ENGLISH PLANT NAMES. 
343 
Cumberland children that if they pluck the flower some misfortune 
will happen to their parents. The same is said in Yorkshire of 
Veronica Chamcedrys, L., but the name does not seem, as far as we 
know, to be extended to that plant. See Mother’s Heart. 
Mother of Bent, The. See Bent, The Mother of. 
Mother of Millions. Linaria Cymhularia, Mill. — Corniv. ; Dev. 
Phyt. iii. 147, N. s. ; E. Suss. 
Mother of Thousands. (1) Linaria Cymhalaria, Mill. — Cornw. ; 
Cumb. E. D. S. Gloss. C. 8 ; Dev. ; Dors. ; Som. ; Wilts. ; Wore. ; E. 
Yks. ; E. Bord. Bot. E. Bord. ; Berwicksh. 
(2) Beilis perennis, L. (var. prolifera). — (Mother-of-a-thousand) 
Nhamp. Nth. Gloss. Prior, p. 158. 
(3) Saxifraga sarmentosa, L. — Middx. (London). 
(4) ‘ The double blue creeping Campanula.’ Som. 
Mother of Thyme, or (Treas. Bot.) Mother of Time. (1) Thymus 
Serpyllum, L. — Ger. Cumh. E. I). S. Gloss. C. 8 ; Wore. ; Ireland 
(Dublin). See Prior, p. 158. 
(2) Calamintha Acinos, Clairv. — Som. 
Mother of Wheat. Veronica hederifolia, L. — E. Bord. Bot. E. 
Bord. ; Berwicksh. Bot. E. Bord. ; EoxhurgJish. (Kelso), Science 
Gossip, 1876, p. 39. 
Mother’s Heart. Capsella Bursa-pastoris, L. — Glou. (Fairford) ; 
Lane. In the Eastern Border district ‘ children have a sort of game 
with the seed pouch. They hold it out to their companions, inviting 
them “to take a hand o’ that.” It immediately cracks, and then 
follows a triumphant shout, “ You’ve broken your mother’s heart.” ’ 
Bot. E. Bord., p. 37. The following note, contributed by one of us to 
the Folklore Eecord (i. p. 159), shows that a similar beHef is widely 
spread : — 
‘ In Middlesex, schoolboys ofler to their uninitiated companions a 
plant of the shepherd’s purse (Capsella Bursa-pastoris), and request 
them to pluck off one of the heart-shaped seed-pods, which done, 
they exclaim, “ You’ve picked your mother’s heart out !” This was 
practised in Chelsea in my own school-days; and, as a Lancashire 
name for the plant is “ Mother’ s-heart,” it seems likely that the 
custom is widely extended. Something of the same sort exists in 
Birmingham: Mr. W. Macmillan (Science Gossip, 1876, p. 94) says: 
“ I remember when at school at Birmingham that my playmates 
manifested a very great repugnance to this plant. . . . Very few of 
them would touch it, and it was known to us by the two bad names 
‘Naughty man’s plaything ’ and ‘Pick your mother’s heart out.’” 
Dr. Berthold Seemann (Hannoversche Sitten und Gebrauche in ihrer 
Beziehung zur Pflanzenwelt (Leipzig, 1862), p. 33) says, that in Han- 
over, as well as, according to Hartmann, in the Swiss Canton of St. 
Gall, the same plant is offered to an uninitiated person with a request 
to pluck off one of the pods ; should he do so, the others exclaim, 
“You have stolen a purse of gold from your father and mother ! ” It 
is interesting to find that a common tropical weed, co???/- 
zoides, L., is employed by children in Venezuela in a very similar 
manner. Dr. Ernst gives its vernacular Venezuelan name as 
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