Lab
Library
Journal
Shop
Sign in
to keep
Share image
1
271
The Folk-lore of Plants
·
T. F. Thiselton-Dyer
55
When
engaged
in
their
various
occupations
they
often
considered
it
expedient
to
escape
detection
by
assuming
invisibility,
and
for
this
object
sought
the
assistance
of
certain
plants,
such
as
the
fern-seed[17].
In
Sweden,
hazel-nuts
were
supposed
to
have
the
power
of
making
invisible,
and
it
may
be
remembered
how
in
one
of
Andersen's
stories
the
elfin
princess
has
the
faculty
of
vanishing
at
will,
by
putting
a
wand
in
her
mouth.[18]
But
these
were
not
the
only
plants
supposed
to
confer
invisibility,
for
German
folk-lore
tells
us
how
the
far-famed
luck-flower
was
endowed
with
the
same
wonderful
property;
and
by
the
ancients
the
heliotrope
was
credited
with
a
similar
virtue,
but
which
Boccaccio,
in
his
humorous
tale
of
Calandrino
in
the
"Decameron,"
applies
to
the
so-called
stone.
"Heliotrope
is
a
stone
of
such
extraordinary
virtue
that
the
bearer
of
it
is
effectually
concealed
from
the
sight
of
all
present."
Dante
in
his
"Inferno,"
xxiv.
92,
further
alludes
to
it:
"Amid
this
dread
exuberance
of
woe
Ran
naked
spirits
winged
with
horrid
fear,
Nor
hope
had
they
of
crevice
where
to
hide,
Or
heliotrope
to
charm
them
out
of
view."
In
the
same
way
the
agate
was
said
to
render
a
person
invisible,
and
to
turn
the
swords
of
foes
against
themselves.[19]
The
Swiss
peasants
affirm
that
the
Ascension
Day
wreaths
of
the
amaranth
make
the
wearer
invisible,
and
in
the
Tyrol
the
mistletoe
is
credited
with
this
property.
Marker
Marker
Fine marker
White-out
Fine white-out
Circle
Paint
Unmarker
Hand
Scalpel
Dice
Sieve
Purify
Undo
Redo
Start over
