Product Description

Offering a vivid and colourful account of British and Irish plant-lore, this dictionary answers questions such as why the Welsh wear a daffodil on St David's Day and the Irish a shamrock for St Patrick, and why we send flowers to weddings and funerals or kiss under the mistletoe? From elderflower tea ("a universal panacea") to lesser yellow trefoil (the true shamrock), from corn dollies and crop circles to plants which forecast the weather (pennywort and scarlet pimpernel), this dictionary covers them all. It also includes: superstitions and herbal remedies; folksong and children's games; and folk-names in use today never previously recorded.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #913231 in Books
• Published on: 1997-03-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 464 pages

Review
an extraordinary compendium of traditional beliefs Country Life

About the Author
Roy Vickery has worked at the Natural History Museum in London, where he is Curator of Flowering Plants, since 1965. He has written extensively on the folklore of plants and is an active member of a number of societies, including the Botanical Society of the British Isles, and the Society for Folklife Studies. He was Honorary Secretary of the Folklore Society from 1980 to 1989.