LADIES’ -BEDSTRAW AND HARRIFF. 179 
Jesus was born, his mother lay upon the cattle-bedding in the stable, 
which was composed of Bracken and Bedstraw. The latter plant, to 
do honour to the Mother of God and her babe, at once burst into 
flower, and, as a mark of the divine favour, the blossoms, which had 
heretofore been white, were made golden. The Bracken (Péeris aquilina) 
before this time had borne flowers like other herbs; but it refused on 
this occasion to show respect to the mother-maid and her infant by 
sulkily withholding its blossoms. As a punishment for this obstinacy, 
it has never been permitted to bear flowers since. 
* Mr. Warwick is, I believe mistaken in thinking that arif is a 
corruption of an Irish word. It'is the common name for Cleeven or 
Catchweed throughout the greater part of the North of England. The 
oldest Lincolnshire peasant knows no other name by which to indicate 
this pestilent weed. Irish labourers have not been in the habit of coming 
into this part of England for more than about forty years. They have 
had no perceptible influence on our dialect. It is not probable that they 
should not only have given us a new name for a common plant, but that 
the older name should be entirely forgotten.” —Epwarp PEACOCK. 
“Twice at least I have met with Bedstraw spelt * bedestrawe ° in oid 
books on plants—once, in a black-letter volume on ‘ Souveraigne 
Herbes.’ After the time of Gerarde, the plant was spelt * Bedstraw,’ 
and though the ‘e?’ sometimes creeps in, it is obviously an error. Let 
me add another fact. The Ladies'-Bedstraw is subject to a peculiar 
disease which produces on leaves and stems a number of purplish 
beads, the size of a small pea, but hollow within. I have frequently 
noticed Irish children ‘telling their beads’ whilst playing with the 
long straws and the whorled leaflets. The plant possesses many vir- 
tues. It is used to coagulate milk for the ‘soft cheeses’ of the 
Midlands. Its leaves give a yellow, and its roots a red dye, when 
boiled with alum. An allied plant, the * Sweet Woodruff * (Asperula 
odorata), was undoubtedly strewed in churches, and from its sweet, 
hay-like scent, when dried, would form an appropriate ‘litere’ for bed- 
rooms, or stuffing for beds. None of the Bedstraws would be suitable 
for this purpose.” 
“< Hairriff red’ (spelt * Erriff’ occasionally) is a remedy at least two 
hundred years old for the purifying of the blood, under the name of 
decoction. I am well acquainted with Irish wild-flowers, particularly 
with those growing in the Gaelic-speaking districts of Munster, and I 
N2 
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