1. My father told me his mother used to store the leaves of Madonna lilies – Lilium candidum – in small jars of brandy. These were placed on severe cuts or abrasions before bandaging to promote healing [Little Barford, Cambridgeshire, March 1993].

2. A Madonna lily cure: some of the older women [of Great and Little Waltham] still use the petals on bad cuts and say they heal quickly [Little Waltham, Essex, January 1978].

Images: main, Maciek Godlewski, Wiki Commons; upper inset, stylized painting in quire, Abbey Church of St Mary the Virgin, Sherborne, Dorset, October 2015; lower inset, detail of ‘Adoration of Angels’ reredos by Alice and Morris Meredith Williams, c.1928, in the Chambers Aisle, St Giles’ Cathedral, Edinburgh, November 2015.