Ethnobotanic studies. IX. Sundew
The article concerns Slavonic dialectal names of sundew - a herbal insectivorous perennial plant of Droseraceae family, dwelling on boggy soils. A special attention is paid to the plant’s features influencing its names in various parts of Slavonic-speaking territory, beliefs about the plant (reflected in folklore), as well as the use of sundew in ethnomedicine and folk magic. Most Slavonic names of the plant - as, for example, Russian росяница, Bulgarian росица, Serbo-Croatian росика, Czech rosa, Polish rosiczka - ascends to the root ros - ‘dew’. These phytonyms reflect the special feature of the plant, that is drops of the liquid, intended for digesting insects, on the upper surface of the leaves. These drops in folk ideas are likened to dew. Such association includes the afore-named phytonyms into the vast area of general Slavonic ideas about dew. The dew was supposed to be especially useful in treatment of eye and skin diseases, which explains the use of sundew for diseases of eyes (and against the ‘evil eye’), and probably appearing of such phytonyms as Russian царские очи and царевы очи (lit. “king's eyes”). On the one hand, such similarity in phytonyms suggests pre-Slavonic origin of the names for sundew. On the other hand, there exists not only a number of Slavonic, but also German, French, English, and medieval Latin names with the inner form “sunny dew”. They suggest a later borrowing of this composite phytonym from western manuscript tradition. The insectivorous type of the plant’s feeding influenced its use as a love-potion.