The Folk-lore of Plants

We may mention here that the daisy (Bellis perennis) was formerly known as herb-Margaret or Marguerite, and was erroneously supposed to have been named after the virtuous St. Margaret of Antioch:-- "Maid Margarete, that was so meek and mild;" Whereas it, in all probability, derives its name from St. Margaret of Cortona. According to an old legend it is stated:-- "There is a double flouret, white and red, That our lasses call herb-Margaret, In honour of Cortona's penitent, Whose contrite soul with red remorse was rent; While on her penitence kind heaven did throw The white of purity, surpassing snow; So white and red in this fair flower entwine, Which maids are wont to scatter at her shrine." Again, of the rainy saint, St. Swithin, we are reminded that:-- "Against St. Swithin's hastie showers, The lily white reigns queen of the flowers"-- A festival around which so much curious lore has clustered. In former years St. Margaret's Day (July 20) was celebrated with many curious ceremonies, and, according to a well-known couplet in allusion to the emblem of the vanquished dragon, which appears in most pictures of St. Margaret:-- "Poppies a sanguine mantle spread For the blood of the dragon that Margaret shed." Archdeacon Hare says the Sweet-William, designated the "painted lady," was dedicated to Saint William (June 25), the term "sweet" being a substitution for "saint." This seems doubtful, and some would corrupt the word "sweet" from the French oeillet, corrupted to Willy, and thence to William. Mr. King, however, considers that the small red pink (Dianthus prolifer), found wild in the neighbourhood of Rochester, "is perhaps the original Saint Sweet-William," for, he adds, the word "saint" has only been dropped since days which saw the demolition of St. William's shrine in the cathedral. This is but a conjecture, it being uncertain whether the masses of bright flowers which form one of the chief attractions of old-fashioned gardens commemorate St. William of Rochester, St. William of York, or, likeliest perhaps of the three, St. William of Aquitaine, the half soldier, half monk, whose fame was so widely spread throughout the south of Europe.