Lab
Library
Journal
Shop
Sign in
to keep
Share image
1
271
The Folk-lore of Plants
·
T. F. Thiselton-Dyer
177
Brand
[11]
was
told
by
an
inhabitant
of
Heston,
in
Middlesex,
that
when
he
was
a
young
man
he
was
often
present
at
the
ceremony
of
catching
the
fern-seed
at
midnight,
on
the
eve
of
St.
John
Baptist.
The
attempt
was
frequently
unsuccessful,
for
the
seed
was
to
fall
into
a
plate
of
its
own
accord,
and
that
too
without
shaking
the
plate.
It
is
unnecessary
to
add
further
illustrations
on
this
point,
as
we
have
had
occasion
to
speak
elsewhere
of
the
sundry
other
magical
properties
ascribed
to
the
fern-seed,
whereby
it
has
been
prominently
classed
amongst
the
mystic
plants.
But,
apart
from
the
doctrine
of
signatures,
it
would
seem
that
the
fern-seed
was
also
supposed
to
derive
its
power
of
making
invisible
from
the
cloud,
says
Mr.
Kelly,
[12]
"that
contained
the
heavenly
fire
from
which
the
plant
is
sprung."
Whilst
speaking,
too,
of
the
fern-seed's
property
of
making
people
invisible,
it
is
of
interest
to
note
that
in
the
Icelandic
and
Pomeranian
myths
the
schamir
or
"raven-stone"
renders
its
possessor
invisible;
and
according
to
a
North
German
tradition
the
luck-flower
is
enbued
with
the
same
wonderful
qualities.
It
is
essential,
however,
that
the
flower
be
found
by
accident,
for
he
who
seeks
it
never
finds
it.
In
Sweden
hazel-nuts
are
reputed
to
have
the
power
of
making
invisible,
and
from
their
reputed
magical
properties
have
been,
from
time
immemorial,
in
great
demand
for
divination.
All
those
plants
whose
leaves
bore
a
fancied
resemblance
to
the
moon
were,
in
days
of
old,
regarded
with
superstitious
reverence.
The
moon-daisy,
the
type
of
a
class
of
plants
resembling
the
pictures
of
a
full
moon,
were
exhibited,
says
Dr.
Prior,
"in
uterine
complaints,
and
dedicated
in
pagan
times
to
the
goddess
of
the
moon."
The
moonwort
(Botrychium
lunaria),
often
confounded
with
the
common
"honesty"
(Lunaria
biennis)
of
our
gardens,
so
called
from
the
semi-lunar
shape
of
the
segments
of
its
frond,
was
credited
with
the
most
curious
properties,
the
old
alchemists
affirming
that
it
was
good
among
other
things
for
converting
quicksilver
into
pure
silver,
and
unshoeing
such
horses
as
trod
upon
it.
A
similar
virtue
was
ascribed
to
the
horse-shoe
vetch
(Hippocrepis
comosa),
so
called
from
the
shape
of
the
legumes,
hence
another
of
its
mystic
nicknames
was
"unshoe
the
horse."
Marker
Marker
Fine marker
White-out
Fine white-out
Circle
Paint
Unmarker
Hand
Scalpel
Dice
Sieve
Purify
Undo
Redo
Start over
