ON THE 
 
 POPULAR NAMES OF BEITISH PLANTS.
 
 ON THE 
 
 POPULAR NAMES 
 
 OP 
 
 BKITISH PLANTS, 
 
 BEING AN EXPLANATION OP THE 
 
 OEIGIN AND MEANING 
 
 OF THE NAMES OF OUR 
 
 INDIGENOUS AND MOST COMMONLY CULTIVATED SPECIES. 
 
 E. C. A. PEIOE, M.D., 
 
 FELLOW OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS OF LONDON, AND OF THE LINNKAN 
 AND OTHER SOCIETIES ; 
 
 TRANSLATOR OF "ANCIENT DANISH BALLADS." 
 
 SECOND EDITION 
 
 f 
 
 WILLIAMS AND NOEGATE, 
 
 14, HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN, LONDON. 
 
 AND 20, SOUTH FREDERICK STREET, EDINBURGH. 
 
 1870.
 
 HERTFORD : 
 PRINTED BY STEPHEN AUSTIN.
 
 ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 IN publishing a second edition of this work, I beg to 
 express my warmest thanks and my obligation to many 
 friends, and to many correspondents not personally known 
 to me, but more particularly to Mr. Leo Grindon, of 
 Manchester, and Mr. M. P. Edg worth, and the Rev. J. C . 
 Atkinson, for much valuable information that they have 
 given me, and for the correction of several oversights 
 and errors. 
 
 R.C.A.P. 
 
 HALSE HOUSE, NEAR TAUNTON, 
 Nov. I, 1870. 
 
 2091230
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 THE authors of our several Floras, and other systematic 
 writers, have been careful to translate the Greek and Latin 
 names of our plants, and, as far as it is known, to explain 
 their meaning, but have passed over the popular ones, as 
 though the derivation of these were too obvious to require 
 any notice. This is far indeed from being the case. Our 
 excellent lexicons and Latin dictionaries enable us in most 
 cases to understand the former with comparative facility, 
 but in the very backward state of English etymology, as 
 exhibited in books of reference, it is impossible, without 
 a great waste of time and trouble, to discover the real 
 meaning of the latter ; of those more particularly which 
 date from an early period. It is the object of the follow- 
 ing Vocabulary to supply the defect. 
 
 The Anglo-Saxon names, during the period of nearly 
 five hundred years that intervened between the Conquest 
 and the revival of botanical inquiry in the sixteenth cen- 
 tury, had, the most of them, fallen into disuse, and been 
 replaced with others taken from Latin and French, or 
 transferred to plants to which they did not originally
 
 VU1 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 belong. They have probably been nearly all of them 
 preserved to us in ancient manuscripts ; but it is difficult 
 to ascertain what were the several plants that were meant 
 by them. Indeed it is not likely that in earlier times any 
 great number of our indigenous species had been carefully 
 distinguished. It is only when nations have arrived at a 
 high state of culture, that they are curious about objects of 
 Natural History, as such, or have special names for any 
 but a few of the more conspicuously useful, beautiful, or 
 troublesome of them. Our fruit and timber trees, the 
 cereal grains, and several potherbs and medicinal plants, 
 have the same at the present day as they bore a thousand 
 years ago ; but by far the greater number of our other 
 species have only such as have been given to them 
 within the last three hundred years. These, for the most 
 part, were introduced from abroad; for in the accurate 
 study of living plants the continental nations took the 
 lead, and our own early herbalists did little more than 
 ascertain which they meant, and apply their names to our 
 own. 
 
 In the selection of these the father of English Botany, 
 Dr. "William Turner, set his successors a laudable example 
 by keeping as closely as possible to the Flemish and 
 German, as languages more akin to our mother-tongue, 
 and intelligible to the uneducated, than Greek and Latin. 
 Lyte in his excellent translation of Dodoens did the same, 
 and was worthily followed by Gerarde, and by Parkinson. 
 The works of later herbalists are little else than transcripts
 
 INTRODUCTION. IX 
 
 of what was published by these four. Turner's Herbal 
 came out in three parts between 1551 and 1568 ; Lyte's in 
 1578 ; Gerarde's in 1597 ; a new edition of it by T. John- 
 ston in 1632 ; and Parkinson's two works, his Paradisus 
 Terrestris, and his Theatre of Botany, in 1629 and 1643. 
 The Grete Herball, the Little Herbals, and Macer's Herbal, 
 Batman's Bartholomew de Glantvilla, and some other 
 black-letter books of an earlier date than Turner's, are of 
 scarcely any assistance to us, from the difficulty there is to 
 discover by their very inadequate descriptions, what plants 
 they mean. The ancient vocabularies published by Jos. 
 Mayer and Wright, and by Halliwell and Wright, and 
 others in the British Museum* and foreign libraries, are, 
 for the same reason, very seldom available. Some very 
 valuable manuscripts have, since the first edition of this 
 work, been published, with a translation and glossary, by 
 the Rev. Oswald Cockayne, in his " Anglo-Saxon Leech- 
 doms," a work of great interest, and one to which reference 
 is made in the following pages. 
 
 There are distinguished botanists at the present day who 
 look upon popular names as leading to confusion, and a 
 nuisance, and who would gladly abandon them, and ignore 
 their existence. But this is surely a mistake, for there 
 will always be ladies and others, who, with the greatest 
 zeal for the pursuit of Natural History, have not had the 
 
 * I have here the agreeable duty of acknowledging the kindness of Mr. 
 J. J. Bennett, the Curator of the Botanical collections, in most handsomely 
 placing at my disposal many extracts from these manuscripts, that lie had 
 made for a similar undertaking.
 
 X INTRODUCTION. 
 
 opportunity of learning Greek and Latin, or have forgotten 
 it, and who will prefer to call a plant by a name that they 
 can pronounce and recollect. We need but to ask our- 
 selves, what success would have attended the exertions 
 of the late excellent and benevolent Professor Henslow 
 among the little pupils of 'his village school, if he had 
 used any names but the popular ones. 
 
 Besides, admitting to the full all that can be urged 
 against them from a purely botanical point of view, 
 we still may derive both pleasure and instruction from 
 tracing them back to their origin, and reading in 
 them the habits and opinions of former ages. In 
 following up such an analysis we soon find that we are 
 travelling far away from the humble occupation of the 
 herbalist, and are entering upon a higher region of lite- 
 rature, the history of man's progress, and the gradual 
 development of his civilization. Some of the plants that 
 were familiar to our ancestors in Central Asia, bear with 
 us to this day the very names they bore there, and as 
 distinctly intimate by them the uses to which they were 
 applied, and the degree of culture which prevailed where 
 they were given, as do those of the domestic affinities the 
 various occupations of the primeval family. The names of 
 animals, with which many are compounded, carry us still 
 further back, or to still more distant regions ; for in some 
 cases it is impossible now to deduce any meaning from 
 them at all, and it is probable that these names may have 
 been adopted, with the knowledge of the animal, from an
 
 INTRODUCTION. XI 
 
 entirely alien nation. In such, for instance, as hound and 
 ox, we have unquestionable proof that they must have been 
 given to those animals, before the existing dialects of our 
 ancient mother-tongue had assumed their distinctive form ; 
 and this must have been at an immensely remote point of 
 time. For to educe from the same language others so dif- 
 ferent from one another, not only in their vocabulary, but 
 in their grammatical construction and declensions, as were 
 already in their earliest known state the oldest of them 
 with which we are acquainted, the Sanskrit, Latin, Greek, 
 and Gothic, required a period, not of centuries merely, but 
 millennia. 
 
 The most interesting, in this respect, of the names that 
 have come down to us, are those which date from a period 
 antecedent to the settlement of the German race in Eng- 
 land, names which are deducible from Anglo-Saxon roots, 
 and identical, with allowance for dialectic peculiarities, in 
 all the High and Low German, and Scandinavian lan- 
 guages, and, what is particularly worthy of our attention, 
 each of them expressive of some distinct meaning. These 
 will prove, what with many readers is a fact ascertained 
 upon other evidence, such as the contents of sepulchral 
 mounds, traditionary laws, and various parallel researches, 
 that the tribes which descended upon Britain had entered 
 Europe, not as a set of savages, or wandering pastoral 
 tribes, or mere pirates and warriors, but as colonists, who, 
 rude as they may have been in dress and manners, yet, in 
 essential points, were already a civilized people. It will
 
 Xli INTRODUCTION. 
 
 be seen at the same time that they must have come from 
 a colder country ; for while these names comprehend the 
 Oak, Beech, Birch, Hawthorn, and Sloe, trees that extend 
 far into Northern Asia, they do not comprise the Elm, 
 Chesnut, Maple, Walnut, Sycamore, Holly, or any ever- 
 green, except of the fir tribe, or Plum, Pear, Peach, or 
 Cherry, or any other fruit-tree, except the Apple. For all 
 these latter they adopted Latin names, a proof that at the 
 time when they first came into contact with the Roman 
 provincials on the Lower Rhine, they were not the settled 
 inhabitants of the country they were then occupying, but 
 foreigners newly arrived there as colonists or conquerors 
 from a country where those trees were unknown. It is 
 remarkable that the early Greek writers make no mention 
 of any German tribes, but represent the Scythians as the 
 next neighbours of the Celts, and this difference in the 
 names of the one set of trees and the other, and the names 
 which they adopted being Roman, and not Celtic, suggests 
 that the Germans had come down from the north-east not 
 very long before the Christian era, and intruded them- 
 selves, as a wedge, between those two more anciently 
 recorded nations. 
 
 There seems to be much misapprehension in respect to 
 this great movement of the Eastern races which broke up 
 the Roman empire. The subject is one, into which it 
 would here be out of place to enter fully, and it has been 
 largely treated by J. Grimm in his admirable Geschichte 
 der Deutschen Sprache. But even in the following voca-
 
 INTRODUCTION. Xlll 
 
 bulary we shall see evidence of the continuous advance of 
 a civilized race from the confines of India to these islands, 
 and nothing indicative of a great rush from the North of 
 wild hordes bent upon robbery and destruction, as it has 
 been usually represented to have been. The gradual dry- 
 ing of the Caspian Sea left the interior of Asia more and 
 more barren, the knowledge of the useful metals facilitated 
 the conquest of the savages of the West, and it is likely 
 that predatory bands of Huns and Turks and allied no- 
 madic nations accelerated the movement by rendering the 
 labours of agriculture less remunerative. Thus the migra- 
 tion, being one that proceeded from constantly acting 
 causes, extended over many centuries. Let us lay aside 
 all prepossessions, and inquire what light is thrown by 
 the following vocabulary upon the real state of the Ger- 
 manic tribes at that period. 
 
 In these mere names of plants, setting aside all other 
 sources of information, we discover that these people 
 came from their home in the East with a knowledge of 
 letters, and the useful metals, and with nearly all the 
 domestic animals ; that they cultivated oats, barley, wheat, 
 rye, and beans ; built houses of timber, and thatched 
 them ; and, what is important, as showing that their 
 pasture and arable land was intermixed, and acknow- 
 ledged as private property, they hedged their fields and 
 fenced their gardens. Caesar denies this ; but the frontier 
 tribes, with whom he was acquainted, were living under 
 certain peculiar Mark laws, and were, in fact, little else 
 
 b
 
 XIV INTRODUCTION. 
 
 than an army on its march. The unquestionably native, 
 and not Latin or Celtic origin of such names as Beech and 
 Hawthorn, of Oats and Wheat, prove that although our 
 ancestors may have been indebted to the provincials of the 
 empire for their fruit-trees, and some other luxuries, for a 
 knowledge of the fine arts, and the Latin literature, and a 
 debased Christianity, the more essential acquirements upon 
 which their prosperity and progress as a nation depended 
 were already in their possession. Like the scattered lights 
 that a traveller from the wilderness sees here and there in 
 a town that lies shrouded in the darkness of night in a 
 valley beneath him, and the occasional indistinct and soli- 
 tary voice of some domestic animal, that for a moment 
 breaks the silence, these distant echoes of the past, these 
 specks that glimmer from its obscurity, faint as they are, 
 and few and far between, assure us that we are con- 
 templating a scene of human industry, and peace, and 
 civilization. 
 
 In this respect the inquiry is one of the highest interest. 
 In another it is probable that some who consult these 
 pages will be disappointed. The names have usually been 
 given to the plants from some use to which they were 
 applied, and very few of them bear any trace of poetry or 
 romance. In short, our Sweet Alisons and Herb Tru- 
 loves, our Heartseases, Sweet Cicelies, and Sweet "Williams 
 resolve themselves into sadly matter-of-fact terms, which 
 arose from causes very different from the pretty thoughts 
 with which they are now associated, and sometimes, as in
 
 INTRODUCTION. XV 
 
 the case of the Forget-me-not, were suggestive of very 
 disagreeable qualities. In many cases, as in that of the 
 hawkweed, the miltwaste, and the celandine, they refer 
 to virtues that were ascribed to the plants from the 
 use that birds and other animals were supposed to make 
 of them. Many more have been given to them in 
 accordance with the so-called doctrine of signatures. This 
 was a system for discovering the medicinal uses of a 
 plant from something in its external appearance that 
 resembled the disease it would cure, and proceeded 
 upon the belief that God had in this manner indicated 
 its especial virtues. Thus the hard stony seeds of the 
 Gromwell must be good for gravel, and the knotty tubers 
 of scrophularia for scrofulous glands ; while the scaly 
 pappus of Scabiosa showed it to be a specific in leprous 
 diseases, the spotted leaves of Pulmonaria, that it was a 
 sovereign remedy for tuberculous lungs, and the growth of 
 Saxifrage in the fissures of rocks, that it would disinte- 
 grate stone in the bladder. For, as "Wm. Coles tells us in 
 his Art of Simpling, ch. xxvii : " Though Sin and Sathan 
 have plunged mankinde into an Ocean of Infirmities, yet 
 the mercy of God which is over all his workes, maketh 
 Grasse to grow upon the Mountaines, and Herbes for the 
 use of men, and hath not only stamped upon them a dis- 
 tinct forme, but also given them particular Signatures, 
 whereby a man may read, even in legible characters, the 
 use of them." 
 
 Other names we shall find relate to the economical uses
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 to which the plants were once applied. Some few are 
 descriptive ; some refer to the legends or the ceremonies of 
 the Roman Catholic Church ; some to the elegant mytho- 
 logy of the Greeks ; some to a vulgar joke. In thinking 
 over these names, and the antiquated notions that they 
 represent, we are led at every moment to recall the times 
 from which they date, to picture to ourselves the living 
 figures of our ancestors, to hear them speaking their obso- 
 lete dialect, and almost to make the weeds that shadow 
 their grave tell more than their tombstone of its sleeping 
 inhabitants. 
 
 The terms with which we have to deal may for con- 
 venience be referred to two groups, as Germanic, or 
 Romanic. To the former belong such as are of Anglo- 
 Saxon, German, or Low German, or Scandinavian origin, 
 and to the latter such as are French, or derived from 
 other forms of debased Latin, including a few adopted into 
 it from the Arabic. When a word falls within the first 
 group, we find great assistance in Dr. Bosworth's and 
 J. Jamieson's Dictionaries, and in the works of Adelung, 
 Bopp, Pott, Diefenbach, and the brothers Grimm, and in 
 those of the Frisian and Scandinavian writers. French 
 words, from the loss of those Celtic dialects with which 
 the Latin element of the language was corrupted, and the 
 extreme degree of debasement to which it has arrived, are 
 of much more difficult analysis. For these we have the 
 assistance of Diez's Worterbuch der romanischen Sprachen, 
 and Scheler's Dictionnaire d'Etymologie Franchise, and the
 
 INTRODUCTION XV11 
 
 admirable Dictionnaire etymologique of Emile Egger, and 
 the copious Dictionnaire de la Langue Frangaise of Li tire* . 
 A large number of the names referrible to this group have 
 been adopted from the Latin of the Middle Ages, a jargon 
 that, with many peculiarities in each country, was at one 
 period used all over the "West of Europe, and is explained 
 in the great Lexicon Mediae Latinitatis of Ducange. These 
 names, obscure as they often were from the first, have 
 been so corrupted by ignorant copyists as in many cases to 
 defy all analysis, and render it necessary to refer to old 
 vocabularies, catalogues, and herbals to discover their 
 meaning. We might have expected many to have been 
 derived from the language of the ancient Britons ; but, 
 as far as I am aware, " Maple " is the only one ; and 
 there are very few indeed that have been adopted from 
 the modern Welsh, or from the Erse or Gaelic. 
 
 As the term " Ind-European " will be frequently used, 
 and some may refer to the following vocabulary who have 
 not entered into philological speculations of this kind, it is 
 necessary to mention that the analysis of words, and the 
 comparison of their roots and grammatical structure, have 
 proved that all the principal languages of alphabetical 
 literature, exclusive of the Arabic and its allies, are inti- 
 mately connected with the ancient dialects of Persia and 
 Northern India. This has been considered by many 
 writers as a proof that all the nations which speak them 
 have descended from a common stock, and although this 
 inference as to the people may be incorrect, still, in a philo-
 
 XV111 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 logical point of view, we may treat the languages as sister 
 descendants of some Asiatic parent which has long since 
 perished, and rank with them such other dialects as agree 
 with these in their roots and structure. Under "Ind-Euro- 
 pean," then, will be comprised Sanskrit and Zend, and all 
 the Indian and Persian dialects that are related to them ; 
 Greek ; Latin, and its modern varieties ; Celtic ; Gothic, 
 and all the other Germanic and Scandinavian dialects ; 
 Lithuanian, and Slavonian ; but not Basque, Lapp, Finn, 
 Magyar, or Turkish. The language of the Indian Yedas, 
 as the oldest existing member of the family, is that to 
 which linguists refer in searching for the roots of words of 
 this class, itself no more than the representative of another 
 still more ancient one, which is utterly lost. 
 
 In order to avoid a long word, and for no other appa- 
 rent reason, it has been proposed of late to supersede the 
 very expressive and most unobjectionable term of " Indo-"* 
 or " Ind-European," and to substitute for k it that of "Aryan," 
 which it is to be hoped will not be generally adopted. For, 
 as well as this may apply to a few Asiatic dialects, it is 
 only by violently wrenching words from their proper 
 meaning, that it can be extended to the European mem- 
 bers of the group. It is perhaps an even stronger objec- 
 tion to its use that some of the most distinguished philo- 
 logists of the day have applied it specially to these Asiatic 
 
 * I have ventured in this word to omit the o, as is done in other words 
 similarly formed from Greek and Latin ; e.g. magnanimous, philanthropy, 
 and neuralgia, which are never written magno-animous, philo-anthropy, und 
 neuro-algia.
 
 INTRODUCTION. XIX 
 
 languages in contrasting them with the European. Thus 
 L. Diefenbach, Or. Eur. p. 34 : 
 
 " Hire beiden starnme in Asien : der Indische und der Iranische, 
 der wahrscheinlichst einst auch im ostlichen Europa hauste, ritt, 
 und fuhr, bilden sammtlichen Europaischen gegeniiber eine 
 gruppe die wir die Arische nennen." 
 
 Other terms, such as "Japetic," " Indo- Germanic," and 
 " Caucasian," are too vague, or too limited. 
 
 But independently of the etymology of the names taken 
 by themselves, the question is ever arising, why they 
 should have been affixed to certain plants. Where old 
 writers are quoted, and they give the reason for those 
 that they have themselves imposed, their authority is, of 
 course, conclusive ; but in other cases their notions are 
 often fanciful, and must be accepted with great reserve ; 
 for old as are the writers and their books, relatively to 
 modern botanists and floras, the names that they inter- 
 preted were often older than they, and the original mean- 
 ing of them forgotten. Synonyms in foreign languages, 
 including the Latin, are of essential service, but neither 
 are these very trustworthy; for authors, mistaking the 
 sense of some unusual or obsolete word in one language, 
 have often translated it wrongly into another ; and this is 
 a fault that was as often made in ancient as in modern 
 times ; so that it is quite impossible to reconcile what is 
 said of certain plants by Greek and by Latin writers. In 
 the case of the Hyacinth, Violet, Anemony, and other con- 
 spicuous flowers mentioned by Theocritus as Sicilian plants,
 
 XX INTRODUCTION. 
 
 this is the more extraordinary, as the flora of that island 
 is very similar to the Italian, and from its vicinity might 
 have been familiar to Italian poets. But we find even in 
 our own small island, that, what a Scotchman calls a 
 " Bluebell," and makes the subject of popular songs, is a 
 totally different flower from the English Bluebell. 
 
 It is this vague and random way of applying the 
 same name to very different plants that occasions the 
 greatest difficulty in the attempt to discover its original 
 meaning. Who would dream that the Privet, for in- 
 stance, has obtained a name indicative of " early spring" 
 from having been confused under "Ligustrum" with 
 the Primrose ? or that the Primrose has borrowed its 
 name from the Daisy ? Numberless blunders of this 
 kind arose while the art of describing a species was as 
 yet unknown, and learned recluses, instead of studying 
 nature in the fields, were perplexing themselves with a 
 vain attempt to find in the north of Europe the Mediter- 
 ranean plants of Theophrastus and Dioscorides. Indeed it 
 was not till the publication of Turner's Herbal in the six- 
 teenth century, that there was any possibility of ascertain- 
 ing with certainty, through any English work, which of 
 several species, or, indeed, which of several genera, might 
 be meant by any given name ; and, as it would be mere 
 waste of time to attempt it now, the following vocabulary 
 will contain, with the exception of a few from Chaucer, 
 none but such as have been in use since that period. 
 
 Under the head of Popular Names our inquiry will
 
 INTRODUCTION. XXI 
 
 comprise those of the species most commonly cultivated 
 in this country, as well as those of the naturalized and 
 indigenous ones, but not Gardeners' or Farmers' names 
 of mere varieties. Provincial words, that have not found 
 their way into botanical works, are, with a very few ex- 
 ceptions, omitted. Many of these are very ancient, and 
 expressive, and good names, and curiously illustrative of 
 habits and superstitions that are rapidly passing away ; 
 but the study of them must be left to the local antiquary. 
 They seem, generally, to be traceable to the language of 
 the race which settled in the district where they prevail, 
 and much less than the book names to a French or Latin 
 source. In the northern counties and Scotland the nomen- 
 clature is very essentially different from that of the middle 
 and south of England, and contains many words of Norse 
 origin, and many of Frisian ; but unfortunately these 
 have been so vaguely applied, that nobody knows to what 
 plants they, any of them, properly belong. This is more 
 particularly the case with Scotch names. " Growan," 
 for instance, which in our English editions of Robert 
 Burns is explained for us as " the daisy," means in dif- 
 ferent parts of Scotland many different plants, which agree 
 in nothing but the having a yellow flower.* In Devon- 
 shire and the west of Somersetshire, there is also much 
 that is peculiar, and, apparently, continued from the 
 
 * The Cleveland dialect of Yorkshire, a dialect almost purely Norse, has 
 been most carefully investigated by the Rev. J. C. Atkinson in a work that is 
 a model of accurate research, and should form a basis upon which to construct 
 a more general glossary of the language of the North .Humbrian counties.
 
 XX11 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Anglo-Saxon period. In Suffolk, too, there has been a 
 great number of valuable old names preserved, and care- 
 fully recorded in the Vocabularies of Moore and Forby. 
 Many that are familiar to us in ancient herbals and in 
 old poetry, have long fallen into disuse, except as they 
 occur in the names of villages, and surnames of families, 
 such as the places beginning with Gold, the ancient 
 name of the marigold ; as Goldby, Goldham, Goldthorpe, 
 Goldsbury, and Goldworthy ; and the families of Arnott, 
 Sebright, Boughtflower, Weld, Pettigrew, Lyne, Spink, 
 Kemp, and Harlock. Those of the commonest plants are 
 the most variable, as the rarer ones have attracted too 
 little of popular notice to have any but such as are given 
 in books. 
 
 It seems desirable that these old names should be 
 preserved, but there is already much greater difficulty 
 in obtaining a correct list of those of any particular dis- 
 trict, and the meaning of them, than there was a genera- 
 tion ago, from the dying out of the race of herb-doctors, 
 and of the simplers, generally females, who used to collect 
 for them. It is doubtful, indeed, whether any one of this 
 class could now be found, who has learnt them from tradi- 
 tion, and independently of modern books. 
 
 One of the last was about eighty years ago living at 
 Market Lavington in Wiltshire, a genuine old-fashioned 
 specimen of his class, a Dr. Batter. He was under- 
 stood to have had a regular medical education, probably 
 as an apothecary, and certainly enjoyed a very high
 
 INTRODUCTION. XX111 
 
 reputation. He lias been described to me by a physician 
 who knew him well, the late Dr. Sainsbury, sen., of 
 Corsham, as a very unpretending man, and a successful 
 practitioner, and visited and consulted from all parts of 
 the county. He had been brought up very humbly, and 
 lived and dressed as a poor man in a cottage by the road- 
 side, where he was born, and where his father and grand- 
 father had lived before him, and been famous in their day 
 as bonesetters. There, if the weather permitted, he would 
 bring out his chair and table, and seat his numerous 
 patients on the hedgebank, and prescribe for them out of 
 doors. It is said that, being well acquainted with every 
 part of the county, he would usually add to the names of 
 the plants that he ordered, the localities near the home of 
 his visitor where they would most readily be found. 
 
 There were probably up to the end of the last century 
 many such persons in other parts of England, combining 
 the trades of herbarist and apothecary, and humbly 
 supplying the place of those "gentlewomen" for whom 
 Gerarde wrote his Herbal, and of the kind and charitable 
 nuns of an earlier time. They were people of very humble 
 or no education, and we might be tempted to suppose that 
 we owe the absurd names we find in the following cata- 
 logue to their ignorance and credulity. This is not at all 
 the case. People in that rank of life seldom or never 
 originate anj^thing. Popular plant names, quite as much 
 as popular tales, superstitions, ballads, and remedies, arise 
 with a higher and more educated class of society, and
 
 XXIV INTRODUCTION. 
 
 merely survive in a lower, after they have elsewhere 
 become obsolete. We can scarcely read without a smile of 
 scorn the meaning of such names as Fumitory, Devil's bit, 
 Consound, and Celandine ; but it is to men of great 
 celebrity in their day, to Greek and Latin writers, such as 
 Theophrastus, Aristotle, Dioscorides, and Pliny, to Arabian 
 physicians, the most accomplished men of their time, and 
 to the authors and translators of our early herbals, that 
 we are indebted for nearly all such names as these. "We 
 are not to criticize them, or attempt to explain them away, 
 but honestly to trace them back to their origin, and in 
 doing so to bear in mind, for our own humiliation, that 
 those who have betrayed such astonishing ignorance and 
 superstition, passed in their day for philosophers and men 
 of letters.
 
 WOKKS EEFEEEED TO. 
 
 Aasen, J. Ordbog. o. d. Norske Folkesprog, 1850. 
 Adelung, J. C. Worterbuch, 1775. 
 Apuleius, L. De berbarum virtutibus, Basil, 1528. 
 Atkinson, J. C. The Cleveland Dialect, 1868. 
 Batman's Bartholomew de Glantvilla, 1582. 
 Bauhin, Gasp. Prodromus Theatri Botanici, 1620. 
 
 De plantis a Sanctis nomen habentibus, 1591. 
 
 Bauhin, J. Historia Plantarum, 1650. 
 Beckmann, J. A. Lexicon Botanicum, 1801. 
 Bopp, F. Comparative Grammar, 1862. 
 Bosworth, J. Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, 1838. 
 Brunsfelsius, 0. Novum Herbarium, 1531. 
 Brunschwygk, H. De arte distillandi, 1500. 
 Clusius, C. Plantse rariores, 1601. 
 Cockayne, 0. Leechdoms, 1864-6. 
 Coghan, Th. Haven of Health, 1584. 
 Coles, W. Adam in Eden, 1657. 
 
 Art of Simpling, 1656. 
 Cordus, E. In Dioscoridem, 1549. 
 Diefenbach, L. Lexicon Oomparativum, 1851. 
 
 ,, Origines Europsse, 1861. 
 
 Diez, Fr. Etymologisches Worterbuch, 1861. 
 Dodonseus, R. Stirpium Historise, 1583. 
 Douglas, Gavin. Virgil's .3Eneis, 1720. 
 Du Bartas, by Sylvester, Divine Weekes, 1611. 
 Du Cange, C. Glossarium Medise Latinitatis, 1772-84. 
 Du Chesne, E. A. Les Plantes Utiles, 1846. 
 Egger, E. Dictionnaire Etymologique, 1870. 
 Evelyn, J. Silva, 1786. 
 Fuchs, L. Historia Stirpium, 1542. 
 Garnett, R. Philological Essays, 1859. 
 Gerarde, J. Herbal, 1597. 
 
 ed. Th. Johnston, quoted as Ger. em., 1636. 
 
 Gesner, C. De Lunariis herbis, 1668.
 
 XXVI WORKS REFERRED TO. 
 
 Glantvilla, Bar. by J. Trevisa, 1535 ; by Batman, 1582. 
 Graff, E. G. Althochdeutscher Sprachschatz, 1834. 
 Gray, S. F. Natural Arrangement, 1821. 
 Crete Herball, by Trevisa, 1526, and 1651. 
 Grimm, J. Gesch. d. Deutschen Sprache, 1848. 
 
 J. and W. Deutsches Worterbuch, 
 
 Halliwell, J. 0. Archaic Dictionary, 1855. 
 Hampson, R. T. Medii sevi Kalendarium, 1841. 
 Herbarius, 
 
 Hill, J. Herbal, 1755. 
 
 Hogg, J. On the Classical Plants of Sicily, in Hooker's Journal, 1834. 
 Holmboe, C. A. Det Norske Sprog, 1852. 
 Honnorat, S. J. Diet. Provencal- Fra^ais, 1846. 
 Hyll, Th. Arte of Gardening, 1586. 
 Isidorus Hispalensis, de Etymologia, Migne's ed. 1850. 
 Jacob, E. Plantae Favershamenses, 1777. 
 Jamieson, J. Scottish Dictionary, 1846. 
 Jennsen-Tusch, H. Folkelige Plantenavne, 1867. 
 Johnston, G. Botany of Eastern Border, 1853. 
 Keogh, W. Botanologia Hibernica, 1735. 
 Kone, J. R. Heliand, 1855. 
 Langham, W., Garden of Health, 1633. 
 Lightfoot, J. Flora Scotica, 1792. 
 Littre, E. Diet, de la langue Fran9aise, 1863- . 
 Lobel, M. Kruydtboek, 1581. 
 Lovell, R. Complete Herbal, 1665. 
 Lupton, Th. A Thousand Notable Things, 1595. 
 Lyte, H. Niewe Herbal, 1578. 
 
