MIDSUMMER MEN

A name given to ORPINE (Sedum telephium), especially when associated with the Midsummer Eve divinations that involved this plant (for which see ORPINE).

MIGNONETTE

i.e., WILD MIGNONETTE (Reseda lutea) The name is the diminutive of French mignon, darling. The name of endearment was given to the plant by Lord Bateman in 1742. In the Oise district of France, mignonette put over a girl’s door on May Day “annonce une rupture. Reseda, je te laisse là” (Sebillot). On the other hand, French brides believed that mignonette in their bouquet will hold a husband’s affection (M Baker. 1979).

MEXICAN POPPY / Argemone mexicana

The seeds are used as a narcotic in several areas of northern Mexico (Emboden. 1979), and so they are in East Africa as well. They are described as producing a degree of intoxication at least as great as cannabis (Raymond). The yellow latex is sometimes used for removing warts (Gooding, Loveless & Proctor), and the juice is also used in the treatment of jaundice (doctrine of signatures – yellow juice), dropsy and as a cure for eye diseases (Chopra, Badhwar & Ghosh). It is worth noting that the generic name, Argemone, is derived from argema, the Greek word for cataract, and the plant’s yellow latex was reported to soothe the condition (Whittle & Cook).

MIGRAINE

It is claimed that the condition can be allayed by holding a freshly cut slice of raw POTATO to the temples (R B Browne). BAY berries, too, at least according to Gerard, “stamped with a little Scammonie and saffron, and labored in a mortar with vinegar and oile of Roses to the form of a liniment, and applied to the temples and fore part of the head, do greatly ease the pain of the megrim”, and he also advised “the juice of the leaves and roots” of DAISY to help “the megrim”. CAMOMILE tea will help, both for migraine and any sort of headache (Schauenberg & Paris), and PELLITORY-OF-SPAIN was also used once. A leechdom from a 15th century collection advises sufferers to “take pellitory of Spain, and stone-scar [lichen] and hold long between thy teeth on the sore side; and chew it and it will run to water” (Dawson. 1934). The root of STINKING IRIS has the reputation of being a painkiller, and a migraine remedy (Conway).

MARSH GENTIAN / Gentiana pneumonanthe

The flowers are used to make a blue dye (Usher), and it has the usual gentian medicinal uses, though the early ones are a bit unusual. Gerard, for instance, reported that “the later Physicians hold it to be effectual against pestilential diseases, and the bitings and stingings of venomous beasts”. One of the Saxon leechdoms, translated by Cockayne, advised the use of this plant (under the name ‘marsh maregall’) if “a worm eat the hand”. The patient was required to “boil marsh maregall, red nettle, dock, … in cow’s butter. Then shake three parts of salt on. Shake up, and smear therewith. Lather with soap at night”.

MARBLES VINE / Dioclea reflexa

Perhaps of American origin, but it grows in West Africa on sandbanks or seashore, and the seeds are used by children all over the area in a game played like marbles (Dalziel), hence the common name.

MARGUERITE

sometimes Herb Margaret (Dyer. 1889), common names for the DAISY, obviously a St Margaret, but which one? There was a St Margaret of Antioch, an unlikely choice, or St Margaret of Cortona, or yet another Margaret, St Margaret of Valois. Actually, St Margaret of Cortona is the likeliest candidate, for her day, 22 February, used to be reckoned as the first day of spring (Jones-Baker. 1974), and that probably is the reason for the name. But there is another possibility: the French word marguerite means a pearl (the colour of the flower? (Skinner) ).

MALARIA

In Africa, it is common to see hedges of NEEM TREE (Melia indica) grown close to houses, because of its reputation as a cure for malaria (Sofowora). In the Balkans, it was dealt with by steeping SAGE leaves and stems in brandy, and then straining it off (Kemp). OPIUM POPPY, and opium itself, used to be the standard medicine for malaria, or ague, as it was called, in the Fen country of England. Doctors said that it had more effect than quinine (V G Hatfield. 1994). Every Fenland garden had a patch of these poppies growing, and “Poppy tea”, made from the seeds, was a general fever remedy there. BUCKBEAN has been used for the complaint, perhaps doctrine of signatures, for this plant prefers wet, marshy ground. Hill, in the mid-18th century, mentions this use for the dried leaves, and it also crops up in Russian domestic medicine. Four or five tablespoonfuls of the dried herb in a gallon of vodka, kept for two weeks, and one small wineglassful to be taken daily (Kourennoff). Presumably, the fact that Buckbean is a sedative would help.

In Sierra Leone, the leaf of a BAOBAB is used as a prophylactic against the disease (Emboden. 1974), and in central Africa, a decoction of BARWOOD (Pterocarpus angolensis) root is used to cure, not only malaria, but also blackwater fever (Palgrave).

