Chrysanthemum: The Spectre Plant Chrysanthemums grow all over the Mikado’s empire, save in Himaji, where it is ill luck to raise them, for this reason: In a castle of thirty towers in that city lived a lord who employed a servant named Okiku (kiku, chrysanthemum) to look after his bronzes, figures of brass, jewels, shrines, [...]

The Love of the South Wind for the Dandelion An Algonquin tale of the love of the south wind for the dandelion, which is made in likeness of the sun: Shawondasee, the south wind, heavy, drowsy, lazy, likes to lie in the shade of live oaks and magnolias, inhaling the odor of blossoms and filling [...]

The Cold Bitterness of Edelweiss In one legend, the edelweiss is related to heaven, so near to which it grows, for an angel, wearing of her celestial home, longs to taste once more the bitterness of the earth. She receives permission to take her shape of flesh again, but, unprepared to mingle with a humanity [...]

Adultery and Avocados The avocado, or alligator pear, a soft and rather salve-like fruit, used pleasantly in salad, was a favorite food of Seriokai when he inhabited the wilds of Guiana, and he often rambled the forests of the Orinoco gathering store of it. During one of these excursions the tapir saw the woman , [...]

The Blood Tree The tree with whose juice the Aztecs dyed their cotton of a fine dark red, and which their descendants tap today, has its blood legend: In Amatlan lived a prince whose delight it was to deck hinself in gold and precious stones. He had a corps of bandi ts in his employ, [...]

Micah Rood’s Apples A sombre tradition concerns the Micah Rood apples, or bloody hearts, that made their appearance in Franklin Connecticut, but are now widely cultivated in other towns and States. They are sweet of flavor, fragrant, handsomely red outside, and while m ost of the flesh is white, there is at the core a [...]

No Grass Will Grow on Davies’ Grave In an English Tradition of the last century, the grass did not merely tremble on the happening of a tragedy; it refused to deck the grave of a man unjustly put to death. In the churchyard at Montgomery is a bare spot of the size and shape of [...]

Forget Me Not! Not many of the flowers retain their legends in their names, but the forget-me-not indicates its own history: A young man walking beside the Danube with his sweetheart notes her admiration for some flowers– blue as her eyes–that grew on an islet in the stream. He tosses off his shoes and hat [...]

The Bloody Heath The heath, or heather, that decorates the Scottish hills, commemorates in its name the efforts of the Christians to covert the Picts. When the latter were visited by armed missionaries who ordered them to cease the worship of false gods, the Picts unreasonably gave battle, and the plants that were bedewed with [...]

Heliotrope: Shunned by the Sun The Greek word heliotrope means to turn toward the sun. We apply the name to a modest flower of purple color and delightful odor, that came from Peru, and, being adopted into France, was called there herb of love. What the original heliotrope was, we do not know with certainty, [...]

Why Roses Are Red Note: there were lots of stories explaining why roses are red. This, to me, was the most morbid of all of them. If you are of a Judeo-Christian background, and will be offended by me calling a story about Cain and Abel morbid, do me a favor, and please don’t read [...]

The Ivy-covered Monastery That toleration of the heathen vine had become established so early as the twelfth century, this legend of Florence will signify: In that time there stood beside a convent in the city a tall tree clothed with ivy, such as covered also the walls of the retreat. The brethren preserved a tradition [...]

Pyramus and Thisbe Pyramus and Thisbe are the classic forerunners of Romeo and Juliet. These two young Babylonian lovers were parted by their cruel parents, yet contrived to meet secretly, and between-whiles they breathed affection through a chink in the dividing wall. Their favorite tryst was in the shade of a white mulberry at the [...]

Sageflower and the King A…tale, which may have its roots in a sun or season myth of pre-Christian time, represents the sage as a nymph living in a hollow oak beside a pool where jonquils sprang, dulling her shyer beauty. But she had no jealousy. She looked into the water mirror and saw her own [...]

The Origin of the Wallflower The cheiranthus cheiri–Chaucerized as cherisaunce, and likewise known as heart’s ease, wall violet, winter gillflower, blood-drops-of-Christ, and bloody warrior–had it legendary origin in a castle on the Tweed, whose lord had a fair young daughter, who fell in love with the laird of a neighbor clan, desperately hated by her [...]

The Knight and the Lily Maiden In a folk-tale of Normandy a knight who had resisted the charms of the sex till he had acquired a reputation for coldness that exempted him from its assault, was accustomed to spend much time in graveyards, where he would be seen in a listening attitude, as if he [...]

The Apple of Immortality In Persia, the apple is the fruit of immortality, as we learn from the tale of Anasindhu, a holy man who lived in a wood with Parvati, his wife, speaking only thrice a year, and giving all his waking hours to meditations on virtue. The reputation he gained for wisdom and [...]

Isabella and the Pot of Basil Isabella, whose story has been told by Boccaccio, Keats, and Hunt, in tale, poem, and picture, was a maid of Messina who, left to her own resources by her brothers–they being rich and absorbed in business–found solace in the company of Lorenzo, the comely manager of their enterprises. The [...]

Incense Recipes These were sent to me well over two years ago by a Gothic Gardening reader whose name, alas, I do not know! (and the email was life596…) Thanks, whoever you are! Spicy Kitchen Incense * 3 tsp. red sandlewood powder(Pterocar pus santalinus) * 4 tsp. ground cloves(Eugenia aromatica) * 2 tsp. ground ginger(Zingiber [...]

The Secret Names of Plants Eye of Newt, and toe of frog, Wool of bat, and tongue of dog, Adder’s fork, and blind-worm’s sting Lizard’s leg and howlet’s wing While this famous recipe from Shakespeare’s Macbeth sounds like a grisly combination of animal parts, almost all the references are probably to herbs. It has been [...]