 Macer, JEm. De Virtutibus Herbarum, Basil, 1527 and 1581. 
 Matthioli, P. A. Comm. in Dioscoridem, Yen. 1554. 
 
 Epitome aucta a Camerario, Frankf. 1586. 
 
 Mayer and Wright. National Antiquities, 1857. 
 Menzel, C. Index Nominum Plantarum, 1682. 
 Milne, Colin. Indigenous Botany, 1793. 
 Mone, F. J. Quellen und Forschungen, 1830. 
 Nares, R. Glossary, 1859. 
 
 Nemnich, P. A. Nomenclator multilinguis, 1793-98. 
 Newton, Th. Herbal to the Bible, 1585. 
 Ortus Sanitatis, by Cuba, 1486. 
 Outzen, N. Gloss, d. Friesischen Sprache, 1837. 
 Parkinson, J. Paradisus Terrestris, 1656. 
 
 Theatrum Botanicum, 1640. 
 
 Plinius Secundus, Historia Naturalis, ed. Sillig, 1851. 
 Pott, A. F. Indogermanische Sprachen, 1853. * 
 
 Promptorium Parvulorum, ed. Way, 1843-51.
 
 WORKS REFERRED TO. XXV11 
 
 Randolph, Frere. Sloane MS. in Br. Mus. No. 3849, 1. 
 
 Ray, J. Synopsis Stirpium, 1724. 
 
 Regimen Sanitatis Salernitanum, ed. A. Croke, 1830. 
 
 Ruellius, J. De Natura Stirpium, 1724. 
 
 Scheler, A. Diet. d'Etymologie Fran9aise, 1862. 
 
 Skinner, S. Etymologicon, 1671. 
 
 Smith, W. Dictionary of the Bible. 
 
 Stephanus, C. De re hortensi, 1536. 
 
 Stockholm Medical MS. of 14th century in Archseologia, vol. xxx. 
 
 Tabernsemontanus, J. T. Kraiiterbuch, 1613. 
 
 Talbot, H. F. English Etymologies, 1847. 
 
 Threlkeld, C. Stirpes Hibernicse, 1727. 
 
 Tournefort, J. P. Institutionea Rei Herbaria, 1719. 
 
 Tragus, H. De Stirpibus, 1552. 
 
 Turner, R. Botanologia, 1C64. 
 
 Turner, W. Herbal, 1551-1568. 
 
 Names of Plants, 1548. 
 
 Ulfilas, ed. Massmann, 1857. 
 Wedgwood, H. English Etymology, 1859-62. 
 "Westmacott, "W". Scripture Herbal, 1694. 
 Winning, W. B. Manual of Philology, 1838. 
 Wright, Th. Domestic Manners in the Middle Ages, 1862. 
 and Halliwell. Reliquiae Antiquae, 1841-3.
 
 ABBKEVIATIONS OF LANGUAGES. 
 
 Ar. 
 
 Arabic. M.Lat. 
 
 Middle-age Latin. 
 
 Arm. 
 
 Armenian. 
 
 Norw. 
 
 Norwegian. 
 
 A.S. 
 
 Anglo-Saxon. 
 
 O.E. 
 
 Old English of the 12th, 
 
 Boh. 
 
 Bohemian. 
 
 
 13th, and 14th centuries. 
 
 Bret. 
 
 Breton. 
 
 O.Fr. 
 
 Old French. 
 
 Da. 
 
 Danish. 
 
 O.H.G. 
 
 Old High German. 
 
 Du. 
 
 Dutch. 
 
 Off.L. 
 
 Officinal Latin. 
 
 Er. 
 
 Erse or Old Irish. 
 
 O.N. 
 
 Old Norse, the ancient 
 
 Est. 
 
 Esthonian. 
 
 
 Danish. 
 
 Fin. 
 
 Finnic. 
 
 O.S. 
 
 Old Saxon of Lower Ger- 
 
 FL 
 
 Flemish. 
 
 
 many. 
 
 Fr. 
 
 French. 
 
 Pers. 
 
 Persian. 
 
 Fris. 
 
 Frisian, 
 
 Pol. 
 
 Polish. 
 
 Gael 
 
 Gaelic of the Highlands. 
 
 Por. 
 
 Portuguese. 
 
 G. 
 
 German. 
 
 Rus. 
 
 Russian. 
 
 Go. 
 
 Gothic of Ulfilas. 
 
 Skr. 
 
 Sanskrit. 
 
 Gr. 
 
 Greek. 
 
 Scot. 
 
 Scotch of the Lowlands. 
 
 Heb. 
 
 Hebrew. 
 
 Slav. 
 
 Slavonian. 
 
 Ic. 
 
 Icelandic. 
 
 Sp. 
 
 Spanish. 
 
 It. 
 
 Italian. 
 
 Sw. 
 
 Swedish. 
 
 L.orLat. 
 
 Latin. 
 
 Tar. 
 
 Tartar. 
 
 Lap. 
 
 Lappish. 
 
 Wai. 
 
 Walachian. 
 
 Lith. 
 
 Lithuanian. 
 
 W. or Wei 
 
 Welsh. 
 
 L.Ger. 
 
 Low German, Platt- 
 
 Zend. 
 
 The old language of Per- 
 
 
 deutsch. 
 
 
 sia, probably the Mede 
 
 M.Gr. 
 
 Modern Greek. 
 
 dialect. 
 
 

 
 ON THE POPULAR 
 
 NAMES OF BRITISH PLANTS. 
 
 AARON, a corruption of L. arum, Gr. apov, into a more 
 familiar word, A. maculatum, L. 
 
 ABELE, Du. abeel, in Pr. Pm. awbel or ebelle, from Fr. 
 aubel, M.Lat. albellus, whitish, a word that occurs as the 
 name of the tree in Lambertus Ardensis, p. 79 : " Albellus 
 cum tilia juxta crucem, ubi plantata est ad peregrinatorum 
 requiem et presidium," and which refers to the white 
 colour of the twigs and leaves. Our Abele is this Dutch 
 name, abeel, with which it was introduced from Holland 
 in Evelyn's time (Silva, 1, 207). Populus alba, L. 
 
 ACACIA, Gr. afcarcia, guilelessness, good nature ; a name 
 given by Dioscorides (b. i. ch. 130) to a small Egyptian 
 tree, but now transferred in popular language to an Ameri- 
 can Robinia, R. Pseudacacia, L. 
 
 ACH, Fr. ache, the old name of parsley, from L. apium, 
 formed by the change of pi to ch t as in sapiam to sache, 
 propius to proche, etc., now only retained in Smallage, the 
 small ach, Fr. ache de marais, ache rustique, ache femelle, 
 as contrasted with the Alexander, Fr. ache large, grande 
 ache, Apium, L. 
 
 ACONITE, derived by Theophrastus from the village 
 'A/covat, but by Ovid (Met. vii. 419) from growing upon 
 rock, a/covrj, 
 
 " Quse quia nascuntur dura vivacia caute, 
 Agrestes aconita vocant."
 
 2 POPULAR NAMES 
 
 Pliny suggests that it is so called from growing where 
 there is no dust, a, not, and KOVK, dust, " nullo juxta ne 
 pulvere quidem nutriente." It is, rather, a word of the 
 same derivation, but used in a different sense, a/covirov, 
 without a struggle, alluding to the deadly virulence of 
 its juice, which W. Turner says "is of all poysones the 
 most hastie poysone." The plant of the Greek writers has 
 been identified with the monkshood, 
 
 Aconitum Napellus, L. 
 
 WINTER-, Eranthis hyemalis, D.C. 
 
 ADDER'S TONGUE, from the Du. adderstong, in old MSS. 
 called nedderis gres (grass) and nedderis-tonge, M. Lat. 
 serpentaria, from its spike of capsules having some fancied 
 resemblance to that reptile's tongue, 
 
 Ophioglossum vulgatum, L. 
 
 ADDERWORT, the snakeweed or bistort, from its writhed 
 roots, Polygonum Bistorta, L. 
 
 AFFADYL, M.Lat. a/odillus, from L. asphodelus, Gr. 
 acr<oSeXo9, pictured in Ort. Sanit. as an Iris, an old term 
 replaced in later times by Daffodil, 
 
 Narcissus Psendonarcissus, L. 
 AGARICK, L. agaricum, G. asyapi/cdv. 
 AGRIMONY or EGREMONY, in Chaucer egremoine, L. agri- 
 monia, a word of uncertain origin, probably the Gr. 
 apjefjLwvr) ; but what this plant was, or why it was called so, 
 is unknown. A. Eupatorium, L. 
 
 ,, HEMP-, from its being confused under the name of 
 Eupatoria with the preceding species, and the resemblance 
 of its leaves to thosa of hemp, Eupatoria cannabina, L. 
 
 ALBESPYNE, in old works the name of the white- or 
 haw-thorn, from the whiteness of its rind as contrasted 
 with that of the black-thorn, Fr. aubespine, M.Lat. albe- 
 pinus, from L. alba, white, and spina, thorn, 
 
 Cratsegus Oxyacantha, L. 
 ALDER, formerly, and still locally, and more properly,
 
 OF BRITISH PLANTS. 3 
 
 ALLER, A.S., eelr, air, aler, with a d inserted for euphony, 
 as in alderfirst, alderlast, Go. erila, whence G. erle, O.H.G. 
 elira, L. alnus. Garnett would connect it with words 
 implying moisture, as uligo, ulva, etc. (Phil. Ess. p. 30). 
 The similarity of the Danish elle with the name of fairies 
 in that language, elle-tra, and elk-folk, has misled Goethe 
 to give the name of erlen-konig to the fairy-king. There 
 is no etymological connection between the two. 
 
 Alnus glutinosa, L. 
 
 BLACK-, or BERRY-BEARING-, a buckthorn that 
 was wrongly associated by the older botanists with the 
 alder, but distinguished from it by bearing berries, 
 
 Rhamnus Frangula, L. 
 
 ALECOST, from L. costus, some unknown aromatic, and 
 ale, so called from its having formerly been esteemed an 
 agreeable aromatic bitter, and much cultivated in this 
 country for flavouring ale. " Put certaine handfuls of 
 this herbe in the bottom of a vessel, and tunne up new ale 
 upon it." Coghan (ch. 71.) See COSTMARY. 
 
 Balsamita vulgaris, L. 
 
 ALE-HOOF, ground-ivy, from ale, and hoof, which appears 
 to be the A.S. fmfe, crown, Du. huif, O.N. hufa, and to 
 have been given to this plant either as translating its Gr. 
 and Lat. names a-Tefyavwpa 7775, corona terrce ; or in 
 allusion to the chaplet that crowned the alestake at a 
 public-house, as in Chaucer (Prol. 1. 667) : 
 
 "A gerlond haclde he sette upon his hede, 
 
 As gret as it were for an ale-stake." 
 
 J. and W. Grimm would regard it as a compound of ei, ivy, 
 and loof, leaf, but, as we shall see under IVY, the bush has 
 been so named from the herb, and not the herb from the 
 bush. See GILL. Nepeta Glechoma, Benth. 
 
 ALEXANDERS or ALISANDERS, the horse-parsley, from its 
 Latin specific name Alcxandrinum, a name that Ray says 
 was given to it from its being a plant of Alexandria in
 
 4 POPULAR NAMES 
 
 Egypt, but more probably derived from an earlier name, 
 Petroselinum Macedonicum, a parsley of Macedon, Alex- 
 ander's country. See Dodoens, p. 697. 
 
 Smyrnium Olus atrum, L. 
 
 ALISSON or ALISON, L. Alyssum, from Gr. a, not, and 
 Xva-a-f}, madness, a plant called so by the ancients, because, 
 as Turner says, " it helpeth the biting of a wod dogge." 
 He seems, by his description of it, to mean the field mad- 
 der, Sherardia arvensis, L. a very different plant from that 
 which now bears the name. That of modern botanists is a 
 genus of Cruciferse, Alyssum, L. 
 
 ,, SWEET-, from its scent of honey, 
 
 A. maritimum, L. 
 
 ALKANET, Fr. orcanette, a dim. formed from It. and Sp. 
 alcana, representing the Arabic El or Al hanne or canne, 
 the name of a very different plant, the Lawsonia inermia, L. 
 which yields, like the alkanet, a red dye, the Henna of the 
 harems, Anchusa officinalis and tinctoria, L. 
 
 ,, BASTARD-, Lithospermum arvense, L. 
 
 ALKEKENGI, from the Arabic, Physalis Alkekengi, L. 
 
 ALL-BONE, a name taken from the Gr. o\o<rreov, as a 
 compound of 0X09, whole, and oareov, bone, applied to a 
 very tender plant, " whereof," says Gerarde, " I see no 
 reason, unlesse it be by the figure called Antonomia ; as, 
 when we say in English, ' He is an honest man,' our mean- 
 ing is, ' He is a knave.' " The oXoareov of Dioscorides 
 was some other, probably, very different plant, the name 
 of which has been transferred to this from, its jointed skele- 
 ton-like stalks. In Cheshire it is called " Breakbones" 
 from their snapping off at the joints. 
 
 Stellaria Holostea, L. 
 
 ALLELUJAH, see HALLELUJAH. 
 
 ALLGOOD, Du. algoede, G. allgut, from a Latin name 
 tola bona, Fr. in Cotgrave and Palsgrave toutte bonne, given 
 in old works to a goosefoot, that is otherwise called " Eng-
 
 OF BRITISH PLANTS. 
 
 lish Mercury," on account of its excellent qualities as a 
 remedy and as an esculent ; whence the proverb : 
 "Be thou sick or whole, Put Mercury in thy koole." 
 
 Coghan (ch. 29). 
 Chenopodium Bonus Henricus, L. 
 
 ALL-HEAL, see CLOWN'S ALL-HEAL. 
 
 ALL-SEED, from the great quantity of its seed, 
 
 Radiola Millegrana, Sm. 
 
 and also Chenopodium polyspermum, L. 
 
 and Polycarpon tetraphyllum, L. 
 
 ALSIKE, Sw. alsike-klover, a clover so called from its 
 growing abundantly in the parish of Alsike near Upsal in 
 Sweden (J. H. Lunden in N. and Q.) 
 
 Trifolium hybridum, L. 
 
 AMADOU, from the Fr., a word of uncertain derivation, 
 Polyporus igniarius, Fries. 
 
 AMARANTH, Gr. a/japavros, from a not, fiapaww, wither, 
 a word of not unfrequent occurrence in Milton and other 
 poets, as a vague name for some unfading flower. The 
 original species was one that, from its quality of reviving 
 its shape and colour when wetted with water, was much 
 used by the ancients for winter chaplets. The phrase in 
 St. Peter s 1st Epis. ch. v. 4, " a crown of glory that fadeth 
 not away," is in the original, "the amarantine crown of 
 glory," TOV ajjuapavTivov r?;? Soa9 <rre<f)avov. The plants 
 which botanists call so are the species of the genus to which 
 the " Love lies bleeding" belongs. Amarantus, L. 
 
 AMBROSE, a name given in old writings to some sweet- 
 scented herb, from Gr. a(j,,8po<ria, the food of immortals, 
 Skr. amrita, elixir of immortality, from a, not, and mri, 
 Lat. mori, die. It is uncertain what plant was meant by 
 the Greek term, but whatever this may have been, 
 Matthioli tells us in his Comment on Dioscorides, (1. iii. 
 c. 12,) that it was called so by the ancients, because a 
 continued use of it rendered men long-lived, in the
 
 b POPULAR NAMES 
 
 same way as the Ambrosia, which was the food of the 
 Gods, was fabled to preserve them immortal. The Pr. Pm. 
 translates it salg'ia sylvestris, wild sage ; Palsgrave ache 
 champestre, field parsley ; Cotgrave oke-of- Cappadocia, or 
 -of -Jerusalem. The name is now assigned by botanists to 
 a plant of the wormwood kind, Ambrosia, L. 
 
 That of the poets was discovered by Isis : 
 
 'Evpfiv Se cwmjj' KCM TO TIJS afioj/aeriay (pa.pfj.aKov. Died. Sic. i. 25. 
 
 In Homer and the other early poets ambrosia was the food* 
 and nectar the drink, of the Gods, as in Odyss. v. 93 : 
 
 'fls apa ty<ainr\ffa(Ta 6ta irapedriKe -rpairtfav, 
 J A^/3pO(TMjs irA.Tjcraffo' Kfpafffff Se vtitrap epvOpov. 
 
 and in Ovid (ex Ponto, i. 10) 
 
 "Nectar et ambrosiam, latices epulasque deorum." 
 But the two became confused together, and the same author 
 tells us (Met. xiv. 606) that Venus, after bathing ^Eneas, 
 
 " Ambrosia cum dulci nectare mista, 
 Contigit os, fecitque deum." 
 
 In the beautiful tale of Cupid and Psyche in the Golden 
 Ass of Apuleius, (b. vi,) Jupiter in conferring immortality 
 on Psyche, gives her a cup of ambrosia to drink : " por- 
 recto ambrosice poculo, Sume, inquit, Psyche, et immortalis 
 esto." The Ambrose of our older English writers seems to 
 have been Chenopodium Botrys, L. 
 
 AMEOS, the genitive of Ammi, used, like Caruy, for the 
 seed of the plant, A. rnajus, L. 
 
 ANEMONY, Gr. dvepcovr), from ai/e/io?, Skr. anila, wind, 
 from an, to blow* It is said by Bion to have sprung from 
 the tears that Venus wept over the body of Adonis, a 
 myth that seems to whisper that the tears of that frail and 
 loving goddess were soon blown away. (Idyl. i. 1. 62). 
 
 *A & rav Kv6eptiav, dirwAero KoAoy 'A8a>m. 
 AaKpvov a Tlafyia roffffov X ffl > baaov 'A8m 
 Ai>a x ff ' Ta 8e worro iron xBovi yiyvtrai aiffrn. 
 Alfj.a p(.6ov riKTft, ra Se SaKpua rav
 
 OF BRITISH PLANTS. / 
 
 Alas the Paphian ! fair Adonis slain ! 
 Tears plenteous as his blood she pours amain. 
 But gentle flowers are born, and bloom around, 
 From every drop that falls upon the ground : 
 "Where streams his blood, there blushing springs the Rose, 
 And where a tear has dropp'd a "Wind-flower blows. 
 Whether the flower that we now call Anemony, was that 
 which the Sicilian writers meant, is a question, into which 
 it were here out of place to enter. Pliny tells us (H.N. 
 1. xxi. c. 11) that it was so named, because it never opens 
 but when the wind is blowing. Ovid describes it as a very 
 fugacious flower, and after comparing it with that of the 
 Pomegranate, says (Met. x. 737) : 
 " Brevis est tamen usus in illis, 
 Namque male haerentem, et nimia levitate caducum 
 Excutiunt idem qui prastant nomina venti." 
 It is doubtful whether he meant the same plant as Pliny ; 
 and he could scarcely have meant that which we call so 
 now ; more probably a cistus, or rock-rose. The name is 
 now applied to the genus Anemone, L. 
 
 ANET, dill seed, from L. anethum, Gr. avrjdov, 
 
 A. graveolens, L. 
 
 ANGELICA, its Lat. name, either as Fuchs tells us, (Hist. 
 Plant, p. 126,) "a suavissimo ejus radicis odore, quern 
 spirat," or " ab immensa contra venena facultate," from 
 the sweet scent of its root, or its value as a remedy against 
 poisons and the plague, yielding, as Brunschwygk tells us, 
 " das aller-edelst wasser das man haben mag fur die pesti- 
 lenz ;" and of which Du Bartas says, (Third day, p. 27,) 
 Sylvester's translation, 1641, 
 
 " Contagious aire ingendring Pestilence 
 Infects not those that in their mouths have ta'en 
 Angelica, that happy counterbane 
 Sent down from heav'n by some celestial scout, 
 As well the name and nature both avowt." 
 
 Angelica sylvestris, L. 
 
 ANISE, or as in " The Englishman's Docter," ANNY, 
 " Some Anny seeds be sweet, and some more bitter."
 
 8 POPULAR NAMES 
 
 L. anisum, Gr. avia-ov or avyvov ; the Anny having arisen 
 from a mistake of Anise for a plural noun ; 
 
 Piinpinella Anisum, L. 
 
 ANTHONY, ST. his nut and turnep, see under SAINT A. 
 
 APPLE, A.S. cBpl, ceppel, O.N. epli, Sw. ceple, Da. ceble, 
 G. apfel, O.H.G. apkol, Wei. a/a/, derived from a more 
 ancient form, apalis, preserved in the Lith. obolys, or obelis. 
 Lett, ahboli. In all the Celtic and Sclavonian languages 
 the word is, with allowance for dialect, the same. This 
 similarity, or, we may say, identity of name, among alien 
 nations would lead us to believe that it was brought with 
 the tree from some one country, and that, no doubt, an 
 Eastern one; and that the garden apple is not, as it is 
 often supposed to be, merely an improved crab, but rather 
 the crab a degenerate apple. This was, apparently, the 
 only fruit with which our ancestors were acquainted, before 
 they came into Europe ; for, with the exception of a few 
 wild berries and the hazel nut, it is the only one for which 
 we have a name that is not derived from the Latin or 
 French. It seems to have accompanied them on a northern 
 route from the western spur of the Himalayan mountains, 
 a district extending through Ancient Bactria, Northern 
 Persia, and Asia Minor, to the Caucasus, and one from 
 which we have obtained, through the Mediterranean 
 countries, and within the historical period, the peach, 
 apricot, plum, damson, cherry, filbert, vine, and walnut, 
 and probably some of the cereal grains ; a district in which 
 there is reason to think that our portion of the human 
 race first attained to civilization, and whence it spread, 
 with its domestic animals and plants, to the south-east and 
 north-west. The meaning of the word is unknown. It is 
 very possibly from Skr. amb, eat, and p'kal, fruit, but as 
 ap is, in Zend and Sanskrit, " water," we might be tempted 
 to believe that it originally meant " water-fruit," or "juice- 
 fruit," with which the Latin pomum, from po, to drink,
 
 OF BRITISH PLANTS. 9 
 
 exactly tallies. The remarkable coincidences of name, to 
 which allusion has been made, are due to the intimate con- 
 nection with each other of all the Ind-European nations 
 and their languages, from their having grown up in the 
 same nursery together in Upper Asia, and dispersed sub- 
 sequently to their becoming acquainted with this fruit; and 
 not to a mutual borrowing of it since their settlement in 
 Europe. Pyrus Malus, L. 
 
 APRICOT, in Shakspeare (M.N.D. iii. 1) APRICOCK, in 
 older writers, ABRICOT and ABRECOCKE, It. albericocca and 
 albicocco, from Sp. albaricoque, Ar. al burquq or barkokon, 
 from Mod. Gr. @pKKoica, 0. Gr. of Dioscorides and Galen, 
 TrpcutcoKKia, L. prcecoqua or prcecoda, early, from the fruit 
 having been considered to be an early peach. A passage 
 from Pliny (Hist. Nat. xv. 12) explains its name. " Post 
 autumnum maturescunt Persica, sestate prcecocia, intra 
 xxx annos reperta." There is a good paper upon it in 
 Notes and Quteries, Nov. 23, 1850. " The progress of this 
 word," says the author, " from W. to E., and then from E. 
 to S.W., and thence to N., and its various changes in that 
 progress, are strange. One would have supposed that the 
 Arabs living near the region of which the fruit is a native, 
 might have either had a name of their own for it, or at 
 least have borrowed one from Armenia. But they have 
 apparently adopted a slight variation of the Latin. The 
 Spaniards must have had the fruit in Martial's time, [who 
 alludes to it in the words : 
 
 ' Vilia maternis fueramus praecoqua ramis, 
 Nunc in adoptivis persica cara sumus.' 
 
 Lib. xiii. Ep. 46.] 
 
 but they do not take the name immediately from the 
 Latin, but through the Arabic, and call it albaricoque. 
 The Italians again copy the Spanish, not the Latin, and 
 call it albicocco. The French from them have abricot. 
 The English, though they take their word from the French,
 
 10 POPULAR NAMES 
 
 at first called it abricock (restoring the 7c), and lastly with 
 the French termination, apricot." Prunus armeniaca, L. 
 
 ARACH, in Pr. Pm. and in Palsgrave ARAGE, the older 
 spelling of ORACH. 
 
 ARCHAL, a lichen called more commonly Orchil, 
 
 Koccella tinctoria, D.C. 
 
 ARCHANGEL, M.Lat. archangelica, so called Parkinson 
 tells us, "ab exiiniis ejus viribus;" Nemnich, from its 
 having been revealed by an angel in a dream ; more pro- 
 bably from its being in blossom on the Archangel St. 
 Michael's day, the 8th of May, old style, and thence sup- 
 posed to be a preservative against evil spirits and witch- 
 craft, and particularly against the disease in cattle called 
 elfshot, G. hexenschuss, ulcera regia. The name is applied 
 to an umbelliferous plant, Angelica archangelica, L. 
 and to certain labiates, severally called 
 
 RED-, Stachys sylvatica, L. 
 
 WHITE-, Lamiuli album, L. 
 
 YELLOW-, Lamium Galeobdolon, Or. 
 
 ARNUT, or ERNTJT, Du. aardnoot, the earth-nut, 
 Carum Bulbocastanum, K. and Bunium flexuosum, With. 
 
 ARROW-GRASS, a translation of its Greek name, triglochin, 
 from the three points of its capsules, rpet?, three, ^\w^, 
 arrow-point, T. palustre, L. 
 
 ARROW-HEAD, from the shape of the leaves, 
 
 Sagittaria sagittifolia, L. 
 
 ARSMART, Fr. curage, i.e. cul-rage, the water-pepper, 
 from the irritating effect of the leaves, 
 
 Polygonum Hydropiper, L. 
 
 ARTICHOKE, in Turner ARCHICHOCKE, Fr. artichaux, It. 
 articiocco, Sp. artichofa, a name which Diez derives from 
 Ar. ardischauM, earth-thorn, and which was introduced 
 with the plant by the Moors of Spain. 
 
 Cynara Scolymus, L. 
 
 ASARABACCA, a name adopted, as a compromise or middle
 
 OF BRITISH PLANTS. 11 
 
 term, in consequence of the confusion between the two 
 plants, Asarum and Baecharis, one with the other. " In 
 former times," says Parkinson (Th. Bot. p. 115), "divers 
 did thinke that Asarum and Baecharis in Dioscorides were 
 all one hearbe, and thereupon came the name of Asarabac- 
 cara; some taking Asarum to be Baecharis, and so con- 
 trarily some taking Baccharia to be Asarum." 
 
 Inula Conyza, D.C. and Asarum europseum, L. 
 
 ASH, A.S. CBSC, Da. and Sw. ask, O.N. askr, O.H.G. asc, 
 G. and Du. esche. From the toughness of the wood it 
 was much used for spear-shafts, and A.S. cesc came to 
 mean a spear, and cesc-plega, the game of spears, a battle. 
 Fresne in the same manner was used in France for a spear, 
 whence the expression brandir le fresne. It was further 
 extended to the man who bore it, and he was himself called 
 CBSC. Being also the wood of which boats were built, the 
 A.S. cesc and O.N. askr meant a vessel, just as a barge 
 with an oak bottom is called, from its wood, in L.Germ. 
 eeke, Du. ceke, Sw. eka. The derivation and primary 
 meaning of Ash is obscure. It is not improbably con- 
 nected with L. ascia, Gr. a%ivrj, and axe, and with L. axis, 
 an axle, from the tough wood of this tree having in all 
 times been preferred for axe handles and axletrees. 
 
 Fraxinus excelsior, L. 
 
 MOUNTAIN-, the rowan, from a fancied resemblance 
 of its pinnate leaves to those of the ash-tree, and its usual 
 place of growth, Pyrus aucuparia, Gart. 
 
 ASH-WEED, AISB- or AX-WEED, from its ternate leaves 
 somewhat resembling those of the ache or celery. See 
 ACHE. j-Egopodium Podagraria, L. 
 
 ASPARAGUS, Gr. atrTrapayo?, A. officinalis, L. 
 
 ASPEN, the adjectival form of ASPE, the older and more 
 correct name of the tree, and that which is used by Chaucer 
 and other early writers ; A.S. cepse and cesp, G. aspe, 
 O.H.G. aspa, O.N. espi, Populus tremula, L.
 
 12 POPULAR NAMES 
 
 ASPHODEL, Gr. oo-0oSe\o?, a word of unknown deriva- 
 tion, applied in Homer (Odyss. xi. 539) as an epithet to 
 a meadow, ev aff<f>o$e\a> Xeifjicavt. The plant so called by 
 Greek writers of a later age, was one that had edible roots, 
 that were laid in tombs to be food for the dead, and is that 
 to which Charon alludes in Lucian's KaraTrKovs, c. 2 : "I 
 know," says he, " why Mercury keeps us waiting so long. 
 Down here with us there is nothing to be had but asphodel, 
 and libations, and oblations ; and that in the midst of mist 
 and darkness ; but up in heaven it is all bright and clear, 
 and plenty of ambrosia there, and nectar without stint." 
 This root, under the name of cibo regio, food for a king, 
 was highly esteemed in the middle ages, but however im- 
 proved by cultivation, it is likely to have been troublesome 
 by its diuretic qualities, and has probably for that reason 
 gone out of fashion. There is some ground to suspect that 
 it was the original claimant of an expressive name that has 
 since passed to the dandelion. 
 
 The plant of the Greek poets is supposed to be the 
 
 Narcissus poeticus, L. 
 
 That of Lucian and of modern botanists, Asphodelus, L. 
 
 That of our earlier English and French poets, 
 
 Narcissus Pseudonarcissus, L. 
 BOG-, or LANCASHIRE-, 
 
 Narthecium ossifragum, Huds. 
 SCOTCH-, Tofieldia palustris, Huds. 
 
 ASSES-FOOT, Fr. pas d'dne, the colt's foot, from the shape 
 of the leaf, Tussilago Farfara, L. 
 
 ASS-PARSLEY, in old works given as the translation of 
 Fr. cicutaire, the same, probably, as fools-parsley, 
 
 JEthusa Cynapium, L. 
 
 ASTER, Gr. dun-rip, a star, from the radiate flower, 
 
 Aster, L. 
 
 AUTUMN-BELLS, from its bell-shaped flowers and their 
 season of opening, Gentiana Pneumonanthe, L.
 
 OF BRITISH PLANTS. 13 
 
 AVENS, in Pr. Pm. avence, in Topsell and Askham avance, 
 M.Lat. avantia or avencia, in Ort. San. ananda, a word of 
 obscure origin, and quite unintelligible, spelt also auartia, 
 anantia, arancia, and amancia, 
 
 COMMON-, or YELLOW-, Geum urbanum, L. 
 MOUNTAIN-, Dry as octopetala, L. 
 
 WATER-, or NODDING-, Geum rivale, L. 
 
