Shakespeare’s Macbeth opens with three witches stirring a cauldron, into which they throw all sorts of vile-sounding things such as eye of newt, toe of frog, and tongue of dog, just to name a few. Where, exactly, does one obtain eye of newt? Well, it as luck would have it, Shakespeare was pretty knowledgeable about the folk magic of his era, and included in his Scottish play a number of ingredients that he called by their folkloric names rather than their botanical ones. There are actually hundreds of plants and flowers called by folkloric names which often make them sound much stranger than they really are. Let’s take a look…

Shakespeare’s play Macbeth opens with three witches stirring a cauldron, into which they throw all sorts of vile-sounding things such as eye of newt, toe of frog, and tongue of dog, just to name a few. Where, exactly, does one obtain eye of newt? Well, it as luck would have it, Shakespeare was pretty knowledgeable about the folk magic of his era, and included in his Scottish play a number of ingredients that he called by their folkloric names rather than their botanical ones. There are actually hundreds of plants and flowers that are called by folkloric names that often make them sound much stranger than they really are. Let’s…