The Folk-lore of Plants

"Oblionker! My first conker (conquer)." The word oblionker apparently being a meaningless invention to rhyme with the word conquer, which has by degrees become applied to the fruit itself. The wall peniterry (Parietaria officinalis) is known in Ireland as "peniterry," and is thus described in "Father Connell, by the O'Hara Family" (chap, xii.):-- "A weed called, locally at least, peniterry, to which the suddenly terrified [schoolboy] idler might run in his need, grasping it hard and threateningly, and repeating the following 'words of power':-- 'Peniterry, peniterry, that grows by the wall, Save me from a whipping, or I'll pull you roots and all.'" Johnston, who has noticed so many odd superstitions, tells us that the tuberous ground-nut (Bunium flexuosum), which has various nicknames, such as "lousy," "loozie," or "lucie arnut," is dug up by children who eat the roots, "but they are hindered from indulging to excess by a cherished belief that the luxury tends to generate vermin in the head." [5] An old rhyme often in years past used by country children when the daffodils made their annual appearance in early spring, was as follows:-- "Daff-a-down-dill Has now come to town, In a yellow petticoat And a green gown."