 AVEROYNE, of the Stockholm Med. M.S., but long 
 disused, Fr. aurone, from Lat. abrotanum (Scheler), the 
 southernwood, Artemisia Abrotanum, L. 
 
 AWL-WORT, from its subulate leaves, 
 
 Subularia aquatica, L. 
 
 AYE-GREEN, ever-green, a translation of Lat. semper- 
 vivum. Aye is the A.S. ceg, ever, properly an egg, which, 
 having no beginning or end, was symbolical of eternity, 
 Go. aiv, L. a in cevum, cBtas, and ceternus, Gr. act. The 
 plant so called from its conspicuous tufts of evergreen 
 leaves, the houseleek, is Sempervivum tectorum, L. 
 
 BACHELOR'S BUTTONS, a name given to several flowers 
 "from their similitude to the jagged cloathe buttons, 
 antiently worne in this kingdom," according to Johnson's 
 Gerarde, p. 472, but ascribed by other writers to " a habit 
 of country fellows to carry them in their pockets to divine 
 their success with their sweethearts ; " 
 usually understood to be a double variety of Eanunculus, 
 according to others, of Lychnis sylvestris, L. 
 
 in some counties, Scabiosa succisa, L. . 
 
 BALDMONEY, or BAWD-MONEY, the mew, a corruption 
 of L. valde bona, very good. The Grete Herball, ch. 
 ccccxxxiii, speaking of Sistra, says, " Sistra is dyll, some 
 call it Mew, but that is not so. Howbeit they be very like 
 in properties and vertue, and be put eche for other, but 
 Sistra is of more vertue than Mew, and the leaves be lyke
 
 14 POPULAR NAMES 
 
 an herbe called valde bona, and beareth small sprigges as 
 spiknarde. It groweth on hye hylles." 
 
 Meum athamanticum, L. 
 in some authors, incorrectly, Gentiana lutea, L. 
 
 BALLOCK-GKASS, A. S. bealloc-wyrt, from its tubers 
 resembling small balls, whence its Greek name, 0/3^49, 
 
 Orchis, L. 
 
 BALM, BAULM, or BAWM, contracted from Balsam, 
 L. balsamum, by some said to be derived from Hebr. bol 
 smin, chief of oils, by W. Smith from Hebr. bdsdm, balm, 
 and besem, a sweet smell, terms originally applied to a 
 plant very different from that which now bears the name, 
 
 Melissa officinalis, L. 
 
 BASTARD-, Melittis Melissophyllum, L. 
 
 BALSAM, or BALSAMINE, see above, 
 
 Impatiens Noli me tangere, L. 
 
 BANEBERRY, A.S. bana, murderous, from its poisonous 
 quality. Hill says in his Herbal (p. 320), that children 
 who have eaten the fruit have died in convulsions. 
 
 Acta3a spicata, L. 
 
 BANEWORT, from its being supposed, like several other 
 marsh plants, to bane sheep, and Salmon tells us that it 
 does so by ulcerating their entrails. 
 
 Ranunculus Flammula, L. 
 
 BAN EGRESS, from its growing in hedge banks, the hedge 
 mustard, Sisymbrium officinale, L. 
 
 BARBARA, ST. her cress, see under ST. B. 
 BARBERRY or BERBERRY, M.Lat. berberis, Ar. barbaris, 
 
 B. vulgaris, L. 
 
 BARLEY, called in Sloane MS. No. 1571, 3, at fol. 113, 
 barlych, and in the A.S. Chronicle, A.D. 1124, bcerlic, from 
 beer, which represents both the A.S. bere, barley-corn and 
 beor, the liquor brewed from it, and lie for leac, plant, a 
 name identical in meaning with the bcer-crces of JSlfric's 
 vocabulary. Verstegan says that the name of barley was
 
 OF BRITISH PLANTS. 15 
 
 given to it by reason of the drinke therewith made called 
 beere, and from beerlegh it came to berlegh, and from ber- 
 legh to barley. It would seem that, as the language be- 
 came corrupted by the settlement of Danes and French in 
 the country, and the vowels less correctly pronounced, the 
 lie was added to prevent confusion. The dictionary deri- 
 vation of it from the Welsh barlys is untenable, both for 
 philological reasons, and for that it is highly improbable 
 that the English of the twelfth century would have bor- 
 rowed from a half-civilized mountain race a name for a 
 familiar plant. See BEAR. Hordeum vulgare, L. 
 
 WALL-, see MOUSE BARLEY. 
 
 BARNABY-THISTLE, from its flowering about the time 
 of St. Barnabas' day, the llth of June, old style, which 
 corresponds to the 22nd June of the new. 
 
 Centaurea solstitialis, L. 
 
 BARREN-WORT, called so, says Gerarde, p. 389, " because 
 it is an enemy to conception, and not because it is described 
 by Dioscorides as being barren both of flowers and leaves." 
 Nevertheless, this belief in its sterilizing powers may be 
 due to the remark of Dioscorides, who must have meant 
 some other plant, for this seeds very freely in Styria and 
 other parts of Austria. 
 
 Epimedium alpinum, L. 
 
 BASE-BROOM, L. Genista humilis, a name that does not, 
 as its Latin synonym would lead us to suppose, refer to its 
 lowly growth as compared with that of the common 
 broom, but to its being used as a base to prepare woollen 
 cloths for the reception of scarlet and other dyes. 
 
 Genista tinctoria, L. 
 
 BASE-ROCKET, a mignonette so called from its rocket- 
 like leaves, and its being used as a base in dyeing woollen 
 cloths. See Aubrey's Wilts (ed. Jackson), p. 50. 
 
 Reseda lutea, L.
 
 16 POPULAR NAMES 
 
 BASIL, Gr. @a<n\iKov, royal, probably from its being 
 used in some royal unguent, bath, or medicine, 
 
 Ocymum basilicum, L. 
 
 FIELD-, Calamintha Clinopodium, Bent. 
 
 BASIL-THYME, so called, says Parkinson (Th. Bot. p. 19), 
 " because the smell thereof is so excellent, that it is fit for 
 a king's house ;" Calamintha Acinos, Clair. 
 
 BASSINETS, Fr. bassinet, a small basin, a skull-cap, from 
 the shape of the flower, Ranunculus, L. 
 
 BRAVE-, in Lyte's Herball, Caltha palustris, L. 
 BAST-TREE, the lime-tree, from its inner bark furnishing 
 bast for matting, a word introduced with the material from 
 Germany or Denmark, and related to Skr. pas, bind, Pers. 
 benden, and Zend and Skr. bandh, whence Z. basta, bound. 
 
 Tilia europsea, L. 
 
 BAY, Fr. bate, formed, by the usual omission of c between 
 two vowels, from L. baca, often so spelt for bacca, a berry. 
 In old works bay means a berry generally, as " the bayes 
 of ivyne," but as those of the sweet bay, the lauri baccas 
 of Virgil, were an article of commerce, the term came to be 
 applied to them exclusively, and was thence extended to 
 other evergreens, much as is laurel at the present day. 
 
 Laurus nobilis, L. 
 
 ,, DWARF-, Daphne laureola, L. 
 
 BEAM-TREE, more properly WHITE BEAM, from A.S. 
 beam, a tree, O.S. bam, G. baum, Goth, bagms, O.N. batSmr, 
 words related to G. bauen, build. Beam, without the 
 White prefixed, is a vague term, meaning in A.S. a tree 
 generally, so that Beam-tree is a silly pleonasm, a tree- 
 tree. Pyrus Aria, L. 
 
 BEAN, A.S. bean, O.N. baun, Du. boon, G. bohne, Da. 
 bonne, Sw. bona, is considered by W. and J. Grimm to be 
 connected with Lat. faba ; and there are in different 
 languages words in some degree intermediate between the 
 two ; not, however, that the Germans derived their word
 
 OF BRITISH PLANTS. 17 
 
 from the Latin. The plant probably came from an Eastern 
 country, and by the northern, and not the Mediterranean 
 route, and the name with it. Vicia Faba, L. 
 
 BEAR, BEER, or BERE, A.S. beer, Fris. bar, barley, a grain 
 that might seem to have been so called from beer, the liquor 
 brewed from it, a word for which L. Diefenbach remarks 
 that " sichere Btymologien fehlen noch." Outzen and 
 several other philologists support this derivation of it, but 
 J. Grimm would trace it to Go. bairan, bear, whence baris, 
 gen. barizis, O.N. barr, gen. bars. Gesch. d. Deutsch. 
 Sprache, i. p. 65. It may be related to Hind, bagra, a kind 
 of millet (holcus spicatus, L.), that is much cultivated in 
 the mountains of the north of India. In our northern 
 counties bear means the four-rowed variety of barley and 
 bigg the six-rowed. Brockett, p. 25. Hordeurn vulgare, L. 
 
 BEARBERRY or BEAR'S BILBERRY, from its fruit being a 
 favourite food of bears, Arctostaphylos uva ursi, L. 
 
 BEAR-BIND or BARE-BIND, from binding together the 
 stalks of bear or barley, Convolvulus arvensis, L. 
 
 BEAR'S-BREECH, from its roughness, a name transferred 
 by some mistake from the acanthus to the cow-parsnip, 
 Heracleum Sphondylium, L. 
 
 BEAR'S-EARS, from its former Latin name, ursi auricula, 
 in allusion to the shape of its leaf, Primula Auricula, L. 
 
 BEAR'S-FOOT, from its digitate leaf, 
 
 Helleborus foatidus, L. 
 
 BEAR'S-GARLICK, so called, says Tabernsemontanus, 
 " quia ursi eo delectantur," Allium ursinum, L. 
 
 BEARWORT, from the G. barwurz, which Adelung sug- 
 gests is rather to be derived from its use in uterine com- 
 plaints than from the animal, Meum athamanticum, L. 
 
 BEDE-SEDGE, from its round bead-like burs, resembling 
 the beads used by Roman Catholics and Buddhists for 
 counting their prayers, A.S. bead, a prayer, a name given 
 to it by Turner, Sparganium ramosum, L. 
 
 2
 
 18 POPULAR NAMES 
 
 BEDSTRAW, or OUR LADY'S BEDSTRAW, L. Sfa. Marice 
 stramen, G. unser liebenfrauen bettstro, from its soft, puffy, 
 flocculent stems and golden flowers, a name that refers to 
 straw having formerly been used for bedding, even by 
 ladies of rank, whence the expression of their being " in 
 the straw." Thus in the Latin hymn, No. 128 in Easier' s 
 Altchristliche Lieder, Mary sings : 
 
 "Dormi nate bellule, Stravi lectum/oewo molli: Dormi mi 
 
 animule." 
 
 The name may allude more particularly to her having 
 given birth to her son in a stable, with nothing but wild 
 flowers for her bedding. Galium, L. 
 
 WHITE-, G. Mollugo, L. 
 
 YELLOW-, G. verum, L. 
 
 In old writers its Latin and German synonyms are given 
 equally to the wild thyme. See C. Bauhin de plantis 
 sanctis, p. 71. 
 
 BEE-LARKSPUR, " from the resemblance of its petals 
 studded with yellow hairs to a bumble bee whose head is 
 buried in the recesses of the flower." Treas. of Bot. 
 
 Delphinium grandiflorum, L. 
 
 -NETTLE, from its nettle-like leaves, and the supposed 
 fondness of bees for its flowers, 
 
 Galeopsis Tetrahit, L. 
 
 -ORCHIS or BEE-FLOWER, from the resemblance of its 
 flower to a bee, Ophrys apifera, L. 
 
 BEE'S-NEST, from the nest-like compact growth of its 
 inflorescence, Daucus Carota, L. 
 
 BEECH, A.S. boc, bece, beoce, Go. boka, M.H.G. buoc/ie, 
 O.H.G. puocha, G. buck, Du. beuk, O.N. beyki, Da. bog, 
 Sw. bok, words which, in their several dialects, mean, with 
 difference of gender only, a book and a beech-tree, from 
 Runic tablets, the books of our ancestors, having been made 
 of this wood. Fagus sylvatica, L. 
 
 BEET, L. beta, from the resemblance of the seed to the
 
 OF BRITISH PLANTS. 19 
 
 second letter of the Greek alphabet. There are some 
 verses of Columella to this effect, which are quoted by 
 Fuchs and Parkinson : 
 
 " Nomine cum Grajo, ceu litera proxima primae 
 Pangitur in cera docti mucrone magistri, 
 Sic et humo pingui ferratae cuspidis ictu 
 Deprimitur folio viridis, pede Candida beta." 
 
 Nemnich pronounces this idea to be a mere grille or fancy, 
 but gives no better derivation for the word. 
 
 B. maritima, L. 
 
 BEGGAR'S LICE, from its burs sticking to the clothes, 
 and somewhat resembling those vermin, 
 
 Galium Aparine, L. 
 
 BELL-FLOWER, from the shape of the corolla, 
 
 Campanula, L. 
 
 BELLADONNA, It. bella-donna, fair lady, the deadly night- 
 shade, called so, according to Tournefort, and to G. Burnet 
 (Outl. of Botany, 4514), and to Duchesne (PI. ut. p. 90), 
 from its berries, known in France as guines de cotes, being 
 used by the Italian ladies as a cosmetic. Kay also says 
 that it was called belladonna, " quia ex ejus succo sive aqua 
 destillata fucum conficiunt fceminse, quo faciem oblinunt, 
 et ex rubicunda pallidam efficiunt frigoris vehementia." 
 (Cat. Plant. Cant. p. 43.) Atropa Belladonna, L. 
 
 BELLEISLE-CRESS, why called so, unknown, 
 
 Barbarea prsecox, R.B. 
 
 BEN or WHITE BEN, from a supposed Ar. behen, which 
 however is not to be found. Silene inflata, L. 
 
 BENNET, see HERB B. 
 
 BENT-GRASS, any wiry grass, such as usually grows upon 
 a bent, i.e. a common, or other neglected broken ground, a 
 word often used in that sense in old English poetry as : 
 " Bowmen bickered upon the bent." Chevy Chase, and 
 preserved in Scotland to this day. Jamieson refers it to 
 G. binse, a rush, but the similarity of these words seems to
 
 20 POPULAR NAMES 
 
 be an accidental coincidence, and the name of the grass to 
 have been taken from its place of growth, as in the case of 
 heath, brake, and brier, and not the ground called so from 
 the grass. Under the name of Bent are comprised Agrostis 
 vulgaris, L. Triticum junceum, L. Arundo arenaria, L. 
 and many more. 
 
 BERGAMOT, a name popularly given to a common garden 
 plant, Monarda fistulosa, L. 
 
 BERTRAM, a corruption of L. pyrethrum, that seems to 
 have been adopted from German writers, 
 
 P. Parthenium, L. 
 
 BERRY ALDER, a buckthorn that was once wrongly 
 associated with the alders, and distinguished from them 
 by bearing berries, Rhamnus Frangula, L. 
 
 BETONY or WOOD BETONY, L. betonica, said by Pliny to 
 have been first called Vettonica from the Vettones, a people 
 of Spain, B. officinalis, L. 
 
 WATER-, from similarity of leaf to that of the 
 wood betony, Scrophularia aquatica, L. 
 
 BIFOIL, the tway-blade, L. bifolium, two-leaf, 
 
 Listera ovata, R.B. 
 
 BIG, O.N. bygg, a name of Scandinavian origin applied 
 in our northern counties and Scotland to the six-rowed 
 variety of barley, and according to Holmboe (v. bygg}, 
 unquestionably related to bua, dwell, whence byggia, till, 
 as being the grain most commonly cultivated in high lati- 
 tudes, Hordeum, L. 
 
 BIGOLD, tinsel, false gold, applied to a weed that is not 
 the genuine Qolde, Chrysanthemum segetum, L. 
 
 BILBERRY or BULBERRY, Da. bollebdr, dark-berry, from 
 567, dark, Vaccinium Myrtillus, L. 
 
 BIND-WEED, a weed that binds, 
 
 Convolvulus arvensis, and sepium, L. 
 BLACK-, Polygomim Convolvulus, L.
 
 OF BRITISH PLANTS. 21 
 
 BLUE-, in Ben Jonson's Vision of Delight, the 
 bitter-sweet, 
 
 " How the blue bindweed doth itself infold 
 With honeysuckle ! " 
 
 Solanum Dulcamara, L. 
 
 BIND-WITH, a with used to bind up faggots, the Tra- 
 veller's joy, Clematis Vitalba, L. 
 
 BIRCH, A.S. beorc, birce, or byre, O.H.G. piricha, L.G. 
 barke, Du. berke, Da. birk, Ic. and Sw. Mark, Russ. bereza, 
 a 2, as usual, replacing a German k, connected with Skr. 
 brichk, Hindi birchk, a tree, and perhaps with Skr. bhurgga, 
 a tree whose bark is used for writing upon. Klaproth 
 argues from this word the northern origin of the dominant 
 race in Hindostan, to whom this tree was the only one 
 south ot the Himalaya which they could name; all the 
 others being new to them (Garnett, p. 33). It is the same 
 word as bark in the two significations of tree-rind and 
 vessel. In the first, as tree-rind, we find it forming A.S. 
 beorcan, to bark, L.G. bark, borke, Eng. Du. and Da. 
 bark, Ic. and O.N. boerkr ; in the sense of vessel, the 
 Lat. barca, which, as it stands isolated in its own language, 
 is, no doubt, of foreign origin, the s"ource of Fr. barque, 
 Du. and Da. barke, Ic. barkr, Eng. bark and barge. In 
 the earlier period of our Germanic race, while it was still 
 confined to the northern latitudes, birch bark was used, as 
 at the present day in the same countries, for boat build- 
 ing and roofing, and probably, as in Norway occasionally, 
 for greaves for the legs, and from these different applica- 
 tions the tree took its name of bark-tree, a word connected 
 with G. bergen, A.S. beorgan, protect, shelter, put into a 
 place of safety. Betula alba, L. 
 
 BIRD'S BREAD, from the Fr. pain d'oiseau, the stone- 
 crop, called so, apparently, from no better reason than its 
 appearance in blossom when young birds are hatched, 
 
 Sedum acre, L.
 
 22 POPULAR NAMES 
 
 BIRD-CHERRY, a cherry only fit for birds, 
 
 Primus padus, L. 
 
 BIRD'S-EYES, from its bright blue flowers, 
 
 Veronica Chamaedrys, L. 
 
 and also, locally, Primula farinosa, L. 
 
 RED-, Geranium Robertianum, L. 
 
 BIRD'S-FOOT, from its incurved claw-like legumes, 
 
 Ornithopus perpusillus, L. 
 
 BIRD'S-FOOT TREFOIL, from its legumes spreading like a 
 crow's foot, Lotus corniculatus, L. 
 
 BIRD'S-NEST, from its leafless stalks resembling a nest of 
 sticks, such as crows make, Monotropa Hypopitys, L. 
 also, from its matted roots, Neottia Nidus avis, L. 
 
 BIRD-SEED, canary grass used to feed birds, 
 
 Phalaris canariensis, L. 
 
 BIRD'S-TONGUE, L. lingua passerina, from the shape of 
 the leaf, Polygonum aviculare, L. 
 
 BIRTHWORT, from its supposed remedial powers in par- 
 turition, suggested, on the doctrine of signatures, by the 
 shape of the corolla, whence also its Greek name from 
 dpto-To?, best, and Xo^eta, delivery, 
 
 Aristolochia Clematitis, L. 
 
 BISHOP'S-LEAVES, from being known in French as I'kerbe 
 du siege, in reference to its remedial powers in hemorrhoidal 
 affections, and this word siege being understood as of a 
 bishop's see, Scrophularia aquatica, L. 
 
 BISHOP'S-WEED, possibly from Fr. levesque, the name of 
 another umbelliferous plant, transferred to this, and mis- 
 taken as meaning bishop, Ammi majus, L. 
 
 BISHOP'S-WORT, a name applied, for reasons unknown, 
 to the Devil-in-a-bush, Nigella damascena, L. 
 
 BISTORT, from its writhed roots, L. bis, twice, torta, 
 twisted, and thence called by Turner Twice-written, 
 
 Polygonum Bistorta, L. 
 
 BITTER CRESS, Cardamine amara, L.
 
 OF BRITISH PLANTS. 23 
 
 BITTER-SWEET, L. Amara-dukis, from the rind of its 
 stalk, which, as Turner observes b. iii. 2, " when it is first 
 tasted is bitter, and afterwards sweet," a quality from which 
 it gets its German name; je lengerje lieber. 
 
 Solanum Dulcamara, L. 
 
 also an apple so called, of which Gower says 
 (ed. 1554, fol. 174) : 
 
 For all such time of love is lore, 
 
 And like unto the bittersuete, 
 
 For though it thinke a man fyrst suete, 
 
 He shall well felen atte laste, 
 
 That it is sower, and maie not laste. 
 
 Pyrus Malus, L. var. 
 
 BITTER VETCH, Vicia Orobus D.C. 
 
 BITTER-WORT, from the taste of the root, a name adopted 
 from the German bitterwurtz, Gentiana, L. 
 
 BLACKBERRY, from the black colour of its fruit in con- 
 trast with that of the raspberry and dewberry, 
 
 Rubus fruticosus, L. 
 
 BLACK-BENT, -Coucn, or -SQTJITCH, from its weedy 
 character and dark purple flowers, the slender foxtail, 
 
 Alopecurus agrestis, L. 
 
 BLACK BINDWEED, from its want of the conspicuous 
 white flowers of the other bind-weeds, 
 
 Polygonum Convolvulus, L. 
 
 BLACK BRYONY, from its dark-coloured glossy leaves, 
 and black root, Tamus communis, L. 
 
 BLACK HOREHOUND, from its dingy colour in contrast 
 with the white-leaved true horehound, Ballota nigra, L. 
 BLACK SALTWORT, in contrast with the Salsola, 
 
 Glaux maritima, L. 
 
 BLACK-SEED, the nonesuch, from its black head of 
 legumes in contrast with the light yellow capitules of the 
 hop-clover, Medicago lupulina, L. 
 
 BLACKTHORN, the sloe, from the conspicuous blackness
 
 24 POPULAR NAMES 
 
 of its rind at the time of flowering, in contrast with that 
 of the white-thorn, Prunua spinosa, L. 
 
 BLACK-WORTS, whortle-berries, from their dark colour as 
 compared with the cow- and cranberry, 
 
 Vaccinium Myrtillus, L. 
 BLADDER CAMPION, from its inflated calyx, 
 
 Silene inflata, L. 
 BLADDER- PERN, from its bladder-like indusium, 
 
 Cystopteris fragilis, Bern. 
 
 BLADDER HERB, the winter cherry, which was supposed, 
 from its inflated calyx, to " cleanse the bladder, and open, 
 scour, and purge, the urinal passages," 
 
 Physalis Alkekengi, L. 
 BLADDER-NUT, from its inflated seedpods, 
 
 Staphylea pinnata, L. 
 
 BLADDER-SNOUT, from the shape of the corolla, and 
 BLADDER-WORT, from the vesicles on its leaves, 
 
 Utricularia vulgaris, L. 
 
 BLEABERRY, or BLAEBERRY, from, blae, a word that in 
 our northern counties means "of a livid or pale-bluish 
 colour," Atk. Clevel. Dial. Vaccinium uliginosum, L. 
 
 BLEEDING HEART, the name of the wallflower in the 
 western counties, more particularly the dark variety of it, 
 and apparently dating from a time when in its ordinary 
 state it was called Heart's ease, 
 
 Cheiranthus Cheiri, L. 
 
 BLESSED THISTLE, a thistle so called, like other plants 
 which bear the specific name of " blessed," from its sup- 
 posed power of counteracting the effect of poison, 
 
 Carduus benedictus, L. 
 
 BLIND NETTLE, called so from the resemblance of its 
 leaves to those of a stinging nettle, and their not harming 
 or seeming to notice any body ; whence in most languages 
 it bears a name that implies dead, deaf, or blind ; 
 
 Lamium album, L.
 
 OF BRITISH PLANTS. 25 
 
 BLINKS or BLINKING-CHICKWEED, the " alsine flosculis 
 conniventibus" of Merret's Pinax, so called from its half- 
 closed little white flowers peering from the axils of the 
 upper leaves, as if afraid of the light, Montia fontana, L. 
 
 ELITE, L. blitum, Gr. fiXtrov, insipid, the name of some 
 potherb which Evelyn in his Acetaria takes to be the Good 
 Henry, and remarks of it that " Tis insipid enough," 
 
 Chenopodium Bonus Henricus, L. 
 in more modern works usually referred to Blitum, L. 
 
 BLOOD-BOOT, from the red colour of its root and its con- 
 sequent adoption, upon the doctrine of signatures, for the 
 cure of the bloody flux. " Tormentilla in dysenteria quod 
 rubra est." Linn, in Bibl. Botan. p. 117. 
 
 Tormentilla officinalis, L. 
 
 BLOOD-STRANGE, from blood, and a verb only found in 
 composition, strengen, draw tight, and metaphorically, as 
 in G. harn-strange, stop, Myosurus minimus, L. 
 
 BLOOD-WORT, or BLOODY-DOCK, from its red veins and 
 stems, Rumex sanguineus, L. 
 
 BLOODY WARRIOR, from its crimson-tinged petals, the 
 dark-blossomed wallflower, 
 
 Cheiranthus Cheiri, L. 
 
 BLOODY-MAN'S FINGER, from its lurid purple spadix, 
 
 Arum maculatum, L. 
 
 BLOW-BALL, the head of the dandelion in seed, from 
 children trying their luck by blowing the pappus from its 
 receptacle, Leontodon Taraxacum, L. 
 
 BLUE-BELL, from the bell-shape of its flower, 
 
 Scilla nutans, Sm. 
 in Scotland Campanula rotundifolia, L. 
 
 BLUE-BLAW, a name that would at first sight seem to be 
 merely " blue blow or blossom," but the latter word is in 
 old works invariably spelt blaw, and is rather the G. blau, 
 blue, Prov. blave, of which the Fr. names of the flower, 
 blaveole, blavelle, blavet, or blaverolle are the diminutives.
 
 26 POPULAR NAMES 
 
 Blue-blaw is therefore a tautology, and means "blue-blue." 
 Its Scotch name, blaivort, is a better one. 
 
 Centaurea Cyanus, L. 
 
 BLUE-BOTTLE, from the bottle shape of the involucre, 
 and its brilliant blue flower, Centaurea Cyanus, L. 
 
 BLUE-CAPS, from its tuft of blue flowers, 
 
 Scabiosa succisa, L. and Knautia arvensis, Coult. 
 
 BOG ASPHODEL, Narthecium ossifragum, Hud. 
 
 BOG- BEAN, either a translation of Fr. trefle des marais, 
 or a fancied correction of its proper name, buck-bean, 
 
 Menyanthes trifoliata, L. 
 
 BOG-BERRY, or BOG-WORT, the cranberry, 
 
 Vaccinium Oxycoccos, L. 
 
 BOG FEATHERFOIL, from its finely divided feathery leaves, 
 or foils, the water violet, Hottonia palustris, L. 
 
 BoG-Moss, Sphagnum, L. 
 
 BOG MYRTLE, or DUTCH MYRTLE, an evergreen aromatic 
 shrub with some general resemblance to a myrtle, and 
 abundant in peat-mosses, Myrica Gale, L. 
 
 BOG-RUSH, Schoenus, L. 
 
 BOG VIOLET, the butterwort, 
 
 Pinguicula vulgaris, L. 
 
 BOLBONAC, from the Arabic, Lunaria biennis, L. 
 
 BOLT, Pr. Pin. bolte, petilium, tribulum, 
 
 Ranunculus, L. 
 
 BOODLE, see BUDDLE, Chrysanthemum segetum, L. 
 
 BORAGE, Fr. bourache, M.Lat. borago, of which Apu- 
 leius says, that its former name was " corrago, quia cordis 
 affectibus medetur," a word that the herbalists suppose to 
 have become, by change of c to b, borrago. It is probably 
 a Latinized Oriental name brought with the plant from 
 Syria. B. officinalis, L. 
 
 BORE-COLE, in Tusser BORE, according to Hettema, in 
 Philol. Trans. 1858, from Du. boerekool, peasant cabbage, 
 Brassica oleracea, L. v. fimbriata.
 
 OF BRITISH PLANTS. 27 
 
 BORE- or BOUR-TREE, the elder, " from the great pith in 
 the younger branches, which children commonly bore out 
 to make pop-guns," Ray, N. C. Words, but perhaps the 
 O.N. burr, baurr, or bor (Holmboe), Sambucus nigra, L. 
 
 BOTTLE, see BLUE-BOTTLE. 
 
 BOTTLE-BRUSH, the field horsetail, from the resemblance 
 of its barren frond to one, Equisetum arvense, L. 
 
 BOUTS, or BOOTS, the marsh marigold, from the Fr. 
 bouton d'or, in respect of the yellow flower buds, 
 
 Caltha palustris, L. 
 
 BOWYER'S MUSTARD, from some apothecary probably, 
 
 Lepidium ruderale, L. 
 
 Box, A.S. box and buz, L. buxus, Gr. TTV^O?, from irvt-m, 
 a pyx or turned box made of the wood, 
 
 Buxus sempervirens, L. 
 
 BOX-HOLLY, from its box-like leaves terminating in a 
 prickle like those of holly, Ruscus aculeatus, L. 
 
 BOY'S-LOYE, or LAD'S-LOVE, the southernwood, from an 
 ointment made with its ashes being used by young men to 
 promote the growth of a beard : " Cinis Abrotani barbam 
 quoque segnius tardiusque enascentem cum aliquo dic- 
 torum oleorum elicit." Matth. Comm. in Diosc. iii., 25 ; 
 a purpose for which it is also recommended by Herbarius, 
 c. ii. Artemisia Abrotanum, L. 
 
 BRAKES, from brake, G. brache or brach-feld, uncultivated 
 land, a term used to replace the M.Lat. fractitius or rupti- 
 tius ager, land that is breakable, or again open to tillage 
 after a term of years, land that is not preserved as forest. 
 The fern so called is named from its place of growth in the 
 same way as whin, heath, bent, and brier. 
 
 Pteris aquilina, L. 
 
 BRACKEN, supposed by Jamieson to mean female brake, 
 but more likely to be a word introduced from Scandinavia 
 and identical with Sw. brdken, which Rietz derives from 
 Sw. bracka, break. Briigen, in Aalborg, means, when
 
 28 POPULAR NAMES 
 
 applied to rye, a crop of that grain sown on land that has 
 borne rye the previous year. Molb. D. D. Both these 
 words seem, like Brake, to indicate what grows on fallow 
 land. Pteris aquilina, L. 
 
