456 Collectanea .
Pla7its. — The " hungry grass " grows on mountains, and, if trodden on, causes a sickening hunger which kills if not relieved. I knew a man in County Limerick who said he "knew it to happen to another man " on the Clare hills, and the victim got food in bare time to save him.^'^ Seven strips of a plantain leaf stop the bleeding of a bad wound. The "Seven Sisters" plant for healing purposes must be picked at a particular period of the sun and moon in August. Fern " dust " (seeds) heals cuts from rushes ; the dock charms nettle stings ; and the four-leafed sham- rock brings luck if found accidentally. The belief that house-leek preserves a house from burning ^^ is widespread in north and east Clare. The pennywort has a sectarian bias, and only cures Protestants,^^ and this is connected near Bunratty with a curious legend of Anne Boleyn. This hapless queen, after enjoying by means of the plant the greatest influence over her terrible spouse, ^^ " got into trouble, but, when she was sent to jail, she couldn't get the plant, and they hanged her." The rowan, or mountain ash, is a luck-bringer and preservative from magic, and I remember small forked twigs being carried. A rowan, planted at Iniscaltra about 890 by King Cormac mac Cuileanan, bore apples. 2'* Moss from a skull, or an ancient cross such as that at Dysert O'Dea, or a pillar, is curative ; the moss at Fortanne well was used for the eyes, but had to be replaced. If you see a "button mushroom" you should pluck it, as "it will never grow
any more once it is looked at."^^
Thos. J. Westropp.
i^To be contiftued.)
^"Michael Griffin, gardener at Attyflin, about 1875. My late brother, Hugh Massy Westropp, heard a similar tale near Glenomera.
^^ Ante, p. 59.
^" So I heard frequently from people in Patrickswell, and Michael Hazelton, about the pennywort on Carrigogunnell Castle, and also from a woman of the district between Sixmilebridge and Bunratty.
^'The details are needless. Cheap polemical pamphlets have familiarized the people with this queen's tragedy. I recall an assault case, about 1890, in which one woman had called another "ye ould Anne Bulling" and been beaten for the gross insult.
'■^ Mss. Royal Irish Academy, 23, G 5.
'3 Mrs. Mullins at Maryfort Lodge.
