seasonal plants and tax collectors

[watervole]

My mum's trying to do a Christmas quiz and we've solved everything except one question where I haven't got a clue and even Google and Wikipedia have let me down.

What seasonal plant is supposed to protect you against tax collectors?

All suggestions gratefully recieved!

Comments

[fifitrix.livejournal.com]

Sage???

It's also the name of accountancy software... but it is a bit of a leap.

[peaceful-fox.livejournal.com]

Bayberry? The only thing I can think of is a saying. The saying is "A Bayberry Candle burned to the socket, brings prosperity to the home and money in the pocket".

[alex-holden.livejournal.com]

I wonder if it could be Mistletoe. Apparently one of the traditions associated with it is hanging it over your door to prevent evil spirits entering your house.

[alexmc.livejournal.com]

I believe Fat Freddie of the Freak Brothers suggested it was weed, because weed helped you cope with times of no money, but money didnt help that much in times of no weed.

Am off for roast peking duck for lunch. bye

[ia-robertson.livejournal.com]

Something to do with the disciple Matthew?? He was a tax collector....

Alastair

[ia-robertson.livejournal.com]

Christmas Trees???

See http://www.environmentprobe.org/enviroprobe/pridon/chapter10.html

"In 1993, Ontario's woodlots began to fall beneath the taxman's axe.(3) That year the government, infamous for clearing public lands, turned its attention to the private sector. By dramatically increasing realty tax costs on privately owned forest lands, it forced their exploitation and development.

Provincial tax assessors had long discriminated against forest land, valuing it not at its current use but at some higher potential use, or theoretical "market value," that a better financial steward than the forest owner could marshal.(4) The best potential use of most forest land, the entrepreneurial tax assessors decided, was not forestry, recreation, or wildlife protection but residential development. Thus all woodlands in Ontario, except Christmas tree plantations, sugar bush and others qualifying as farms, were assessed on their theoretical development potential, limited only by what local zoning bylaws allowed"

[watervole.livejournal.com]

WEll, it's the best suggestion yet!

I can't believe a government would do something like that - I mean, have they no respect for the environment at all?

Government and Environment

[johnrw.livejournal.com]

I trust the above was a rhetorical comment. If not as a family we have a wealth of experience about exactly how much (or little) the government - through DEFRA actually understands and cares about the environment. It's only when the environment threatens to impinge on their chances of being elected that they consider doing anything more than utter platitudes (and those are designed for maximum spin with minimum exertion.

Re: Government and Environment

[johnrw.livejournal.com]

Oops, and a merry Christmas to you all!

[surliminal.livejournal.com]

Plant could be factory and tax collectors were sometimes called factors - are you sure you're looking for the right answer?

Or - thistles?

[auntygillian.livejournal.com]

umm, yews - often planted in churchyards - death and taxes? Latin name for yew is Taxus.

But sounds like a biblical reference. Tax collector =publican in the Bible.
Apparently people used to be taxed according to the number of fruit trees they had during a certain period, so sometimes people would cut down trees to reduce their taxes.