THE FOLK-LOKE OF PLANTS. 12S 



Mr. Dyer's book and doubtless of many more to come ; but the 

 former of these contains original information, which Mr. Dyer's 

 volume entirely lacks, and the latter is far more comprehensive 

 than the most recent example of the type. 



The three books have points of internal resemblance. Each 

 has a contempt for exactness and accurate reference: "an old 

 writer," "a Franciscan," "a legend," "the Botanical Register," 

 "the Veda," "a dream interpreter," — this is the approved mode 

 of citation. Each accepts as genuine T. F. Forster's " spurious 

 antique," beginning " The snowdrop in purest white arraie," the 

 history of which has been given over and over again.* Mr. Dyer 

 is so pleased with this that he chops it up into little bits, which he 

 sprinkles in in suitable places, referring to each as "the old adage," 

 or " the old rhyme," or " a well-known couplet," or " the familiar 

 couplet," and so on. 



Mr. Dyer gives an appearance of care to his book by the 

 insertion of numerous references in footnotes. Perhaps I am 

 unfortunate, but it is nevertheless the fact that five consecutive 

 ones I have tested at random are inaccurate. The same book is 

 referred to in various ways : thus, Mr. Folkard's book is cited in 

 at least five forms. It is to be noted, however, that these refer- 

 ences by no means adequately represent the extent to which 

 Mr. Dyer is indebted to the labours of others ; and I feel bound to 

 protest against the free use which he has made of the ' Dictionary 

 of English Plant-names,' which, in conjunction with Mr. Robert 

 Holland, I prepared some years since for the English Dialect 

 Society. 



This work, from its nature, was to some extent a compilation ; 

 but in its preparation we examined hundreds of little -known works, 

 and collected, from the lips of the people, traditions, folk-rhymes, 

 and the like. These, so far as they bore on the names, we 

 included in our book, attaching to each, when extracted from a 

 printed source, a reference to the place of publication. Mr. Dyer 

 has appropriated these extracts bodily, and, by appending to them 

 our reference to the place of publication, has given an appearance 

 of original research to his work which it certainly cannot justly 

 claim. Mr. Dyer's chapter on " children's rhymes " (pp. 233 — 

 241) is entirely taken from our book ; all that he has done is to 

 run together the notices which, owing to the alphabetical arrange- 

 ment of our Dictionary, are scattered over various pages. Rhymes 

 which have not elsewhere appeared in print are transferred bodily ; 

 in other cases, the references which we give are printed as if 

 originally made by Mr. Dyer. Our very sentences, scarcely altered, 

 are appropriated without any mark of quotation.! One incidental 



* See Journ Bot. 1884, 158. 



t e. g. :— 



" . . . the word 'oblionker' appa- "The word ' oblionker ' seems to 



rently being a meaningless invention to be a meaningless invention to rhyme 



rhyme with the word 'conquer,' which with the word ' conquer,' and it has 



has by degrees become applied to the gradually become applied to the fruits 



fruit itself." — Dyer, p. 238. themselves." — Britten and Holland, p. 



358. 



