeper
observes that it is a “herb of the Sun in Leo. Let it be gathered when
he is there, the moon applying to his good aspect; let it be gathered
either in his hour, or in the hour of Jupiter; let Sol be angular.”
=ANTHYLLIS.=--The English names of this plant are Kidney Vetch, Lamb
Toe, Lady’s Fingers, Silver Bush, and Jupiter’s Beard (from the thick
woolly down which covers the calyxes of a species growing in the
South of Europe). It was formerly employed as a vulnerary, and was
recommended by Gesner as useful in staunching the effusion of blood:
hence its old English names of Staunch and Wound-Wort. Clare says of
it:--
“The yellow Lambtoe I have often got
Sweet creeping o’er the banks in sunny time.”
=ANTIRRHINUM.=--Columella alludes to this flower as “the stern and
furious lion’s gaping mouth.” Its English names are Snap Dragon,
Lion’s Snap, Toad’s Mouth, Dog’s Mouth, and Calf’s Snout.----In many
rural districts the Snap Dragon is believed to possess supernatural
powers, and to be able to destroy charms. It was formerly supposed
that when suspended about the person, this plant was a protection
from witchcraft, and that it caused a maiden so wearing it to appear
“gracious in the sight of people.”
=APPLE.=--Whether the Apple, the Orange, the Pomegranate, the Fig, the
Banana, or the Grape was the actual fruit of the Tree of Knowledge,
which tempted Eve in Paradise, will possibly never be settled; but it
is certain that not only is the Apple mystical above all the fruits of
the earth, but it is the supreme fruit. To it has been given the Latin
name _Pomona_, which is the generic name of fruit, just as Pomona is
the goddess of all the fruit trees.
The Scandinavian goddess Iduna is in a measure identified with the Tree
of Immortality, which was an Apple-tree. Iduna religiously guarded in
a box the Apples which the gods, when they felt old age approaching,
had only to taste the juice of to become young again. The evil genius,
Loki, having been instrumental in the abduction of Iduna and her
renovating Apples, the gods became old and infirm, and were unable
properly to govern the world; they, therefore, threatened Loki with
condign punishment unless he succeeded in bringing back Iduna and her
mystic Apples: this he fortunately succeeded in doing.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account