Numerous plants are said to be either lucky or the reverse, and hence
have given rise to all kinds of odd beliefs, some of which still survive
in our midst, having come down from a remote period.
There is in many places a curious antipathy to uprooting the house-leek,
some persons even disliking to let it blossom, and a similar prejudice
seems to have existed against the cuckoo-flower, for, if found
accidentally inverted in a May garland, it was at once destroyed. In
Prussia it is regarded as ominous for a bride to plant myrtle, although
in this country it has the reputation of being a lucky plant. According
to a Somersetshire saying, "The flowering myrtle is the luckiest plant
to have in your window, water it every morning, and be proud of it." We
may note here that there are many odd beliefs connected with the myrtle.
"Speaking to a lady," says a correspondent of the _Athenaeum_ (Feb. 5,
1848), "of the difficulty which I had always found in getting a slip of
myrtle to grow, she directly accounted for my failure by observing that
perhaps I had not spread the tail or skirt of my dress, and looked proud
during the time I was planting it. It is a popular belief in
Somersetshire that unless a slip of myrtle is so planted, it will never
take root.
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