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Ç lfan t b o r e , b e g e t ^ / , b ijr io /.
not learn to walk, they place it naked, either in the Spring or on
Midsummer-day, upon the turf, and scatter sorne Flax-seed on this
turf and on the fofant itself: then, as soon as the H a x commences
to grow, the infant should also begin to thrive and to walk.— To
dream of F la x is reputed to augur a good and happy marnage , to
dream of spinning Flax , however, betokens coming troubles.-
There is an old superstition that F la x will only flower at the time
of day at which it was originally sown. ,
seat himself thrice on the sack, turning to the east. Stolen seeds
mingled with the rest cause the crop to thrive.— F la x when m
hinorn a(5ts as a talisman against witchcraft, and sorcery can be
S s e f e v e n with When the shreds are. spun or ,
woven into shirts, under certain incantations, the wearer is secure
from accidents or wounds. It was the goddess Hulda who hrst
taught mortals the art of growing Fla x , of spinning and of weaving
it According to the legendary belief in South Tyrol, she is the
¿p ed a rp a tro ® ess of thi F la x /u ltu re in that d istn fl, Hulda .s
also the sovereign of the Selige Fräulein, the happy fairy maidens
who keep watch and guard over the Flax-plants. Between Kroppbühl
and Unterlassen, is a cave which is believed by the country
people to have been the entrance to Queen Huldas mountain
palace Twice a year she passed through the valley, scattering
blessings around her path—once in Summer, when the blue flowers
of th T fla x were brightening the fields, and again during the mysterious
“ twelve nights” immediately preceding our feast of the
E ^ h a n y , when, in ancient days, the gods and goddpses were
b eh Led to visit the earth. Hulda visited the cottagers homes m
the Winter nights to examine the distafi". I f the F la x was duly spun
off, prosperity attended the family ; but laziness was punished by
trouble and blighted crops. Hulda s
Fräulein, would sometimes visit deserving folks and aid the F la x
spinning : there is a legend that a peasant woman at Vulpera near
Tarash, thinking that she ought to reward her fairy assistants, set
before them a sumptuous meal, but ^hey shook their heads sad y,
and, giving the poor woman a never-failing ball of cotton, they
said, “ This is the recompense for thy goodwill payment for payment,”—
and immediately vanished.
F L E A - B A N E . — The star-shaped yellow Flea-bane, or wild
Marigold (Inula dysenterica), received its name from the belief ^ a t its
odour was repulsive to fleas, gnats, and other insecits. On the
flowers of this plant, as well as on those oi A gnus Castus, the G reman
women were made to sleep during the feast of Thesmophoria. The
Arabs extol this plant highly as a remedy for wounds. One of
their traditions records that flowers of the Inula, bruised, were used
by the patriarch Job as an application to those grievous sores which
he so pathetically laments. Hence the Flea-bane is called by the
men of the desert “ Job’s Tears.”
F L O S A D O N IS .—In most European countries the Flos
Adonis (the dark-crimsoned Adonis autumnalis) still retains in its
nomenclature a legendary connedtion with the blood of the unfortunate
Adonis, and is called by the Germans Blutstrapfchen to the
present day. Just as from the tears of the sorrowing Venus,
which fell as she gazed on the bleeding corpse of the beautiful
Adonis, there sprang the Anemone, or Wind-flower, so from the
blood of the lamented boy which poured forth from the death-
wound inilidted by the boar, there proceeded the Adonis-flower,
or Flos Adonis. Referring to this, Rapin writes—
“ Th’ unhappy fair Adonis likewise flowers,
Whom (once a youth) the Cyprian Queen deplores;
He, though transformed, has beauty still to move
Her admiration, and secure her love ;
Since the same crimson blush the flower adorns
Which graced the youth, whose loss the goddess mourns.”
And Shakspeare, in his poem on Venus and Adonis, says—
“ By this the boy that by her side lay killed
Was melted like a vapour from her sight;
And in his blood that on the ground lay spilled
A purple flower sprang up, chequered with white,
Resembling well his pale cheeks and the blood
Which in round drops upon their whiteness stood.”
F L O W E R D E L U C E .—The Iris has obtained this name,
which is derived from the French Fleur de Louis, from its having
been assumed as his device by Louis V I I ., of France. This title
of Fleur de Louis has been changed to Fleur de Luce, Fleur de Lys,
and Fleur de Lis. (See I r is ) . A curious superstition exists in
the districil around Orleans, where a seventh son without a
daughter intervening is called a Marcon. It is believed that the
Marcon’s body is marked somewhere with a Fleur de Lis, and
that if a patient suffering under King’s E v il touch this Fleur de
Lis, or if the Marcon breathe upon him, the malady will be sure to
disappear.
F l o w e r G e n t l e , or F lo ramo r .—See Amaranth.
F L O W E R S O F H E A V E N .—Under the names of Rain
Tremella and Star Jelly is known a strange gelatinous substance,
of no precise form, but of a greenish hue, which creeps over gravelly
soils, and is found mixed up with wet Mosses on rocks besides
waterfalls: when moist, it is soft and pulpy, but in dry weather it
becomes thin, brittle, and black in colour. Linnaeus called it
Tremella Nostoc, but it is now classed with ih eA lg e Gloiocladeoe under
the name of Nostoc commune, a name first used by the alchymist
Paracelsus, but the meaning of which is unknown. During the
middle ages, some extraordinary superstitions were afloat concerning
this plant, which was called Ccelifolium, or Flowers of Heaven.
B y the alchemists it was considered a universal menstruum. The
country people in Germany use it to make their hair grow. In
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