rts of Yorkshire there is a notion that if a child gather the
germander speedwell (_Veronica chamoedrys_), its mother will die during
the year. Herrick has a pretty allusion to the daffodil:--

"When a daffodil I see
Hanging down her head t'wards me,
Guess I may what I must be:
First, I shall decline my head;
Secondly, I shall be dead;
Lastly, safely buried."

In Germany, the marigold is with the greatest care excluded from the
flowers with which young women test their love-affairs; and in Austria
it is held unlucky to pluck the crocus, as it draws away the strength.

An ash leaf is still frequently employed for invoking good luck, and in
Cornwall we find the old popular formula still in use:--

"Even ash, I do thee pluck,
Hoping thus to meet good luck;
If no good luck I get from thee,
I shall wish thee on the tree."

And there is the following well-known couplet:--

"With a four-leaved clover, a double-leaved ash, and a green-topped
leave,
You may go before the queen's daughter without asking leave."

But, on the other hand, the finder of the five-leaved clover, it is
said, will have bad luck.

In Scotland [3] it was formerly customary to carry on the person a piece
of torch-fir for good luck--a superstition which, Mr. Conway remarks, is
found in the gold-mines of California, where the men tip a cone with the
first gold they discover, and keep it as a charm to ensure good luck
in future.

Nuts, again, have generally been credited with propitious qualities, and
have accordingly been extensively used for divination. In some
mysterious way, too, they are supposed to influence the population, for
when plentiful, there is said to be a corresponding increase of babies.
In Russia the peasantry frequently carry a nut in their purses, from a
belief that it will act as a charm in their efforts to make money.
Sternberg, in his "Northamptonshire Glossary" (163), says that the
discovery of a double nut, "presages well for the finder, and unless he
mars his good fortune by swallowing both kernels, is considered an
infallible sign of approaching 'luck.' The orthodox way in such cases
consists in eating one, and throwing the other over the shoulder."

The Icelanders have a curious idea respecting the mountain-ash,
affirming that it is an enemy of the juniper, and that if one is
planted on one side of a tree, and the other on the other, they will
split it. It is also asserted that if both a