82 Transactions. 



devil went round and spat on the fruit. In some parts of Scot- 

 land it is his cloak which is thrown over the blackberries, while 

 in Ireland the unwholesomeness of the fruit was attributed to 

 phooka — a mischievous goblin. So far as I can recollect, these 

 are the only remains or traces of local plant superstitions of which 

 I have lieard, with the exception of one which is said to exist 

 regarding planting gooseberries on graves. Unfortunately my 

 informant could only tell me that there was some superstition 

 regarding this, and that there is, or at least was some yeai-s ago, in 

 Buittle Churchyard a grave on which gooseberries were planted. 

 I have not had the opportunity of making inquiry about this. 



I must now pass on to tJie plant superstitions of other localities, 

 but so wide is the field that these notices must be confined to 

 those beliefs which were British or Irish, and even with this limi- 

 tation the subject must be treated in a very inadequate manner. 



Another sacred plant was the aspen tree, which, in passing, I 

 may say was ungallantly said to have its leaves formed of 

 women's tongues, as " tliey never ceased wagging." The aspen 

 was also one of the trees of the Cross, whence, doubtless the 

 origin of its supposed wonderful powers. One curious and amus- 

 ing instance of a belief in its efficacy in the cure of ague may be 

 given. In the North of England, in the early part of this century, 

 it was a common remedy, or supposed remedy, to take a lock of 

 the sufferers' hair, wrap it round a pin, and, sticking the pin into 

 this tree, to repeat while doing so — 



"Aspen tree, aspen tree, 



Shake and shiver instead o' me." 



The ash tree (another tree of the Cross) has many superstitions 

 attached to it, of which two, as related by Gilbert White, are now 

 given. In order to cure hernia in young children an ash sapling 

 was split and held open by wedges, and the children stripped 

 naked were passed througii. The tree was afterwards carefully 

 plastered up with loam and as carefully swathed. If the parts 

 again grew together a cure was supposed to have been ejSected. 

 The other custom, as recorded by the same writer, was that of 

 imprisoning a shrew mouse in a hole in an ash tree. This 

 transforms the tree into a shrew ash, whose branches, when 

 applied to the limbs of cattle, will relieve them of the lameness 

 caused by a shrew mouse running over them while asleep. A 



