logy has gathered fairyland, and hence in
Germany the holes in its trunk are the pathways for elves. But the
connection between lightning and plants extends over a wide area, and
Germany is rich in legends relative to this species of folk-lore. Thus
there is the magic springwort, around which have clustered so many
curious lightning myths and talismanic properties. By reason of its
celestial origin this much-coveted plant, when buried in the ground at
the summit of a mountain, has the reputation of drawing down the
lightning and dividing the storm. It is difficult, however, to procure,
especially as there is no certainty as to the exact species of plants to
which it belongs, although Grimm identifies it with the _Euphorbia
lathyris_. At any rate, it is chiefly procurable by the woodpecker--a
lightning-bearer; and to secure this much-prized treasure, its nest must
be stopped up, access to which it will quickly gain by touching it with
the springwort. But if one have in readiness a pan of water, a fire, or
a red cloth, the bird will let the plant fall, which otherwise it would
be a difficult work to obtain, "the notion, no doubt, being that the
bird must return the mystic plant to the element from which it springs,
that being either the water of the clouds or the lightning fire enclosed
therein."[11]

Professor Gubernatis, referring to the symbolical nature of this
tradition, remarks that, "this herb may be the moon itself, which opens
the hiding-place of the night, or the thunderbolt, which opens the
hiding-places of the cloud." According to the Swiss version of the story
it is the hoopoe that brings the spring-wort, a bird also endowed with
mystic virtues,[12] while in Iceland, Normandy, and ancient Greece it is
an eagle, a swallow, or an ostrich. Analogous to the talismanic
properties of the springwort are those of the famous luck or key-flower
of German folk-lore, by the discovery of which the fortunate possessor
effects an entrance into otherwise inaccessible fairy haunts, where
unlimited treasures are offered for his acceptance. There then, again,
the luck-flower is no doubt intended to denote the lightning, which
reveals strange treasures, giving water to the parched and thirsty land,
and, as Mr. Fiske remarks, "making plain what is doing under cover of
darkness."[13] The lightning-flash, too, which now and then, as a lesson
of warning, instantly strikes dead those who either rashly or
presumptuously essay to enter