A Dictionary of Plant-Lore

Why do the Welsh wear a daffodil on St. David's Day and the Irish a shamrock for St. Patrick? Why do we send flowers to weddings and funerals or kiss under the mistletoe? From elderflower tea ('a universal panacea') to lesser yellow trefoil (the true shamrock), from corn dollies and crop circles to plants which forecast the weather (pennywort and scarlet pimpernel), this dictionary is a vivid and colorful account of British and Irish plant-lore.

• Superstitions and herbal remedies, to folk song and children's games

• Folk-names in use today never previously recorded

Roy Vickery has worked at the Natural History Museum in London, where he is Curator of Flowering Plants, since 1965. He has written extensively on the folklore of plants and is an active member of a number of societies, including the Botanical Society of the British Isles, and the Society for Folklife Studies. He was Honorary Secretary of the Folklore Society from 1980 to 1989.