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).

JACKFRUIT

Artocarpus heterophyllus
A near relative of Breadfruit, but the fruits are much larger, and, astonishingly, may weigh as much as 26 pounds or more (Tosco). The tree is now grown in all tropical countries, but it is economically important only
in tropical Asia. The enormous size of these fruits convinced the Negritos of Malaysia that this was the original, or archetypal, fruit, from which all others are descended (Endicott). Southern Indian symbolism equates the Jackfruit tree with the life-span of the family and its ancestral house, so it is a sacred tree there (Rival). One will be planted at the south-west corner of a house, to be associated, not with the ghost of an original family member, but with all the ancestors of the house and the past and present family group that it shelters. The tree therefore is a “metaphor” for the “longevity of the house-family group” (Uchimayada). But it is feared in Jamaica, where no driver will agree to carry them – “they think it attracts duppies, and will cause an accident” (Newall. 1981).

JAPANESE MINT

Mentha arvensis “Piperascens”
In the 18th and early 19th centuries, the dried powdered leaves of this mint were specially imported, to be carried in small silver boxes fastened to the belts of gentlemen, who would inhale a pinch whenever they felt like it (Genders. 1972).

JACK-IN-THE-PULPIT

Arisaema triphyllum
The spadix is the ‘Jack’, and the spathe is the ‘pulpit’ (Parson-in-the-pulpit is another name for it). Keep a piece in the pocket as a preventive against rheumatism (H M Hyatt). African-Americans in the southern states of the USA look on it as a protective plant. They would take the leaves and rub them on the hands, and that would blind an enemy. But they use it to make charms to bring security and peace, and to protect them from enemies (Puckett). The leaves are luck-bringers, if you carry them on the person. For centuries it was regarded as an aphrodisiac (Whittle & Cook) (the spadix in the spathe is expressive enough). But this is a poison, inasmuch as the rhizomes are extremely acrid. They are certainly edible after boiling, for that reduces the poison, though the acrid principle is never entirely eliminated.

It has been used as a medicine by both native American Indians and Caucasian immigrants, and also by African Americans, who take the root tea for kidney and liver problems (Fontenot). The Hopi used the powdered dried root (a teaspoonful in half a glass of cold water) as a contraceptive, lasting a week. Two teaspoons of a hot infusion would bring permanent sterility, so they said (Weiner). Another use of the root, pounded, is for a poultice to put on sore eyes. Small doses of the partially dried rhizome are used to treat chronic bronchitis, asthma and rheumatism, the latter also treated by the Pawnees with the powdered rhizome (Corlett).