 BRAMBLE, A.S. bremel, brembel, or brcembel, in Pr. Pm. 
 brymmeylle or brymbyll, Du. braam, G. brame, O.H.G. 
 pramo, words, which, as Grimm remarks, signify prickly 
 or thorny bushes, but are connected etymologically with 
 G. brummen, L. fremere, and others indicating " noise." 
 Bramble means usually the blackberry bush, 
 
 Rubus fruticosus, L. 
 but in Chaucer, 1. 13676 : 
 
 " The bramble flour that bereth the red hepe," 
 is the dog-rose, Rosa canina, L. 
 
 BRANDY-BOTTLE, a name usually explained as alluding 
 to the odour of the flower, but rather more probably taken 
 from the shape of the seed-vessel, the yellow water-lily, or 
 can-dock, Nuphar luteum, L. 
 
 BRANK, buckwheat, from a Latin word, brance, that 
 occurs in Pliny, 1. xviii. c. 7, where it seems rather to 
 mean a barley : " Gallise quoque suum genus farris dedere, 
 quod illic brance vocant, apud nos sandalam, nitidissimi 
 grani." The word will be identical with blanc, white, 
 Port, branco, and equivalent to wheat, which properly 
 means " white." See Diefenbach, Orig. Europ. p. 265. 
 Pol. pohanka, Polygonum Fagopyrum, L. 
 
 BREAKSTONE, from L. saxifraga, a plant that fissures 
 a rock, understood as meaning a lithontriptic plant, to be 
 administered in cases of calculus, a name applied to several 
 different species belonging to different genera, viz. 
 
 Pimpinella Saxifraga, L. Alchemilla arvensis, D.C. 
 and more particularly the genus Saxifraga, L. 
 
 BRIDE'S LACES, see LADY'S LACES. 
 
 BRIDEWORT, from its resemblance to the white feathers 
 worn by brides, Spiraea ulmaria, L.
 
 OF BRITISH PLANTS. 29 
 
 BRIER, A.S. brcer, Pr. Pm. brere, Fr. bruyere, called in 
 Normandy briere, from the waste land on which it usually 
 grows, M.Lat. brugaria or bruarium, W. brueg, a forest, 
 Bret, brug, from which brugaria would seem to have been 
 formed, various wild species of Rubus and Rosa, 
 
 SWEET-, Rosa rubiginosa, L. 
 
 BRIER-ROSE, any wild rose, but chiefly the common 
 hedge or dog-rose, Rosa canina, L. 
 
 BRIMSTONEWORT, from its roots yielding, as W. Coles 
 says, " a yellow sap which waxeth quickly hard, and dry, 
 and smelleth not unlike to brimstone," 
 
 Peucedanum officinale, L. 
 
 BRINJAL, or BRINGALL, Port, beringela, from the Tamul 
 brinjaul, its name in Ceylon and southern India, 
 
 Solanum Melongena, L. 
 
 BRISTLE-FERN, from the bristle that projects beyond its 
 receptacle, Trichomanes radicans, Sw. 
 
 BROCCOLI, the plural of It. broccolo, a small sprout, dimi- 
 nutive of brocco, a shoot, 
 
 Brassica oleracea, L. var. sabellica. 
 BROOK-LIME, in old writers BROK-LEMPE or -LYMPE, 
 
 Veronica Beccabunga, L. 
 BROOK-WEED, from its growing beside brooks, 
 
 Samolus Valerandi, L. 
 
 BROOM, A.S. brom, G. brame, a word of the same origin 
 as bramble, and O.N. brum, foliage, but at present applied 
 almost exclusively to a shrub of which besoms are made, 
 and called from it brooms, Spartium scoparium, L. 
 
 DYER'S-, Genista tinctoria, L. 
 
 BROOM-RAPE, L. rapum genista, from broom, a plant, 
 upon which it is parasitic, and rape, L. rapa, a turnip, 
 which its clubby tuberous stem somewhat resembles, 
 
 Orobanche, L. 
 
 BROWNWORT, A.S. brunwyrt, G. braunwurz, in Bruns- 
 felsius and all the old herbalists spelt brunnwurz, said to be
 
 30 POPULAR NAMES 
 
 called so from the brown colour of its stems and flowers, 
 but more probably from its growing so abundantly about 
 the brunnen or public fountains of German towns and 
 villages, Scrophularia aquatica and nodosa, L. 
 
 also, from its being supposed to cure the disease called in 
 German die braune, a kind of quinsey, the Brunella, or, as 
 it is now spelt, with a P, Prunella vulgaris, L. 
 
 BRUISEWORT, from its supposed efficacy in bruises, the 
 daisy, Bellis perennis, L. 
 
 and also the soapwort, Saponaria officinalis, L. 
 
 BRYONY, L. bryonia, Gr. ftpvwvia. 
 BLACK-, from its dark glossy leaves and black root, 
 
 Tarnus communis, L. 
 
 WHITE-, from the paler colour of the leaves and 
 of the root, Bryonia dioica, L. 
 
 BDCKBEAN, believed by some botanists to have been 
 originally bog-bean, which, from its French synonym, 
 trtfle des marais, is very plausible, but that in Dutch also 
 it is called bocks-boonen, and in German bocksbohne, and 
 considered a remedy against the scharbock, or scurvy, 
 whence it is called scharbock' s klee. Buckes-beane, and not 
 bog-bean, is the name of it in all the old herbals, and this 
 must be admitted to be the proper and established one, 
 being, no doubt, derived from the Dutch word, one which 
 seems to be a corruption of L. scorbutus, the scurvy. 
 
 Menyanthes trifoliata, L. 
 
 FRINGED-, so called from its delicately fringed 
 corolla, and its alliance with the genuine buckbean, 
 
 Limnanthemum nymphseoides, Lk. 
 
 BUCK'S-BEARD, from its long coarse pappus, resembling 
 the beard of a he-goat, Tragopogon pratensis, L. 
 
 BUCK'S-HORNE, from its furcated leaves, 
 
 Plantago Coronopus, L. 
 
 BUCK-MAST, the nuts or mast of the beech, which was 
 formerly called bucke, Fagus sylvatica, L.
 
 OF BRITISH PLANTS. 31 
 
 BUCKRAMS, from its offensive odour, see RAMSON. 
 
 Allium ursinum, L. 
 
 in Parkinson's Th. Bot. and some other Herbals, for buck- 
 rampe, in allusion to the spathe and spadix, 
 
 Arum maculatum, L. 
 
 BUCKTHORN, from M. Lat. spina cervina, or cervi spina 
 of Valerius Cordus, who seems to have misunderstood its 
 German name buzdorn, i.e. box-thorn, a translation of the 
 TrvgaicavOa. of Dioscorides, to which this shrub and its con- 
 geners were referred by the earlier herbalists, for bocksdorn, 
 the thorn of a buck, Rhamnus catharticus, L. 
 
 BUCKWHEAT, Du. boekweit, G. buchucaitzen, from the 
 resemblance of its triangular seeds to beechnuts, a name 
 adopted with its culture from the Dutch, 
 
 Polygonuin Fagopyrum, L. 
 
 BUBBLE, in Tusser spelt BOOBLE, Du. buidel, a purse, 
 because it bears gools or goldins, gold coins, Du. gulden ; a 
 punning allusion to its yellow flowers so called ; 
 
 Chrysanthemum segetum, L. 
 
 BUG AGARIC, a mushroom that used to be smeared over 
 bedsteads to destroy bugs, Agaricus muscarius, L. 
 
 BUGLE, M.L. bugula, dim. of abuga, one of the various 
 spellings of a word given by Pliny as corresponding to 
 Gr. ^a/iatTTtru?, and variously written abiga, ajuga, iva, 
 etc. Ajuga reptans, L. 
 
 BuGLOSS, L. buglossa, from Gr. /Sou?, an ox, and yXaxra-a, 
 tongue, descriptive of the shape and rough surface of the 
 leaves, Anchusa officinalis, L. 
 
 VIPER'S-, Echium vulgare, L. 
 
 BUGLOSS COWSLIP, the lung-wort, from its having the 
 leaves of a bugloss and the flowers of a primula, 
 
 Pulmonaria oflicinalis, L. 
 
 BULLACE, in the Grete Herball bolays, in Turner bulles, 
 in Pr. Pm. bolas, the Sp. bolas, bullets, Lat. bullas, bosses
 
 32 POPULAR NAMES 
 
 on bridles, and called so from its hard round fruit. 
 
 Prunus communis, Huds. var. insititia, L. 
 
 BULLOCK'S LUNGWORT, from its curative powers in the 
 pneumonia of bullocks, suggested, on the doctrine of sig- 
 natures, by the resemblance of its leaf to a dewlap ; see 
 MULLEIN. Verbascum Thapsus, L. 
 
 BULL-FIST, L. bovista, Lycoperdon, L. 
 
 BULLS AND Cows, more commonly called " Lords and 
 Ladies," the purple and the pale spadices, respectively, of 
 
 Arum maculatum, L. 
 
 BULL'S-FOOT, from the shape of the leaf, the more 
 commonly called coltsfoot, Tussilago Farfara, L. 
 
 BULL-WEED, from O.E. boll, any globular body, such as 
 the seed-vessel of flax, Dan. bold, a ball, It. palla, Gr. 
 TraXXa, the knapweed, so called from its globular invo- 
 lucre, Centaurea nigra, L. 
 
 BULL-WORT, properly pool-wort, from its growing in or 
 near pools, Scrophularia, L. 
 
 also, in Gerarde, for the same reason, Ammi majus, L. 
 
 BULRUSH, formerly spelt pole-rush, the pool-rush, jonc 
 d'eau, A.S. ea-risc, from its growing in pools of water, and 
 not, like the other rushes, in mire, Scirpus lacustris, L. 
 
 BULL-SEGG, the poolrsegg or -sedge, the reed-mace, 
 
 Typha latifolia, L. 
 
 BUMBLEKITES, the blackberry, from Scot, kyte, belly, as 
 in the " Wife of Auchtermuchty " : 
 
 " The deil cut aff thair hands, quoth he, 
 That cramm'd your kytes sae strute yestreen !" 
 
 and bumble, applied in Chaucer, 1. 6554, to the voice of the 
 bittern ; from the rumbling and bumbling caused in the 
 bellies of children who eat its fruit too greedily, 
 
 Rubus fruticosus, L. 
 
 BURDOCK, a name that, properly speaking, is a pleonasm; 
 for bur and dock both meant originally, the one in French, 
 and the other in the Germanic languages, a flock or lump
 
 OF BRITISH PLANTS. 33 
 
 of wool, flax, or hemp combed out in carding : but upon 
 dock being extended from the bur-dock to other broad-leaved 
 plants, the first syllable was added, to distinguish this 
 species (which pre-eminently deserved the name by the 
 trouble it gave housewives) from plants of the sorrel and 
 other tribes. The word bur is the Fr. bourre, L. burra, 
 and primarily means the lump or tangled mass of refuse 
 fibre, of which the involucre of this species formed the 
 nucleus. See HARDOCK. Arctium Lappa, L. 
 
 BUR MARIGOLD, a composite flower allied to the mari- 
 gold, with seeds that adhere to the clothes, like burs, 
 
 Bidens tripartite, L. 
 BUR PARSLEY, from its bur-like bristly carpels, 
 
 Caucalis daucoides, L. 
 
 BUR REED, from its narrow reed-like leaves, and the 
 burs formed by its seed vessels, 
 
 Sparganium ramosum, L. 
 BUR THISTLE, from its prickly involucre, 
 
 Carduus lanceolatus, L. 
 
 BUR-WEED, or BURDOCK CLOTWEED, a weed with large 
 leaves and burs somewhat like those of the burdock or 
 clotbur, Xanthiam strumarium, L. 
 
 BURNET, a term formerly applied to a brown cloth, Fr. 
 brunette, It. brunetta, dims, of brun and bruno, and given to 
 the plant so called from its brown flowers, 
 
 Poterium Sanguisorba, L. 
 
 BURNET BLOOD-WORT, from its power of stanching blood, 
 and its resemblance to burnet, 
 
 Sanguisorba officinalis, L. 
 
 BURNET SAXIFRAGE, from its supposed lithontriptic 
 qualities, and the resemblance of its leaves to burnet, 
 
 Pimpiuella Saxifraga, L. 
 BURSTWORT, from it supposed efficacy in ruptures, 
 
 Herniaria glabra, L. 
 BUTCHER'S BROOM, according to Loudon, and to the
 
 34 POPULAR NAMES 
 
 authoress of " Sylvan Sketches," Mrs. Kent, from butchers 
 making besoms of it to sweep their blocks ; according to 
 Parkinson, Th. Bot. p. 254, to sweep their stalls. But it 
 seems to have been called so from being used to preserve 
 meat from rats and bats. Thus Tragus, ed. 1595, p. 340, 
 " welchen dorn etliche myacantham, d.i. murinam spinam 
 nennen, darumb das diser dorn der meusen und ratten 
 zuwider ist." Matthioli, 1. iv. c. 141, gives the same 
 explanation of its Italian name, Pungi-topi, prick-rats : 
 " Nos, quod arcendis muribus is aptissimus sit, si salitis 
 appensis carnibus funiculo circumligetur, Pungi-topi He- 
 trusca lingua dicimus." So also Castor Durante in his 
 Herbario nuovo, p. 402 : " Per avere i rametti vencidi ed 
 le foglie dure, et horride, se ne fanno le scope e servono 
 per cacciar, come si e detto, i topi e le nottole dalle carni 
 salate." So also Lonicerus, Krauterb., p. 204. 
 
 Ruscus aculeatus, L. 
 
 BUTCHER'S PRICKWOOD, from skewers being made of it, 
 Rhamnus Frangula, L. 
 
 BUTTER AND Eaas, from the colour of the flowers, 
 
 Linaria vulgaris, L. 
 
 BUTTERBTJR COLTSFOOT, a plant so called perhaps from 
 a confusion of Fr. bourre, whence bur in burdock, with 
 Fr. beurre, butter. Dr. How and W. Coles derive the 
 name from the leaves being used, as they suppose, for lap- 
 ping butter in, a purpose to which they do not seem to be 
 applied at the present day. 
 
 Petasites vulgaris, Dsf. 
 
 BPTTER-CUP, not, perhaps, from butter and cup, but 
 rather more probably from Fr. bouton d'or, the bachelor's 
 button, a name given to its double variety, the cup being 
 the Old Eng. cop, a head, as in Wycliffe's Bible (Judg. ix. 
 7), a word that became obsolete, and was replaced by cup. 
 It will have meant, originally, button-head. See GOLDCUP 
 and KINGCUP. Ranunculus, L.
 
 OF BRITISH PLANTS. 35 
 
 BUTTER-DOCK, from its leaves being used for lapping 
 butter, whence the Scotch name of it, Smair-dock, 
 
 Ruinex obtusifolius, L. 
 
 BUTTER-FLOWER, Du. boter-bloem, G. schmalz-blume, from 
 a mistaken notion that it gives butter a yellow colour; or, 
 as Fuchs tells us, p. 878, from the greasy surface of the 
 petals, Ranunculus, L. 
 
 BUTTER-JAGS, an obscure name, perhaps in the first place 
 bottle-jacks, Lotus corniculatus, L. 
 
 BUTTERWORT, from its greasy feel, " as if," says W. 
 Coles, " melted butter had been poured over it," 
 
 Pinguicula vulgaris, L. 
 
 CABBAGE, Fr. caboche, It. cabttccio, from cabo, a head, 
 being a variety of colewort that forms a round head, 
 
 Brassica capitata, L. 
 
 ST. PATRICK'S, Saxifraga umbrosa, L. 
 
 ,, SEA-, Crambe maritima, L. 
 
 CALAMI NT, Gr. icdkt], good, and fuvBij, mint, as being a 
 valuable antidote to the bite of serpents, 
 
 Calamintha officinalis, L. 
 
 CALATHIAN VIOLET, L. Viola calathiana, from L. cala- 
 thus, Gr. /cakados, basket, a name given by Pliny to some 
 other very different plant, but by a mistake of Ruellius 
 transferred to Gentiana Pneumonanthe, L. 
 
 CALE, COLE, or COLEWORT, A.S. cawl, and caichcyrt, Du. 
 
 kool, L. caulis, a stalk, a name given to a thick-stemmed 
 
 variety, the kohl-rabi, and extended to the other kinds of 
 
 cabbage. " The Apothecaries and common Herbarists do 
 
 call it caulis of the goodnesse of the stalke," says Gerarde, 
 
 p. 249. Brassica oleracea, L. 
 
 ,, SEA-, Crarnbe maritima, L. 
 
 CALTROPS, A.S. cottrappe, in the romance of K. Alisan- 
 
 der, 1, 6070, calketrappen, M.Lat. calcitrapa, from L, calx, 
 
 a heel, and M.Lat. trappa, a snare, a name first applied to
 
 36 POPULAR NAMES 
 
 the caltrop used in war to impede the progress of cavalry, 
 and thence to the spiny heads of this plant, 
 
 Centaurea Calcitrapa, L. 
 
 CALVES-FOOT, Fl. calfsvoet, Fr. pied de veau, from the 
 shape of the leaf, Arum maculatum, L. 
 
 CALVES-SNOUT, the snapdragon, Fr. mufle de veau, from 
 a fancied resemblance in the seed vessel. " Antirrhinon," 
 says Cordus, " fructum fert vitulino capiti similem, tarn 
 exquisita similitudine, ut etiam os et nares appareant." 
 He illustrates his statement with a caricature of the seed- 
 vessel, which, as he gives it, certainly bears a most extra- 
 ordinary likeness to a calf's skull. 
 
 Antirrhinum majus, L. 
 
 CALVERKEYS, in Awbrey's Wilts, probably the same as 
 the Culverkeys of Walton's Angler, names no longer known. 
 CAMMOCK, A.S. cammttc, -ec, or -oc, a name given by old 
 writers to two very different plants, a Peucedanum, and an 
 Ononis. In the former sense it occurs in Piers Plowman's 
 Vision, 1. 13584 : 
 
 " For communlike in contrees Cammoke and wedes 
 
 Poulen the fruyt in the feld, ther thei growen togideres." 
 In this sense of a Peucedanum it is found in several 
 MSS. quoted by 0. Cockayne in Leechdoms, v. ii., p. 374. 
 The term kambuck is still given in Suffolk to the kexes. 
 
 Peucedanum officinale, ^. 
 
 ,, In the herbalists cammock means whin or rest- 
 harrow, Ononis arvensis, L. 
 
 CAMPANELLE, It. campanetta, a little bell, dim. of cam- 
 pana, a name given by Bulleyn to the hedge-bell, 
 
 Convolvulus sepium, L. 
 
 CAMPION, from having been used in the chaplets with 
 which champions at the public games were crowned. It. 
 campione, M.Lat. campio, from campus, a battle-field. 
 ,, BLADDER-, from its inflated calyx, 
 
 Silene inflata, L.
 
 OF BRITISH PLANTS. 37 
 
 CAMPION, CORN-, from its growing among corn, 
 
 Agrostemma Githago, L. 
 MEADOW-, the Ragged Robin, 
 
 Lychnis flos cueulK L. 
 Moss-, from its moss-like tufts, 
 
 Silene acaulis, L. 
 ROSE-, from the colour of the flower, 
 
 Lychnis coronaria, L. 
 
 CANARY-GRASS, from being a grass of the Canary Islands, 
 and used to feed Canary birds, Phalaris canariensis, L. 
 REED-, Digraphis arundinacea, Trin. 
 
 CAN-DOCK, from its broad leaves, and the shape of its 
 seed-vessel, like that of a silver can or flagon, Dan. 
 aa-kande, Nuphar luteum, Sm. 
 
 CANDLE-BERRY, from the fruit of an American species of 
 the genus yielding wax of which candles are made, 
 
 Myrica Gale, L. 
 
 CANDLE-RUSH, from its pith being used for rush-lights, 
 
 Juncus effusus, L. 
 
 CANDY-TUFT, or CANDY-MUSTARD, a tufted flower brought 
 from the Island of Candy, or Crete, Iberis umbellata, L. 
 
 CANKER, a tree-fungus, from its seeming to eat like a 
 cancer into a decaying tree, Boletus, L. 
 
 CANKER- ROSE, from its red colour and its detriment to 
 arable land, the field poppy, Papaver Rhceas, L. 
 
 CANTERBURY BELLS, so named by Gerarde, Ed. em. 
 p. 450, from growing very plentifully in the low woods 
 about Canterbury, Campanula Trachelium, L. 
 
 CAPER-PLANT, or WILD CAPER, from its immature seed 
 vessels being used in sauce for the buds of the real caper, 
 
 Euphorbia Lathyris, L. 
 
 CAPILLAIRE, the maiden-hair fern, from its being used 
 to prevent the hair from falling off, says Matthioli (1. iv. 
 c. 132.), quoting from Theophrastus : "ad defluviuin capil- 
 lorum utile." Adiantum Capillus Veneris, L.
 
 38 POPULAR NAMES 
 
 CAPON'S TAIL, from its spreading white flowers, 
 
 Valeriana officinalis, L. 
 
 CAPBIFOLY, M.Lat. caprifolium, goat's leaf, a mistake 
 for capparifolium, caper-leaf, the woodbine, which, in an 
 Anglo-Saxon translation of Dioscorides quoted by 0. Cock- 
 ayne (v. ii. p. 302), is spoken of as one ")>e man capparis 
 and oj>rum naman wudubend hate^," which is called cap- 
 paris, and by another name woodbine. The similarity of 
 the leaf of this shrub to that of the caper, and its habit of 
 growing about walls and rocks, very naturally led the 
 northern nations to confuse them together, and the blunder- 
 ing mistake of cappari for eapri has given rise to the Fr. 
 chevrefeuille, G. geiss-blatt, etc. Lonicera Caprifolium, L. 
 
 CARDOON, Fr. cordon, L. cardunculus, dim. of carduus, a 
 thistle, Cynara Cardunculus, L. 
 
 CARLINB THISTLE, L. Carolina, so named after Charle- 
 magne, Carl de groote, of whom the legend relates, as we 
 learn from Tabernsemontanus (vol. ii. p. 391), that " A 
 horrible pestilence broke out in his army, and carried off 
 many thousand men, which greatly troubled the pious 
 emperor. Wherefore he prayed earnestly to God, and in 
 his sleep there appeared to him an angel, who shot an 
 arrow from a cross-bow, telling him to mark the plant upon 
 which it fell, for that with that plant he might cure his 
 army of the pestilence. And so it really happened." The 
 herb thus miraculously indicated was this thistle. 
 
 Carlina vulgaris, L. 
 
 CARNATION, incorrectly derived in general from the flesh 
 colour of the flowers, and supposed to -be connected with 
 L. carne, but more correctly spelt by our older writers 
 coronation, as representing the Vetonica coronaria of the early 
 herbalists, and so called from its flowers being used in 
 chaplets, corona. So Spenser, in his Shepherd's Calendar : 
 " Bring coronations and sops in wine 
 "Worn of paramours." 
 
 Dianthus Caryophyllus, L.
 
 OF BRITISH PLANTS. 39 
 
 CARNATION-GRASS, certain sedges, from the resemblance 
 of their leaves to those of the carnation, more especially 
 the Carex glauca, Scop., and C. panicea, L. 
 
 CARPENTER'S-HERB, from its corolla seen in profile being 
 shaped like a bill-hook, and, on the doctrine of signatures, 
 supposed to heal wounds from edged tools, the self-heal, 
 
 Prunella vulgaris, L. 
 
 CARRAWAY, M.Lat, carui semina, seeds of careum, Gr. 
 Kapov, Carian, so called from its native country, Caria. 
 This genitive case was adopted for the name of the seed, 
 as in Arundel MS. 42, f. 55, "Carui growej? mykel in 
 merys in j>e feld, and in drye placys of gode erj?e." Way's 
 Pr. Pm. p. 333. Carum carui, L. 
 
 CARRAGEEN-MOSS, a sea-weed so called from an Irish word 
 that means " a little rock," the name of some place in Ire- 
 land where it was first collected for sale, 
 
 Chondrus crispus, Lyngb. 
 
 CARROT, Fr. carotte, L. carota, Daucus Carota, L. 
 
 CARSE, an old spelling of cress, A.S. ccers. 
 
 CASE-WEED, or CASSE-WEED, so called in allusion to its 
 little purse-like capsules, from Fr. caisse, L. capsa, a 
 money-box, Du. cas, Capsella Bursa pastoris, L. 
 
 CASSIDONY, L. stcechas sidonia, from Sidon, where the 
 plant is indigenous, Lavandula Stcechas, L. 
 
 CAT'S-EAR, from the shape of its leaves, 
 
 Hypochseris maculata, L. 
 
 CAT'S-FOOT, from its soft flower-heads, 
 
 Gnaphalium dioicum, L. 
 also, from the shape of its leaves, the ground ivy, 
 
 Nepeta Glechoma, Benth. 
 
 CATS-MILK, from its milky juice oozing in drops, as 
 milk from the small teats of a cat, 
 
 Euphorbia helioscopia, L. 
 
 CAT-MINT, or CAT-NEP, " because, 1 ' says Gerarde, p. 544, 
 " cats are very much delighted herewith : for the smell of
 
 40 POPULAR NAMES 
 
 it is so pleasant unto them, that they rub themselves upon 
 it, and wallow or tumble in it, and also feed on the branches 
 very greedily ;" which singular statement the good old 
 herbalist copied from Dodoens (i. 4, 14), without, perhaps, 
 ascertaining its truth. Nepeta cataria, L. 
 
 CAT'S-TAIL, from its long cylindrical furry spikes, 
 
 Typha latifolia, L. 
 
 also from its cylindrical spike, Phleum pratense, L. 
 CATCH- FLY, from its glutinous stalks, 
 
 the genus Silene, and Lychnis viscaria, L. 
 CATCH-WEED, a weed that catches the passer by, 
 
 Galium Aparine, L. 
 
 CAULIFLOWER, L. of Bauhin's Pinax, brassica cauliflora ; 
 of Parkinson, Par., p. 505, caulis florida; from L. caulis, 
 cole, and flores, flowers, formerly called cole-flower, coley- 
 flowers, and cole-flourey, 
 
 Brassica oleracea, L. var. florida. 
 CELANDINE, L. chelidonium, Gr. ^eXtBoviov from ^eTuS&w, 
 swallow; "not," says Gerarde, p. 911, "because it first 
 springeth at the coming in of the swallowes, or dieth when 
 they go away, for, as we have saide, it may be founde all 
 the yeare, but because some holde opinion, that with this 
 herbe the dams restore sight to their young ones, when 
 their eies be put out ;" an old notion quoted from Dodoens 
 (i. 2. 29), and copied by him from Pliny (1. xxv. c. i), and 
 by Pliny from Aristotle. This wonderful fact is received 
 and repeated by every botanical writer of those days, and 
 is embodied by the author of the Schola Salernitana, 1. 217, 
 and by Macer, c. 52, in the couplet, 
 
 " Csecatis pullis hac lumina mater hirundo, 
 
 (Plinius ut scripsit) quamvis sint eruta, reddit." 
 GREATER-, Chelidonium majns, L. 
 
 LESSER-, from its blossoming at the season when 
 the swallow arrives, the pilewort, 
 
 Ranunculus Ficaria, L.
 
 OF BRITISH PLANTS. 41 
 
 CELERY or SELLERY, Fr. celeri, It. sellari, the plural of 
 sellaro, the name under which it was introduced in the seven- 
 teenth century, corrupted from L. selinum, Gr. <re\ivov, 
 
 Apium graveolens, L. 
 
 CENTAURY, or CENTORY, L. centaurium, a plant so called, 
 says Pliny, from the Centaur Chiron, who cured himself 
 with it from a wound he had accidentally received from an 
 arrow poisoned with the blood of the hydra. What plant 
 this was, is uncertain. The name is now given to the 
 knapweeds, which the Germans, resolving centaurium into 
 centum aureos, a hundred pounds, call Tausend Gulden. 
 
 Centaurea, L. 
 
 ,, GREATER-, or MORE-, of the old black-letter herbals, 
 a gentianeous plant. Askham, in his Lytel Herball, says 
 of it, " It is named the More Centory or Earthgall : his 
 floures be yelowe in the croppe ;" and Dr. Linacre in his 
 version of Macer, that " More Centory or Earthgall hath 
 leves lyke to the Lesse Centory, but more whyter, and 
 yelowe flowers, and flowreth not but in the top." 
 
 Chlora perfoliata, L. 
 
 Lyte, and other herbalists since his time, incorrectly assign 
 the name to the knapweed, Centaurea nigra, L. 
 
 ,, LESSER-, so called in contrast with the greater- or 
 more- centory, Erythrsea Centaurium, L. 
 
 CENTINODE, or CENTYNODY, hundred knot, from its many 
 joints, L. centum and nodus, Polygonum aviculare, L. 
 
 CETERACH, from a supposed Arabic or Persian word, 
 chetherak, which Stapel on Theophrastus (p. 1164) derives 
 from pteryga, corrupted to peteryga and ceteryga, and 
 meaning " winged," a doubtful etymology, 
 
 C. officinarum, J. Sm. 
 
 CHADLOCK, see CHEDLOCK. 
 
 CHAFE-WEED according to Hooker in Fl. .Lond., from 
 its use in Northumberland to prevent heavy loads from 
 galling the backs of beasts of burden ; but more probably
 
 42 POPULAR NAMES 
 
 from its application to chafings of the skin in the human 
 subject, or, as Kay expresses it in Cat. Plant. Cant., 
 " quoniam ad intertrigines valet ;" the cud-weed, 
 
 Gnaphalium germanicum, W. 
 
 CHAFF-WEED, A.S. ceaf and weod, from its small chaffy 
 leaves, Centunculus minimus, L. 
 
 CHALOTS, see SHALLOT. 
 
 CHAMOMILE, L. chamcemelum, Gr. %a/j,aifjbr)\ov, earth- 
 apple, from the odour of its flowers, 
 
 Anthemis nobilis, L. 
 WILD-, Matricaria chainomilla, L. 
 
 CHAMPIGNON, Agaricus oreades, B. 
 
 CHANTARELLE, from the French, a mushroom so called, 
 Cantharellus cibarius, Fr. 
 
 CHARLOCK, CARLOCK, or CALLOCK, in Scotland SKEL- 
 LOCH, A.S. cerlice, which seems to be either formed from 
 cerre, turn, and to indicate a vicarious plant, a weed of 
 fallow ground ; or, as is more probable, from L. chcero- 
 phyllum, and thus connected with G. sckierling. In a MS. 
 of the fourteenth century in Bel. Ant. ii. 80, it is spelt 
 szerlock, and translated caroil, chervil, which seems to con- 
 firm this view of its origin. The name is at present given 
 to a wild mustard. Brassica Sinapistrum, Boiss. 
 
 CHECKERED LILY, from the markings on the petals, 
 Fritillaria Meleagris, L. 
 
