PLANT MYTHOLOGY 
Cyclamen are protections against witches. In 
Germany and many other continental countries, 
the St. John’s Wort is their enemy and exposer. 
The fairies have appropriated many flowers 
for their especial use. Despite the disbelief of 
latter days, to some people elfland still extends 
around the globe, and defies all the laws of 
chemistry and physics. It is still fairy midnight 
trippings which form those mysterious circles 
or depressions often to be noticed on the dewy 
sward of early morning. When the peasant 
girls of England go out into the meadows to 
beautify their complexions with applications 
of May dew, they always leave these mystic 
circles severely alone, for fear of offending the 
fays. 
Midnight is the fairy magic hour. At the 
trumpet call of the Harebell, they gallop to their 
meeting-places mounted on blades of Grass 
or on Cabbage leaves. Sometimes they assemble 
to the tolling of the Wood-Sorrel or “Fairy 
Bell”. For more extended migrations, they 
travel in Nuts. They usually dress in green 
and provide themselves with mantles of Gos- 
samer. The Irish ones use Fox-Glove blossoms 
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