I'll redde your dream, my sister dear,
I'll tell you a' your sorrow;
You pu'd the birk wi' your true love;
He's killed,--he's killed on Yarrow."
Of the many plants which have been considered of good omen when
seen in dreams, may be mentioned the palm-tree, olive, jasmine, lily,
laurel, thistle, thorn, wormwood, currant, pear, &c.; whereas the greatest
luck attaches to the rose. On the other hand, equally numerous are the
plants which denote misfortune. Among these may be included the
plum, cherry, withered roses, walnut, hemp, cypress, dandelion, &c.
Beans are still said to produce bad dreams and to portend evil; and
according to a Leicestershire saying, "If you wish for awful dreams or
desire to go crazy, sleep in a bean-field all night." Some plants are said to
foretell long life, such as the oak, apricot, apple, box, grape, and fig; and
sickness is supposed to be presaged by such plants as the elder, onion,
acorn, and plum.
Love and marriage are, as might be expected, well represented in the
dream-flora; a circumstance, indeed, which has not failed to impress the
young at all times. Thus, foremost amongst the flowers which indicate
success in love is the rose, a fact which is not surprising when it is
remembered how largely this favourite of our gardens enters into love-
divinations. Then there is the clover, to dream of which foretells not only
a happy marriage, but one productive of wealth and prosperity. In this
case, too, it must be remembered the clover has long been reckoned as a
mystic plant, having in most European countries been much employed
for the purposes of divination. Of further plants credited as auguring
well for love affairs are the raspberry, pomegranate, cucumber, currant,
and box; but the walnut implies unfaithfulness, and the act of cutting
parsley is an omen that the person so occupied will sooner or later be
crossed in love. This ill-luck attached to parsley is in some measure
explained from the fact that in many respects it is an unlucky plant. It is
a belief, as we have noticed elsewhere, widely spread in Devonshire, that
to transplant parsley is to commit a serious offence against the guardian
genius who presides over parsley-beds, certain to be punished either on
the offender himself or some member of his family within the course of
the year. Once more "to dream of cutting cabbage," writes Mr.
Folkard,[5] "Denotes jealousy on the part of wife, husband, or lover, as
the case may be. To dream of any one else cutting them portends an
attempt by some person to create jealousy in the loved one's mind. To
dream of eating cabbages implies sickness to loved ones and loss of
money." The bramble, an important plant in folk-lore, is partly unlucky,
and, "To dream of p a s s i n g t h r o u g h p l a c e s c o v e r e d with brambles