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271
The Folk-lore of Plants
·
T. F. Thiselton-Dyer
204
"Mary,
Mary,
quite
contrary,
How
does
your
garden
grow?
Cockle-shells,
and
silver
bells,
And
pretty
maids
all
in
a
row."
The
old-man's-beard
(Clematis
vitalba)
is
in
many
places
popularly
known
as
smoke-wood,
because
"our
village-boys
smoke
pieces
of
the
wood
as
they
do
of
rattan
cane;
hence,
it
is
sometimes
called
smoke-wood,
and
smoking-cane."
[6]
The
children
of
Galloway
play
at
hide-and-seek
with
a
little
black-topped
flower
which
is
known
by
them
as
the
Davie-drap,
meantime
repeating
the
following
rhyme:--
"Within
the
bounds
of
this
I
hap
My
black
and
bonnie
Davie-drap:
Wha
is
he,
the
cunning
ane,
To
me
my
Davie-drap
will
fin'?"
This
plant,
it
has
been
suggested,
[7]
being
the
cuckoo
grass
(Luzula
campestris),
which
so
often
figures
in
children's
games
and
rhymes.
Once
more,
there
are
numerous
games
played
by
children
in
which
certain
flowers
are
introduced,
as
in
the
following,
known
as
"the
three
flowers,"
played
in
Scotland,
and
thus
described
in
Chambers's
"Popular
Rhymes,"
p.
127:--"A
group
of
lads
and
lasses
being
assembled
round
the
fire,
two
leave
the
party
and
consult
together
as
to
the
names
of
three
others,
young
men
or
girls,
whom
they
designate
as
the
red
rose,
the
pink,
and
the
gillyflower.
The
two
young
men
then
return,
and
having
selected
a
member
of
the
fairer
group,
they
say
to
her:--
'My
mistress
sent
me
unto
thine,
Wi'
three
young
flowers
baith
fair
and
fine:--
The
pink,
the
rose,
and
the
gillyflower,
And
as
they
here
do
stand,
Whilk
will
ye
sink,
whilk
will
ye
swim,
And
whilk
bring
hame
to
land?'
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