 CHEDDAR PINK, from its place of growth in Somerset- 
 shire, on the cliffs of that picturesque ravine, 
 
 Dianthus csesius, L. 
 
 CHEDLOCK, CHADLOCK, or KEDLOCK, A.S. cedeleac, from 
 leac, a plant, and cede, which seems to be the same as 
 L.Germ. kiidick, kettich, koddick, Da. kidike, related, per- 
 haps, to Da. kiede, annoy. In the eastern counties chad 
 means the refuse sifted from wheat. The name is now 
 confounded with charlock, but in Westmacott's Scripture 
 Herbal, p. 86, and other old works, is assigned to the
 
 OF BRITISH PLANTS. 43 
 
 hemlocks. There is nothing related of St. Chad or Cedde, 
 that in any way connects him with these weeds. 
 
 Brassica Sinapistrum, Boiss. 
 
 CHEESEBOULS, the red poppy, from the shape of the ripe 
 capsule resembling that of round cheeses, 
 
 Papaver Rhoeas, L. 
 
 CHEESE-RENNET, or -RUNNING, a name given to the 
 yellow lady's bedstraw from its supposed power of curd- 
 ling milk. " Galium inde nomen sortitum est suum, 
 quod lac coagulet." Matth. 1. iv. c. 91. A.S. cys-gertm, 
 from cys, cheese, and gerun, a word connected with G. 
 rinnen and gerinnm, Sw. ronna, coagulate. 
 
 Galium verum, L. 
 
 CHEET, the name of a spurious oil that in Gerarde's 
 time was palmed off upon the public for the Spanish oil of 
 Sesamum. See below, GOLD OF PLEASURE. 
 
 CHEIR, WILD-, the wallflower, from its Latin name, 
 
 Cheiranthus Cheiri, L. 
 
 CHEQUER-TREE, the service-tree, so called in Evelyn's 
 Sylva, and in Sussex at the present day, from Choker, the 
 choke-pear, being an antique pronunciation of the word 
 which we find in the humorous old ballad of The Frere and 
 the Boy, 1. 115, 
 
 " "Whan my fader gyveth me mete, 
 
 She wolde theron that I were cheke." i.e. choaked. 
 See CHOKE-PEAR. Sorbus domestica, L. 
 
 CHERRY, from O.E. CHERISE, as it is spelt in Chaucer, 
 a word that was mistaken for a plural of cherry, Fr. cerise, 
 It. ciriegia, L. cerasea, adj. of cerasus, Gr. Kepatros, a name 
 brought with the tree from Asia Minor, 
 
 Prunus Cerasus, L. 
 BIRD'S-, a sort fit for birds only, 
 
 Prunus Padus, L. 
 
 WILD-, or Gean, Prunus avium, L. 
 
 CHERRY-WOOD, in Jacob's PI. Faversh. the water-elder, 
 
 Viburnum Opulus, L.
 
 44 POPULAR NAMES 
 
 CHERVIL, A.S. ccerfille, Fr. cerfeuil, L. chcerophyttum, 
 Gr. xat/>e</>iAXoi/, from xaipw, rejoice, and (f>v\\ov, leaf, 
 Chserophyllum sylvestre, L. 
 HEMLOCK-, or ROUGH-, 
 
 Caucalis Anthriscus, L. 
 
 CHESSES, a name that by some mistake has been trans- 
 ferred to this plant, the peony, from the poppy, which, from 
 the shape of its capsule, was called chasses and chese-boules, 
 
 Paeonia corallina, L. 
 CHESTNUT, L. castanea, Gr. Kaarravov, 
 
 Castanea vesea, Lam. 
 
 HORSE-, probably so named from its coarseness, 
 but according to Parkinson (Th. Bot., p. 1402), from being 
 used in Turkey as a food for horses suffering from shortness 
 of wind, JEsculus Hippocastanum, L. 
 
 CHEVISAUNCE, in Spenser's Sheph. Cal. April, 1. 142 : 
 
 " The pretty pawnee, And the chevisaunce," 
 evidently a misprint for cherisaunce, comfort, heart' s-ease, 
 the cheiri or wallflower, the plant to which the name of 
 Heart' s-ease was originally given. The word is omitted in 
 the glossaries to Spenser, but occurs in Chaucer's Romaunt 
 of the Rose, 1. 3837 : 
 
 " Then dismayed I left all soole, 
 Forwearie, forwandred as a foole, 
 For I ne knew ne cherisaunce." 
 
 Cheiri is the Moorish name Keiri, with which the plant 
 now so familiar to us was brought hither from Spain. 
 
 Cheiranthus Cheiri, L. 
 CHICK-PEA, or CHICHES, It. cece, L. cicer, 
 
 C. arietinum, L. 
 
 CHICKLING, a spurious Chick ; cf. Vetchling and Cram- 
 bling; Lathyrus, L. 
 
 CHICKWEED, A.S. cicena-mete, from the various plants 
 comprehended under this name having been used to feed 
 chickens. " It is thought to be wholesome for sick birds,
 
 OF BRITISH PLANTS. 45 
 
 whence called Chickweed." Threlkeld. " On en consomme 
 beaucoup pour la nourriture des oiseaux de voliere." 
 Duchesne, s. 1. plantes utiles, p. 226. 
 
 Stellaria media, L. 
 
 also, in Hudson, Veronica arvensis, and agrestis, L. 
 MOUSE-EAR-, Cerastium vulgatum, Huds. 
 
 WINTER-GREEN-, Trientalis europsea, L. 
 
 CHICORY, L. Cichorium, Gr. Kixppn or Kl xP lov > an 
 Egyptian word. " Intybum in ^Egypto Cichoriuin vocant." 
 Plin. N.H. 1. xx. c. 8. C. Intybus, L. 
 
 CHIER, WILD-, see CHEVISAUNCE, the wallflower, from 
 an Arabic word, Keiri, Cheiranthus Cheiri, L. 
 
 CHILDING CUDWEED, a parturient cudweed, 
 
 Filago germanica, L. 
 
 CHILDING PINK, a parturient pink, one that is called so 
 from its throwing out younger and smaller flowers like a 
 family of little children round it. Childing is an expression 
 analogous to ' calving,' ' kittening/ etc., and occurs fre- 
 quently in old authors. Thus in Lev. xii. 3, Wycliffe's 
 version has, " If a woman childip a male child :" and in 
 Gen. iv, 1, 2, " Eve childide Cain, and eft sche childide his 
 brother Abel." Dianthus prolifer, L. 
 
 CHIVES, in R. Turner's Bot. p. 175, GIVES, Fr. dees, 
 derived by Diez from L. cepa, 
 
 Allium Schoenoprasum, L. 
 
 CHOKE-PEAR, Fr. poire d'estranguillon, L. pyrum strangu- 
 latorium, Ger. p. 1270, a name given to a wild pear so hard 
 and austere as to choak ; with an allusion, perhaps, to the 
 death of Drusus, a son of the Emperor Claudius, which 
 was caused by a fruit of this character, 
 
 Pyrus communis, L. 
 
 CHRISTOPHER, see HERB CHRISTOPHER, a name given to 
 several different plants. 
 
 CHRISTMAS, from being used for decoration at that season, 
 the holly, Ilex Aquifolium, L.
 
 46 POPULAR NAMES 
 
 CHRISTMAS ROSE, from its open rose-like flower, and its 
 blossoming during the winter months, 
 
 Helleborus niger, L. 
 
 CHRIST'S LADDER, an old name, for we find it as Christis 
 ledclere in catalogues of the fourteenth century. From the 
 plant having been called /e/-wort, earth-gall, fel-ierr&, etc., 
 we may suspect that it has arisen from Christis galle, 
 Christ's gall, or Christis schale, Christ's Cup, having been 
 mistaken for Christi scala, Christ's ladder, and that it 
 alludes to the bitter draught offered to Jesus upon the 
 cross. Erythrsea Centaurium, L. 
 
 CHURL'S HEAD, from its rough hairy involucre, 
 
 Centaurea nigra, L. 
 
 CHURL'S TREACLE, garlick, from its being regarded as a 
 Triacle or antidote to the bite of venomous animals. See 
 POOR MAN'S TREACLE. Allium sativum, L. 
 
 CHURN STAFF, from its straight stein spreading into a 
 flat top, Euphorbia helioscopia, L. 
 
 CIBBOLS, Fr. ciboule, It. cipolla, scallions, 
 
 Allium Ascalonicum, L. 
 CICELY, Gr. o-eo-eXt, some umbelliferous plant. 
 
 ROUGH-, Caucalis Anthriscus, Huds. 
 
 ,, SWEET-, from its agreeable odour, 
 
 Myrrhis odorata, L. 
 
 WILD-, Chserophyllum sylvestre, L. 
 
 CIDERAGE, Fr. cidrage, Polygonuna Hydropiper, L. 
 ' CINQUEFOIL, in A. Askham's Lytel Herball Quyncke- 
 folye, Fr. cinq and feuilles, L. cinque foliola, so called from 
 its five leaflets, Potentilla, L. 
 
 MARSH-, Comarum palustre, L. 
 
 Ciss, abbreviated from Cicely. 
 
 CLAPPEDEPOUCH, a nickname meaning clap- or rattle- 
 pouch, from clap, Du. klappen, a name that alludes to the 
 licensed begging of lepers, who stood at the cross-ways 
 with a bell and a clapper. Hoflmann von Fallersleben
 
 OF BRITISH PLANTS. 47 
 
 in his Niederlandische Volkslieder says of them, p. 97, 
 " Separated from all the world, without house or home, 
 the lepers were obliged to dwell in a solitary wretched hut 
 by the road-side; their clothing so scanty that they often 
 had nothing to wear but a hat, and a cloak, and a begging 
 wallet. They would call the attention of the passers-by 
 with a bell or a clapper, and receive their alms in a cup, 
 or a bason at the end of a long pole. The bell was usually 
 of brass. The clapper is described as an instrument made 
 of two or three boards, by rattling which they excited 
 people to relieve them." The lepers would get the name 
 of Rattle-pouches, and this be extended to the plant in 
 allusion to the little purses which it hangs out by the 
 way-side. Capsella Bursa pastoris, L. 
 
 CLAKY, M.Lat. sclarea, a word formed from clarus, clear, 
 by prefixing the preposition ex, whence It. schiarire and 
 schiarare. This word Clary affords a curious instance of 
 medical research. It was solved by the apothecaries into 
 clear-eye, translated Oculus Christi, Godes-eie, and See- 
 bright, and eye-salves made of it. See Gerarde, p. 827. 
 
 Salvia Sclarea, L. 
 ,, WILD-, Salvia Verbenaca, L. 
 
 CLAVER, Du. klaver, the old and correct way of spelling 
 Clover. See CLOVER. 
 
 CLEAVERS, or CLIVERS, the goosegrass, A.S. clife, Du. 
 kleef-kruid, from its cleaving to the clothes, or possibly from 
 Da. klyve, O.N. klifa, climb, O.Fris. klieve. It is likely 
 that in this, as in so many other cases, a word, understood 
 in one county in one sense, has been adopted, with some 
 slight change, in another county in a different but equally 
 appropriate sense; or that one form of the word has been 
 learnt from a Dutch or Flemish book, and the other from 
 a Friesic or Scandinavian. Galium Aparine, L. 
 
 GLIDERS, see CLITE.
 
 48 POPULAR NAMES 
 
 CLIFF-PINK, from its growing upon Cheddar Cliffs in 
 Somersetshire, Dianthus csesius, L. 
 
 CLITE, CLITHE, GLIDERS, and CLITHEREN, a name of the 
 goosegrass, probably from Oliver, by a change, not unfre- 
 quent, of v to th ; or from Du. klederen, G. kleider, clothes ; 
 see CLEAVERS. Galium Aparine, L. 
 
 CLIMBERS, from its habit of climbering, or attaching 
 itself to objects, the Fr. grimper, originally identical with 
 griper, clutch, a use of the word found in Tusser, p. 109, 
 
 " Set plenty of boughs among runcival pease, 
 
 To climber thereon, and to branch at their ease." 
 the Virgin's bower, Clematis Vitalba, L. 
 
 CLOG-WEED, a shortened form of keyc-logge, as it is spelt 
 in Turner of Tottenham, quoted by Way in a note to Pr. 
 Pm. p. 278, a word formed of keck, a hollow stalk, and 
 lock, A.S. leac, a plant, and signifying the kex-plant, 
 
 Heracleum Sphondylium, L. 
 
 CLOSE SCIENCES, the Dame's Violet, called, as Parkinson 
 tells us (Th. Bot. p. 628), the single variety of it, Single 
 Sciney, and the double variety, Close Sciney, from which 
 Gerarde made this ridiculous name. Sciney, no doubt, has 
 arisen from its specific name, Damascena, understood as 
 Darnels Scena. Hesperis matronalis, L. 
 
 CLOT-BUR, the bur-dock, called in Chaucer and in Pr. 
 Pm. CLOTE, sometimes spelt incorrectly CLOD-BUR, A.S. 
 clatte, G. kktte, a bur that sticks to clothes, a word con- 
 nected with many others beginning with cl or kl, such as 
 cleave, climb, cling, kletten. The name may possibly have 
 some connection with clout, through a confusion between 
 the Latin name of the plant, lappa, and Du. lap, G. lappen, 
 a clout, whence our English verb lap ; as in a line of Pierce 
 Plowman : 
 
 " Thereon lay a litel chylde lapped in chutes." 
 
 Arctium Lappa, L.
 
 OF BRITISH PLANTS. 
 
 49 
 
 CLOUD-BERRY, from its growing on the cloudy tops of 
 mountains, Ger. p. 1368, Rubus Charnsemorus, L. 
 
 CLOVE GILLIFLOWER, from its scent of clove, Sp. clavo, 
 a nail, the shape of the spice so called, 
 
 Dianthus Caryophyllus, L. 
 
 CLOVER, or, as it is more correctly spelt in all the herbals, 
 and all our older writers, and in Lowland Scotch, CLAVER, 
 Du. klaver, A.S. ctofer and clcefra, Da. klever. It is 
 evidently a noun in the plural number, probably a Frisian 
 word, and means " clubs," from L. clava, and refers to the 
 clava trinodis of Hercules. It is in fact the club of our 
 cards, Fr. trefle, which is so named from its resemblance 
 in outline to a leaf with three leaflets. Trifolium, L. 
 ALSIKE-, Trif. hybridum, L. 
 
 BIRDSFOOT-, from its claw-like legumes, 
 Lotus corniculatus, and Trigonella ornithopodioides, L. 
 ,, CRIMSON-, Trif. incarnatum, L. 
 
 ,, DUTCH-, Trif. repens, L. 
 
 ,, HARESFOOT-, from its furry soft capitules, 
 
 Trif. arvense, L. 
 
 ,, HARTS-, Melilotus officinalis, L. 
 
 HEART-, from the markings of the leaf, 
 
 Medicago maculata, L. 
 ,, HOP-, from the shape of its fruiting capitules, 
 
 Trif. agrarium, and procumbens, L. 
 HORNED-, of W. Turner, the lucerne, 
 
 Medicago sativa, L. 
 
 ,, MEADOW-, Trif. pratense, L. 
 
 ,, STRAWBERRY-, from the shape of its capitules, when 
 in fruit, with the calcyces pink and inflated, 
 
 Trif. fragiferum, L. 
 
 CLOWN'S ALLHEAL or WOUNDWORT, so called by 
 Gerarde, p. 852, because a countryman, who had cut him- 
 self to the bone with a scythe, healed the wound with it 
 in seven days, Stachys palustris, L. .
 
 50 POPULAR NAMES 
 
 CLOWN'S LUNG-WORT, from its use in pulmonary disease, 
 Lathrsea Squamaria, L. 
 
 CLUB-MOSS, a mossy plant with a club-like inflorescence, 
 
 Lycopodium, L. 
 
 CLUB-RUSH, from its club-like inflorescence, the reed- 
 mace, Typha latifolia, L. 
 
 COB-NUT, from cob, a thick lump, A.S. copp, head, so 
 called from being used in a game called cob-nut, 
 
 Corylus Avellana, L. var. grandis. 
 
 COCK'S COMB, of botanists, from the shape of the calyx, 
 Khinanthus Crista galli, L. 
 
 COCK'S COMB, of Hill's, and some other herbals, from the 
 shape of its legume, the sainfoin, Onobrychis sativa, L. 
 
 COCK'S COMB of the gardeners, Celosia cristata, L. 
 
 COCK'S-COMB-GRASS, from the shape of the panicle, 
 
 Cynosurus echinatus, L. 
 
 COCK'S-POOT, from the shape of the spike, 
 
 Dactylis glomerata, L. 
 
 COCK'S-HEAD, from the shape of the legume, the sainfoin, 
 
 Onobrychis sativa, L. 
 
 COCKS, from children fighting the flower-stems one 
 against the other. See KEMPS. Plantago lanceolata, L. 
 
 COCKLE, A.S. coccel, L. caucalis, Gr. /cau/caXt?, some 
 umbelliferous plant, which Clusius says (p. ccii.) was the 
 same as Sau/co? cvypia. Cockle or Cokyl was used by 
 Wycliffe and other old writers in the sense of a weed 
 generally, but in later works has been appropriated to the 
 gith, or corn pink. Agrostemma Githago, L. 
 
 CODLIN, originally coddling, from coddle, to stew or boil 
 lightly, a boiling apple, an apple for coddling or boiling, 
 a term used in Shakspeare, (T. N. i. 5,) of an immature 
 apple, such as would require cooking to be eaten, but now 
 applied to a particular variety, Pyrus Malus, L. var. 
 
 CODLINS AND CREAM, from the odour of its flowers, 
 or of its fresh shoots, or according to Threlkeld, of its
 
 OF BRITISH PLANTS. 51 
 
 bruised leaves, the larger willow-herb so named after a 
 once favourite dish alluded to in King's Cookery : 
 " In cream and codlings rev'ling with delight." 
 
 Epilobiurn hirsutum, L. 
 
 COL, abbreviated by the Apothecaries from Coliander 
 once used for Coriander, Coriandrum sativum, L. 
 
 COLESEED, or COLLARD ; see GALE ; rape, 
 
 Brassica Napus, L. 
 
 COLEWORT, or COLLET, cabbage, Brassica oleracea, L. 
 
 COLMHNIER, a name given in the Herbals to the Sweet 
 William, and also spelt Tolmeiner, which in Parkinson is 
 divided into Toll-me-neer, as though the meaning had been 
 Cull me-, or Toll me near, probably a fanciful explanation 
 of a name derived from some unknown foreign word, 
 d'Allemagne, perhaps ; see TOLMEINER. 
 
 Dianthus barbatus, L. 
 
 COLT'S-FOOT, L. ungula caballina, from the shape of the 
 leaf, Tussilago Farfara, L. 
 
 COLTZA, Flem. kool-zaad, cole-seed, 
 
 Brassica Napus, L. 
 
 COLUMBINE, L. columUna, adj. of columba, pigeon, from 
 the resemblance of its nectaries to the heads of pigeons in 
 a ring round a dish, a favourite device of ancient artists, 
 
 Aquilegia vulgaris, L. 
 
 COM PREY, L. confirma, from its supposed strengthening 
 qualities, Symphytum officinale, L. 
 
 SPOTTED-, see LUNGWORT. 
 
 CONSOUND, or CONSOUD, L. comolida, "quia tanta praes- 
 tantia est, ut carnes, dum coquuntur, conglutinet addita, 
 unde nomen :" Pliny, xxvii. 6. a name given in the 
 middle ages to several different plants, and among them to 
 the daisy, Bellis perennis, L. 
 
 to the comfrey, Symphytum officinale, L. 
 
 to the bugle, Ajuga reptans, L. 
 
 and to the wild larkspur, Delphinium Consolida, L.
 
 * 
 52 POPULAR NAMES 
 
 CONVAL LILY, L. lilium convallium, lily of combes, incor- 
 rectly translated " Lily of the valley." The expression is 
 used in the Vulgate translation of the Bible (Cant. ii. 1), 
 and is appropriately given to this plant, as the flower of 
 hollows surrounded by hills, its usual place of growth, 
 although certainly not the flower meant by the royal poet. 
 
 Convallaria majalis, L. 
 
 COP-ROSE, from it red rose-like flower and the cop- or 
 button-like shape of its capsule, Papaver Rhreas, L. 
 
 CORAL-ROOT, from its branching and jointed root-stock 
 resembling white coral, Corallorhiza innata, R.B. 
 
 CORAL-WORT, from its white root, and the " divers small 
 round knobs thereon resembling the knaggy eminences of 
 coral," W. Coles, p. 56, Dentaria bulbifera, L. 
 
 CORD-GRASS, called so by Turner, because he " saw that 
 rishe in the islands of East Friesland, and the people there 
 make ropes of that rishe, and thache their houses also wyth 
 the same," Spartina stricta, Sin. 
 
 CORIANDER, a plant, says Cogan, p. 26, "commonly 
 called Coliander," Or. xopiavvov, of /copis, a bug, from its 
 odour, Coriandrum sativum, L. 
 
 CORK, the orchil, Norw. korkje, a corruption of an 
 Arabic word into one more familiar, 
 
 Roccella tinctoria, D.C. 
 in the Highlands, Lecanora tartarea, Ach. 
 
 CORMEILLE, CORR, or CARMYLIE, Gael, caermeal, the 
 heath-pea, a word adopted from the Gaelic, 
 
 Orobus tuberosus, L. 
 
 CORN, one of several words, which being common to 
 widely separated branches of the Ind-European race, prove 
 the practice of tillage among our ancestors before they left 
 their first home in central Asia, Skr. karana, Go. kaurn, 
 L. granum, Russ. zerno, a term applied to the several 
 kinds of grain most commonly used in their respective 
 countries. Max Miiller refers the word to Skr. kurna, 
 ground.
 
 OF BRITISH PLANTS. 53 
 
 CORN-BIND, see BIND-WEED and BEAR-BIND. 
 
 CORN-BOTTLE, see BLUE BOTTLE. 
 
 CORN-COCKLE, see COCKLE. 
 
 CORN-FLOWER, from its being one of the gayest and most 
 conspicuous wild flowers of corn-fields, Du. korenbloem, 
 Latin in Ort. San. Flores frumentorum, 
 
 Centaurea Cyanus, L. 
 
 CoRN-HoNEWORT, from its use in curing the hone, or 
 boil on the cheek, Petroselinum segetum, L. 
 
 CORN-MARIGOLD, see MARIGOLD, 
 
 Chrysanthemum segetum, L. 
 
 CORN-PINK, in Northamptonshire (Baker), the corn- 
 cockle, Agrostemma Githago, L. 
 in some counties, Campanula hybrida, L. 
 
 CORN-POPPY, or -KoSE, Papaver Rhceas, L. 
 
 CORN-SALAD, Valerianella olitoria, L. 
 
 CORN-VIOLET, Campanula hybrida, L. 
 
 CORNEL, It. corniolo. L. corneolus, dim. of corneus, adj. 
 of L. cornus, Gr. icpaveia, Cornus sanguinea, L. 
 
 CORNISH-MONEYWORT, from its round leaves, and its 
 having been first discovered in Cornwall, and long sup- 
 posed to be peculiar to that county, and called there Penny- 
 pies, Sibthorpia europsea, L. 
 
 CORONATION, the older and more correct spelling of car- 
 nation, from its M.Lat. name Vettonica coronaria, as in 
 Dodoens, ii. i, 18, Tabern. vol. ii. c. 1, and Lyte, b. ii. 
 ch. vii, who, in speaking of Clove Gillofers, says, " The 
 greatest and bravest sort of them are called coronations or 
 carnations" See CARNATION. Dianthus Caryophyllus, L. 
 
 COSTMARY, L. costus amarus, its name in Bauhin'a Th. 
 Bot. p. 674, Fr. coste amere, misunderstood as Costus 
 Marice, from Gr. /eooro?, some aromatic plant unknown, 
 an error that has very naturally arisen from this one 
 having been dedicated to St. Mary Magdalene, and called 
 after her, Maudlin, either in allusion to her box of scented
 
 54 POPULAR NAMES 
 
 ointment, or to its use in the uterine affections over which 
 she presided. In old authors it occurs as Herba sanctce or 
 diva Marice. See MAUDLIN. Balsamita vulgaris, W. 
 
 COTTON-GRASS, or -RUSH, a grass-like plant with seed- 
 spikes resembling tufts of cotton from the protrusion of 
 the hypogynous bristles beyond the glumes, 
 
 Eriophorum polystachyum, L. 
 
 COTTON-WEED, from its soft white pubescence, 
 
 Gnaphalium, L. 
 
 COUCH-GRASS, or QUITCH, A.S. cwice, from cwic, viva- 
 cious, L. Germ, quek, quik, or queek, on account of its 
 tenacity of life, for, as says the Bremen Glossary (v. iii. 
 p. 401), "Rein gewachs hat mehr lebenskraft als der 
 Queck, wie die land- und garten-bauer mit verdruss er- 
 fahren," a name given to several creeping grasses, but 
 more especially to Triticum repens, L. 
 
 COUGH-WORT, a translation of G. /S^toy, a name given 
 to it from its medicinal use, the colts-foot, 
 
 Tussilago Farfara, L. 
 
 COVENTRY BELLS, from their abundance near that town 
 (Ger. em. p. 448), Campanula Trachelium, L. 
 
 COVENTRY RAPES, see RAMPION, called rape from its 
 tuberous turnip-like roots, Campanula Rapunculus, L. 
 
 COWBANE, from its supposed baneful effect upon cows, 
 
 Cicuta virosa, L. 
 
 COWBERRY, apparently from a blunder between Vacci- 
 nlum, the fruit of the whortle, and vaccinum, what belongs 
 to a cow, Vaccinium Vitis idsea, L. 
 
 COW-CRESS, a coarse cress, Lepidium campestre, L. 
 
 COWSLIP, A.S. cuslyppa or cusloppe, which 0. Cockayne 
 (Leechdoms, ii. p. 378), would derive from cu, cow, and 
 slyppa, slop, an explanation of it which is by no means 
 probable. Still less so is Wedgwood's, who, in ignorance 
 that cows do not eat cowslips, would regard the last sylla- 
 ble as a corruption of leek. There is very little poetry in
 
 OF BRITISH PLANTS. 55 
 
 these popular names, and the word seems really to allude 
 to a very humble part of dress. In the Stockholm medical 
 M.S. it is spelt kousloppe, and evidently means " hoseflap," 
 from Flem. kouss, hose, and lopp, flap. Such a name 
 could scarcely have been given in the first place to the 
 plant now called " cowslip," but was very applicable to 
 the large oval flannelly leaf of the mullein, from which it 
 has been transferred to it through the Latin name Verbas- 
 cum, which comprehended both the cowslip and the mullein. 
 This view is confirmed by its French name braiette. 
 
 Primula veris, L. 
 
 FRENCH- or MOUNTAIN-, P. Auricula, L. 
 
 JERUSALEM-, Pulmonaria officinalis, L. 
 
 Cow's LUNGWORT, see BULLOCK'S LUNGWORT. 
 
 COW-PARSLEY, or COW-WEED, 
 
 Cha3rophyllum sylvestre, L. 
 
 COW-PARSNEP, Heracleum Sphondylium, L. 
 
 COW-QUAKE, a word that would seem to have arisen 
 from a confusion in German works between queck 
 lively, a name given to the couch grasses, and quag, 
 cattle. Thus Bauhin tells us (Th. Bot. p. 9), that Queck- 
 gras, quitch, is so called by the Saxons [the people of 
 Lower Germany] from the cattle being fond of it : "a 
 jumentis quse ea herba delectantur ; Queck enirn ipsis 
 'jumentum' significat." The quaking grass is ranged by 
 Tragus under these queck-graser, and the similarity of G. 
 queck and E. quake has fixed the name upon this species. 
 The four words are in fact identical, etymologically speak- 
 ing, and mean "alive;" whence their various applications, 
 as queck, quitch, quake, and quag, to objects in which life 
 and motion are conspicuous. Briza media, L. 
 
 COW-WEED, see Cow PARSLBY. 
 
 COW-WHEAT, from its seed resembling wheat, but being 
 worthless as food for man, Melampyrum, L. 
 
 CRAB, Sc. scrab, from A.S. scrobb, a shrub, implying a
 
 56 POPULAR NAMES 
 
 bush- or wild-apple, in the Grete Herball called a " Wood- 
 crabbe," and according to Turner (b. ii. p. 47), " in the 
 north countre a Scarb-tre," Fr. in Cotgrave, pomme de 
 boys, Pyrus Malus, L. 
 
 CRAB-GRASS, from its growing on the sea-shore, where 
 crabs abound, and being supposed to afford them food, 
 
 Salicornia herbacea, L. 
 
 CRAKE-BERRY, the crow-berry, O.N. kraka, a crow, 
 whence Da. krake-bar, from its black colour, or, accord- 
 ing to Dr. Johnston, in East. Bord. from crows eating it 
 greedily, Empetrum nigrum, L. 
 
 CRAMBLING ROCKET, a spurious crambe, or mustard (as 
 vetchling is a spurious vetch), with the leaves of rocket, 
 Sisymbrium officinale, L. 
 
 CRANBERRY, from its fruit being ripe in the spring, when 
 the crane returns, Da. tranebar, from trane, a crane, a 
 name of late introduction, for Lyte calls them Marrish 
 Whorts and Fenberries, and says (b. vi. c. 11) that " there 
 is none other name for them known," 
 
 Vaccinium Oxycoccos, L. 
 
 CRANE'S-BILL, from the form of the seed vessel, 
 
 Geranium, L. 
 
 CRAP, or CROP, buck-wheat, related to L. carpere. Crop 
 in our old writers means a head of flowers, a cyma, and 
 may have been given to this plant, as being thus distin- 
 guished from the cereal grains, which have no such con- 
 spicuous flowers. There is probably some prefix lost from 
 the word. Polygonum Fagopyrum, L. 
 
 CRAPPE, in some works, for no obvious reason, applied 
 to the ray-grass, Lolium perenne, L. 
 
 CRAZY, or CRAISEY, in Wiltshire and the adjoining 
 counties, the buttercup, apparently a corruption of Christ's 
 eye, L. oculus Christi, the medieval name of the marigold, 
 which, through the confusion among old writers between 
 caltha and calendula, has been transferred to the marsh
 
 OF BRITISH PLANTS. 57 
 
 marigold, and thence to other ranunculacese. Thus in 
 M.S. Sloane, No. 5, Oculus Christi is explained " calen- 
 dula, solsequium, the Seynt Marie rode;" and again, 
 Gesner explains Caltha, which usually means the marsh 
 marigold, " ringel-bluom, solsia, quod solem sequatur, 
 vulgo calendula, quasi calthula. See MARYBUD. 
 
 Ranunculus, L. 
 
