Flower-oracles are discussed in another section, and the "language of flowers" of which the poet tells,—
"In Eastern lands they talk in flowers,
And they tell in a garland their loves and cares;
Each blossom that blooms in their garden bower
On its leaves a mystic language bears,"
must be studied in Dyer, Friend, and Folkard, or in the various booklets which treat of this entertaining subject.
Though in Bohemia it is believed that "seven-year-old children will become beautiful by dancing in the flax," and in some parts of Germany "when an infant seems weakly and thrives slowly, it is placed naked upon the turf on Midsummer Day, and flax-seed is sprinkled over it; the idea being, that, as the flax-seed grows, so the child will gradually grow stronger" (435. 278, 279); flowers and plants are sometimes associated with ill-luck and death. In Westphalia and Thuringia the superstition prevails that "any child less than a year old, who is permitted to wreathe himself with flowers, will soon die." In the region about Cockermouth, in the county of Cumberland, England, the red campion (Lychnis diurna) is known as "mother-die," the belief being that, if children gather it, some misfortune is sure to happen to the parents. Dyer records also the following: "In West Cumberland, the herb-robert (Geranium robertianum) is called 'death come quickly,' from a like reason, while in parts of Yorkshire, the belief is that the mother of a child who has gathered the germander speedwell (Veronica chamoedrys) will die ere the year is out" (435. 276).
Children's Plant-Names.
Mr. H. C. Mercer, discussing the question of the presence of Indian corn in Italy and Europe in early times, remarks (Amer. Naturalist, Vol. XXVIII., 1894, p. 974):—
"An etymology has been suggested for the name Grano Turco [Turkish grain], in the antics of boys when bearded and moustached with maize silk, they mimic the fierce looks of Turks in the high 'corn.' We cannot think that the Italian lad does not smoke the mock tobacco that must tempt him upon each ear. If he does, he apes a habit no less American in its origin than the maize itself. So the American lad playing with a 'shoe-string bow' or a 'corn-stalk fiddle' would turn to Italy for his inspiration."
In the interesting lists of popular American plant-names, published by Mrs. Fanny D. Bergen (400), are found the following in which the child is remembered:—
Babies' breath, Galium Mollugo. In Eastern Massachusetts.
Babies' breath, Muscari botryoides. In Eastern Massachusetts.
Babies' feet, Polygala paucifolia. In New Hampshire.
Babies' slippers, Polygala paucifolia. In Western Massachusetts.
Babies' toes, Polygala paucifolia. In Hubbardston, Mass.
Baby blue-eyes, Nemophila insignis. In Sta. Barbara, Cal.
Blue-eyed babies, Houstonia coerulea. In Springfield, Mass.
Boys and girls, Dicentra cucullaria. In New York.
Boys' love, Artemisia absinthium. In Wellfleet, Mass.
Death-baby, Phallus sp. (?). In Salem, Mass.
Girls and boys, Dicentra cucullaria. In Vermont.
Little boy's breeches, Dicentra cucullaria. In Central Iowa.
"Blue-eyed babies" is certainly an improvement upon "Quaker ladies," the name by which the Houstonia is known in some parts of New England; "death-baby" is a term that is given, Mrs. Bergen tells us, "from the fancy that they foretell death in the family near whose house they spring up. I have known of intelligent people rushing out in terror and beating down a colony of these as soon as they appeared in the yard."