LABRADOR TEA

Ledum groendlandicum
A North American evergreen shrub, whose leaves contain some narcotic substance (Turner & Bell), though it appears that the Indians were unaware of any such property, although the Ojibwa did use it as a substitute tobacco (Jenness. 1935). Certainly, strewn among clothes, the leaves will keep moths away, and in Lapland, branches are put among grain to discourage mice (Grieve. 1931). Bergen. 1899 mentions the leaf tea as an American domestic medicine for stomach disorders, and it has also been drunk for rheumatism (E Gunther).

ITCHING POWDER

The seeds of DOG ROSE constitute the original itching powder with which children amused themselves by putting down each others’ necks. They are called Itchy-backs (Opie & Opie. 1959) and Cowitches (Holland). In Devonshire they are Ticklers, or Tickling Tommies (Macmillan), and in Scotland and Ireland, Buckie-lice (Grigson. 1955), buckie being the name under which the hips themselves are known. Another source of children’s fun lies in using the fruits of LONDON PLANE for itching powder. The spicules fill the air round the trees, and can be the cause of health problems.

INFLUENZA

Boil MEADOWSWEET flowers in water for ten minutes, then take three cupfuls a day (Fluck). It will have the same effect as aspirin, for some of the chemical constituents of the drug are also present in the plant. A LINSEED decoction was an Irish country cure for influenza (Logan). So it was in the Highlands of Scotland, too, with honey and a little vinegar added (Grant). One way to deal with ‘flu, according to Alabama belief, is to put an onion in a pan under the bed (R B Browne), and the complaint was tackled in Scotland in a similar way – one half at an open window, and the other above the door. The onion would attract the disease, and so turn black (Beith).

LIME

COMMON LIME (Tilia x vulgaris) In German mythology, the Elf King lived in the Linden tree (Bayley. 1919), and dwarfs loved to haunt the tree. Heroes fell into enchanted sleep beneath them. In both Hungary and Germany, magical properties were ascribed to the tree. In some villages it was usual to plant one in front of a house to stop witches entering.

It was sacred to Venus among the Greeks, due, it was said, to the heart-shaped leaves. This was transmitted to Christian symbolism; the penance laid on Mary Magdalene by Christ was that “she should have no other food, and sleep on no other bed, save one made of its leaves”. “For Magdalene had loved much, and therefore her penance was by means of that which is a symbol of love” (Leland. 1898).

What was evidently a sacred Lime tree, known as the Wonderful Tree, once grew in Ditmarschen, near the bridge at Suderheistede. An old prophecy said that as soon as the Ditmarscheners lost their freedom, the tree would wither. This happened, but it was said that a magpie would one day build its nest in the branches, and hatch five white birds, and then the tree would begin to sprout again, and the country recover its ancient freedom (Thorpe). There was a “family” Lime tree at Cuckfield Hall, in Sussex. It regularly dropped a branch when there was going to be a death in the family (M Baker. 1980).

In Germany, lime flowers were never brought indoors – it gave the girls in the house erotic dreams, so it was said (M Baker. 1977). Lime is a feminine tree in Lithuanian folk belief (oak is the male tree par excellence). The souls of women moved into lindens or firs, the other feminine tree, at death, and women’s graves were marked by a linden cross (Gimbutas. 1958). The bast used by gardeners for tying up plants, and for packing goods, is obtained from the inner bark. In Europe, the use of bark fabrics was established in prehistoric times, particularly the bast of the Lime tree, which at one time grew in large forests. Shoes of plaited bast were still worn in very recent times in eastern Europe, particualrly in the Volga district (Buhler. 1940). The wood, to quote J Taylor. 1812, is “soft, light and smooth; close-grained, and not subject to the worm, and of a spongy texture. It is used for making lasts and tables for shoemakers. It also makes good charcoal for gunpowder”. All the Grinling Gibbons carvings are in lime, which is ideal for the task (Ablett). “The flowers afford the best honey for bees, and the gummy sap or juice, when repeatedly boiled and clarified, produces a substance like sugar” (J Taylor. 1812). Lime-flower honey is indeed very good; in fact at one time it cost three or four times as much as ordinary honey (Ablett).

Lime-blossom tea is valued for headaches. It is used a lot in France as “tilleul”, a slightly sedative drink (F G Savage). Besides being very pleasant, it is given in Somerset for insomnia (Tongue. 1965). A hot bath with lime-flowers in it, is another insomnia remedy, and it is also good for nervous irritability (Quelch). The tea is “good against giddiness of the head, tremblings of the limbs and all other lighter nervous disorders” (Hill. 1754). The distilled water, according to Evelyn, was regarded as good “against epilepsy, apoplexy, vertigo, trembling of the heart …”. Even sitting under a lime tree is reported as improving the condition of epileptics (M Baker. 1980). Gerard had already noted that “the floures are commended by divers … against … the falling sickness…”. A more barbaric remedy was noted in 18th century Scotland: for the “falling sickness in children”: “take a little black sucking puppy (but for a girl take a bitch whelp), choke it, open it, take out the gall, put it all to the child in the time of the fit, with a little tile-tree flower water, and you shall see him cured as it were by a miracle presently” (Graham) (Tile-tree is Lime, of course, taken directly from the generic name, Tilia, which was the Latin name for the tree).