MANNA SEEDS

In some parts of Europe, and in America, the seeds of FLOTE GRASS (Glyceria fluitans) used to be collected and sold as “manna seeds” (hence the American name for the plant, Mannagrass (Douglas) ), for making puddings and gruel. It was even cultivated here and there for the purpose (C P Johnson).

MALABAR NUT / Adhatoda vasica

An Indian plant, but long cultivated in the tropics, and much used as a cough reliever and dilator of the bronchial tubes. A synthetic derivative of the active principles was put on the market under the name of bromhexine (Thomson. 1976). The plant is said, too, to be insecticidal, and that it has antiseptic properties (L M Perry).

MALE FERN / Dryopteris filix-mas

After bracken, this is the bestknown fern inBritain, widespread and common in woods and hedgerows. The Lucky Hand, or St John’s Hand (so called because it had to be prepared on St John’s, or Midsummer, Eve), is made from the root 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 (Gordon. 1985).

The root had other, more genuine, uses, for it served as a vermifuge. In the 19th century, oil of fern, made from this plant, could be bought to do the job (C P Johnson). The root was apparently marketed in the 18th century by a Madame Noufleen “as a secret nostrum”, for the cure of tapeworm. After he had paid a lot of money to buy it, Louis XV and his physicians discovered that it had been used ever since Galen’s time (Paris). But, though used quite a lot in folk medicine, the roots are poisonous, and can even be fatal (Tampion). Perhaps that is why the dried leaves are used in Ireland for the purpose (Maloney). Although the root is occasionally used in tincture in homeopathic medicine, to treat septic wounds, ulcers and varicose veins, the chief use these days is in veterinary practice, for expelling tapeworms (Wickham).

MAHUA / Bassia latifolia

An Indian tree, known also as Butter Tree (Coon). When the flowers fall to the ground
in April and May, they are eaten by the indigenous people. In anticipation, they may burn the ground under the trees, to make it easier to pick them up. Some they eat fresh, others they dry, boil and ferment, and, so it seems, now distil in a simple still consisting of two pots and a bamboo tube. The Gonds, or Konds, also distil a very strong liquor, “something resembling Irish whisky” (Chopra, Badhwar & Ghosh) from the flowers, a drink important enough to figure in their mythology (Fürer-Haimendorff). But the tree has an importance for them unrelated to the drink, for this is the Kor tree, by the side of which funerary rites are performed. It is the tree of the dead, and as such the rites there are the final ones in mortuary ceremonies (Fürer-Haimendorff). The Gonds hung the dead bodies of their relatives on a branch of this tree before burying them (Upadhyaya).

MAIDENHAIR FERN / Adiantum capillus-veneris

Adiantum is from a Greek word meaning unmoistened, because the fern has the property of repelling moisture, a peculiarity that was attributed to the hair of Venus (capillusveneris), who when she rose from the sea came out with dry hair. So, ever since these legends arose, it has been used in hair lotions, and particularly in lotions to prevent the hair going out of curl on damp days. The doctrine of signatures ensured that it should be used for alopecia; it is the ashes of the fern, mixed with olive oil and vinegar, that are used (Leyel. 1937). It was used too for lung complaints, like coughs and breathing difficulties, and it was also recommended for jaundice and swollen joints (Addison. 1985). In Brazilian belief, maidenhair fern will wilt if looked at by by the victim of the evil eye (P V A Williams)

MAIDENS’ GARLANDS

It was the custom in parts of England for a young girl to carry a wreath of white roses before the coffin of a virgin. The wreath would be hung in church after the funeral, above the seat that she had used during her life, till the blooms faded. But if the wreath was made with artificial flowers, when it is known as a “maiden’s garland”, it could be kept in church for a long time. The church at Abbot’s Ann, in Hampshire, has its walls hung with these “maidens’ garlands” of paper or linen roses; the earliest of them dates from 1716 (Mayhew).

MADAGASCAR PERIWINKLE / Catheranthus roseus

This is an important plant, which has been used in cancer research, particularly
with regard to leukemia in children. But apart from that, it brings good luck to a house in Haiti, where it is used for hypertension (F Huxley), as it also is in Chinese medicine (Chinese medicinal herbs of Hong Kong. Vol 3). It was noted during medical research that a side effect of its use was euphoria and hallucinations. When this became generally known, there was an outbreak of Catheranthus smoking in Miami, where it grows like a weed. But the side effects of smoking it are pretty severe (Emboden. 1979).

