The Folk-lore of Plants 237 



ancient bits of plant-lore are still current, a matter of 

 practical experience among men. Superstitions, survi- 

 vals, hold-overs are these, much as old phraseology still 

 lingers in our documents, legal, theological, and other. 



It is impossible, of course, in a brief paper such as this 

 to treat the subject with completeness; volumes would 

 be, have been, necessary for that. I may instead in the 

 few minutes assigned me here, be permitted to cite just 

 a few instances which may illustrate the theme, and in- 

 dicate somewhat the far-reaching vistas which it opens 

 to curious and reflective minds. Let us be content, since 

 perhaps the vista is all that any subject may afford. 



One of the most curious of these old-time notions sug- 

 gests that certain herbs have power to discover things 

 out of sight, or naturally hidden. Often these plants are 

 of the smallest and feeblest. Thus the Saarifraga, saxi- 

 frage, was evidently a rock-breaker among the Romans 

 when first they framed the name; doubtless to these 

 practical people a tradition merely, since similar plants 

 are burdened with equal functions in the traditions of 

 nearly all Indo-European peoples. In that age para- 

 disiacal, when the number of thieves was limited to forty, 

 the mere pronouncing of a word, the name of a little 

 flowering plant, accomplished wonders, and became the 

 "open sesame" to countless treasures. The sesamum 

 seed is a little thing, not much bigger than a grain of 

 mustard, or the faith for which that stands, and yet the 

 tradition of its energy is the inheritance of every lan- 

 guage. "Wit and good breeding," says a recent news- 

 paper writer, "are the open sesame to the highest social 

 circles in Boston." Doubtless no higher estimate has 



