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Product Description
To primitive man the whisper and movement of leaves and the silent unfolding of flowers were proofs of life and power, and their regeneration was a promise of nature's continuity. Cures, magic, divination and portents were all connected with the rich variety of available plant life, especially in verdant Britain. Some of these beliefs were astonishingly long-lasting and, even if an altered or faded form, have survived the sophistications of modern life, as this book sets out to show. This volume is arranged in alphabetical order and is illustrated with engravings from old herbals.'
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Allthough it does't have any kind of contents or index and appears jumbled it is still easy to use - the whole lot is arranged alphabetically into paragraphs.
Contains old remedies and folklore, lots of oddities like "To point at a daffodil may prevent its blooming."! but sadly doesn't have references :/ .
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I loved this book as a child and am buying it for my daughter. Yes, it is a jumble, but that's what I like about it. A sort of grandma's button box of quirky plant lore.
13 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This really is a good book, filled to the brim with folklore about plants, including some trees as well. I've always found any book published by Shire Publications to be factual, well researched & well worth reading & this book was no exception. The plants are listed alphabetically & are very easy to find, the bibliography lists 23 books. This is a book aimed at those interested in real plant folklore, & is not suitable for those seeking modern witchy folklore 'translations' by the ca$h-in authors who abound these days. As the author used the now contraversial The White Goddess by Robert Graves as one of the reference books for her research she does occasionally refer to the White Goddess to mean something along the lines of Goddess worship or as similar to Gaia, which for a non-Pagan author of a book first published in 1969 is quite acceptable to me.
Whilst you may enjoy reading this book, those around you may eventually wish you would be quiet as exclamations along the lines of 'I never knew that,' every few minutes do drive your nearest & dearest to temporary insanity, especially as the temptation to read out the really fascinating sections is just too much not to do! The folklore covers Britain, Europe & America with mentions of other countries lore too sometimes.
I do have a few problems with the book though, page 9 has an unfinished sentence at the end of Aconites background & folklore but was the only publishing error I noticed. That said, I really wished for cross referencing when it came to events, etc. Plant lore for particular festivals is listed only within that particular plants folklore, rather than also listing which other plants might have been used at that time. Halloween is the most popular time of divination in folklore for non-Pagans & it would have made it easier to access that information if you wished to search for plant usage for that festival, if they had been cross referenced too. That said, for only £5.99 this book is outstanding, I have seen many books for around £25 that have no where near this kind of information so who I am to complain?!
I have refered back to this book many times, it really is a bargain indeed.
Whilst you may enjoy reading this book, those around you may eventually wish you would be quiet as exclamations along the lines of 'I never knew that,' every few minutes do drive your nearest & dearest to temporary insanity, especially as the temptation to read out the really fascinating sections is just too much not to do! The folklore covers Britain, Europe & America with mentions of other countries lore too sometimes.
I do have a few problems with the book though, page 9 has an unfinished sentence at the end of Aconites background & folklore but was the only publishing error I noticed. That said, I really wished for cross referencing when it came to events, etc. Plant lore for particular festivals is listed only within that particular plants folklore, rather than also listing which other plants might have been used at that time. Halloween is the most popular time of divination in folklore for non-Pagans & it would have made it easier to access that information if you wished to search for plant usage for that festival, if they had been cross referenced too. That said, for only £5.99 this book is outstanding, I have seen many books for around £25 that have no where near this kind of information so who I am to complain?!
I have refered back to this book many times, it really is a bargain indeed.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Fascinating plant facts
A lovely and very accessible book with an alphabetical index of common wild flowers plants and trees. Easy to read and well researched.
Published 5 months ago by Hedgemonkey
discovering the folklore of plants
this is a great little book, its really informative and so interesting,I have read it twice!
Published on 16 Feb 2010 by zoe
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