MAORI FIRE / Pennantia corymbosa

A New Zealand tree, called kaikomako by the Maori, who used it for friction fire-making, as the common name implies. Maui’ was the deity who taught the people how to do this. Andersen’s version of the myth runs as follows: “… from a kaikomako he broke dry branches, and from them he fashioned fire-sticks. While at his request a man held one stick firmly on the ground with his foot, Maui’ rubbed the second, sharpened to a point, briskly to and fro on the one so held. First it heated, and formed a little ball of black powder; then the powder smoked; then it glowed. Maui’ took dry moss, wrapped the powder in it, waved it in the air, when lo! A flame! The people did likewise …” (Andersen).

MORNING GLORY

Rivea corymbosa, the revered ololiuqui of the Aztecs, was one of the most important hallucinogens of ancient Mexico at the time of the conquest. The seeds, which contain alkaloids closely related to LSD (Wasson, Hofmann & Ruck), were used to induce a ritually divinatory trance (Norbeck). Another New World hallucinogen is COHOBA, growing in the northern part of South America, particularly in the Orinoco basin. A snuff, known as yopy, or parica, is made from the powdered seeds, and is one of the most famous New World hallucinogens. The original inhabitants of Haiti made this narcotic snuff, which they took through a bifurcated tube (Youngken), and in fact it was much used in religious ceremonies over most of the area (Hostos). Lewin described the use among one of the Brazilian tribes: “… begin to take Parica snuff … they assemble in pairs, everyone with a (bamboo) tube containing Parica in his hand, and … everyone blows the contents of his tube with all his strength into the nostrils of his partner. The effects produced in these generally dull and silent people are extraordinary. They become very garrulous and sing, scream and jump about in wild excitement…” Banisteriopsis caapi is another South American narcotic, inseparably submerged in the total culture of the people who take it. Ayahuasca, a Quechua word meaning ‘vine of the dead’, or; ‘vine of the souls’, is its Peruvian name. Partakers often experience a kind of “death”, and the separation of body and soul. Those who “die” are reborn in a state of greater wisdom. It serves, too, for prophecy, divination, etc., But it may be taken at funeral ceremonies, and., in other contexts, by a shaman (or ayahuasquero) to diagnose an illness or divine its cure, especially for those who believe themseleves bewitched, or to establish the identity of an enemy (Reichel-Dolmatoff), when evil magic would be “returned to its perpetrator” (Dobkin de Rios. 1970). The effects may be violent and with unpleasant after-effects, especially when the bark is boiled, and certainly when other toxic plants are mixed in. Nausea and vomiting are almost always early characteristics; this is followed by pleasant euphoria and visual hallucinations, but few have ever admitted that they find it a pleasant experience, for they drink it to learn about things, persons or events which could affect the society as a whole, or its individuals (Kensinger).

Hamamelis virginica > WITCH HAZEL

MAIZE / Zea mays

The name Corn is used more frequently than Maize in America (A W Smith), often varied to Indian Corn, or even to Indian Wheat (Britten & Holland) in England. It has also been dubbed Welsh Corn, Asiatic Corn or Turkish Corn (Turner, in 1548, also called it Turkish Millet). “Asiatic”, and “Turkish”, because the early herbalists of the 16th century believed the plant had been brought by the Turks from Asia. The Turks invaded Europe about this time, and brought many new plants into the west. Anything unusual was labelled “Turkish”, or perhaps it was confused with buckwheat, which was at one time specified as turcicum for some reason (Bianchini & Corbetta). “Welsh”, of course, must simply mean “foreign” (OE walch, or something like it).

MAIDENS’ GARLANDS

It was the custom in parts of England for a young girl to carry a wreath of white roses before the coffin of a virgin. The wreath would be hung in church after the funeral, above the seat that she had used during her life, till the blooms faded. But if the wreath was made with artificial flowers, when it is known as a “maiden’s garland”, it could be kept in church for a long time. The church at Abbot’s Ann, in Hampshire, has its walls hung with these “maidens’ garlands” of paper or linen roses; the earliest of them dates from 1716 (Mayhew).

MAIDENHAIR FERN / Adiantum capillus-veneris

Adiantum is from a Greek word meaning unmoistened, because the fern has the property of repelling moisture, a peculiarity that was attributed to the hair of Venus (capillusveneris), who when she rose from the sea came out with dry hair. So, ever since these legends arose, it has been used in hair lotions, and particularly in lotions to prevent the hair going out of curl on damp days. The doctrine of signatures ensured that it should be used for alopecia; it is the ashes of the fern, mixed with olive oil and vinegar, that are used (Leyel. 1937). It was used too for lung complaints, like coughs and breathing difficulties, and it was also recommended for jaundice and swollen joints (Addison. 1985). In Brazilian belief, maidenhair fern will wilt if looked at by by the victim of the evil eye (P V A Williams).