Though in Bohemia it is believed that "seven-year-old children will become beautiful by dancing in the flax," and in some parts of Germany "when an infant seems weakly and thrives slowly, it is placed naked upon the turf on Midsummer Day, and flax-seed is sprinkled over it; the idea being, that, as the flax-seed grows, so the child will gradually grow stronger" (435. 278, 279); flowers and plants are sometimes associated with ill-luck and death. In Westphalia and Thuringia the superstition prevails that "any child less than a year old, who is permitted to wreathe himself with flowers, will soon die." In the region about Cockermouth, in the county of Cumberland, England, the red campion (_Lychnis diurna_) is known as "mother-die," the belief being that, if children gather it, some misfortune is sure to happen to the parents. Dyer records also the following: "In West Cumberland, the herb-robert (_Geranium robertianum_) is called 'death come quickly,' from a like reason, while in parts of Yorkshire, the belief is that the mother of a child who has gathered the germander speedwell (_Veronica chamoedrys_) will die ere the year is out" (435. 276). _Children's Plant-Names._ Mr. H. C. Mercer, discussing the question of the presence of Indian corn in Italy and Europe in early times, remarks (_Amer. Naturalist_, Vol. XXVIII., 1894, p. 974):-- "An etymology has been suggested for the name _Grano Turco_ [Turkish grain], in the antics of boys when bearded and moustached with maize silk, they mimic the fierce looks of Turks in the high 'corn.' We cannot think that the Italian lad does not smoke the mock tobacco that must tempt him upon each ear. If he does, he apes a habit no less American in its origin than the maize itself. So the American lad playing with a 'shoe-string bow' or a 'corn-stalk fiddle' would turn to Italy for his inspiration." In the interesting lists of popular American plant-names, published by Mrs. Fanny D. Bergen (400), are found the following in which the child is remembered:-- Babies' breath, _Galium Mollugo._ In Eastern Massachusetts. Babies' breath, _Muscari botryoides._ In Eastern Massachusetts. Babies' feet, _Polygala paucifolia._ In New Hampshire. Babies' slippers, _Polygala paucifolia._ In Western Massachusetts. Babies' toes, _Polygala paucifolia._ In Hubbardston, Mass. Baby blue-eyes, _Nemophila insignis._ In Sta. Barbara, Cal. Blue-eyed babies, _Houstonia coerulea._ In Springfield, Mass. Boys and girls, _Dicentra cucullaria._ In New York. Boys' love, _Artemisia absinthium._ In Wellfleet, Mass. Death-baby, _Phallus sp. (?)._ In Salem, Mass. Girls and boys, _Dicentra cucullaria._ In Vermont. Little boy's breeches, _Dicentra cucullaria._ In Central Iowa.