 CRESS, G. kresse, Fr. wesson, It. crescione, M. Lat. cris- 
 sonium, derived by C. Stephans, and by Diez, from L. cres- 
 cere, grow, " a celeritate crescendi." The form of the 
 word now in use has probably been adopted from the 
 Netherlands with the cultivation of the plants. Used abso- 
 lutely, it means the genus Lepidium, L. 
 BELLEISLE-, Barbarea praecox, RB. 
 BITTER-, Cardamine amara, L. 
 ,, GARDEN-, Lepidium sativum, L. 
 ,, LAND-, in distinction from the water-cress, 
 
 Barbarea vulgaris, RB. 
 ,, PENNY-, from its round silicules, 
 
 Thlaspi arvense, L. 
 
 ,, SCIATICA-, from its medicinal use, Iberis, L. 
 SWINE'S-, or WART-, Coronopus Ruellii, D.C. 
 ,, TOWN-, from its cultivation in tonnes or gardens, 
 Lepidium sativum, L. 
 
 ,, WALL-, from its usual place of growth, Arabis, L. 
 WATER-, Nasturtium officinale, L. 
 
 WINTER-, Barbarea vulgaris, RB. 
 
 CROCUS, Gr. /c/jo/co?, saffron. 
 
 CROSS OF JERUSALEM, from the resemblance of its 
 scarlet flower, both in shape and colour, to a Maltese or 
 Jerusalem cross, Lychnis chalcedonica, L. 
 
 CROSS-FLOWER, from its flowering in Cross-week. See 
 ROGATION FLOWER. Polygala vulgaris, L. 
 
 CROSS-WORT, from its cruciate or cross-placed leaves, 
 Galium cruciatum, Scop,
 
 58 POPULAR NAMES 
 
 CROW-BELLS, the daffodil, 
 
 Narcissus Pseudonarcissus, L. 
 
 CROWBERRY, from the black colour of its fruit, 
 
 Empetrum nigrum, L. 
 
 CROW-FLOWER, the buttercup, from the resemblance of 
 its leaf to a crow's foot. See CROWFOOT. 
 
 Ranunculus acris and bulbosus, L. 
 but in old authors oftener applied to the Ragged Robin, 
 
 Lychnis flos cuculi, L. 
 
 CROWFOOT, from being supposed, from the shape of its 
 leaf, to be the Coronopus or crow's-foot of Dioscorides, 
 
 Ranunculus, L. 
 
 CROWFOOT CRANESBILL, a geranium with a leaf like that 
 of a crowfoot, Geranium pratense, L. 
 
 CROW-GARLICK, a worthless one, Allium vineale, L. 
 
 CROW-LEEKS, Scilla nutans, Sm. 
 
 CROW-NEEDLES,, or CRAKE-NEEDLES (Ray) from the long 
 beaks of the seed vessels, Scandix Pecten, L. 
 
 CROW-TOES, from its claw-like spreading legumes, 
 
 Lotus corniculatus, L. 
 
 CUCKOO'S BREAD, or CUCKOO'S MEAT, or GOWK-MEAT, 
 from its blossoming at the season when the cuckoo's cry is 
 heard, M.Lat. of Ort. San. c. xviii, pants cuculi, 
 
 Oxalis Acetosella, L. 
 
 " CUCKOO BUDS of yellow hue," Shaksp. (L.L.L. v. 2), 
 are probably the buds of the crowfoot. 
 
 CUCKOO FLOWER, a name given in old works to the 
 ragged robin, Lychnis flos cuculi, L. 
 
 but now more generally to the lady's smock, which, as 
 Gerarde says, p. 203, " flowers in April and May, when 
 the cuckoo doth begin to sing her pleasant notes without 
 stammering," Cardainine pratensis, L. 
 
 CUCKOO GILLIFLOWER, one of the plants formerly com- 
 prehended under the gilliflowers, and blossoming at the 
 time of the cuckoo's song, Lychnis flos cuculi, L.
 
 OF BRITISH PLANTS. 59 
 
 CUCKOO-GRASS, a grass-like-rush flowering at the time of 
 the cuckoo, Luzula campestris, L. 
 
 CUCKOO-PINT, or -PINTLE, from A.S. cucu, lively, and 
 pintle (see Bailey), L.Ger. pintel, Fris. pint and peynth, 
 words explained in Outzen's Glossary, a plant so called 
 from the shape of the spadix, and its presumed aphrodisiac 
 virtues, and, although the editor of "Saxon Leechdoms" 
 (ii. p. 337) may not acquiesce in this derivation, and may 
 choose to overlook its synonyms, Wake Pintle, Wake 
 Robin, and others, most certainly not so called, in the first 
 place at least, after the cuckoo ; although in later times it 
 may, through carelessness, and ignorance of the true deri- 
 vation, have come to take that meaning; for, pace tanti 
 viri, how could such a name be given to it after a bird ? 
 See below, WAKE-PINTLE and WAKE-ROBIN. 
 
 Arum naaculatum, L. 
 
 ^ CUCUMBER, Fr. eoncombre, It. cocomero, L. cucumis, -eris, 
 
 C. sativus, L. 
 
 CUDBEAR, from a Dr. Cuthbert Gordon, who first manu- 
 factured a dye from it, 
 
 Lecanora tartarea, Achar. 
 
 CUCKOO SORREL, A.S. geaces sure, the wood-sorrel, from 
 its flowering at the season when the cuckoo sings, 
 
 Oxalis Acetosella, L. 
 
 CUDWEED, from cut, Du. kutte, A.S. cwr&, vulva, a plant 
 that on account of its soft cottony pubescence was used to 
 prevent chafings or to relieve them (see CHAFEWEED). 
 
 Gnaphalium germanicum, and uliginosum, L. 
 SEA-, Diotis maritima, L. 
 
 CULL-HE-, CUDDLE ME-, or CALL ME TO YOU, see PANSY. 
 
 CULLIONS, It. coglione, augm. of coglia, L. coleus, from 
 its double tubers, Orchis, L. 
 
 CULRAGE, through the French from L. culi rabies, a 
 plant so named, says Gerarde (p. 361) " from his operation 
 and effect when it is used in those parts." See Lobel,
 
 POPULAR NAMES 
 
 Adv. Nov. p, 134. Piers of Fulham says : 
 " An erbe is cause of all this rage 
 In oure tonge called outrage" 
 
 Polygonum Hydropiper, L. 
 
 CULVERKEYS, a name found in Walton's Angler, and 
 the same probably as Calverkeys, in Awbrey's Wilts, one 
 now no longer used or understood. Being applied to a 
 meadow plant it cannot be, as supposed by the commen- 
 tators, the columbine, but far more probably, as suggested 
 by Mr. Edw. King, in Notes and Queries, 2nd s. vii, 303, 
 the blue-bell or common hyacinth. Scilla nutans, Sin. 
 
 CULVERFOOT, in Lupton, (b. ix. No. 15), the doves- foot 
 cranesbill, Geranium columbinum, L. 
 
 CULVERWORT, A.S. culfre, pigeon, and wort, from the 
 resemblance of its flowers to little heads of such birds feed- 
 ing together, the columbine, Aquilegia vulgaris, L. 
 
 CUMMIN, from Ar. al qamoun, Cuminum cyminum, L. 
 
 CUP in Butter-cup, King-cup, and Gold-cup, not from a 
 drinking vessel, but from the resemblance of its double 
 variety to the gold head of a button, A.S. eopp, a stud, 
 Fr. bouton d'or, Kanunculus acris, L. 
 
 CUP LICHEN, or Cup-Moss, from its cup-like shape, 
 Scyphophorus pyxidatus, Hook. 
 
 CURRANT, a name transferred from the small grape 
 brought from Corinth, and thence called Uva Corinthiaca, 
 to the fruits of several species of Kibes, 
 
 R. rubrum and nigrum, L. 
 
 CUSHION-PINK, from its dense tufted growth, and the 
 resemblance of its flowers in their general appearance to 
 pinks, Statice Armeria, L. 
 
 CUT-HEAL, the valerian, which was probably so called 
 from its supposed efficacy in uterine affections, Du. kutte, 
 A.S. cwffi, but in mistaken conformity to its name, used, 
 as Gerarde tells us, " in sleight cuts, wounds, and small 
 hurts." Valeriana officinalis, L.
 
 OF BRITISH PLANTS. 61 
 
 CYCLAMEN, an adopted Latin name, Gr. 
 
 C. europaeum, L. 
 
 CYDERACH, the culrage. See CIDERAGE and CUDWEED. 
 
 CYPHEL, an unexplained name, possibly the Gr. Kvcj>e\\a, 
 a mass of clouds, from its growth on cloud-capped Alpine 
 heights, Cherleria sedoides, L. 
 
 CYPRESS, L. cupressus, Gr. KVTrapio-aos, 
 
 C. sempervirens, L. 
 
 CYPRESS-ROOT, or SWEET CYPRESS, from L. cyperus, a 
 plant the aromatic roots of which are known as English 
 galingale, Cyperus longus, L. 
 
 DAFFADOWNDILLY, DAFFODILLY, AFFODILLY, and DAFFO- 
 DIL, L. asphodelus, from which was formed Affodilly, the 
 name of it in all the older writers, but subsequently con- 
 fused with that of another flower, the so-called sapharoun- 
 or saffron lily. 
 
 " The thyrde lylye gyt there ys, 
 
 That ys called felde lylye, y wys, 
 
 Hys levys be lyke to sapharoun, 
 
 Men know yt therby many one." 
 
 MS. Sloane, No. 1571. 
 
 With the taste for alliteration that is shown in popular 
 names, the Sapharoun-lity ; upon blending with affodilly, 
 became, by a sort of mutual compromise, daffadown-dilly , 
 whence we get our daffodilly and daffodil. This explana- 
 tion of it is merely conjectural, and wants the test of his- 
 torical evidence, but appears to be the best. The dic- 
 tionaries derive it from "fleurs d'affodille;" but there is 
 no such name to be found in any work, French or English, 
 and it is highly improbable that a plant should be called, 
 the "flowers" of the plant. Neither does this explain the 
 -down- of Daffadowndilly. Narcissus Pseudonarcissus, L. 
 
 DAISY, A.S. dceges-eage^ eye of day, O.B. Daieseygke, 
 from its opening and closing its flower with the daylight,
 
 62 POPULAR NAMES 
 
 a name that seems to have delighted Chaucer, who makes 
 long and repeated allusions to it, Bellis perennis, L. 
 GREAT-, or MOON-, or OX-EYB-, 
 
 Chrysanthemum Leucanthemum, L. 
 
 DAMASK VIOLET, or DAME'S VIOLET, L. Viola Damas- 
 cena, from Damascus in Syria, Fr. Violette de Damas, mis- 
 understood for Violette des dames, 
 
 Hesperis matronalis, L. 
 
 DAMSONS, DAMASINS, or DAMASK PRUNES, Fr. damascene, 
 a kind of plum first brought from Damascus, 
 
 Prunus communis, Huds. var. damascena. 
 
 DANDELION, Fr. dent de lion, lion's tooth, L. leontodon, 
 a name, about the meaning of which modern authors are 
 undecided. Some derive it from the whiteness of the root ; 
 some from the yellowness of the flower, which they com- 
 pare to that of the heraldic lion, whose teeth are of gold ; 
 most of the Herbalists from the runcinate jags of the leaf, 
 which somewhat resembles the jaw, but certainly not a 
 tooth of the lion ; others from other grounds more or less 
 plausible, but all to the neglect of the only safe guide in 
 these matters, the ancient writer who gave the name. 
 We learn from the Ortus Sanitatis, ch. 152, that a Master 
 William, who was a surgeon, and who seems, from ch. 226, 
 to have written a " cyrorgi," or work on surgery, was very 
 fond of this plant on account of its virtues, and therefore 
 likened it to a lion's tooth, called in Latin dens teonis. 
 " Diss kraute hat Meyster< Wilhelmus, eyn wuntartzet 
 gewest, fast lieb gehabt umb seiner tugent willen, unnd 
 darumb hatt er es geglichen eynem leuwen zan, genant zu 
 latein dens leonis." Ed. Augsburg. 1486, fol. It bears a 
 .similar name in nearly every European language. 
 
 Taraxacum officinale, Vill. 
 
 DANEWORT, DANEWEED, or DANESWEED, names of the 
 dwarf elder for which Awbrey in his Nat. Hist, of Wilts, 
 p. 50, substitutes that of DANESBLOOD, and gives an ex-
 
 OF BRITISH PLANTS. 63 
 
 planation of it that seems to be a fanciful one, seeing that 
 the plant bears the same name of " Danesweed" in other 
 counties, viz. that it grows in great plenty about Slaughter- 
 ford, where there was a great fight with the Danes. Par- 
 kinson (Th. Bot. p. 208) derives it with more probability 
 from the aptness of the plant to cause a flux called the 
 Danes ; but as the plant is expressly recommended by 
 Platearius as a remedy " contra quotidianam," the Dane 
 may be a corruption of the last syllables of this word. 
 
 Sainbucus Ebulus L. 
 
 DAPHNE, the name of a nymph, who was turned into a 
 shrub by the other gods, when pursued by Apollo, 
 
 D. Laureola, L. 
 
 DARNEL, in Pr. Pm. DERNEL, a name that in old writers 
 did not mean exclusively the large ray grass to which 
 we now assign it, but many other plants also, of many 
 different genera and natural orders, leguminosse, grarnineae, 
 caryophylleae, etc. The most probable source of this, as 
 of most other popular names, is its medical use. We find 
 that it was a specific remedy for cutaneous diseases. 
 Glantvilla (Batman's translation, 1582) says, c. 194, that 
 "Ray medled with brimstone and with vinegar helpeth 
 against scabs wet and dry, and against tetters, and against 
 itching." Now these diseases were called zerna; "Zernam 
 medici impetiginem vocant," says Cassius Felix, as quoted 
 by the editor of Macer on the line, descriptive of its 
 virtues : 
 
 " Zernas et lepras cura compescis eadem." 
 It is from this word that we seem to have got dernel, 
 which, so far as it was a specific name, meant " itch-weed." 
 But, in truth, there was great confusion among our early 
 herbalists in respect to the names of their plants, and 
 under that of Darnel were comprehended all kinds of corn- 
 field weeds. So in the Grete Herball, ch. 246, we find 
 under the picture of a vetch (!), " Lolium is Cokyll." The
 
 64 POPULAR NAMES 
 
 A.S. version of Matth. ch. xiii. v. 25, renders the Lat. 
 " zizania" coccel, Wycliffe's both cokel and darnel, and later 
 versions tares, arid Th. Newton, in his Herbal to the Bible, 
 p. 226, tells us expressly that, " under the name of Cockle 
 and Darnel is comprehended all vicious, noisome, and un- 
 profitable graine, encombring and hindering good corne." 
 The explanation given above is the most plausible that 
 offers itself, but the origin of this word is extremely 
 obscure, and all analysis of it quite conjectural. Some 
 incidental notice may another day throw a light upon it, 
 that cannot be elicited by any amount of thought, or inge- 
 nuity of conjecture. Lolium temulentum, L. 
 
 DAUKE, the wild carrot, L. daucus, Gr. Sav/cos, a word 
 that seems to be etymologically identical with the northern 
 laukr, leac, lauch, by a replacing of d with /, 
 
 D. Carota, L. 
 
 DEADMAN'S FINGERS, from the pale colour and hand-like 
 shape of the palmate tubers, Orchis maculata, L. 
 
 DEAD NETTLE, Lat. of Ort. San. Urtica mortua, a plant 
 that has nettle-like leaves, but does not resent the touch 
 with a sting, and from its apparent insensibility is called 
 dead, deaf, and blind, Lamium, L. 
 
 WHITE-, L. album, L. 
 
 ,, ,, RED-, L. purpureum, L. 
 
 YELLOW-, L. Galeobdolon, Or. 
 
 DEAD-TONGUE, from its paralysing effects on the organs 
 of voice, of which Threlkeld gives a striking example, on 
 the authority of a Mr. Vaughan, in the case of eight lads 
 who had eaten it, and of whom " five died before morning, 
 not one of them having spoken a word," 
 
 (Enanthe crocata, L. 
 
 DEADLY NIGHTSHADE, or DEATH'S HERB, 
 
 Atropa Belladonna, L. 
 
 DEAF NETTLE, the Dead nettle, Lamium, L.
 
 OF BRITISH PLANTS. 65 
 
 DEAL-TKEES, the species of fir that produce the deal of 
 commerce, Pinus and Abies. 
 
 DEER'S HAIR, from its tufts of slender stems looking 
 like coarse hair, Scirpus caespitosus, L. 
 
 DELT-ORACH, an orach whose leaves are triangular, like 
 a Greek letter J, Atriplex patula, L. 
 
 DEPTFORD PINK, from its growing, according to Gerarde, 
 " in a field next Deptford, as you go to Greenwich," 
 
 Dianthus Armeria, L. 
 
 DEVIL IN THE BUSH, from its horned capsules peering 
 from a bush of finely divided involucre, 
 
 Nigella damascena. L. 
 
 DEVIL'S-BIT, G. Teufels abbiss, L. Morsus diaboli, so 
 called, says the Ortus Sanitatis, c. cclxi, on the authority 
 of Oribasius, " because with this root the Devil practised 
 such power, that the mother of God, out of compassion, 
 took from the Devil the means to do so with it any more ; 
 and in the great vexation that he had that the power was 
 gone from him, he bit it off, so that it grows no more to 
 this day." Threlkeld records a legend, that " the root was 
 once longer, until the Devil bit away the rest, for spite; 
 for he needed it not to make him sweat, who is always 
 tormented with fear of the day of judgment." Later 
 authors explain it, as though the root would cure all 
 diseases, and that the Devil, out of his inveterate malice, 
 grudges mankind such a valuable medicine, and bites it 
 off. Scabiosa succisa, L. 
 
 DEVIL'S DARNING NEEDLES, from its long awns, 
 
 Scandix Pecten, L. 
 
 DEVIL'S GUTS, from the resemblance of the stem to cat- 
 gut, and the mischief it causes, the dodder, Cuscuta, L. 
 DEVIL'S MILK, from its acrid poisonous milk, 
 
 Euphorbia, L. 
 
 DEW-BERRY, G. tauben-beere, Norw. col-bar, supposed 
 to be called so from the dove colour of its fruit, A.S. duua,
 
 Ob POPULAR NAMES 
 
 Du. duif, a dove, but perhaps with better reason referrible 
 to the theve-thorn of Wycliffe's Bible. See THEVE-THORN. 
 
 Kubus csesius, L. 
 
 DEW-GRASS, from its rough dew-besprent blades, the 
 cocksfoot grass, Dactylis glomerata, L. 
 
 DEWTRY, from L. Datura (see Hudibras, iii. c. 1), 
 
 D. Stramonium, L. 
 
 DILL-SEED, from O.N. ditta, lull, being used as a carmi- 
 native to cause children to sleep, 
 
 Anethum graveolens, L. 
 
 DITCH-BUR, called by Turner Dychebur, from its bur- 
 like involucre, and its growth on dykes, not in ditches, as 
 its modern name would lead us to suppose, the dyke being 
 the dry bank that confines the water, 
 
 Xanthium strumarium, L. 
 
 DITTANDER, or DITTANY, apparently a corruption of 
 L. dictammts, the name of a very different plant, but 
 applied to a cress, of which Lyte says (b. v. ch. 66), " It 
 is fondly and unlearnedly called in English Dittany. It 
 were better in following the Douchemen to call it Pepper- 
 wurt." Lepidium latifolium, L. 
 
 DOCK, A.S. docca, which seems to be the same word as 
 Norw. dokka, G. docke, Dan. dukke, a bundle of flax or 
 hemp, a word that corresponds to Fr. bourre, a flock, and 
 O.E. harde or herde, explained by Batman on Bartholomew 
 (c. 160), as "what is called in Latin stupa, and is the 
 clensing of hempe or flexe." The name Dock would seem 
 from this to have been first given to the burdock from 
 the frequent occurrence of its involucres entangled in wool, 
 and to have been transferred from this to other broad- 
 leaved plants. Used absolutely, it means at the present 
 day those of the sorrel kind. See BDRDOCK and HARDOCK. 
 
 Ruinex, L. 
 
 BUR-, see under BURDOCK. 
 CAN-, see under CANDOCK.
 
 OF BRITISH PLANTS. 67 
 
 DOCK, FIDDLE-, from the shape of its leaves, 
 
 Rumex pulcher, L. 
 
 ROUND-, the common mallow, still called so in the 
 charm that is used by children who have been stung with 
 nettles, and alluded to by Chaucer in Troilus and Cressida 
 (b. iv. sb. 62) : " Nettle in, dock out." 
 
 Malva sylvestris, L. 
 SHARP-, the sorrel, from its acidity, 
 
 Rumex Acetosa, L. 
 
 VELVET-, Verbascum Thapsus, L. 
 
 DODDER, the plural of Fris. dodd, a bunch, Du. dot, 
 hampered thread, from its resemblance to bunches of 
 threads entangled in the plants on which it grows, 
 
 Cuscuta, L. 
 
 DOGBERRY, or DOG-CHERRY, the fruit of the Dogwood 
 tree, misunderstood as referring to the quadruped. See 
 DOGWOOD. Cornus sanguinea, L. 
 
 DOG'S CHAMOMILE, a spurious or wild kind, 
 
 Matricaria Chamomilla, L. 
 
 DOG-GRASS, called so, Tabernaernontanus tells us, " sin- 
 temal sich die Hunde, wenn sie Massleid haben, damit 
 purgiren ;" and R. Turner (Bot. p. 89) " It is called in 
 Latin gramen caninum, because dogs eat the grass when 
 they are sick." Triticum caninum, Huds. 
 
 DOG'S MERCURY, or DOG'S COLE, a spurious kind, to dis- 
 tinguish it from the so-called English Mercury, 
 
 Mercurialis perennis, L. 
 DOG'S ORACH, a stinking kind, 
 
 Chenopodium olidum, Sm. 
 
 DOG'S PARSLEY, G. KWCLTTLOV, a worthless weed, parsley 
 for a dog, JSthusa Cynapium, L. 
 
 DoG-RoSE, /cvvoppoSos and /cvvoaftaros, a wild kind, so 
 called from its want of scent and beauty, Rosa canina, L. 
 
 DOG'S-TAIL-GRASS, from its spike being fringed on one 
 side only, Cynosurus cristatus, L.
 
 68 POPULAR NAMES 
 
 DOG'S-TONGUE, a translation of L. cynoglossum, a name 
 given to it from its soft leaf, C. officinale, L. 
 
 DOG'S-TOOTH-GRASS, Fr. ckien dent, from the sharp- 
 pointed shoots of its underground stem, 
 
 Triticum caninum, Hud. 
 and Cynodon Dactylon, R. 
 
 DOG-VIOLET, a scentless one, Viola canina, L. 
 
 DOG-WOOD, not so named from the animal, but from 
 skewers being made of it. " It is rather a shrub than a 
 tree," says Threlkeld, " the dry wood wonderfully resists 
 the axe and the wimble, and is used for skewers by the 
 butchers." Dog, in this view of it, is the Fr. dague, It. 
 and Sp. daga, Fl. and Old Engl. dagge, equivalent to GK 
 dolch, a dagger, and A.S. dale or dole, a fibula, a brooch- 
 pin, and related to Skr. dag, strike. The verb dawk is 
 still retained in the Western counties in a Nursery rhyme : 
 " Prick it and dawk it, baker's man." This derivation of 
 the name is supported by its synonyms Prick-wood, 
 Skewer-wood, and Gadrise, but has been overlooked, and 
 the fruit, from a mistaken idea of its meaning, called a 
 Hountf s-berry . Cornus sanguinea, L. 
 
 DOOB-GRASS, the name given in India to the dog's-tooth- 
 grass, Cynodon Dactylon, R. 
 
 DOVE'S FOOT, from the shape of the leaf, 
 
 Geranium molle, L. 
 
 DRAKE, DRAWK, or DRAVICK, Du. dramg, W. dreiug, Br. 
 draok, darnel, cockle, or weeds in general, L. daucus, with 
 insertion of r, as in Sp. tronar from tonar. It is some- 
 times found spelt drank, a form of the word which seems 
 to have arisen, in the first place, from a mere misprint of 
 n for u. Bromus sterilis, and Avena fatua, L. etc. 
 
 DROPWORT, according to Turner (b. iii. 31), from its 
 small tubers hanging by slender threads, 
 
 Spiraea Filipendula, L.
 
 OF BRITISH PLANTS. 09 
 
 DROPWORT, WATER-, from its use in stillicidium, and 
 growth in wet places, OEnanthe fistulosa, L. 
 
 DRY-ROT, a name given to several species of fungus 
 destructive of wood, which they render dry and as if des- 
 troyed by fire (see Proceedings of Linn. Soc. for 1850, p. 
 80), but probably derived from tree, wood, A. S. trem r 
 and rot, Merulius lacrymans, Wulf. 
 
 DUCK-MEAT or -WEED, an aquatic plant, a favourite food 
 of ducks, called in Pr. Pm. ende-mete, 
 
 Lemna minor, L. 
 
 DULSE, Gael, duillisg, from duille, leaf, and uisge, water, 
 a name given to several species of rose-spored alga?, and 
 more especially to 
 
 Ehodomenia palmata, and Iridsea edulis, B. St. V. 
 
 DUNSE-DOWN, a pleonasm, from Du. dons, which means 
 down, so called from its soft spikes, but whimsically 
 derived by Lobel from its making people dunck or deaf, 
 if it gets into their ears (Kruydtb. p. 113), the reed-mace, 
 
 Typha latifolia, L. 
 
 DUTCH CLOVER, or simply DUTCH, from the seed of it 
 having been very largely imported from Holland, 150 tons 
 annually, says Curtis in his Flor. Lond. 
 
 Trifolium repens, L. 
 
 DUTCH MYRTLE, L. Myrtus Brabantica, from its abound- 
 ing in Dutch bogs, and replacing the myrtle of more 
 genial climates, Myrica Gale, L. 
 
 DUTCH RUSH, a rush-like plant imported from Holland, 
 Equisetum hyemale, L. 
 
 DWALE, Da. dwale, torpor, trance, whence dwale-bcer, a 
 dwale- or trance-berry. In Chaucer (1. 4159), it is used 
 for a sleeping draught : " There nedeth him no dwale ;" 
 and in Lupton's 1000 notable things, we have (b. iv. 1) a 
 receipt for making Dwale for a patient to take, " while he 
 be cut, or burned by cauterising," the ingredients of which 
 are the juices of hemlock, nep, lettuce, poppy, and hen-
 
 70 POPULAR NAMES 
 
 bane, mixed up with pig's gall and vinegar. Once a general 
 term, it has been appropriated to the deadly nightshade. 
 
 Atropa Belladonna, L. 
 
 DYER'S GREEN-WEED, in the sense of a dye-herb that 
 tinges green, Genista tinctoria, L. 
 
 DYER'S ROCKET OR YELLOW WEED, from its leaves re- 
 sembling those of the genuine rocket, and its being used 
 by the dyers to dye woollen stuffs yellow, 
 
 Reseda Luteola, L. 
 EARTH-BALLS, truffles, balls that grow under the earth, 
 
 Tuber cibarium, Sib. 
 
 EARTH-GALL, A.S. eor>6-gealle, from their bitterness, 
 plants of the gentian tribe, more particularly the lesser 
 centaury, Erythrsea Centauriurn, L. 
 
 EARTH-MOSS, Phascum, L. 
 
 EARTH-NUT, or -CHESTNUT, ERNUT, or YERNUT, from its 
 nutty esculent tubers, Bunium flexuosum, With. 
 
 EARTH-SMOKE, L.fumus terra, see FUMITORY, 
 
 Fumaria officinalis, L. 
 
 EARTH-STAR, a fungus so called from its stellate shape 
 when burst and lying on the ground, Geaster, Berk. 
 EGG-PLANT, from the shape of its fruit, 
 
 Solanum Melongena, L, 
 
 EGLANTINE, a name that has been the subject of much 
 discussion, both as to its exact meaning, and as to the 
 shrub to which it properly belongs. In Chaucer and our 
 other old poets it is spelt Eglantere and Eglatere, as in a 
 passage in the Flower and Leaf, st. 3 : 
 
 The hegge also, that yede in compas, 
 And closed in all the greene herbere, 
 "With sicamour was set and Eglatere. 
 
 But whether this word meant originally the sweetbrier, the 
 yellow rose called in systematic works Eglanteria, the dog- 
 rose, the burnet rose, or some other species, cannot now be 
 ascertained, and perhaps the poets who used it meant no
 
 OF BRITISH PLANTS. 71 
 
 more than a rose of any kind indifferently. Indeed, Milton 
 in the expression " twisted eglantine," is supposed to have 
 meant the woodbine. The derivation of the name is ob- 
 scure. Diez, the highest authority in questions of French 
 etymology, derives it from Lat. aculeus, a prickle, through 
 aculentus, whence 0. Fr. aiglent, covered with prickles, 
 and aiglentier, which became eglantier, and eglantine, and 
 in this view is supported by Em. Egger. The name seems 
 in ancient French works to have been given to the wild 
 roses. In our own early writers, and in Gerarde and the 
 herbalists, it was a shrub with white flowers that was 
 meant. At the present day by Eglantine is usually 
 understood the sweet-brier, Eosa rubiginosa, L. 
 
 ELDER, A.S. ellen and ellarn, in Pierce Plowman eller, 
 words that seem to mean "kindler," and to be derived 
 through A.S. celd, Da. ild, Sw. eld, fire, from celan, kindle, 
 and related to Du. helder, clear, whence op-helderen, kindle 
 or brighten up, a name which we may suppose that it ac- 
 quired from its hollow branches being used, like the bam- 
 boo in the tropics, to blow up a fire, Sambucus nigra, L. 
 DWARF-, Sambucus Ebulus, L. 
 
 WATER-, Viburnum Opulus, L. 
 
 ELECAMPANE, L. Enula campana, by countrymen, says 
 Isidore, called Ala campana, the latter word from its 
 growing wild in Campania, the former from L. Inula, a 
 word of uncertain derivation, Inula Helenium, L. 
 
 ELEVEN O'CLOCK LADY, Fr. dame d'onze heures, from its 
 waking up and opening its eyes so late in the day, 
 
 Ornithogalum umbellatum, L. 
 
 ELF-DOCK, the elecampane, from its broad leaves called a 
 dock, and from some confusion between its Italian name, 
 etta, and the Dan. elle, an elf, deriving its prefix, 
 
 Inula Helenium, L. 
 
