A Dictionary of Plant-lore PDF Download

Author: D.C. Watts
Publisher: Elsevier
ISBN: 0080546021
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 482

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Book Description
Knowledge of plant names can give insight into largely forgotten beliefs. For example, the common red poppy is known as "Blind Man" due to an old superstitious belief that if the poppy were put to the eyes it would cause blindness. Many plant names derived from superstition, folk lore, or primal beliefs. Other names are purely descriptive and can serve to explain the meaning of the botanical name. For example, Beauty-Berry is the name given to the American shrub that belongs to the genus Callicarpa. Callicarpa is Greek for beautiful fruit. Still other names come from literary sources providing rich detail of the transmission of words through the ages.Conceived as part of the author's wider interest in plant and tree lore and ethnobotanical studies, this fully revised edition of Elsevier's Dictionary of Plant Names and Their Origins contains over 30,000 vernacular and literary English names of plants. Wild and cultivated plants alike are identified by the botanical name. Further detail provides a brief account of the meaning of the name and detailed commentary on common usage.* Includes color images * Inclusive of all Latin terms with vernacular derivatives * The most comprehensive guide for plant scientists, linguists, botanists, and historians

Author: Roy Vickery
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN:
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 474

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Book Description
SOme entries include information on uses and symbolism.

Author: Roy Vickery
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780198600152
Category : Folklore
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description

Author: Roy Vickery
Publisher: Hachette UK
ISBN: 1474604633
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 1148

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Book Description
This book is a dictionary of British (native, naturalised and cultivated) plants and the folklore associated with them. Unlike many plant-lore publications Vickery's Folk Flora tells us what people currently do and believe, rather than what Victorians did and believed. The result is a vivid demonstration that plant folklore in the British Isles is not only surviving but flourishing; adapting and evolving as time goes by, even in urban areas. Each entry includes: - The plant's English and scientific (Latin) name, as well as significant local names. - A brief description of the plant and its distribution, and, in the case of cultivated plants, a history of their introduction to the British Isles - Information on the folklore and traditional uses of the plant, arranged where possible in a sequence starting with general folk beliefs (superstitions), use in traditional customs, use in folk medicine, other uses, and legends concerning individual representatives of the plant. In addition to the major entries there are a number of minor entries for feast days, diseases and other subjects which direct readers to relevant major entries, e.g. St. George's Day, on which red roses are worn; dandelions are gathered; and runner beans are planted.

Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 1038

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Book Description
The dictionary contains about 30,000 vernacular and literary English names of plants (plus a few American), both wild and cultivated, with their botanical name and a brief account of the names' meaning if known. It was conceived as part of the author's wider interest in plant and tree lore, and ethnobotanical studies. Knowledge of plant names can give insight into largely forgotten beliefs. Why for example is, or was, the common red poppy known as "Blind Man"? An old superstition has it that if the poppy were put to the eyes it would cause blindness. Such names were probably the result of some taboo against picking the plant. Similarly, other names were likely to have been applied as a result of a country mother's warning to her children against eating poisonous berries. For the warning carries more weight when the name given to the berry reinforces the warning. Many such plants or fruits may be ascribed to the devil, Devil's Berries for Deadly Nightshade is an example. Names may also be purely descriptive, and can also serve to explain the meaning of the botanical name. Beauty-Berry is an example: it is the name given to the American shrub that belongs to the genus Callicarpa, which is made up of two Greek words that mean beauty and berry. Literary, or "book" names, have also been included in this dictionary, as being a very important part of the whole. Many of them provide links in the transmission of words through the ages. Thor's Beard, for example, is a book name for "houseleek", and has never been used in the dialect. But it highlights the legend that houseleek is a lightning plant, and by reverse logic is a preserver from fire.

Author: Alison Jones
Publisher: Larousse Kingfisher Chambers
ISBN:
Category : Reference
Languages : en
Pages : 516

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Book Description
More than 1500 concise and colourful entries that give details on festivals, rites of passage, plant and herblore and theories about folklore are included in this comprehensive dictionary.

Author: John Earle Raven
Publisher: Mrs F. Raven
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 144

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Book Description
In 1976 John Raven presented four Grey Lectures at Cambridge University which sought to reappraise long-accepted identifications of ancient names for modern plants. These lectures, plus another given in 1971, form the main focus of this book and many of the issues raised within them are discussed further by William Stearn, Nicholas Jardine and Peter Warren, taking account of more research. Also includes an additional two papers by Alice Lindsell, as well as illustrations from her

Author: Tess Darwin
Publisher: Birlinn Publishers
ISBN: 9781841587110
Category : Herbals
Languages : en
Pages : 198

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Book Description
This is the new edition of the first ever comprehensive guide to the many ways in which wild plants have been used in Scotland from prehistoric times to the present day. To our ancestors, there was no such thing as a weed. Every growing thing had a role to play in daily life—as an ingredient for food, as medicine, as a dye or as fodder for livestock. Tess Darwin reveals the forgotten secrets of Scottish plant lore in fascinating detail, showing how many of the plant remedies which were dismissed by modern scientists as superstition have since been found to be effective in treating illness and have led to the creation of many new drugs. Tess Darwin has delved deeply into the forgotten secrets of Scottish plant lore, gathering information from a wide range of sources—from old herbals to the most up-to-date scientific research. She has uncovered the uses and folklore of hundreds of plants—as an ingredient for food, as medicine, as a dye or the raw material for textiles, as fodder for livestock, and in traditional crafts like basket-making and thatching, wine-making and wood-carving.

Author: Vivian Thomas
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 147255857X
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 432

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Book Description
Shakespeare lived when knowledge of plants and their uses was a given, but also at a time of unique interest in plants and gardens.His lifetime saw the beginning of scientific interest in plants, the first large-scale plant introductions from outside the country since Roman times, and the beginning of gardening as a leisure activity. Shakespeare's works show that he engaged with this new world to illuminate so many facets of his plays and poems. This dictionary offers a complete companion to Shakespeare's references to landscape, plants and gardens, including both formal and rural settings.It covers plants and flowers, gardening terms, and the activities that Shakespeare included within both cultivated and uncultivated landscapes as well as encompassing garden imagery in relation to politics, the state and personal lives. Each alphabetical entry offers an definition and overview of the term discussed in its historical context, followed by a guided tour of its use in Shakespeare's works and finally an extensive bibliography, including primary and secondary sources, books and articles.

Author: Richard Folkard
Publisher: Franklin Classics
ISBN: 9780342293940
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 632

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Book Description
This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. To ensure a quality reading experience, this work has been proofread and republished using a format that seamlessly blends the original graphical elements with text in an easy-to-read typeface. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.