DORSETSHIRE FOLK-SPEECH AND SUPERSTITIONS. 37 



anything by way of offspring ; thus a polling, or such cutting off, 

 results in the production of several shoots or stems, and if only 

 one of these be allowed to grow yet it never becomes good timber."] 



Mearijs tears : The spotted liverwort (pulmonaria). 



[Note in Additional Glossary : "At Osmington, and, no doubt, 

 at other places in our county, there is a survival of a sweet, simple, 

 old-world piece of folk-lore about the spotted liver-wort. The 

 cottagers like to have it in their gardens, and call it 'Mary's 

 Tears.' The legend is that the spots on the leaves are the marks of 

 the tears shed by St. Mary after the crucifixion. Further, and this 

 to me is a quite unknown tradition, her eyes were as blue as the 

 fully opened flowers, and by weeping the eyelids became as red as 

 the buds."] 



Another form of this legend is given by Mr. H. J. Moule in the 

 Folk-lore Journal, vol. vi., p. 118, as follows : " There stood by 

 the ?ross His mother. Now, there grew on Mount Calvary a 

 green-leaved plant with flowers of deep azure blue, but the buds 

 were red. St. Mary's eyes were blue as the flowers, but with 

 weeping her eyelids were as red as the buds. And, as she wept, 

 her tears fell on the leaves and spotted them. And spotted they 

 have been from generation to generation ever since, and the plant 

 is grown in cottage gardens, and its name is " Mary's Tears." But 

 books call it Pulmonaria." 



Since this paper was read before the recent Field Club meeting 

 at Dorchester, I have received the following note from a lady who 

 spent her childhood in North Dorset, and to whom I am indebted 

 for several interesting items of plant-lore, &c. in which she says : 

 " It is not correct to call this plant Liver-wort that is Hepatica ; 

 it should be called Lung-wort. I have heard it called Faith, Hope, 

 and Charity. The flowers are first red, then lilac, then blue. Pro- 

 bably the name ' Mary's Tears ' was originally applied to the larger 

 kind Pulmonaria angustifolia which has handsome and con- 

 spicuously spotted leaves." 



Meat-ware, : Potatoes ; pulse ; and other farinaceons food. 



Meoze (Mesh) : Moss. 



