CHAPTER XX.
PLANT SUPERSTITIONS.
The superstitious notions which, under one form or another, have
clustered round the vegetable kingdom, hold a prominent place in the
field of folk-lore. To give a full and detailed account of these survivals of
bygone beliefs, would occupy a volume of no mean size, so thickly
scattered are they among the traditions and legendary lore of almost
every country. Only too frequently, also, we find the same superstition
assuming a very different appearance as it travels from one country to
another, until at last it is almost completely divested of its original dress.
Repeated changes of this kind, whilst not escaping the notice of the
student of comparative folk-lore, are apt to mislead the casual observer
who, it may be, assigns to them a particular home in his own country,
whereas probably they have travelled, before arriving at their modern
destination, thousands of miles in the course of years.
There is said to be a certain mysterious connection between certain
plants and animals. Thus, swine when affected with the spleen are
supposed to resort to the spleen-wort, and according to Coles, in his "Art
of Simpling," the ass does likewise, for he tells us that, "if the asse be
oppressed with melancholy, he eates of the herbe asplemon or mill-
waste, and eases himself of the swelling of the spleen." One of the
popular names of the common sow-thistle (Sonchus oleraceus) is hare's-
palace, from the shelter it is supposed to afford the hare. According to
the "Grete Herbale," "if the hare come under it, he is sure that no beast
can touch hym." Topsell also, in his "Natural History," alludes to this
superstition:--"When hares are overcome with heat, they eat of an herb
called Latuca leporina, that is, hare's-lettuce, hare's-house, hare's-palace;
and there is no disease in this beast the cure whereof she does not seek
for in this herb."
The hound's-tongue (cynoglossum) has been reputed to have the
magical property of preventing dogs barking at a person, if laid beneath
the feet; and Gerarde says that wild goats or deer, "when they be
wounded with arrows, do shake them out by eating of this plant, and
heal their wounds." Bacon in his "Natural History" alludes to another
curious idea connected with goats, and says, "There are some tears of
trees, which are combed from the beards of goats; for when the goats bite
and crop them, especially in the morning, the dew being on, the tear
cometh forth, and hangeth upon their beards; of this sort is some kind of
laudanum." The columbine was once known as Herba leonis, from a
belief that it was the lion's favourite plant, and it is said that when bears