WALL RUE / Asplenium ruta-muraria

One sometimes finds cases of using rue-fern instead of rue itself in ritual. It could be used, for instance, by a jilted girl, who could wait in the church porch while the man was being married to someone else. She could then throw a handful of wall-rue at him when they came out, with “May you rue this day as long as you live” (Leather) (see also RUE).

WAHOO / Euonymus atropurpureus

An American species whose name comes from the Dakota word wan-hu. It has a digitalin-like action on the heart, and it became a popular heart medicine in American domestic medicine (Weiner). The Indians had already used it for other medicinal purposes – Winnebago women, for instance, used to drink a decoction made from the inner bark for uterine troubles (Gilmore), and the Meskwaki, whose name for the shrub means “weak-eye tree”, used it for just that. The inner bark is steeped, to make a solution with which to bathe the eyes, and a tea was made from the root bark for the same purpose (H H Smith. 1928).

VIRGINIAN SKULLCAP / Scutellaria laterifolia

Cherokee women used to drink the herb infusion to cure suppressed menstruation, and there is a recipe for St Vitus’s Dance from Alabama: “one ounce skullcap, one ounce feverweed (Verbena syriaca, perhaps?), one ounce Lady’s Slipper (Cypripedium). Take half of each one, put in a quart jar filled with boiling water, and seal. Let it stand for two hours, then take a wineglassful three times a day” (R B Browne). This plant has been called Mad-dog, or Mad-dog Herb (House; Lloyd), because it was used to treat rabies, after a Dr van der Veer experimented with it in 1772 (Weiner).

VIRGINIAN JUNIPER / Juniperus virginiana

Sometimes known as Pencil Juniper or Pencil Cedar – no other wood has been found that has just the right physical properties for the casing of lead pencils (Harper). But by the end of World War II, it had become extremely scarce, so it had to be replaced for pencil wood by Red Cedar (Calocedrus decurrens). (Lewington). Clothes chests are made of it, too, for the smell of the wood repels moths. Smoking crushed juniper berries is an American domestic medicine for catarrh (H M Hyatt), and earlier, Indian peoples had used it for a variety of ailments. Both leaves and berries boiled together were taken for coughs. Twigs were burned and the smoke inhaled for a cold in the head (Gilmore). The Kiowa chewed the berries as a remedy for canker sores in the mouth (Vestal & Schultes), while the Natchez used it in some way for mumps (Weiner).

LUNGWORT / Pulmonaria officinalis

The name comes from the spotted leaves, the signature of the lungs, it was felt, so by that doctrine, they were used for diseased lungs, further boosted by the generic name Pulmonaria. Actually, it has been claimed that they are of some value (Brownlow), and they are still used in infusion for lung infections and respiratory disorders (Schauenberg & Paris). A leechdom for lung disease was actually used in Anglo-Saxon times (Cockayne), and in the mid-eighteenth century, Hill was still prescribing the leaf decoction for “coughs, shortness of breath, and all disorders of the lungs”. The legend that accounts for these spotted, or blotched, leaves, is that during the flight into Egypt, some of the Virgin’s milk fell on the leaves while she was nursing the infant Jesus, causing the white blotches on them, hence names like Virgin Mary’s Milkdrops (Macmillan), and Spotted Mary (Grigson. 1955), among others. Another version of the legend tells that it was her tears that spotted the leaves, for the plant was growing on Calvary, at the foot of the Cross. That, incidentally, is why it is unlucky to dig it up from the garden (Britten & Holland). The relevant names are Lady Mary’s Tears, from Dorset, Virgin Mary’s Tears (Macmillan). Double, or even treble, names for flowers are often references to two-coloured, or changing coloured, flowers, and Lungwort is one of them, so there are names like Adam-and-Eve, or Joseph-and-Mary for this plant, even Faith, Hope and Charity, from Dorset (Udal). Twelve Apostles is an old name from Somerset (Tongue. 1965), and there is a folk song with this title:

LUCKY HAND,

or St John’s Hand, so called because it had to be prepared on St John’s Eve. It is made from the roots of MALE FERN, to protect a house from fire. When it was dug up, all but five of the unrolled fronds were cut away, so that what remained looked like a gnarled hand with hooked fingers. It was then smoked and hardened in one of the Midsummer bonfires, and then hidden away in some corner of the house. As long as it stayed there, the house would be safe from fire and a good many other perils (Hole. 1977). The young fronds, too, were reckoned to be a protection against sorcery

LUCERNE / Medicago sativa

A fodder plant, but large quantities may be poisonous to livestock; it is known that it may cause jaundice in horses (North), but owing to its vitamin and mineral content, it has a reputation for increasing the speed and stamina of racehorses (it has long been used by Arabs to feed their purebred horses (Schauenberg & Paris), and human athletes. It is a body-builder, and reduces acidity (A W Hatfield). In Morocco, when a newly delivered mother has no milk, she is given a kind of very liquid porridge made of pounded lucerne seeds, for this is supposed to give milk to cows (Legey).

LOUSEWORT / Pedicularis sylvatica

Not because it can deal with lice, but because, so it was thought, causes them.
“It filleth sheep and other cattell that feed in medowes where this groweth, full of lice”, according to Gerard, but it is a belief still current.