LOTUS TREE / Zizyphus spina-christi

A small tree from the Near east and eastwards into India. This is a sacred plant, often
used to mark boundaries between lands of different villages. Some believe that the hedge surrounding Paradise is made of this. When a Lotus-tree reaches the age of 40 years, it often becomes the abode of some dead saint, so it is therefore a dangerous thing to cut down an old tree (Hanauer).

LOVAGE / Ligusticum scoticum

A reputed aphrodisiac, but only in all probability as a result of misunderstanding the name Lovage, which was Loveache in Middle English, levesche in Old French (modern French is livèche), levisticum in late Latin, and thence to Ligusticum. It appears in Roumanian folklore as a protective plant that could be used as well as wormwood or hedge hyssop to repel evil forces (Beza).

It was used quite extensively in earlier times for medicinal purposes, particularly (in Scotland) to combat scurvy (Grigson. 1955), for the leaves and stalks are edible, “a plant much in use in the western parts [of Scotland and the Isles] as a food” (Pennant). The leaf stalks were blanched once like celery (the leaves taste rather like celery, too), and the young stems were also candied, like Angelica (Rohde). The roots can be candied, too, and the seeds furnish an oil that is used to flavour candy (Sanford).

Lovage is used for a sore throat remedy in Indiana. Cut up the root and fry it in lard, and apply that to the throat as a poultice (Tyler).

LONDON PLANE / Platanus x acerifolia

It used to be said that it thrived in London because it shed its bark, the argument being that in doing so the tree could “breathe” (Ackermann), a fallacy, of course, for trees do not “breathe” through their bark. Many people believed that the London Plane was an unhealthy tree to live near. It may perhaps be true, for there is a theory that the small spicules which form the fruit swarm in the air surrounding the trees and cause bronchial catarrh and pneumonia, as well as certain throat affections (Brimble). Certainly, children make itching powder from the fruits.

LONDON PRIDE / Saxifraga x urbinum

A hybrid, S spathularis x S umbrosa, introduced in the 18th century by Mr London, the royal gardener of the time. So, to make any sense, it ought to be London’s Pride. But nobody ever worried about it, and almost from the moment it was introduced it has been a favourite garden plant, especially in cottage gardens. One of the many Devonshire names given to it is Bird’s Eye (Friend. 1882), descriptive, of course, as is more obviously the case when the name is given to the speedwells. There was a belief that if you gather Bird’s Eye, the birds will come and peck your eyes out, or it will be your mother who suffers the fate. That was certainly the case with the speedwells, but it does not necessarily follow that London Pride protects itself in the same way

LAMB’S TONGUE PLANTAIN / Plantago media

It will cure blight on fruit trees. Rub a few green leaves on the affected part of the tree, and the cure will be immediate. It is often found growing underneath trees in orchards (Grieve. 1931).

LADY’S TRESSES / Goodyera repens

More properly, Creeping Lady’s Tresses, an American species. The Mohegan Indians
applied the mashed leaves to prevent thrush in infants (Weiner). It is also known as Rattlesnake Plantain in America, for the white-veined leaves looked like snakeskin to the early herbalists, who took it as the sign for virtues against snakebite (Cunningham & Côté).

KISSING COMFITS

SEA HOLLY roots were preserved in sugar and sold as Candied Eringo, or Kissing Comfits, Colchester being the centre of the trade. They were sold until as late as the 1860s (Grigson. 1955), and were said to be good for those that “have no delight or appetite to venery”, and were “nourishing and restoring the aged, and amending the defects of nature in the younger” (Gerard). Likewise René Rapin, in a Latin poem on gardens, 1706 (in translation):

Grecian Eringoes now commence their Fame Which worn by Brides will fix their Husband’s Flame

And check the conquests of a rival Dame. There is, too, a reference in Dryden’s translation of Juvenal’s Satires; he is talking about libertines: Who lewdly dancing at a midnight ball

For hot eryngoes and fat oysters call.
The best known quote is from Shakespeare. Falstaff, in Merry wives of Windsor, says: “Let the sky rain potatoes; let it thunder to the tune of ‘Green Sleeves’; hail kissing comfits, and snow eringoes”.

