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271
The Folk-lore of Plants
·
T. F. Thiselton-Dyer
2
T.F.
THISELTON-DYER.
November
19,
1888.
CONTENTS.
I.
PLANT
LIFE
II.
PRIMITIVE
AND
SAVAGE
NOTIONS
RESPECTING
PLANTS
III.
PLANT
WORSHIP
IV.
LIGHTNING
PLANTS
V.
PLANTS
IN
WITCHCRAFT
VI.
PLANTS
IN
DEMONOLOGY
VII.
PLANTS
IN
FAIRY-LORE
VIII.
LOVE-CHARMS
IX.
DREAM-PLANTS
X.
PLANTS
AND
THE
WEATHER
XI.
PLANT
PROVERBS
XII.
PLANTS
AND
THEIR
CEREMONIAL
USE
XIII.
PLANT
NAMES
XIV.
PLANT
LANGUAGE
XV.
FABULOUS
PLANTS
XVI.
DOCTRINE
OF
SIGNATURES
XVII.
PLANTS
AND
THE
CALENDAR
XVIII.
CHILDREN'S
RHYMES
AND
GAMES
XIX.
SACRED
PLANTS
XX.
PLANT
SUPERSTITIONS
XXI.
PLANTS
IN
FOLK-MEDICINE
XXII.
PLANTS
AND
THEIR
LEGENDARY
HISTORY
XXIII.
MYSTIC
PLANTS
CHAPTER
I.
PLANT
LIFE.
The
fact
that
plants,
in
common
with
man
and
the
lower
animals,
possess
the
phenomena
of
life
and
death,
naturally
suggested
in
primitive
times
the
notion
of
their
having
a
similar
kind
of
existence.
In
both
cases
there
is
a
gradual
development
which
is
only
reached
by
certain
progressive
stages
of
growth,
a
circumstance
which
was
not
without
its
practical
lessons
to
the
early
naturalist.
This
similarity,
too,
was
held
all
the
more
striking
when
it
was
observed
how
the
life
of
plants,
like
that
of
the
higher
organisms,
was
subject
to
disease,
accident,
and
other
hostile
influences,
and
so
liable
at
any
moment
to
be
cut
off
by
an
untimely
end.[1]
On
this
account
a
personality
was
ascribed
to
the
products
of
the
vegetable
kingdom,
survivals
of
which
are
still
of
frequent
occurrence
at
the
present
day.
It
was
partly
this
conception
which
invested
trees
with
that
mystic
or
sacred
character
whereby
they
were
regarded
with
a
superstitious
fear
which
found
expression
in
sundry
acts
of
sacrifice
and
worship.
According
to
Mr.
Tylor,[2]
there
is
reason
to
believe
that,
"the
doctrine
of
the
spirits
of
plants
lay
deep
in
the
intellectual
history
of
South-east
Asia,
but
was
in
great
measure
superseded
under
Buddhist
influence.
The
Buddhist
books
show
that
in
the
early
days
of
their
religion
it
was
matter
of
controversy
whether
trees
had
souls,
and
therefore
whether
they
might
lawfully
be
injured.
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