We may mention here that the beautiful white or yellow flowers that
grow on the banks of lakes and rivers in Sweden are called "neck-roses,"
memorials of the Neck, a water-elf, and the poisonous root of the water-
hemlock was known as neck-root.[4]
In Brittany and in some parts of Ireland the hawthorn, or, as it is
popularly designated, the fairy-thorn, is a tree most specially in favour.
On this account it is held highly dangerous to gather even a leaf "from
certain old and solitary thorns which grow in sheltered hollows of the
moorlands," for these are the trysting-places of the fairy race. A trace of
the same superstition existed in Scotland, as may be gathered from the
subjoined extract from the "Scottish Statistical Report" of the year 1796, in
connection with New parish:--"There is a quick thorn of a very antique
appearance, for which the people have a superstitious veneration. They
have a mortal dread to lop off or cut any part of it, and affirm with a
religious horror that some persons who had the temerity to hurt it, were
afterwards severely punished for their sacrilege."
One flower which, for some reason or other, is still held in special
honour by them, is the common stichwort of our country hedges, and
which the Devonshire peasant hesitates to pluck lest he should be pixy-
led. A similar idea formerly prevailed in the Isle of Man in connection
with the St. John's wort. If any unwary traveller happened, after sunset,
to tread on this plant, it was said that a fairy-horse would suddenly
appear, and carry him about all night. Wild thyme is another of their
favourite plants, and Mr. Folkard notes that in Sicily rosemary is equally
beloved; and that "the young fairies, under the guise of snakes, lie
concealed under its branches." According to a Netherlandish belief, the
elf-leaf, or sorceresses' plant, is particularly grateful to them, and
therefore ought not to be plucked.[5]
The four-leaved clover is a magic talisman which enables its wearer
to detect the whereabouts of fairies, and was said only to grow in their
haunts; in reference to which belief Lover thus writes:
"I'll seek a four-leaved clover
In all the fairy dells,
And if I find the charmed leaf,
Oh, how I'll weave my spells!"
And according to a Danish belief, any one wandering under an elder-
bush at twelve o'clock on Midsummer Eve will see the king of fairyland
pass by with all his retinue. Fairies' haunts are mostly in picturesque
spots (such as among the tufts of wild thyme); and the oak tree, both
here and in Germany, has generally been their favourite abode, and
hence the superstitious reverence with which certain trees are held, care
being taken not to offend their mysterious inhabitants.