December 12, 1878. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
445 
leayed Dutch, and Stoneless. The one we grow and prefer is 
the Narrow-leaved Dutch. Grown asa standard bush with a 
very large head it never fails to bear a heavy crop of evenly 
sized fruit about 2 inches in diameter. The blossom is not so 
easily injured as that of the Apple in spring, and the trees will 
succeed in any exposed place and in nearly any kind of soil. 
We never prune ours further than thinning out the branches, 
and the surface of the soil over the roots is dressed every year 
or two with decayed manure. The fruit is gathered about the 
beginning of November, and laid out in the fruit room along 
with Apples, Pears, &c., and during December, as soon as it 
becomes soft, it is used for making jelly and for dessert. The 
fruit is so much relished for both of these purposes that no 
garden where fruit trees are grown should be without a Medlar 
tree. When space cannot be given it in the kitchen garden it 
is quite ornamental enough to be planted in the pleasure 
grounds.—A KITCHEN GARDENER. 
REVIEW OF BOOK. 
English Folk Lore. By T. ¥. THISTLETON Dyer, M.A., Oxon. 
London : Hardwicke & Bogue, Piccadilly. 
On laying down this book after a careful perusal of its pages 
one conviction was forced upon our minds, and that was that 
we were strangely ignorant of a great deal that is or appears to 
be ‘folk lore.” We were not aware that so much superstition 
was still lingering in our midst. To read of charms for fits and 
charms for lovers we were prepared, but not to find that each 
day of the week, each month, and each new moon had its 
particular superstition. 
Mr. Dyer divides his book into thirteen chapters, which may 
be classed under three heads—plants, animals, and the folk 
lore which concerns human beings. The chapter on plants is 
very interesting, and as this is the one which most concerns 
our readers we will give a few quotations from it. 
Mr. Dyer lays down a rule that flowers form an important 
part in the formation of character. 
was symbolised by the early Snowdrop, from its exquisite and 
virgin whiteness; and the Harebell was, on account of its 
delicate blue colour, considered typical of truth. 
surprise to many of our readers to know what a great deal of 
superstition attaches to the simple garden vegetable Parsley. 
Plutarch tells us how a few mules laden with Parsley threw 
into a complete panic a Greek force on its march against the 
enemy, and the reason was that the Greeks used to bestrew 
the tombs of the dead with this herb. In Devonshire it appears 
to be believed that to transplant Parsley is to commit a serious | 
offence against the genius who presides over the Parsley beds, 
which is sure to be punished either on the offender or one of 
his family in the course of the year. In Hampshire the 
peasants refuse to give any away, and in the neighbourhood 
of Cobham (Surrey) it is believed that if Parsley seed is 
sown on any other day but Good Friday it will not come double. 
The Rose also was largely used by the Greeks and Romans 
for funereal purposes, and the tombs of the dead were frequently 
decorated with them. Camden and Aubrey both speak of the 
churchyards in their time as thickly planted with Rose bushes. 
In Wales it is the custom to plant the white Rose on the grave 
of an unmarried female, and a red Rose is appropriated to 
anyone distinguished for benevolence of character. It is also 
considered very unlucky to scatter the leaves of a Rose on the 
ground, and an instance is given of Miss Ray, who was murdered 
at the Piazza entrance of Covent Garden Theatre, who, as 
she picked up a lovely red Rose which had fallen from her 
dress, was much troubled at seeing it fall to pieces, saying, “I 
trust I am not to consider this an evil omen.” 
In South Lancashire, Rosemary to this day is carried by the 
mourners at a funeral, and in Wales it is customary for funerals 
to be preceded by a female carrying sprigs of Bay, the leaves 
of which she sprinkles on the road which the corpse is to 
travel. A flowering Myrtle is believed in Somersetshire to be 
a great acquisition to a house, and with regard to this plant 
a singular superstition exists. In the Atheneum, February 5th, 
1848, a correspondent says, “Speaking to a lady of the diffi- 
culty which I had always found in getting a slip of Myrtle to 
grow, she directly accounted for my failure by observing that 
perhaps I had not spread the tail or skirt of my dress, and 
looked proud during the time I was planting it.” It isa popular 
belief in Somerset that unless a slip of Myrtle is so planted it 
will never take root. 
