Lab
Library
Journal
Shop
Sign in
to keep
Share image
1
271
The Folk-lore of Plants
·
T. F. Thiselton-Dyer
199
The
fruits
of
the
mallow
are
popularly
termed
by
children
cheeses,
in
allusion
to
which
Clare
writes:--
"The
sitting
down
when
school
was
o'er,
Upon
the
threshold
of
the
door,
Picking
from
mallows,
sport
to
please,
The
crumpled
seed
we
call
a
cheese."
A
Buckinghamshire
name
with
children
for
the
deadly
nightshade
(Atropa
belladonna)
is
the
naughty-man's
cherry,
an
illustration
of
which
we
may
quote
from
Curtis's
"Flora
Londinensis":--"On
Keep
Hill,
near
High
Wycombe,
where
we
observed
it,
there
chanced
to
be
a
little
boy.
I
asked
him
if
he
knew
the
plant.
He
answered
'Yes;
it
was
naughty-man's
cherries.'"
In
the
North
of
England
the
broad-dock
(Rumex
obtusifolius),
when
in
seed,
is
known
by
children
as
curly-cows,
who
milk
it
by
drawing
the
stalks
through
their
fingers.
Again,
in
the
same
locality,
children
speaking
of
the
dead-man's
thumb,
one
of
the
popular
names
of
the
Orchis
mascula,
tell
one
another
with
mysterious
awe
that
the
root
was
once
the
thumb
of
some
unburied
murderer.
In
one
of
the
"Roxburghe
Ballads"
the
phrase
is
referred
to:--
"Then
round
the
meadows
did
she
walke,
Catching
each
flower
by
the
stalke,
Suche
as
within
the
meadows
grew,
As
dead-man's
thumbs
and
harebell
blue."
It
is
to
this
plant
that
Shakespeare
doubtless
alludes
in
"Hamlet"
(Act
iv.
sc.
7),
where:--
"Long
purples
That
liberal
shepherds
give
a
grosser
name,
But
our
cold
maids
do
dead-men's
fingers
call
them."
In
the
south
of
Scotland,
the
name
"doudle,"
says
Jamieson,
is
applied
to
the
root
of
the
common
reed-grass
(Phragmites
communis),
which
is
found,
partially
decayed,
in
morasses,
and
of
"which
the
children
in
the
south
of
Scotland
make
a
sort
of
musical
instrument,
similar
to
the
oaten
pipes
of
the
ancients."
In
Yorkshire,
the
water-scrophularia
(Scrophularia
aquatica),
is
in
children's
language
known
as
"fiddle-wood,"
so
called
because
the
stems
are
by
children
stripped
of
their
leaves,
and
scraped
across
each
other
fiddler-fashion,
when
they
produce
a
squeaking
sound.
This
juvenile
music
is
the
source
of
infinite
amusement
among
children,
and
is
carried
on
by
them
with
much
enthusiasm
in
their
games.
Likewise,
the
spear-thistle
(Carduus
lanceolatus)
is
designated
Marian
in
Scotland,
while
children
blow
the
pappus
from
the
receptacle,
saying:--
Marker
Marker
Fine marker
White-out
Fine white-out
Circle
Paint
Unmarker
Hand
Scalpel
Dice
Sieve
Purify
Undo
Redo
Start over
