SPRING flowers must have been a godsend to our ancestors who did not have the advantage of a friendly neighbourhood chemist. I explored my favourite wood and listed plants which were once collected and used.

A favourite was the primrose but I also found butterbur and lots of bracket fungus.

Butterbur had two uses. Its huge umbrella-like leaves were used to wrap butter in the days before greaseproof paper was available. The plant was also dried and brewed like tea. When this was drunk it caused sweating and helped to treat high temperatures. The "normal" type of butterbur is very common but there is a very rare white variety found near Brungerly Bridge between Clitheroe and Waddington.

My woodland is dominated by birch and this tree oozes lots of sap in the springtime. This was collected and the liquid brewed into a very potent wine.

Birch trees do not live very long and are often attacked by fungi. I found birch trees infected by bracket fungus which had no medical use but nevertheless it was very useful. The fungus has a very leathery texture and was used as a strop by barbers to sharpen their cut-throat razors.

I would be interested to hear from Lancashire Evening Telegraph readers who know of any other uses which our ancestors made of local plants

Letter of the week

DEAR Mr Freethy,

NOW that spring is here and the birds are starting to build nests, it is lovely to watch them collecting from my brush wisps of the soft downy hair and undercoat which I have saved up all the year -- from last summer. A better use than throwing it in a bin

It is amusing to think that part of our little pet, a 'yorkie,' is somewhere up there in a nest in a tree, or under some leaves, helping to keep some little fledgelings warm.

MRS C BROOKE

Bank Hey Lane South, Blackburn.

Ron's reply:

What a good idea. Spring is the time when birds do not need to be fed. Why not groom your pet and provide much needed nesting material for the birds?

Plant of the week

Primrose -- Primula vulgaris

IF you translate directly from the Latin we have the common Prima Rose -- the first rose of spring. Actually, this delightful flower is not a rose at all but its sweet scent is reminiscent of roses.

For some reason it is also known as Pimrose in Lancashire and it is seen at its best at this time of the year. In the past primroses were an important part of Easter decorations in churches.

Gerard Manley Hopkins, a poet and Roman Catholic priest living at Stonyhurst, wrote in his journal of 1871 that the primrose "is remarkable, due to the deeper yellow middle."