﻿220 Canadian Record of Science. 



A Few Notes on Canadian Plant-Lore. 



By Carrie M. Derick, M.A., McGill University. 



In that part of the Province of Quebec known as 

 the Eastern Townships, are to be still found lingering 

 superstitions and quaint ideas, which reveal the story 

 of the past. Clarenceville, which lies between Missisquoi 

 Bay and the Eichelieu Eiver, is peopled by the descendants 

 of Dutcli United Empire Loyalists. Owing, however, to 

 intermarriage with other nationalities, many of the traits 

 of the Dutch ancestors have been lost, and the current 

 folk-lore can frequently be traced to English, Irish, and 

 Scotcli sources. Coming, as they did, more than one 

 hundred years ago to hew out a new home in the heart of 

 the primeval forest, they lived close enough to nature 

 to lay up a rich store of weird fancies and strange legends 

 for the delight of their children's children. But the 

 struggle for existence was too keen and the people too 

 closely occupied with the sternly practical side of life 

 to weave new stories of the mysterious world around 

 them, and even the old were forgotten. Moreover, the 

 effects of the late war were so deeply impressed upon 

 their hearts that the reminiscences of old aoe were of the 

 intense realities of the immediate past rather than of the 

 superstitions about field and wood. It is not surprising, 

 therefore, that the plant-lore of the community is largely 

 medicinal. 



The doctrine of signatures, which supposed that plants 

 by their external characters indicated the diseases for 

 which nature intended them as remedies, has been 

 superseded by a scientific knowledge of the true 

 medicinal properties of plants. Nevertheless, many can 

 recall some old woman whose famous cures were effected 

 by means of herbs, and whose garret was redolent with the 

 peculiar odors of dried pennyroyal, mint, and tansy. 



Among the time-honoured medicinal plants, are many 



