quired, she said to the charwoman, "I wish you would send some of
your children to gather me three or four pints more." "Ma'am," exclaimed
the woman in astonishment, "don't you know this is the 11th October?"
"Yes," she replied. "Bless me, ma'am! And you ask me to let my children
go out blackberrying! Why, I thought every one knew that the devil went
round on the 10th October, and spat on all the blackberries, and that if
any person were to eat on the 11th, he or some one belonging to him
would either die or fall into great trouble before the year was out."

In Scotland the devil is said to but throw his cloak over the
blackberries and render them unwholesome, while in Ireland he is said to
stamp on them. Among further stories of this kind may be quoted one
current in Devonshire respecting St. Dunstan, who, it is said, bought up
a quantity of barley for brewing beer. The devil, knowing how anxious
the saint would be to get a good sale for his beer, offered to blight
the apple trees, so that there should be no cider, and hence a greater
demand for beer, on condition that he sold himself to him. St. Dunstan
accepted the offer, and stipulated that the trees should be blighted on
the 17th, 18th, and 19th May. Should the apple-blossom be nipped by cold
winds or frost about this time, many allusions are still made to
St. Dunstan.

Of the plants associated personally with the evil one may be mentioned
the henbane, which is known in Germany as the "devil's eye," a name
applied to the stich-wort in Wales. A species of ground moss is also
styled in Germany the "devil's claws;" one of the orchid tribe is
"Satan's hand;" the lady's fingers is "devil's claws," and the plantain
is "devil's head." Similarly the house-leek has been designated the
"devil's beard," and a Norfolk name for the stinkhorn is "devil's horn."
Of further plants related to his Satanic majesty is the clematis, termed
"devil's thread," the toad-flax is his ribbon, the indigo his dye, while
the scandix forms his darning-needles. The tritoma, with its brilliant
red blossom, is familiar in most localities as the "devil's poker," and
the ground ivy has been nicknamed the "devil's candlestick," the
mandrake supplying his candle. The puff-balls of the lycoperdon form the
devil's snuff-box, and in Ireland the nettle is his apron, and the
convolvulus his garter; while at Iserlohn, in Germany,[7] "the mothers,
to deter their children eating the mulberries, sing to them t