It is also said that the infusion of the flowers is good in the treatment of arteriosclerosis, for it thins the blood, and so improves the circulation (Palaiseul), and so it is useful for hypertension as well (M Evans). That same infusion, used as a lotion, will act as a hair and scalp conditioner (Conway).

Raspberry fruit

Raspberry is grown mostly for its delicious-tasting fruit, which can be made into a syrup or vinegar; traditionally, it was used to treat feverish states.

Second level processes

The marketing step, which provides for the understanding and tracking of customers want and needs.

BAY, or LAUREL

Laurus nobilis

Originally from the Mediteranean area, but widely cultivated now. The name ‘Bay’ is French baie, a contraction of Latin baccae, berries, or better, baccae lauri.

In Greek mythology, Daphne fled from Apollo, and was changed into a bay tree, which from that time became sacred to him (Clair). Did the priestess chew bay leaves before delivering the oracle? Palaiseul suggests that the leaves chewed would put them in a favourable state. Every sanctuary to Apollo had a bay tree, and none could be found where the soil was unfavourable to the tree’s growth. No worshipper could share in the rites who did not have a crown of laurel on his head or a branch in his hand (Philpot). Since Apollo was the god of poetry, it follows that the crown of bay leaves became the customary award in the universities to graduates in rhetoric and poetry (Clair); we still speak of the “Poet Laureate” as the highest award for a poet in this country. Bachelor is from French bachilier, and Latin baccalaureus – laurel berry. Students who took their degree were not expected to marry, so single men are still bachelors (Wilks). The staff of bay of a reciting poet was assumed to assist his inspiration, just as the bay rod in the hand of a prophet or diviner was assumed to help him to see hidden things. That is why the use of bay played an essential part in the oracular ceremony at Delphi, to name but the most famous (Philpot).

Bay was used at weddings in a similar way to rosemary (Andrews. 1898) (see Rosmarinus officinalis). It featured in weddings in Burgundy, when, decorated with ribbons, a bay used to be hoisted to the highest chimney of the wedding house by the best man and six assistants. Then a bottle of brandy would be broken over it, and healths drunk, as guests sang:

Il est planté, le laurier.

Le bon vin l’arrose

Qu’il amème aux mariés

Ménage tout rose,

Tout rose (Baker.1977).

This is a lightning tree, and a protector from lightning, which was believed powerless to hurt a man standing by one (Dyer. 1889), one of the “vulgar errors” listed by Aubrey (Aubrey. 1686). But people have been known to carry branches of it over their heads in a storm (Waring). “He who carrieth a bay leaf shall never take harm from thunder” (Browne. 1646), and Culpepper added to the belief – “ … neither Witch nor Devil, Thunder nor Lightning, will hurt a Man in the Place where a Bay-tree is”. As garlic protected the boats from storms and the evil eye, so laurel protected them from lightning (Bassett). It was said (by Pliny) that the emperor Tiberius wore a laurel chaplet during thunderstorms for this reason. In the New Forest, the bay was planted because of the protection it gave from lightning and forest fires, but also because it averted evil (Boase), and in East Anglia, a bay (or holly) growing near a house has the same effect (G E Evans. 1966).

There are many more superstitions attached to the bay. The crackling of the leaves in the fire was a good omen. But if they just smouldered, the signs were not so good (M Baker. 1980). It used to be said that the decay of the tree was an omen of disaster, just as oaks were. Every Roman emperor solemnly planted one by the Capitol, and it was said to wither when he was about to die. Before the death of Nero, though the winter was very mild, all these trees withered at the roots; a great pestilence in Padua was preceded by the same phenomenon (Evelyn. 1678). It was the custom, too, for a successful general to plant a laurel at his triumph in a shrubbery originally set by Livia. Hence, bay is a symbol of glory (Leyel. 1937), or triumph, and as it is evergreen, of eternity (Ferguson). Shakespeare speaks of this superstition :

‘Tis thought the king is dead; we will not stay,

The bay-trees in our country all are wither’d (Richard II. 2. 4.7).

See also Holinshed : “in this year 1399 in a maner throughout all the realme of England, old baie-trees withered, and contrary to all men’s thinking grew greene againe, a strange sight, and supposed to import some unknowne event”.

