A Dictionary of Plant-Lore (Oxford Paperback Reference)

Rating:
Summary: British Folk History of Plants
Review: This isn't a new book, but for anyone interested in the history of plant usage it's a very valuable one. Roy Vickery of the Natural History Museum in London has done a vast amount of research to produce this very readable volume.

While most of the book consists of an alphabetical list of plants by their common or folk names, it has two additional, and excellent, features. The first is an introductory section titled "Plant Lore Studies in the British Isles" which establishes a very useful context both for the book itself and for further study of the topic. The writings of most of the earlier English herbalists depended largely on sources from Continental Europe, but from the time Gerard's "Herball" was published in 1597 more and more local uses of plants were incorporated. By the end of the nineteenth century many of the books on local plant uses were merely repeating previously collected information, mistakes and all. More recent work has seen the careful collection and referencing of folklore related to plants.

The second excellent feature is the comprehensive bibliography. It's easily the most comprehensive and wide ranging bibliography I've seen in a readable book for lay people. If you want to do further research there's no better place to start than here.

The alphabetical listing of plants give their common names from diferent areas of the British Isles, along with their uses and common beliefs about the plant. It's interesting to note that some of these are remarkably constant throughout the country, while others vary widely.

The Oxford dictionary of Plant Lore is like a breath of the British countryside and a reminder of simpler times and a closer connection to our natural surroundings. It is without illustrations but it is a thorough and sensitive compilation of beliefs about plants.