DORSETSHIRE FOLK-SPEECH AND SUPERSTITIONS. 45 



Underground-roses : The double pink (hepatica triloba). 



Vanner : The kestrel hawk ; probably so-called from the way it 

 appears to " fan " the air when hovering. 



Vedre : The weasel. 



Vedry's head : The fossil echinus the galerites castanea and 

 some other such kinds. 



Vedry's heart : The fossil echinus (spatanguis coranquinum) 

 common in the chalk and other formations in Dorset, and thought 

 to be the heads or hearts of fairies. 



Veary-rings : The rings of fungi so often seen in the grass 

 of our downs, Avhich are said to have come from the dancing of 

 fairies. 



[Note in Glossary, p. 96 : " The belief in fairies, one of the 

 most poetical and beautiful of superstitions, still lingers in the 



"West Toadstools, or swams (our forefathers' word for 



the Latin fungi), are called fairy-stools, or, in Devon, pixy-stools ; 

 for as they enrich the soil and bring the fairy-ring by rotting down 

 after they have seeded outward from its centre, so that the ring of 

 actual fungi is outside of the fairy-ring, it was natural for those who 

 believed the ring to be brought by the dancing of fairies to 

 guess that the fungi were stools upon which they sat down when 

 tired."] 



Wag-wanton : Quaking-grass (briza). 



Want : A mole. 



Wasps : To dream of wasps or bees is looked upon as a sign 

 that you have enemies who are trying to do you some secret 

 mischief. 



Wehhnut : A walnut. 



Wheat : It is said that you ought on first eating anything 

 made of new wheat to fill your mouth full, and then you will not 

 want for anything during the year. 



White-rock : The arabis verna-alpida. 



Winter-pick : A kind of large sloe. 



Withy-wind:- The large white convolvulus (cont'oh'ulussepiuni). 



Withy-hanger : The bird tree-creeper. 