Tt is a common notion, so. says Mr. Dyer, that in leap 
year Broad Beans grow the wrong way—i.e., the seed is set in 
‘ 
The purity of childhood | 
Tt will bea | 
the pods in quite a contrary way to which it is in other years 
With regard to lovers there are numerous ways given of finding 
out whether they will succeed or be true to one another. 
One is by carrying bachelors’ buttons in their pockets. They 
judged of their good or bad success by their growing or not. 
A practice called “peascod wooing” was formerly very often 
to be met with. The cook when shelling green peas would, if 
she chanced to find a pod having nine, lay it on the lintel of 
the kitchen door, and the first man who entered was believed 
to be her future husband. In Cornwall with regard to healing 
plants, the Club Moss (Lycopodium inundatum), if properly 
gathered is considered good against all diseases of the eyes. A 
decoction also of the Nettle is a favourite prescription among 
country women for consumption, and in Scotland there is a 
rhyme— 
“Tf they wad drink Nettles in March, 
And eat Muggins [Mugwort] in May, 
Sae mony braw maidens 
Wad not go to clay.” 
The Ivy, too, isa healing plant. In Shropshire children affected 
with whooping cough are allowed to drink all they require out 
of drinking cups made from the wood of the common Ivy, this 
being considered an infallible remedy. The passing of children 
through holes of trees to cure certain complaints is still prac- 
tised, and in Cornwall there is in the parish of Madron a 
curious Druidical remain known as the “Stone of the Hole.” 
This is an upright circular block of granite, and in its centre 
has a circular hole. Through this children were passed a cer- 
tain number of times, under the notion that this would cure 
them of the complaint from which they might be suffering. 
Plants are also good barometers. Clover Grass is said to seem 
rough to the touch when stormy weather is at hand. Helio- 
tropes and Marigolds do not only presage stormy weather by 
closing their leaves, but turn towards the sun’s rays all the 
day, and in the evening close. 
An opinion preyails in many parts that an Elder tree is safe 
from lightning, and the Stamford Mercury in 1861 relates that 
when the electric fluid struck a Thorn bush in which an Elder 
had grown up and become intermixed the Elder escaped un- 
scathed, though the Thorn was completely destroyed. 
There are many traditions as to the wood of the cross on 
which our Lord was crucified. The most common belief is 
that it was made of Aspen (Populus tremula), and that the leaves 
have trembled ever since at the recollection of their guilt. 
In the west of England there is a tradition that the cross was 
made of Mistletoe, which until this time had been a fine forest 
tree, but was condemned henceforth to lead a parasitical exist- 
ence. The gipsies believe that the cross was made of Ash, 
while some believe that it was made of four woods, signifying 
the four quarters of the globe or all mankind, and consisted 
of the Palm, the Cedar, the Olive, and the Cypress. Another 
superstition is that the cross was made of Elder, and that Judas 
hung himself on an Elder tree. In Cheshire the Arum macu- 
latum is called Gethsemane, because it is said to have been 
growing at the foot of the cross, and to have received on its 
leaves some drops of blood, and in Scotland it was formerly 
believed that the dwarf Birch is stunted in growth because the 
rods were formed of it with which our Lord was scourged. 
The book is a most interesting one, and will well repay 
perusal, for it is not only full of instruction but abounds in 
anecdotes, many of which are exceedingly amusing. As a 
sample we will give this one from the chapter on charms :— 
“Sir John Holt, who was Lord Chief Justice of the Court of 
King’s Bench in 1709, who it is said was extremely wild in his 
youth, and being once engaged with some of his rakish friends 
in a trip into the country in which they had spent all their 
money, it was agreed that they should try their fortune 
separately. Holt arrived at an inn at the end of a straggling 
village, and strolled into the kitchen where he saw a little girl 
shivering with ague. Upon making inquiries he found that 
she had been ill for a year, notwithstanding all the assistance 
that the mother could procure from physic. He gravely shook 
his head at the doctors, bade her be under no further concern, 
for that her daughter should never have another fit. He then 
wrote a few unintelligible words in a court hand on a scrap of 
parchment, and rolling it up directed that it should be bound 
on the girl’s wrist, and there allowed to remain till it was well. 
The acne returned no more, and Holt having remained in the 
house a week asked for his bill. ‘God bless you, sir,’ said the 
old woman, ‘you be nothing in my debt, I'm sure.’ With 
pretended reluctance he rode away without paying. Many 
years elapsed, and Holt advanced in his profession. One day 