 ELM, a word that is nearly identical in all the Germanic 
 and Scandinavian dialects, but does not find its root in any
 
 72 POPULAR NAMES 
 
 of them. It plays through all the vowels, Ic. Almr, Da. 
 Aim, jfllm, and Elm, A.S. and Engl. Mm, Germ, in dif- 
 ferent dialects lime, Olm, and Ulme, Du. Olm, but stands 
 isolated, as a foreign word, which they have adopted. This 
 is the Lat. Ulmus, the terminating syllable of which, mus, 
 indicates an instrument, a material, or means, with which 
 something is done ; while the first seems to be the ul of 
 ulcus, sore, and ukisci, punish, in allusion to the common 
 use of rods of elm for whipping slaves. See Plautus (Asin. 
 2, 2, 96). The foreign origin of the name indicates that 
 the tree was introduced into England from the South of 
 Europe, and explains what Aubrey remarks in his " Wilts," 
 that in the Villare Anglicum, although there are a great 
 many towns named after other trees, there are only three 
 or four Elme-tons. Ulmus, L. 
 
 EMONY, the anemony misunderstood as An Emony. 
 " Gardeners commonly call them Emonies." R. Turner. 
 Bot. p. 18. Anemone, L. 
 
 ENCHANTER'S NIGHTSHADE, a name that, by some, 
 blunder, has been transferred from the mandrake, Atropa 
 Mandragora, to an insignificant garden weed. The man- 
 drake was called Nightshade from having been classed with 
 the Solaria, and Enchanters from its Latin name Circcea, 
 Gr. Kipxaiu, given to it after the goddess Circe, who be- 
 witched the companions of Ulysses with it (Od. b. x.) ; or 
 according to Dioscorides, as quoted by Westmacott, p. 105 : 
 " 'Twas called Circsea, because Circe, an Enchantress ex- 
 pert in herbs, used it as a Tempting-powder in amorous 
 concerns." C. lutetiana, L. 
 
 ENDIVE, It. and Sp. endivia, L. intybea, adj. of intybus, 
 Cichorium Endivia, L. 
 
 ENGLISH MERCURY, a plant reckoned among the Mer- 
 curies, but why called English more particularly, we are 
 not told, Chenopodium Bonus Henricus, L. 
 
 ERS, the bitter vetch, Fr. ers, L. ervum, E. Ervilia, L.
 
 OF BRITISH PLANTS. 73 
 
 ERYNGO, L. eryngium, G. rjpvyyiov, from 
 eructare, being, according to the herbalists, a specific 
 against that inconvenience, E. maritimum, L. 
 
 EUPHRASY, Milton (P. L. b. xi. 1. 414), Stockholm Med. 
 M. S. Ewfras, Off. L. euphrasia, Gr. ev<j>pa<na, cheerful- 
 ness, a name that C. Bauhin tells us was first given to the 
 bugloss, meaning probably the borage, and which has 
 been transferred to the eyebright, 
 
 Euphrasia officinalis, L. 
 
 EVENING PRIMROSE, from its pale yellow colour and its 
 opening at sunset, (Enothera biennis, L. 
 
 EVERLASTING FLOWER, from its retaining shape and 
 colour when dried, Gnaphalium, L. 
 
 EVERLASTING PEA, Fr. pois eternel, from not being, like 
 the common and the sweet pea, an annual, 
 
 Lathyrus latifolius, L. 
 
 EYE, the pink, in Tusser called " Indian eye," L. ocellus, 
 as in the name of the carnation, ocellus Damascenus, from 
 the eye-shaped marking of the corolla, Dianthus, L. 
 
 EYEBRIGHT, so called, as W. Coles'tells us in his Adam in 
 Eden, from its being used by the linnet to clear its sight, 
 and thence adopted by men. Where he picked up this 
 tale, does not appear. It is one of several similar legends. 
 See CELANDINE, HAWKWEED, and PIGEON'S GRASS. We 
 may add to this number of eye remedies learnt from the 
 birds, that the use of fennel was taught to man by ser- 
 pents : 
 
 Hac mansa serpens oculos caligine purgat : 
 Indeque compertum est humanis posse mederi 
 Illam luminibus, atque experiendo probatum est. 
 
 Macer. c. xvii. 1. 4. 
 
 We are told the same of the eagle, in reference to the use 
 of the wild lettuce : " Dicunt aquilam quum in altum 
 volare voluerit, ut prospiciat rerum naturas, Lactucse syl- 
 vaticse folium evellere, et succo ejus sibi oculos tangere, et
 
 74 POPULAR NAMES 
 
 maximam inde claritudinem accipere." Apuleius, c. xxx. 
 The plant was long in vogue as a remedy in diseases of the 
 eye. Brunschwygk tells us in his quaint old German : 
 " Es was ouch ein kiingin in Engelant, die brant allein das 
 wasser uss der blumlin, und thett wunderliche ding darmit 
 zu der ougen, als mir der selbigen kiingin artzet geseyt 
 hat." Euphrasia officinalis, L. 
 
 EYEBRIGHT COW-WHEAT, a plant in some respects re- 
 sembling both the eyebright and the cow-wheat, 
 
 Bartsia Odontites, Hud. 
 
 FAIR MAIDS OF FEBRUARY, snowdrops, from their white 
 blossoms opening about the 2nd of that month, when 
 maidens dressed in white walked in procession at the feast 
 of the Purification, Galanthus nivalis, L. 
 
 FAIR MAIDS OF FRANCE, a double-flowered variety of 
 crowfoot introduced from France, 
 
 Ranunculus aconitifolius, L. 
 
 FAIRY BUTTER, a fungus so called in the northern 
 counties from its being supposed to be made in the night, 
 and scattered about by the Fairies. Atkinson Clev. Dial, 
 p. 169. Tremella arborea and albida, Sin. 
 
 FAIRY FLAX, a flax so called from its delicacy, 
 
 Linum catharticum, L. 
 
 FALLEN STARS, from their sudden appearance glittering 
 on gravel walks after a night's growth, certain gelatinous 
 fungi, and particularly Tremella Nostoc, L. 
 
 FANCY, an attempted explanation of Pansy, 
 
 Viola tricolor, L. 
 
 FAT HEN, G. Fette ffenne, a name given in Germany 
 and by the older herbalists to the orpine, Sedum telephium, 
 called also faba crassa, fat bean, but without any reason 
 assigned. It has been of late years transferred in England 
 to plants of the Goosefoot tribe, and more particularly to 
 the Good Henry, which a correspondent of Seeman's 
 Journal (vol. i. p. 151), asserts to have been used formerly
 
 OF BRITISH PLANTS. 75 
 
 for fattening poultry; a statement which requires con- 
 firmation, as there is no other English or foreign writer 
 who mentions any such use of the Goosefoots, or the 
 orpine. 
 
 Chenopodium Bonus Henricus and Atriplex patula, L. 
 
 FEABE, FAPE, FABE, THAPE, THEABE, DE-, FAE-, FEA-, 
 or FEAP-BERRY, different forms of an East Anglian very 
 obscure name of the gooseberry. An interchange of an 
 initial _/ and ih is not uncommon. We find it, for instance, 
 in the verb fly, Go. pliuhan, O.H.G. fliohan, G. fliehen ; 
 and in thatches, a dialectic pronunciation of watches, i.e. 
 foches or vetches, to be heard in some parts of Somerset. 
 The name seems to have attached itself to the gooseberry 
 through one of those blunders that have arisen from bad 
 pictures. The melon, G. pfebe, L. pepo, is so figured in 
 Tabernsemontanus (vol. ii. p. 184), as to look exactly like 
 a gooseberry, and headed Pfebe, and from this, or an 
 equally bad picture, the name may have been adopted. 
 Loudon (in Arbor. Brit. ii. p. 972), considers it to be meant 
 for fever-berry, a very improbable explanation. Wright 
 would derive it from A. S. fiefe-porn. The use of the 
 term seems to be confined at present to the eastern counties, 
 where the green unripe fruit is called Thape, as in a word 
 well known to Norfolk schoolboys, Thape-pie. 
 
 Ribes Grossularia, L. 
 
 FEATHER-FEW, FEDDER-FEW, or FEATHER-FULLY, in Pr. 
 Pm. FEDER-FOY, the feverfew, from confusion of name 
 with the feather-foil, Pyrethrum Parthenium, L. 
 
 FEATHER-FOIL, feathery leaf, from feather zudfoil, L. 
 folium, a name descriptive of its finely divided leaves, 
 
 Hottonia palustris, L. 
 
 FEATHER-GRASS, from its feathery awn, 
 
 Stipa pennata, L. 
 
 FELWORT, the gentian, a name that looks like an anoma- 
 lous compound of L.fel, gall, and wort, but apparently is
 
 76 POPULAR NAMES 
 
 a modified form of A.S. feld-wyrt, which there is little 
 doubt arose from a confusion between L.fel and A. S.feld, 
 
 Gentiana, L. 
 
 FELON-WORT, or -WOOD, the bittersweet, from its use in 
 curing whitlows called in Latin furunculi, little thieves, 
 that is, felons, Solanum Dulcamara, L. 
 
 FEN-BERRY, from its growing in fens, the cranberry, 
 Vaccinium Oxycoccos, L. 
 
 FEN-RUE, from its divided rue-like leaves and place of 
 growth, Thalictrum flavum, L. 
 
 FENKEL, and FENNEL, M.L&t.fanculum, from L.fanicu- 
 lum, Y.fenouil, F. vulgare, Gart. 
 
 DOG'S-, from some similarity of its leaf to fennel, 
 and its bad smell, Anthemis Cotula, L. 
 
 FENNEL-FLOWER, from its fennel-like finely divided 
 leaves, Nigella damascena, L. 
 
 FERN, A.&.fearn, G.farnkraut, Du. varenkruidt, a word 
 of obscure origin, but from the appended kraut and kruidt 
 to the G. and Du. synonyms, one that seems to be ex- 
 pressive of some use or quality. It has been, with great 
 plausibility, referred to forms of the word feather, Gt.feder, 
 SI. pero, Gr. Trrept? and Trrepov, and suggested that it may 
 be connected with Skr. parna, which means both a leaf and 
 a feather, and with L.frons. It seems a more easy and 
 natural explanation of the word to trace it to the use of 
 these plants for littering cattle, A.S. fear, G.farr, Du. 
 var, a bullock, in which the change of the letters exactly 
 corresponds to that which takes place in the names of fern 
 in the same languages. It might also be connected with 
 the name of the pig, A.S.fearh, Du. varken, G.ferkel and 
 ferken, L. verres, Skr. var&ha. Matthioli (1. iv. c. 179), 
 speaking of Pteris, and Filix mas, says : " Utriusque 
 radice sues pinguescunt ;" and in a charter of A.D. 855, 
 in Thorpe's Diplomatarium, p. 113, pascua porcorum is 
 translated fearnleswe. In some old German works the
 
 OF BRITISH PLANTS. 77 
 
 word is varm, and as the Scandinavian name is orm-gras, 
 worm- or snake-grass, from the involuted vernation of the 
 frond, it may be worth consideration, whether these words, 
 varm and orm, may not be the Lat. vermis, and Jam a 
 corruption of it. But, as J. Grimm says, " tiefes dunkel 
 ruht auf der wurzel." Filix. 
 
 FERN, BLADDER-, from its small vesicular spore-cases, 
 
 Cystopteris, Ber. 
 
 BRISTLE-, from the bristle that projects beyond its 
 receptacle, Trichomanes, Sm. 
 
 ,, FEMALE-, of old writers, not the species now called 
 Lady-fern, but the brake, from Gr. 0r)\v7rTepis, a name 
 that is now assigned to another one different from both of 
 these. That of the herbals is Pteris aquilina, L. 
 
 FILMY-, from its transparent filmy texture, 
 
 Hymenophyllum, L. 
 
 FINGER-, Ceterach officinarum, W. 
 
 FLOWERING-, from its conspicuous spikes of fructi- 
 fication, Osmunda regalis, L. 
 
 HARD-, from the rigid texture of the frond, 
 
 Blechnum boreale, Sm. 
 
 HOLLY-, from its prickly fronds, 
 
 Aspidium Lonchitis, Sw. 
 
 ,, LADY-, a mere translation of flix foemina, a 
 former Latin name of the brake, Gr. 0r)\irn-Tep^, which 
 was given to it from some caprice, and without reference 
 to sex as now understood, and has been transferred to the 
 species now called so, for no better reason than the delicacy 
 of its foliage, Asplenium Filix foemina, Bern. 
 
 MAIDEN-HAIR-, Adiantum Capillus Veneris, L. 
 
 MALE-, a translation of its old Latin name, 
 
 Aspidium Filix mas, Sw. 
 
 MARSH-, Aspidium Thelypteris, Sw. 
 
 MOUNTAIN-, A. Oreopteris, Sw. 
 
 OAK-, of modern botanists, 
 
 Polypodium Dryopteris, L.
 
 78 POPULAR NAMES 
 
 FERN, OAK-, of the herbalists, with a belief that such 
 plants of it as grew upon the roots of the oak-tree, were 
 of greater medicinal power: "quod nascit super radices 
 quercus, est efficacius :" (Herbarius, c. 103.) the common 
 polypody, Polypodium vulgare, L. 
 
 PARSLEY-, Allosorus crispus, Bern. 
 
 SCALY-, from the scales on the frond, 
 
 Ceterach officinarum, "W. 
 
 SHIELD-, from the coverings of its spore-cases, 
 
 Aspidium, Sw. 
 WALL-, from its ordinary place of growth, 
 
 Polypodium vulgare, L. 
 FESCUE, from the L.festuca, by change of t to c, 
 
 F. ovina, L. etc. 
 
 FEVERFEW, L, febrifuga, from its supposed febrifuge 
 qualities, Pyrethrum Parthenium, L. 
 
 FIELD CYPRESS, the ground pine, from its terebinthinate 
 odour and divided leaves, Ajuga Chameepitys, Schr. 
 FIELD MADDER, Sherardia arvensis, L. 
 
 FIG, ^T.fgue, L.Jicus, F. Carica, L. 
 
 FIG-WORT, from its use, on the doctrine of signatures, in 
 the disease called ficus, Scrophularia, L. 
 
 and also, for the same reason, Ranunculus Ficaria, L. 
 
 FILBERT, formerly spelt Filberd, and Fylberde, said by 
 some to have been so called after a king Philibert ; by 
 Wedgwood explained as Fill-beard; but more probably a 
 barbarous compound of phyllon or feuille, leaf, and beard, 
 to denote its distinguishing peculiarity, the leafy involucre 
 projecting beyond the nut, Corylus Avellana, L. 
 
 FINCKLE, G. fenckel, Du. venkel, from L. fceniculum, 
 fennel, F. vulgare, L. 
 
 FINGER-FLOWER, G. finger-hut, L. digitalis, from the re- 
 semblance of its flower to the finger of a glove, 
 
 D. purpurea, L. 
 FIORIN, Erse/ear^, grass, Agrostis alba, L.
 
 OF BRITISH PLANTS. 79 
 
 FIR, O.H.G.furaka, Dan./yrr, Sw. furu, the fae-tree, 
 the most inflammable of woods. Etymologically the word 
 is identical with L. quercus, the initial qu having, as in 
 quingue, an / for its representative in the Germanic lan- 
 guages. See Max Miiller, Lectures, 2nd course, p. 224. 
 
 Pinus and Abies. 
 
 SCOTCH-, from its being found indigenous upon 
 the mountains of Scotland, P. sylvestris, L. 
 
 SILVER-, from its white trunk, P. Picea, L. 
 SPRUCE-, from G. sprossen, sprout, see SPRUCE, 
 
 Abies excelsa, Poir. 
 FIR-MOSS, a mossy looking plant like a little fir-tree, 
 
 Lycopodium Selago, L. 
 
 FIST-BALLS, A.S.jist, G. feist, Du.veest, crepitus, Norw. 
 fissopp aadflsball. See PUCKFIST. Lycoperdon, L. 
 
 FITCH, an old spelling of Vetch, from L. Vicia. 
 FIVE-FINGER-GRASS, or FIVE-LEAF, Sw. finger-drt, Gr. 
 7revTaSaKTv\ov, five-fingered, ancient Gallic as quoted by 
 Dioscorides, (iv. c. 42), Tre/iTreSouXa ; by Apuleius, (c. 2,) 
 pompedulon ; a word meaning five-leaf, a plant so called 
 from its five leaflets, Potentilla reptans, Sib. 
 
 FLAG, from its petals hanging out like banners, properly 
 the species of Iris, L. 
 
 CORN-, Gladiolus, L. 
 
 ,, SWEET-, Acorus Calamus, L. 
 
 YELLOW-, Iris Pseudacorus, L. 
 
 FLAMY, in Mrs. Kent's Flora Domestica given as a name 
 of the pansy, and explained " because its colours are seen 
 in the flame of wood." It is the translation of Lat. Viola 
 flammea. V. tricolor, L. 
 
 FLAW FLOWER, from flaw, a gust of wind, a translation 
 of Gr. avefiwvi), from ch>e/,to9, wind. See ANEMONY. 
 
 Anemone Pulsatilla, L. 
 
 FLAX, G. flacks, Du. vlas, Fr. filasse, M. Lat. fllassium, 
 yarn, from Jilare, spin, L. fllum, a thread, 
 
 Linum usitatissimum, L.
 
 80 POPULAR NAMES 
 
 FLAX, DWARF- or PURGING- or FAIRY-, 
 
 L. catharticum, L. 
 
 ,, TOAD-, Linaria vulgaris, L. 
 
 FLAX-SEED, from the resemblance of its seed-pods to 
 flax bolls, Radiola Millegrana, L. 
 
 FLAX-WEED, from its leaves resembling those of flax, 
 
 Linaria vulgaris, L. 
 FLEA-BANE, from its supposed power of destroying fleas, 
 
 Inula Pulicaria, L. 
 
 BLUE-, Erigeron acre, L. 
 
 FLEA-WORT, from its keeping off fleas, 
 
 Inula Conyza, DC. 
 FLEUR DE LIB, see FLOWER DE LUCE. 
 FLIX- or FLUX- WEED, from its use in dysentery, a 
 disease that was formerly called flix, 
 
 Sisymbrium Sophia, L. 
 
 FLOAT- or more properly FLOTE-GRASS, not so much 
 from its floating on the surface of the water, as from its 
 abounding in floted, or irrigated meadows, 
 
 Poa fluitans, Scop, 
 and also in some works 
 
 Alopecurus geniculatus, and Catabrosa aqnatica, L. 
 FLORIMER, or FLORAMOR, Fr. fleur d' amour, from a mis- 
 understanding of its Latin name, Amaranthus, as though a 
 compound of amor, love, and anthus, flower, 
 
 A. tricolor, L. 
 
 FLOWER DE LUCE, Fr. fleur de Louis, from its having 
 been assumed as his device by Louis VII. of France : " Ce 
 fut Louis VII. dit le Jeune, A.D. 1137, qui chargea 1'ecu 
 de France de fleurs de lis sans nombre," Montf. The 
 flower that he chose seems to have been a white one ; for 
 Chaucer says : 
 
 His nekke was white as is the flour de lis : 
 and there is a legend that a shield charged with these 
 flowers was brought to Clovis from heaven while engaged
 
 OF BRITISH PLANTS. 81 
 
 in a battle against the Saracens (H. Pyne, England and 
 France, in 15th cent. p. 23). It had already been used 
 by the other French kings, and by the Emperors of Con- 
 stantinople ; but it is a question what it was intended in 
 the first place to represent. Some say a flower, some a 
 halbert-head, some a toad. See Notes and Queries, 29 Mar. 
 1856. Fleur de Louis has been changed to Fleur de Luce, 
 Fleur de lys, and Fleur de Us. Iris, L. 
 
 FLOWER OF BRISTOW, or -OF CONSTANTINOPLE, the 
 scarlet lychnis, the latter name from its growing wild near 
 the Turkish capital, the former from its colour being 
 * c Bristol red," as in the expression : 
 
 " Her kirtle Bristol red." 
 See Chambers* Book of Days, i. p. 801. 
 
 Lychnis chalcedonica, L. 
 
 FLOWER GENTLE, the floramor, Fr. in Cotgrave la noble 
 fleur, from its resemblance to the plumes worn by people 
 of rank, Amaranthus tricolor, L. 
 
 FLOWERING FERN, from its handsome spikes of fructifi- 
 cation, Osmunda regalis, L. 
 
 FLOWERING RUSH, L. juncus floridus, a plant with a 
 rush-like stem, and growing in the water, with a fine head 
 of flowers, called by Lobel Juncus cyperoides floridus, 
 11 Juncus," saith he, " for that his stalke is like the rush ; 
 cyperoides, because his leaves do resemble Cyperus ; flori- 
 dus, because it hath on the top of every rushie stalke a fine 
 umbel or tuft of small flowers in fashion of the Lilie of 
 Alexandria." Gerarde, p. 27. 
 
 Butomus umbellatus, L. 
 
 FLOWK-, or FLOOK-WORT, from its being supposed to give 
 sheep the disease of the liver, in which parasites resembling 
 the flook- or flounder-ftsh. are found, 
 
 Hydrocotyle vulgaris, L. 
 
 FLUELLIN, Du. fluweelen, downy, velvety, Fr. velvote, and 
 not, as Parkinson states, a Welsh word : 
 
 6
 
 82 POPULAR NAMES 
 
 MALE-, of Gerarde, Hill, Curtis, and others, from 
 its soft velvety leaves, Linaria spuria, L. 
 
 FEMALE-, Veronica Chamaedrys, L. 
 
 FLYBANE, from its being used mixed with milk to kill 
 flies, Agaricus muscarius, L. 
 
 FLY HONEYSUCKLE, from confusion with an Apocynum 
 that catches flies by the proboscis under its anthers, the 
 A. androsaemifolium, L. and whose flowers are somewhat 
 similar to those of the upright honeysuckle, 
 
 Lonicera Xylosteum, L. 
 FLY ORCHIS, from the resemblance of its flower to a fly, 
 
 Ophrys muscifera, Hud. 
 FOLEFOOT, from the shape of its leaf, 
 
 Asarum europium, L. and Tussilago Farfara, L. 
 FOOL'S PARSLEY, from its being a poisonous plant, which 
 only fools could mistake for parsley, 
 
 JEthusa Cynapium, L. 
 
 FOREBITTEN MORE, bitten-off root, see DEVIL'S-BIT, more 
 or mor having formerly had the sense of " root," as it has 
 still in the Western counties, Scabiosa succisa, L. 
 
 FORGET-ME-NOT, a name that for about forty years has 
 been assigned to a well known blue flower, a Myosotis, but 
 which for more than 200 years had in this country, France, 
 and the Netherlands, been given to a very different plant, 
 the ground-pine, Ajuga Chamsepitys, on account, as was 
 said, of the nauseous taste that it leaves in the mouth. It 
 is to this plant exclusively that we find it assigned by 
 Lyte, Lobel, Gerarde, Parkinson, and all our herbalists 
 from the middle of the fifteenth century, and by all other 
 botanical authors who mention the plant, inclusive of Gray 
 in his Natural Arrangement published in 1821, until it 
 was transferred with the pretty story of a drowned lover 
 to that which now bears it. This had always been called 
 in England Mouse- ear Scorpion-grass. In Germany, Fuchs 
 in his Hist. Plant. Basil, 1542, gives the name Vergiss nit
 
 OF BRITISH PLANTS. 83 
 
 mein to the Teucrium Botrys, L. under the Lai synonym 
 of Chamaedrys vera fcemina. His excellent plate at p. 870 
 leaves no doubt as to the species he meant. In Denmark 
 a corresponding name, Forglemm mig icke, was given to the 
 Veronica chamsedrys. At the same time it would seem 
 that in some parts of Germany the Myosotis palustris was 
 known as the Echium amoris, and Vergiss mein nicht, as at 
 the present day ; and in Swedish the Echium aquaticum, 
 the same plant, was called forgdt mig icke. Some idea of 
 the confusion will be seen in Mentzel's Index Nominum 
 Plantarum, Berlin, 1682. Cordus on Dioscorides, in 1549, 
 and Lonicerus assign it to Gnaphalium leontopodium, L. 
 while the Ortus Sanitatis (Ed. 1536, ch. 199) r and Macer 
 de virtutibus herbarum (Ed. 1559), like the Danish Her- 
 balists, give it to the Veronica Chamsedrys, L. This latter 
 seems to be the plant to which the name rightfully belongs, 
 and to which it was given in reference to the blossoms 
 falling off and flying away. See SPEEDWELL. From this 
 plant it will have been transferred to the ground-pine 
 through a confusion in respect to which species should 
 properly be called Chamadrys, and as both these very 
 different plants were taken for the Chamsedrys of Pliny, 
 the popular name of the one passed to the other. Two 
 circumstances about it are curious; first, how the name 
 could be transferred from the ground-pine to the scorpion- 
 grass without the change being noticed by a single author 
 of all our floras, general and local; and secondly, how 
 easily a good story is got up, and widely spread about the 
 world, to match a name. The blossoms fall from a Ve- 
 ronica, and it is called " Speedwell ! and " Forget-me-not." 
 The name passes to a plant of nauseous taste, the ground- 
 pine, and Dalechamp explains it as expressive of this dis- 
 agreeable quality. It attaches itself to a river-side plant, 
 and the story books are ready with a legend. We learn 
 from Mills's History of Chivalry that a flower that bore the
 
 84 POPULAR NAMES 
 
 name of " Soveigne vous de moy," was in the fourteenth 
 century woven into collars, and worn by knights, and that 
 one of these was the subject of a famous joust fought 
 in 1465 between the two most accomplished knights of 
 England and France. What the flower was, that was so 
 called, it would be only possible to ascertain by inspection 
 of one of these collars. The German name Ehrenprds, 
 prize of honour, which has always been given to the speed- 
 well, almost proves that this was the one. There is cer- 
 tainly no ground for assuming that it was the same as our 
 present " Forget-me-not." The story of this latter, in 
 connexion with the two lovers, will be found in Mills's 
 work, vol. i. p. 314, and it now bears a name correspond- 
 ing to our own in nearly every European language : as Fr. 
 Ne m'oubliez pas, G. Vergiss mein nicht, Da. Kicerminde, 
 Sw. Forgdt mig icke, etc., and is worked into numberless 
 rings and other ornaments. Myosotis palustris, L. 
 
 FOUR-LEAVED GRASS, a plant with four leaves only, the 
 Herb Trulove, Paris quadrifolia, L. 
 
 FOXGLOVE, a name that is so inappropriate to the plant, 
 that many explanations of it have been attempted, by 
 which it might appear to mean something different from 
 the glove of a fox. Its Norwegian names, Rev-bielde, fox- 
 bell, and Reveleika, fox music, are the only foreign ones 
 that allude to that animal ; and they explain our own, as 
 having been in the first place foxes-glew, or music, A.S. 
 gliew, in reference to a favourite instrument of earlier times, 
 a ring of bells hung on an arched support, a tintinna- 
 bulum, which this plant, with its hanging bell-shaped 
 flowers, so exactly represents. Its present Latin name, 
 Digitalis, was given to it by Fuchs with the remark that 
 up to that time, 1542, there was none for it in Greek or 
 Latin. D. purpurea, L. 
 
 FOX-TAIL-GRASS, from the shape of the spike, 
 
 Alopecurus pratensis, L.
 
 OF BRITISH PLANTS. 
 
 85 
 
 SLENDER-, Alopecurus agrestis, L. 
 
 FRAMBOISE, a French corruption of Du. brambezie, bram- 
 ble-berry, the raspberry, Kubus idseus, L. 
 
 FRANKE, from " the property it hath to fatten cattle," 
 as Lyte tells us, ch. 38 ; franke meaning a stye or stall, in 
 which cattle were shut up to be fattened, 
 
 Spergula arvensis, L. 
 
 FRENCH BEAN, a foreign bean, French being used to ex- 
 press what in German would be called w'dlsch, anything 
 from an outlandish country, Phaseolus vulgaris, L. 
 FRENCH COWSLIP, Primula Auricula, L. 
 
 FRENCH GRASS, sainfoin, L. fcenum Burgundiacum, 
 
 Onobrychis sativa, L. 
 
 FRENCH HONEYSUCKLE, from the resemblance of its 
 flowers to large heads of honeysuckle clover, 
 
 Hedysarum coronarinm, L. 
 
 FRENCH LAVENDER, Lavandula Stoechas, L. 
 
 FRENCH NUT, the walnut, Juglans regia, L. 
 
 FRENCH SORREL, the wood-sorrel, Oxalis acetosella, L. 
 FRENCH SPARROW-GRASS, the name under which are sold 
 in the Bath market to be eaten as asparagus, the sprouts 
 of the spiked Star of Bethlehem, 
 
 Ornithogalum pyrenaicum, L. 
 FRENCH WHEAT, the buckwheat, 
 
 Polygonum Fagopyrum, L. 
 
 FRENCH WILLOW, from its leaves somewhat resembling 
 those of the willow, Epilobiuin angustifolium, L. 
 
 FRESH-WATER SOLDIER, from its sword-shaped leaves, 
 
 Stratiotes abides, L. 
 
 FRIAR'S CAP, from its upper sepals resembling a friar's 
 cowl, the wolfsbane, Aconitum Napellus, L. 
 
 CROWN, Carduus eriophorus, L. 
 
 FRITILLARY, M.Lat. fritillaria, sc. tabula, a checker- 
 board, fromfritillus, a dicebox, on account of its checkered 
 petals, F. Meleagris, L.
 
 86 POPULAR NAMES 
 
 FKOG-BIT, L. morsus ranee, from an idea that frogs ate it, 
 
 Hydrocharis Morsus ranse, L. 
 
 FROG-FOOT, a name that in the Stockholm Med. M.S. 
 1. 783. is with more reason assigned to the vervain, the 
 leaf of which, in its general outline, somewhat resembles 
 the foot of this animal: 
 
 Frossisfot men call it, 
 
 For his levys are lyke the frossys fet. 
 
 In modern works it is transferred to the duckmeat, 
 
 Lemna, L. 
 
 FROG-GRASS, from its growing in mire, 
 
 Salicornia herbacea, L. 
 
 FROG'S-LETTUCE, Potamogeton densus, L. 
 
 FROST-BLITE, a blite whitened as by hoar-frost, 
 
 Chenopodium album, L. 
 
 FULLER'S HERB, L. herba fullonum, from its taking out 
 stains from cloth, a purpose for which it is said by Tragus, 
 c. 131, to have been used by the monks, 
 
 Saponaria officinalis, L. 
 
 FULLER'S THISTLE, the teasel, Dipsacus fullonum, L. 
 