It was believed in ancient Greece that spirits could be cast out by the laurel, and a bough was often fixed over the door in cases of illness (Philpot). That is why in ancient times a man would put a bay leaf in his mouth when he got up in the morning (Durham). That, though, can be quite rational, for a bay leaf has antiseptic properties, so that chewing one first thing was a good cleanser (like toothpaste) for a furry tongue. The practice on Chios of bathing in water to which bay and hazel leaves have been added (Argenti & Rose), must surely be another protective measure. Similarly, if a baby is born feet first, it will be lamed in an accident while still young, unless bay leaves are immediately rubbed on its legs (Waring). Aubrey mentions that branches of bay were strewn on coffins at 17th century funerals, and Jersey burial customs required the coffin to be covered with laurel and ivy (L’Amy). It used to be the custom in some parts of Wales for a funeral to be preceded by a woman carrying bay. She sprinkled the leaves on the road at intervals (J Mason). It is a symbol of resurrection, for seemingly dead trees often revive from the roots (Drury. 1994).

Cornelius Agrippa said that a sick magpie puts a bay leaf into her nest to cure herself (Berdoe), and, according to Aelian (De nature anim.), the pigeons put laurel sprigs in their nests to protect their young against the evil eye. The same use was noted in Morocco, where people would insure their ploughs against the evil eye by making some part of them in laurel wood. It was used for love divination charms in this country. A St Valentine’s Eve charm was to put two bay leaves across the pillow, after having sprinkled them with rose water, and saying:

Good Valentine, be kind to me, In dream let me my true love see (Dyer. 1889). Another charm from Devonshire called for five leaves, one pinned at each corner and the fifth in the middle of the pillow. The operator of this charm had to say the rhyme seven times, and count seven, seven times over at each interval:

Sweet guardian angels, let me have What I most earnestly do crave – A Valentine endued with love, Who will both true and constant prove.

The future husband would appear in a dream (Vickery. 1995). The same number of leaves, to be disposed in the same pattern, was the rule at Gainsborough, in Lincolnshire (Rudkin). Usually, the girl had to put on a clean nightgown for the operation, often inside out (Drury. 1986). If a girl writes her lover’s name with a pin on a laurel leaf, and puts it in her bosom, the writing will turn red if he is true to her (Leather). That comes from Herefordshire, but surely no-one actually tried the charm.

It is said that lovers should pick a twig from a laurel bush, break it in two, and each keep a piece (Igglesden). Why? The dream books had something to say of the meaning of bay-tree dreams. For a man to dream of one, it is a sign that he will marry a rich and beautiful wife, but have no success in his business undertakings. It is a good thing for physicians and poets to dream of it (Raphael). Wasn’t a bay chaplet the proper accolade for a poet?

Bay had its ordinary uses, in addition to the medicinal and folkloric. Lupton tells us that “if there be branches of bay wrapt up or laid among cloths or books, it will keep the same safe from moths, worms and other corruptions”. It was said too, in the 10th century collection called the Geopontica, that if a water supply was bad, it could be made wholesome by steeping laurel in it (Rose). Bay Rum has nothing to do with this tree; oil of bay is distilled from the fresh leaves of Pimenta acris, and is used solely for Bay Rum and Florida Water for toilet articles (Grieve. 1933).

Both the leaves and berries have been used in medicine. Pomet described the berries as “cephalick, nemotick, alexipharmick, and anti-colick; they mollifie, discuss, expel Wind, open Obstructions, provoke Urine and the Terms, facilitate the travel of Women in Labour, and help Crudities in the Stomach. They are good for the Nerves in Convulsions and Palsies, give ease in the most extream Colicks, and take away the After-Pains of Women in Child-Bed”. Evelyn, earlier, had called them emollient, sovereign in affectioins of the nerves, collics, gargarisms, baths, salves, and perfumes …” “… taken in wine [they] are good against all venom and poison … [and] the juice pressed out [of the leaves] is a remedy for pain in the eares, and deafnesse, if it be dropped in with old wine and oile of Roses …”(Evelyn, Gerard). We are told, too, that “pigeons and blackbirds when suffering from loss of appetite, eat bay leaves as a tonic” (Hulme. 1895), and they “heal stingings of bees and wasps, and do away all swellings” (Bartholomew Anglicus). A few bay leaves soaked in brandy formed a cure for colic in Illinois. One to four teaspoonsfuls of the result would be given (Hyatt). We have already seen that the berries, too, were used for the complaint. And “it is reported that common drunkards were accustomed to eat in the morning fasting two leaves thereof against drunkennesse” (Gerard), but that, as we have already seen, may very well be to get rid of a hangover and furry tongue. The most engaging of the early leechdoms is one from Langham, aimed at “one that is stricken with the Fayrie”. The treatment was to “spread oyle de Bay on a linnen cloth, and lay it above the sore, for that will drive it into every part of the body; but if the sore be above the heart, apply it beneath the sore, and to the nape of the necke”.