"MadCow" wrote in message
...
In message , ned
writes

I think the comfort of Ladies Bedstraw came from the aroma
which
masked the domestic odours of them long gone days.

I've been away for a week but I'm interested in what 'domestic
odours' you
think would need masking and in which days?

This is the stuff of myth and legend - bit before even my time.
I am given to understand that - in days of yore, before Fairy Snow,
Laundromats and body deodorants, when the hay filled mattresses of
the
time became a bit, er, 'rank', ladies were given to adding Galium
aparine to the mattress to 'freshen' the bedding, hence 'Ladies
bedstraw'.


Perhaps, but Keble Martin says Lady's Bedstraw is Gallium verum, not
aparine.
The difference is that G. verum (the little yellow-flowered bedstraw
that's common on dry roadsides) isn't remotely so scratchy.

Mattresses were filled with straw (not hay, which would turn to
compost
very quickly) until after World War 2. Witnesses say they were
rather
scratchy. Maybe lady's bedstraw was more comfortable, maybe the
peasants made it up.

Well corrected on all counts!
I'm not right often and blow me, I'm wrong again.

--
ned