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271
The Folk-lore of Plants
·
T. F. Thiselton-Dyer
203
A
name
for
the
shepherd's
purse
is
"mother's-heart,"
and
in
the
eastern
Border
district,
says
Johnston,
children
have
a
sort
of
game
with
the
seed-pouch.
They
hold
it
out
to
their
companions,
inviting
them
to
"take
a
haud
o'
that."
It
immediately
cracks,
and
then
follows
a
triumphant
shout,
"You've
broken
your
mother's
heart."
In
Northamptonshire,
children
pick
the
leaves
of
the
herb
called
pick-folly,
one
by
one,
repeating
each
time
the
words,
"Rich
man,
poor
man,
beggar-man,
thief,"
&c.,
fancying
that
the
one
which
comes
to
be
named
at
the
last
plucking
will
prove
the
conditions
of
their
future
partners.
Variations
of
this
custom
exist
elsewhere,
and
a
correspondent
of
"Science
Gossip"
(1876,
xi.
94).
writes:--"I
remember
when
at
school
at
Birmingham
that
my
playmates
manifested
a
very
great
repugnance
to
this
plant.
Very
few
of
them
would
touch
it,
and
it
was
known
to
us
by
the
two
bad
names,
"haughty-man's
plaything,"
and
"pick
your
mother's
heart
out."
In
Hanover,
as
well
as
in
the
Swiss
canton
of
St.
Gall,
the
same
plant
is
offered
to
uninitiated
persons
with
a
request
to
pluck
one
of
the
pods.
Should
he
do
so
the
others
exclaim,
"You
have
stolen
a
purse
of
gold
from
your
father
and
mother.""
"It
is
interesting
to
find,"
writes
Mr.
Britten
in
the
"Folk-lore
Record"
(i.
159),
"that
a
common
tropical
weed,
Ageratum
conyzoides,
is
employed
by
children
in
Venezuela
in
a
very
similar
manner."
The
compilers
of
the
"Dictionary
of
Plant
Names"
consider
that
the
double
(garden)
form
of
Saxifraga
granulata,
designated
"pretty
maids,"
may
be
referred
to
in
the
old
nursery
rhyme:--
Marker
Marker
Fine marker
White-out
Fine white-out
Circle
Paint
Unmarker
Hand
Scalpel
Dice
Sieve
Purify
Undo
Redo
Start over
