PREFACE. APART from botanical science, there is perhaps no subject of inquiry connected with plants of wider interest than that suggested by the study of folk-lore. This field of research has been largely worked of late years, and has obtained considerable popularity in this country, and on the Continent. Much has already been written on the folk-lore of plants, a fact which has induced me to give, in the present volume, a brief systematic summary-with a few illustrations in each case-of the many branches into which the subject naturally subdivides itself. It is hoped, therefore, that this little work will serve as a useful handbook for those desirous of gaining some information, in a brief concise form, of the folk-lore which, in one form or another, has clustered round the vegetable kingdom. T. F. THISELTON DYER. November 19, 1888. |