VIPER’S GRASS / Scorzonera humilis

The common name shows that this would be a herb with which to treat snakebite. See Gerard, for example: “It is reported by those of great judgement, that Viper’s-grasse is most excellent against the infections of the plague, and all poysons of venomous beasts, and especially to cure the bitings of vipers, if the juyce or herbe be drunke…”.

LAD’S LOVE

A well-known name given to SOUTHERNWOOD (Artemisia abrotanum). There have been a number of attempts to explain the name, one being the use of an ointment that young men used to promote the growth of a beard (Leyel. 1937). That was certainly done, for we have Gerard’s prescription: “the ashes of burnt Southernwood, with some kind of oyle that is of thin parts … cure the pilling of the hairs of the head, and make the beard to grow quickly”. The likeliest explanation seems to lie in the courting customs of Fenland youths, described by Porter. 1969. A few sprigs of the plant were generally added to the nosegay that courting youths used to give the girls, and the plant was quite prominent in other customs in that area. A youth would cut a few sprigs to put in his buttonhole. He used to walk, sniffing ostentatiously at his buttonhole, through groups of girls. If the girls went by and took no notice, he knew he would have to try again, but if they turned and walked slowly back towards him, then he knew they had noticed his Lad’s Love. He would then take his buttonhole and give it to the girl of his choice. If she was willing, she would also smell the southernwood, and the two would set out together on their first country walk.

VERTIGO

In some parts of Germany, to cure dizziness, it was recommended that the patient should run, naked, after sunset, through a field of FLAX; the flax will take the dizziness to itself. (Dyer. 1889). The seeds of MELEGUETA PEPPER, with a leaf of Sweet basil, ground together and cooked in palm oil, form a Yoruba (Nigeria) medicine to cure giddiness (Verger). The juice of GREEN PURSLANE is recommended in Mayan medical texts for giddiness (Roys).

KINNIKINNICK

An Algonquin word, apparently meaning “that which is mixed”, usually referring to tobacco. BEARBERRY, for example, actually has this as a name, for American Indians smoked the dried leaves, either with ordinary tobacco, making the mix that warrants the name, or without any tobacco (Sanford). The Chippewa smoked the mixture, in the ordinary way, and also, they claimed, “to attract game” (Densmore). Bearberry was not the only plant to be called kinnikinnick – SILKY CORNEL (Cornus amomum) was another, and so was REDOSIER DOGWOOD (Cornus stolonifera). The inner bark of the former was used, by the Menomini Indians, for example, as a tobacco substitute (H H Smith. 1923), and so was the bark of the latter (see Bergen. 1899, Chamberlin. 1911, etc.,).

VARICOSE VEINS

According to Somerset practice, an ointment made from MALLOW or MARSH MALLOW roots and unsalted lard was used to treat the condition, equally useful for sore feet, too (Tongue. 1965; Page 1978), and bathing the feet in which the flowers of MARIGOLD had been infused, was another Somerset way of dealing with the problem (Tongue. 1965). At one time the roots of BRISTLY OX-TONGUE were used, bound to the affected part (see Tusser). CYPRESS cones were also used (Palaiseul).

KING’S EVIL

Scrofula was so called because the kings of England and France claimed to have the ability to heal it by their touch, a gift conferred by God through the oil used at their coronation. Edward the Confessor was the first English monarch to touch for scrophula, and the last was Queen Anne, but the ritual remained in the Book of Common Prayer till 1744 (Simpson & Roud).

