Thus old Gerarde, describing the virtues of the mallow, tells us:-- "If that of health you have any special care, Use French mallows, that to the body wholesome are." Then there is the time-honoured adage which says that:-- "He that would live for aye Must eat sage in May." And Aubrey has bequeathed us the following piece of advice:-- "Eat leeks in Lide, and ramsines in May, And all the year after physicians may play." There are many sayings of this kind still current among our country-folk, some of which no doubt contain good advice; and of the plaintain, which from time immemorial has been used as a vulnerary, it is said:-- "Plantain ribbed, that heals the reaper's wounds." In Herefordshire there is a popular rhyme associated with the aul (_Alnus glutinosus_):-- "When the bud of the aul is as big as the trout's eye, Then that fish is in season in the river Wye." A Yorkshire name for the quaking grass (_Briza media_) is "trembling jockies," and according to a local proverb:-- "A trimmling jock i' t' house, An' you weeant hev a mouse," This plant being, it is said, obnoxious to mice.

According to a Warwickshire proverb:-- "Plant your sage and rue together, The sage will grow in any weather." This list of plant proverbs might easily be extended, but the illustrations quoted in the preceding pages are a fair sample of this portion of our subject.

Whereas many are based on truth, others are more or less meaningless.

At any rate, they still thrive to a large extent among our rural community, by whom they are regarded as so many household sayings.
Footnotes: 1.

See Akerman's "Wiltshire Glossary," p.