Pansy Cradledew draws to my attention this title from a small collection of Victorian Yellowjackets*. Alas, I have never read Misery Junction by Richard Henry, and I find myself wondering if the story is set in one of the notorious junctions and sidings of the Hooting Yard to O’Houlihan’s Wharf Branch Line. There, Misery Junction is the foul rainswept junction between two other junctions, one called Moral Squalor Junction and the other known as Pretty Little Dandelion Junction. It should be noted that the pretty little dandelions growing so profusely around the railway lines at that spot were contaminated with some kind of toxin, and the pretty little ponies which cantered up to them for a lunchtime chew were swiftly carted off to the knackers yard, stone dead.
* NOTE : Pansy quite rightly points out that I have confused a series of 19th century paperbacks (Yellowbacks) with a type of wasp (Yellowjacket). Such an easy mistake to make.
It always amused me that the French name for dandelion leaves is ‘pis-en-lit’ (wet the bed), which reflects their diuretic effect. What those poor ponies went through doesn’t bear thinking about…
That takes me back…
My childhood was filled with ‘plant-lore’…
‘Sourpus’ can be chewed..
The nettle/dock relationship..
The one that filled me with mortal dread was told about ‘birds-eye’ flowers (very small, pale blue…)
If one were to pick them birds would descend from the sky and peck your eyes out…
O.S.M.
(Don’t get me started about the red-legged sissor man or Rosie o’Fisher…)
OSM : I think we all need to hear more about the birds-eye flowers. Well, I do.
I’ve always know the them as ‘Bird’s Eye’…
My grandmother told me why it was unwise to pick them..
I can say with hand on heart that I have never picked one, just in case…
Just thinking about them makes me uneasy…
So, in view of your request, rmed only with the name Bird’s Eye and the knowledge of what they look like, I did some research..
They are a variety of Speedwell:
http://www.plantpress.com/wildlife/o564-germanderspeedwell.php
All well and good…
Then I followed this link and thinks got weird:
http://www.germanderspeedwell.org.uk/
Don’t you know her…?
O.S.M.
Speaking of plant-lore, I read on “DC’s Improbably Science” blog that homeopath quack Rachael Roberts claims that Hemlock is the “number 1 remedy” for at least one form of cancer. Better to be a pony chewing toxic dandelion leaves than to be one of Mrs. Robert’s customers.
More plant-lore:
http://dcscience.net/?p=920
It seems that that future king of plant knowledge HRH Prince Charles has incorporated essences of dandelion into his “Detox Tincture”. Might it be possible that the toxins be somehow de-toxified by the mere presence of the dandelions? Of course a dandelion leaf is not the same thing as a homeopathic dandelion tincture.