VAMPIRES

GARLIC tied in bundles over a house door will keep out a vampire, and stuffed in the mouth of a corpse will keep the vampire (if there were suspicions that the deceased might be one) quiet in his grave (Gifford). These are Balkan superstitions, and there were Roumanian beliefs that vampires left their graves on St Andrew’s Eve, and walked about the houses in which they used to live. So before nightfall every woman took some garlic and anointed the door locks and window casements with it (Miles). In Hungarian folklore, a vampire’s grave could be recognised by two holes on the tombstone. Stop these holes with garlic and you could make sure the vampire would stay there.

The correct wood to be driven through a vampire’s heart is ASH, though hawthorn and rowan are also mentioned. In the Balkans, it was a BLACKTHORN stake that impaled a vampire (Kemp).

KIDNEY COMPLAINTS

PARSLEY root tea is still prescribed for kidney trouble (Rohde, Hyatt). Gypsies used the leaves for the same purpose. Gerard wrote that the leaves “… take away stoppings, and … provoke urine; which thing the roots likewise do notably perform …”. The herb is, indeed, a well known diuretic. WHORTLEBERRIES are used sometimes; both the berries and the leaves are used in an Irish cure for kidney troubles (Ô Súilleabháin). In the north of Scotland, they were used for dissolving kidney stones (Beith), as the name Kidneywort, or Kidneyweed, proclaim. WALL PENNYWORT was used particularly against kidney trouble and stone. Indiana folk medicine advised a tea made from the roots of HONEY LOCUST (Gleditsia triacanthos) for kidney trouble (Brewster).

KIDNEY BEAN / Phaseolus vulgaris

In Italy, beans are distributed among the poor on the anniversary of a death (Grieve. 1931). In the west of England they say that kidney beans will not grow unless they are planted on a special day, the 3 May in some places (Waring), but there is no great agreement on the actual day. It could be as late as Stow-on-the-wold Fair Day, which is 12 May, or as early as St George’s Day, (23 April) (Pope). Kidney Beans are good for the kidneys, so it is often said, but this is a well-known remedy. They have been used in France till very recently for kidney and bladder disorders (Palaiseul). Maya medical texts prescribe them for, among other complaints, hiccups (Roys).

JENNY GREENTEETH

The name of a nursery bogey that is actually the same as DUCKWEED. Little children were warned to stay away from ponds that were covered with the green weed, otherwise Jenny Greenteeth would drag them down and drown them. Duckweed was actually called Jenny Greenteeth in some parts (see DUCKWEED).

JIMSONWEED

That is, Jamestown Weed, one of the names given to THORN-APPLE (Datura stramonium). The oft-quoted story is that English soldiers, sent to Jamestown to put down the uprising known as Bacon’s Rebellion, in 1676, gathered young plants of this species and cooked them as potherbs, “the effect of which was a very pleasant Comedy; for they turn’d natural Fools upon it for several days …” (Safford).

JOHN THE CONQUEROR ROOT

Said to have been a love charm much used by men. It was a piece of dried root with a prong or pike growing out of it, an obvious piece of phallic symbolism. It was carried in a little chamois leather bag, or one made of red cloth. The origin of the root was kept secret by the people who sold the charm, but it is said to have been BOG ST JOHN’S WORT (Valiente).

JERUSALEM ARTICHOKE / Helianthus tuberosus

A North American plant, and the name Jerusalem artichoke has no geographical
significance. It is merely a corruption of the Italian girasole articiocco. Girasole means turn-sun, a reference to the quite imaginary practice of the sunflowers in turning their heads to follow the sun. Cutting an artichoke in half and rubbing the cut side on the roots of the hair was an old country remedy against baldness (Quelch).

JERUSALEM OAK / Chenopodium botrys

It gets its common name because the young leaves look like miniature versions of those of the oak. This is a vermifuge (Watt & Breyer-Brandwijk) – see, for example, the prescription from Alabama: for worms, one teaspoonful of the seed or the stalk tea mixed with syrup, three times a day (R B Browne). There is, too, a remedy, using the inner bark of this plant, boiled and mixed with molasses to make a candy. It also seems to have been used in some way for tuberculosis (R B Browne).