 FUMITORY, Fr. fume-terre, L. fumus terrce, earth-smoke, 
 from the belief that it was produced without seed from 
 vapours rising from the earth. The words of Platearius, 
 a great authority in his day, are : " Dicitur fumus terra, 
 quod generatur a quadam fumositate grossa, a terra reso- 
 luta, et circa superficiem terrse adherente." See also the 
 Ortus Sanitatis, Mayence, 1485, ch. 176, and the Grete 
 Herball, cap. clxxi. And this extraordinary account of it 
 is given not only by the ignorant authors of the Ortus 
 Sanitatis and the Grete Herball, and the writers in the 
 dark ages from whom they copied, but is repeated by 
 Dodoens, and other learned men, his cotemporaries. Pliny 
 merely says, (1. xxv. c. 13), that it took its name from 
 causing the eyes to water when applied to them, as smoke
 
 OF BRITISH PLANTS. 87 
 
 does: "Claritatem facit inunctis oculis delachrymationem- 
 que ceu fumus, unde nomen accepit #0.7/1/05." 
 
 Fumaria officinalis, L. 
 
 FURZE, sometimes spelt FURRES, A.S. fyrs, a name of 
 obscure derivation, as are those of so many of our com- 
 monest plants ; apparently from fir, these bushes being, 
 like the coniferous trees, a common firewood or fuel ; but 
 perhaps from Fr. forest, as though that word meant a place 
 of firs, as hyrst, carst, hulst, gorst, etc., the places or 
 thickets of erica, carices, ulex and gorra, from M. Lat. 
 words in cetum; Ulex europseus, L. 
 
 NEEDLE-, from its finely pointed slender spines, 
 Genista anglica, Hud. 
 FUSS-BALLB, Fr. vesse, Lycoperdon, L. 
 
 GADRISE, and GAITRE, see GATTER. 
 
 GALE, or SWEET GALE, in Turner's herbal GALL, and in 
 Somersetshire, he tells us, GOTJL and GOLLE, in Pr. Pm. 
 gawl, gavl, or gawyl, A.S. and Du. gagel, corruptions appa- 
 rently of galangale, a name that it may have acquired from 
 its fragrance while burning, and which, through its intense 
 bitterness, has become confounded with gall, 
 
 Myrica Gale, L. 
 
 GALANGALE, It. and Sp. galanga, 0. Sp. garingal, G. 
 galgant, from chalan, spice, a Persian word transferred 
 to a marsh plant, the roots of which are valued for their 
 aromatic quality, Cyperus longus, L. 
 
 GALLOW-GRASS, Ger p. 572, a cant name for hemp, as 
 furnishing halters for the gibbet, Cannabis sativa, L. 
 
 GANG-FLOWER, flos ambarvalis, the milkwort, from its 
 blossoming in Gang-week, A.S. gang-dagum, three days 
 before the Ascension, when processions were made in imi- 
 tation of the ancient Ambarvalia, to perambulate the 
 parishes with the Holy Cross and Litanies, to mark their 
 boundaries, and invoke the blessing of God upon the
 
 88 POPULAR NAMES 
 
 crops ; on which occasions, says Bishop Kennett, " the 
 maids made garlands of it and used them in those solemn 
 processions." So also Gerarde, 1st ed. p. 450. It was for 
 the same reason called Cross-, Rogation-, and Procession- 
 flower. Polygala vulgaris, L. 
 
 GARAVANCE, the chick-pea, or gram, Sp. garavanzo, 
 Bask, garau, corn, and anzua, dry (Diez), 
 
 Cicer arietinum, L. 
 
 GARLICK, A.S. gar, a spear, and leac, plant, from its 
 tapering acute leaves ; or from the nutritive and stimulant 
 qualities ascribed to it by the ancient northern poets as 
 being the " war plant," Allium sativum, L. 
 
 GARLICK-WORT, from its smell, 
 
 Erysimum Alliaria, L. 
 
 GARNET-BERRY, the red currant, from its rich red colour 
 and transparency, Ribes rubrum, L. 
 
 GATTER, GATTEN, GADRISE, or GATTERIDGE, names of 
 several hedgerow trees and shrubs, as the spindle, the 
 cornel, and wild Guelder-rose, Evonymus europseus, 
 Cornus sanguinea, and Viburnum Opulus, L. 
 derived, respectively, Gatter, in Chaucer Gaitre, from A.S. 
 gad, a goad, and ter i.e. treow, tree ; Gatten, from, gad, and 
 tan, twig ; Gadrise, from gad and kris, a rod, Da. and Du. 
 riis, a shrub, and Gatteridge, Fr. verge sanguine, from 
 gaitre rouge, in reference to the red colour of the twigs and 
 autumnal foliage of the spindle and cornel tree. Gad is 
 still used in our Western counties for a picked stick in the 
 term spar-gad, a stick pointed at both ends to spar or 
 fasten down thatch. 
 
 GAZLES, in Sussex and Kent, the black currant, ap- 
 parently corrupted from Fr. groseilles, 
 
 Ribes nigrum, L. 
 
 GEAN, the wild cherry, fr.guisne, Pol. wisn, Boh. wissne, 
 in European Turkey wischna, Wai. visini, M.Gr. fiurivos, 
 the two last words being identical with the Slavonian, as
 
 OF BRITISH PLANTS. 89 
 
 far as they can be written with Greek letters. We may 
 conclude from this identity, and from the great quantity 
 of pipe-sticks of it exported every year from Turkey, that 
 the name originated in that country. The Dalmatians 
 will have Italianized wischna into viscina, and under this 
 name it will have been conveyed to Italy, and thence into 
 France, where by the usual process of changing v or w to 
 gu, and dropping the sound of s and sc before n, viscina 
 became guisne, and crossed into England as gean. But the 
 Italians will have regarded viscina as a diminutive in ina 
 from viscia, and have replaced it, from some motive of 
 euphony, by visciola, its present name, as they have 
 formed buciuola from biscia, pesciuolo from pesce, etc., and 
 hence the German weichsel, which will not only represent 
 the same tree, but the same word, as our Gean. It is to 
 be observed that the " Bird cherry " is not this species, 
 although this is the one called so by botanists in Latin 
 systematic works. Prunus avium, L. 
 
 GENTIAN, from some Illyrian king named Gentius, 
 
 Gentiana, L. 
 
 GERANIUM, Gr. yepaviov, from yepavos, crane, the 
 cranesbill, from the shape of the seed vessel, a genus that 
 once included the Pelargonia, which in popular language 
 are still called so, G. molle, pratense, etc. 
 
 GERARD, see HERB GERARD. 
 
 GERMAN MADWORT, Du. meed, madder, and wort, root, so 
 called from the red dye yielded by its roots, and its being 
 used in Germany, Asperugo procumbens, L. 
 
 GERMANDER, Fr. gamandree, from L. chamcedrys, by in- 
 sertion of an n before d for euphony, Gr. x a f j ' al > ground, 
 and Spvs, oak, so named from the fancied likeness of its 
 leaves to those of an oak, a name usually given to the 
 
 Teucrium Chamsedrys, L. 
 
 ,, WATER-, Teucrium Scordium, L. 
 
 WOOD-, Teucrium Scorodonia, L.
 
 90 POPULAR NAMES 
 
 GERMANDER CHICKWEED, the male Chamsedrys of the 
 herbalists, Veronica agrestis, L. 
 
 GlLL, GiLL-GO-BY-GROUND, GlLL-CREEP-BY-THE-GROUND, 
 
 GILL-RUN-BITH-GROUND, the ground-ivy, from its name 
 Gill, that was given to it from its being used in ferment- 
 ing beer, Fr. guiller, a word still retained in the eastern 
 counties, getting mixed up with another meaning of Gill, 
 that of a young woman, a girl ; the go-by-ground, etc. 
 referring to the creeping habit of the plant. See HAY- 
 MAIDS. Nepeta Glechoma, Benth. 
 
 GILLIFLOWER, formerly spelt gyllofer and gilofre, with 
 the o long, from Fr. girofl^e, It. garofalo, in Douglas's 
 Virgil jereftouris, words formed from M. Lat. garoffolum, 
 gariqfilum, or, as in Albert Magn. (1. vi. c. 22), gariojilus, 
 corrupted from L. caryophyllum, a clove, Gr. tcapvotyvXkov, 
 and referring to the spicy odour of the flower, which seems 
 to have been used in flavouring wines to replace the more 
 costly clove of India. The name was originally given in 
 Italy to plants of the Pink tribe, especially the carnation, 
 but has in England been transferred of late years to several 
 cruciferous plants. That of Chaucer and Spenser and 
 Shakspeare was, as in Italy, Dianthus Caryophyllus, L. 
 that of later writers and gardeners, 
 
 Matthiola and Cheiranthus, L. 
 
 Much of the confusion in the names of plants has arisen 
 from the vague use of the French terms Giro/lee, Oeillet, 
 and Violette, which were, all three of them, applied to 
 flowers of the Pink tribe, but subsequently extended, and 
 finally restricted in English to very different plants. 
 Giroflee has become Gilliflower, and passed over to the 
 Cruciferse, Oeillet been restricted to the Sweet Williams, 
 and Violette been appropriated to one of the numerous 
 claimants of its name, the genus to which the pansy 
 belongs. 
 
 CLOVE-, Dianthus Caryophyllus, L.
 
 * 
 
 OF BRITISH PLANTS. 91 
 
 ,, MAKSH-, the ragged-Robin, 
 
 Lychnis flos cuculi, L. 
 ,, QUEEN'S-, or ROGUE'S-, or WINTER-, the Dame's 
 
 violet, Hesperis matronalis, L. 
 
 ,, STOCK-, Matthiola incana, L. 
 
 WALL-, of old books, Cheiranthus Cheiri, L. 
 WATER-, of Lyte's Herball, 
 
 Hottonia palustris, L. 
 
 GILLIFLOWER-GRASS, in Aubrey's Wilts, p. 49. See 
 CARNATION-GRASS. 
 
 GIPSEY-WORT, so called, says Lyte, " bycause the rogues 
 and runagates which call themselves Egyptians, do colour 
 themselves black with this herbe," 
 
 Lycopus europseus, L. 
 
 GITH, L. gith, a name now applied to the corn-cockle, 
 Agrostemma Githago, L. 
 
 GLADDON, GLADEN, GLADER, GLADWYN, names of the 
 stinking iris usually derived from L. gladiolus, a small 
 sword, in allusion to its sword-shaped leaves, but which 
 have more probably arisen from confusion of its Dutch 
 name lisch, with O.French leesche, gladness. If from 
 gladiolus, they will be plurals of glad ; but as in herbal 
 nomenclature the plant is called spatula, a tool used in 
 smoothing, they may be related to Du. glad, smooth. 
 
 Iris foetidissima, L. 
 
 GLADIOLE, L. gladiolus, a small sword, 
 WATER-, the flowering rush, 
 
 Butomus umbellatus, L. 
 GLASSWORT, from furnishing ashes for glass-making, 
 
 Salicornia herbacea, L. 
 
 PRICKLY-, Salsola Kali, L. 
 
 GLASTONBURY THORN, a variety of whitethorn, so called 
 from the place where it was first cultivated. 
 GLOBE FLOWER, from its globular form, 
 
 Trollius europseus, L.
 
 * 
 
 92 POPULAR NAMES 
 
 GLOBE THISTLE, from its globular inflorescence, 
 
 Echinops, L. 
 
 GOAT'S BEARD, from its long coarse pappus, a transla- 
 tion of its Gr. name TpcuyoTrwywv, 
 
 Tragopogon pratensis, L. 
 
 GOAT-WEED, from its Greek name, diyoTro&iov, 
 
 ^jgopodium Podagraria, L. 
 
 GOLD-APPLES, Fr. pommes (Tor, from their colour before 
 maturity, tomatoes, Solanum Lycopersicum, L. 
 
 GOLD OF PLEASURE, a name which Gerarde and Parkin- 
 son attempt to explain by telling us that "the poore 
 peasant doth use the oile in banquets, and the rich in their 
 lampes." This seems to be a way of getting over a diffi- 
 culty by forcing a sense upon it. "We learn from Gerarde 
 that an oil was imported from Spain as " Oleo de Alegria," 
 this latter word Alegria, being the name of another oil- 
 plant, a sesamum, and it would seem that this " Oleo de 
 Alegria" has become corrupted to " Oro de alegria," gold 
 of pleasure, and applied to a very different species, the 
 source of a spurious oil, passed off upon the public for the 
 Spanish. Whether Alegria was applied to the sesamum 
 in the sense of " pleasure," or is an Arabic word beginning 
 with al, it is irrelevant to enquire. Camelina sativa, L. 
 
 GOLD-CUPS, from A.S. copp, a head, a button, or stud, 
 and like King-cup, Gilt-cup, and Butter-cup, representing 
 the Fr. bouton d'or, the bachelor's button, Ranunculus, L. 
 
 GOLD-KNOBS, -KNAPPES, or-KNOPPES,A.S. cneep, a button, 
 Du. knoop. See GOLD-CUP. 
 
 GOLDE, in our old poets the marigold, supposed from its 
 yellow flowers, to have been the -^pv^avde^ov, or gold 
 flower of the Greeks, Calendula officinalis L. 
 
 GOLDEN-CHAIN, from its long racemes of yellow flowers, 
 Du. goude keten, in Sweden more tastefully called guldregn, 
 golden rain, Cytisus Laburnum, L.
 
 OF BRITISH PLANTS. 93 
 
 GOLDEN-ROD, Lat. virga aurea, from its tall straight stalk 
 of yellow flowers, Solidago Virga aurea, L. 
 
 GOLDEN SAMPHIRE, from its thick samphire-like stems, 
 and its golden flowers, Inula crithmoides, L. 
 
 GOLDEN SAXIFRAGE, from its yellow flowers, 
 
 Chrysosplenium, L. 
 
 GOLDILOCKS, Gr. xpvo-oKopr), from ^/juo-09, gold, and 
 KO/JLIJ, hair, Chrysocoma Linosyris, L. 
 
 also Eanunculus Auricomus, L. 
 
 GOLDINS, or GOLDINGS, Du. gulden, golden, a florin, 
 from the yellow colour and flat round shape of its flowers, 
 the source of the numerous Scotch names applied to the 
 marigold, the marsh marigold, and other yellow flowers, 
 such as Gowlan, Gmcan, Gool, Gouk, etc. See below GOOLS. 
 By Goldin is usually meant the corn-marigold, 
 
 Chrysanthemum segetum, L. 
 
 GOOD HENRY, or GOOD KING HARRY, G. guter Heinrich, 
 Du. goeden Henrik, an obscure name, which Dodoens tells 
 us (p. 651) was given to the plant to distinguish it from 
 another, a poisonous one, called Malm. Henricus ; but why 
 they were either of them called Henricus, we are not told. 
 Cotgrave gives the name Bon Henry to the Roman sorrel, 
 Rumex scutatus, L. as well as to the allgood, the plant to 
 which it is usually assigned. Cordus on Dioscorides, 
 Frankf. 1549, calls it " Weyss heyderich, vel ut alii volunt, 
 Gut heynrich" It has nothing to do with our Harry the 
 8th, and his sore legs, to which some have thought that it 
 referred. Chenopodium Bonus Henricus, L. 
 
 GOOLS, GULES, GOWLES, GUILDES, GOULANS, GOWANS, 
 and GOLDS. See under GOLDINS. 
 
 Calendula officinalis, Caltha palustris, and Chrysan- 
 themum segetum, L. 
 
 GOOSE AND GOSLINGS, or GANDERGOSSES, from the 
 flowers being shaped like little goslings, 
 
 Orchis Morio, and bifolia, L.
 
 94 
 
 POPULAR NAMES 
 
 GOOSEBERRY, from the Fl. kroes or kruys bezie, Sw. 
 krusbdr, a word that bears the two meanings of " cross-" 
 and " frizzle-berry," but was given to this fruit with the 
 first meaning in reference to its triple spine which not un- 
 frequently presents the form of a cross. This equivocal 
 word was misunderstood and taken in its other sense of 
 " frizzle-berry," and translated into German and herbalist 
 Latin krausel-beere and uva crispa. Matthioli (ed. Came- 
 rarii, 1586) gives its German synonym correctly, as kretts- 
 beer. Lobel also (Krydtb. pt. ii. p. 239) gives it as Flem. 
 kroesbesim, G. kruzbeer. The Fr. groseilk, and Span. 
 grosella are corruptions of G. krausel. 
 
 Ribes Grossularia, L. 
 
 GOOSEBILL, or GOOSESHARE, clivers, from the sharp 
 serrated leaves being like the rough-edged mandibles of a 
 goose, Galium Aparine, L. 
 
 GOOSECORN, from its growth on commons where geese are 
 commonly reared, and the grain-like appearance of the 
 capsules, Juncus squarrosus, L. 
 
 GOOSE-FOOT, from the shape of its leaf, 
 
 Chenopodium, L. 
 
 GOOSE-GRASS, in Ray by mistake GOOSE-GREASE, Pr. Pm. 
 gosys gres, clivers, from a belief that goslings feed on it, 
 (R. Turner, Bot. p. 71), and that" geese help their diseases 
 with it," (Lupton, No. 60). 
 
 Potentilla anserina, L. 
 
 GOOSE-HEIRIFFE of W. Coles's Adam in Eden ; A.S. gos, 
 a goose, and hegerife, hedge-reeve, from its attaching itself 
 to geese, while they pass through a hedge. The occur- 
 rence of the name in this work of W. Coles is singular as 
 an instance of the retention into the seventeenth century of 
 an Anglo-Saxon word no longer understood. The name is 
 still retained in some counties as hariff. The Gooshareth, 
 Goshareth, and Gooseshareth of W. Turner's ITerball seem 
 to be corruptions of Goosehariff with a change of /to th
 
 OF BRITISH PLANTS. 95 
 
 that is not uncommon in provincialisms, as for instance in 
 the case offape and thape. Galium Aparine, L. 
 
 GOOSE-TANSY, a plant with tansy-like leaves, which Kay 
 says is called so " because eaten by geese;" but perhaps 
 like crow's garlick, swine's cress, and dog's mercury, the 
 name may imply merely a tansy for a goose, a spurious 
 tansy. Potentilla anserina, L. 
 
 GOOSE-TONGUE, from its finely serrated leaves, 
 
 Achilla Ptarmica, L. 
 
 GORSE, A.S. gorst, Wei. gores or gorest, a waste, M.Lat. 
 gorassi or gorra, brushwood, used in Stat. Montis reg. p. 
 236 : " salicum, gorrarum et gorassorum non portantium 
 fructus comestibiles." Ulex europaBus, L. 
 
 GORY-DEW, from its resemblance to blood drops, 
 
 Palmella cruenta, Agh. 
 
 GO-TO-BED-AT-NOON, from its early closing, the goat's 
 beard, Tragopogon pratensis, L. 
 
 GOURD, Fr. gourde, from gougourde, L. cucurbita, 
 
 C. Pepo, L. 
 
 GOUT IVY, M.Lat. Iva arthritica, from being, as Parkin- 
 son says, "powerful and effectual in all the pains and 
 diseases of the joints, as gouts, cramps, palsies, sciatica, 
 and aches," the ground pine, Ajuga Chamsepitys, L. 
 
 GOUT-WEED, or GOUT-WORT, from its supposed virtues in 
 gout cases, ^Egopodium Podagraria, L. 
 
 GOWAN, a north country word, usually derived from 
 Gael, gugan, a bud, a flower, but clearly a corruption of 
 gowlan, the Scotch form of gulden, as we see in the names of 
 the troll-flower, which is called indifferently Lucken-^0*w 
 -gollond, or -gowlan, and Witch's gowan. Of. gawn, a gallon 
 measure, a milk-pail, in The Derby Earn. (Halliwell). 
 In the glossaries it is usually explained as meaning merely 
 " the daisy ;" but appears in different parts of Scotland to 
 be applied to the various buttercups, and the marsh- 
 marigold, the dandelion, the hawkweeds, the corn-marigold,
 
 96 POPULAR NAMES 
 
 the globe flower, and indeed to almost any that is yellow. 
 In the northern counties of England, according to Brockett, 
 it is a yellow flower common in moist meadows, probably the 
 marsh marigold. 
 
 GOWK-MEAT, from its blossoming when the cuckoo 
 comes, the wood-sorrel, Oxalis Acetosella, L. 
 
 GRAM, an Eastern name, the chick pea, 
 
 Cicer arietinum, L. 
 
 GRAPE HYACINTH, or GRAPE FLOWER, from its small 
 round purplish flowers sitting in clusters on the stalk, like 
 grapes, Muscari raceinosum, Mill. 
 
 GRASS, A.S. and Fris. gcers, in nearly all other Ger- 
 manic dialects gras, and radically connected with L. gra- 
 men. By the old herbalists grass is used in the sense of 
 a herb generally, and often spelt gres, which has led to its 
 being misspelt grease in several names. By botanists the 
 term is confined to the order Graminese. 
 
 GRASS, see under their specific names 
 ARROW- GRASS, MOUSE-TAIL- 
 
 ,, BALLOCK- NIT- 
 
 BENT- ,, OAT- 
 
 ,, BROME- ORCHARD- 
 
 CANARY- PENNY- 
 
 CARNATION- PEPPER- 
 
 ,, CAT'S-TAIL- ,, PIGEON'S- 
 
 COCK'S-FOOT- ,, PUDDING- 
 
 CORD- QUAKE- 
 
 COTTON- ,, QUITCH- 
 
 COUCH- ,, RAY- 
 
 CRAB- ,, REED- 
 
 CUCKOO- ,, RIB- 
 
 DOG- ,, RIBBON- 
 
 DOG'S-TAIL- RIE- OR RYE- 
 
 DOG'S-TOOTH- SCORPION- 
 
 DOOB- SCURVY-
 
 OF BRITISH PLANTS. 
 
 97 
 
 GRASS, SEA- 
 
 SHAVE- 
 
 SHELLY- 
 
 SHERE- 
 
 SHORE- 
 
 SPARROW- 
 
 SPRING- 
 
 SPCRT- 
 
 SQUIRREL-TAIL- 
 
 STANDER- 
 
 STAR- 
 
 ,, SWINE- 
 
 TIMOTHY- 
 
 TOAD- 
 
 TTJSSAC- 
 
 ,, TWOPENNY- 
 
 VERNAL- 
 
 VIPER'S- 
 
 WHITLOW- 
 
 WlRE-BENT- 
 WOOD- 
 
 WORM- 
 GRASS OF PARNASSUS, a plant described by the Greek 
 writers as growing on that mountain, 
 
 Parnassia palustris, L. 
 
 GRASS-POLEY, from being considered by Cordus as a 
 puhfjium or poky, and having grassy leaves, 
 
 Lythrum hyssopifolium, L. 
 GRASS-VETCH, a vetch with grassy leaves, 
 
 Lathyrus Nissolia, L. 
 GRASS-WRACK, a wrack with long linear grass-like leaves, 
 
 Zostera marina, L. 
 
 GREEDS, A.S. greed, translated in ^Elfric's glossary 
 " ulva," a name of some water plant, now applied to the 
 pondweed tribe, Potamogeton, L. 
 
 7 
 
 GRASS, FEATHER- 
 
 FESCUE- 
 
 FIORIN- 
 
 FINGER- 
 
 ,, FlVE-FINGER- 
 
 ,, FLOTE- 
 
 ,, FOXTAIL- 
 
 ,, FRENCH- 
 
 ,, GALLOW- 
 
 ,, GRIP- 
 
 ,, HAIR- 
 
 ,, HARD- 
 
 ,, HARES-TAIL- 
 
 HASSOCK- 
 
 KNOT- 
 
 LOB- 
 
 ,, LYME- 
 
 MAT- 
 
 ,, MEADOW- 
 
 ,, MELICK- 
 
 MILLET- 
 MOOR-
 
 98 POPULAR NAMES 
 
 GREEK VALERIAN, a plant mistaken for the Phu or 
 Valerian of the Greek writers, Polemonium cseruleum, L. 
 
 GREEN-SAUCE, from its culinary use, Rumex acetosa, L. 
 
 GREEN-WEED, or GREENING-WEED, from its use to dye 
 green, Genista tinctoria, L. 
 
 GREENS or GRAINES, in Lyte's Herball GRAYVES, Da. 
 Enden-gruen, duck's herb, Lemna, L. 
 
 GRIGG, heath, Wei. grug, related to W. grwg and grig, 
 a rumbling noise. See BRAMBLE. Calluna vulgaris, Sal. 
 
 GRIMM THE COLLIER, the name of a humorous comedy 
 popular in Q. Elizabeth's reign, "Grimm the collier of 
 Croydon," given to the plant from its black smutty invo- 
 lucre, Hieracium aurantiacum, L. 
 
 GRIP-GRASS, from its gripping or seizing with its hooked 
 prickles whatever comes in its way, Galium Aparine, L. 
 
 GROMELL, GRUMMEL, or GROMWELL, or GRAY MYLE, as 
 Turner says it should be written, from Granum solis and 
 Milium solis together. " That is al one," says the Grete 
 Herball, " granum solis and milium solis." The apothe- 
 caries compromised the matter by combining them, as in 
 the case of Asarabacca. Lithospermum officinale, L. 
 
 GROUND FURZE, Ononis arvensis, L. 
 
 GROUNDHEELE, G. grundheil, Fr. herbe aux ladres, so 
 called from its having cured a king of France of a leprosy 
 from which he had been suffering eight years, a disease 
 called in German grind. Brunschwygk tells us (b. ii. ch. 
 5), that a shepherd had seen a stag, whose hind quarter 
 was covered with a scabby eruption from the bite of a wolf, 
 cure itself by eating of this plant and rolling itself upon it ; 
 and that thereupon he recommended it to his king. 
 
 Veronica officinalis, L. 
 
 GROUND NUT, or GRUNNUT, from its tuber having the 
 flavour of a nut, Bunium flexuosum, W. 
 
 GROUND IVY, L. hedera terrestris, a name which at 
 present is restricted to the Glechoma, but in the Stockholm
 
 OF BRITISH PLANTS. 99 
 
 Med. M.S. 1. 864 (Archaeol. v. xxx. p. 376) is given to the 
 periwinkle : 
 
 Parvenh is an erbe grene of colour ; 
 
 In tyme of may he beryth bio flour. 
 
 His stalkys are so feynt and feye, 
 
 That never more groweth he heye. 
 
 On the grownde he rennyth and growe, 
 
 As doth the erbe that hyth tunhowe. 
 
 The lef is thicke, schinende, and styf, 
 
 As is the grene ivy leef ; 
 
 Unche brod and nerhand rownde ; 
 
 Men call it the ivy of the grownde. 
 
 From the periwinkle the name has been transferred to a 
 labiate plant, Nepeta Glechoma, Benth. 
 
 GROUND PINE, Gr. xa/iatTrn-v? from %a/u, ground-, and 
 TTITVS, pine, so called from its terebinthinate odour, the 
 forget-me-not of all authors till the beginning of this cen- 
 tury, Ajuga Chamsepitys, Sm. 
 
 GROUNDSEL, in a MS. of the fifteenth century gronde- 
 swyle, A.S. grundswelge, ground glutton, from grund, ground, 
 and swelgan, swallow, still called in Scotland and on the 
 Eastern Border grundy-swattow, Senecio vulgaris, L. 
 
 GUELDER ROSE, from its rose-like balls of white flowers, 
 and Gueldres, its native country, a variety of the water- 
 elder, Viburnum Opulus, L. 
 
 GUERNSEY-LILY, from its occurrence on that island, 
 
 Nerine sarniensis, W. 
 
 GULF-WEED, from its floating on the gulf-stream, 
 
 Fucus natans, L. 
 
 GUINEA HEN, from its Latin name, Meleagris, given to it 
 from its petals being spotted like this bird, a native of the 
 Guinea coast of Africa, Fritillaria Meleagris, L. 
 
 HAG-BERRY see HEG-BERRY. 
 
 HAG-TAPER, G. unholdenkerze. Gerarde tells us that 
 " Apuleius reporteth a tale of Ulysses, Mercuric, and the
 
 100 POPULAR NAMES 
 
 inchauntresse Circe using these herbes in their incantation 
 and witchcrafts." See HIGTAPER, in our Modern Floras 
 incorrectly spelt Hightaper. Verbascum Thapsus, L. 
 
 HAIR-BELL, an unauthorized but very plausible correc- 
 tion of the more usual spelling, Harebell, a name descrip- 
 tive of the bell-shaped flowers and delicate stalks of the 
 plant, Campanula rotundifolia, L. 
 
 HAIR-GRASS, an imitation of its Latin name, Aira, L. 
 
 HALLELUJAH, the wood-sorrel, from its blossoming be- 
 tween Easter and Whitsuntide, the season at which the 
 Psalms were sung which end with that word, those, namely, 
 from the 113th to the 117th inclusive. It bears the same 
 name in German, French, Italian, and Spanish for the 
 same reason. There is a statement in some popular works, 
 that it was upon the ternate leaf of this plant that St. 
 Patrick proved to his rude audience the possibility of a 
 Trinity in Unity, and that it was from this called Hallelu- 
 jah ; an assertion for which there is no ground whatever. 
 
 Oxalis Acetosella, L. 
 
 HALM or HAULM, A.S. healm, straw, Du. helm and halm, 
 O.H.G. halam, Russ. slama, from L. calamus, Gr. KaXapos, 
 Skr. kalama, its root hal, conceal, cover, from its early and 
 general use as thatch. Psamma arenaria. 
 
 HARD-BEAM, from the hardness of its wood, the horn- 
 beam, Carpinus Betulus, L. 
 
 HARD-GRASS, Rottboellia incurvata, L. 
 
 HARD-HAY, G. hartheu, or as it is spelt in old writers, 
 harthau, from its hard stalks, 
 
 Hypericum quadrangulare, L. 
 
 HARD-HEADS, from the resemblance of its knotty in- 
 volucre to a weapon called a loggerhead, a ball of iron on 
 a long handle, Centaurea nigra, L. 
 
 HARDOCK, a word that occurs in the oldest editions of 
 Shakspeare, in K. Lear (Act iv. sc. 4), but in later ones is 
 wrongly replaced with Harlock. It seems to mean the
 
 OF BRITISH PLANTS. 101 
 
 burdock, and to be so called from its involucres getting 
 entangled in wool and flax, and forming the lumps called 
 in old works hardes or herdes, which is explained by Bat- 
 man on Bartholomew (c. 160), as " what is called in Latin 
 stupa, and is the clensing (i.e. the refuse) of hempe and 
 flexe," the equivalent of Fr. bourre from L. burra ; as is 
 evident from a passage in the Romaunt of the Rose, where 
 Chaucer translates the phrase (1. 1233), 
 " Elle ne fut de hurras" 
 
 by 
 
 " That not of hempen herdes was." 
 
 ffardock will therefore be exactly equivalent to Burdock. 
 
 Arctium Lappa, L. 
 
 HARE-BELL, a name to which there is no corresponding 
 one in other languages, in England assigned by most 
 writers to Campanula rotundifolia, L. 
 
 in Scotland, and in some English works, including Parkin- 
 son's Paradise, to the bluebell, Scilla nutans, Sm. 
 
 HARE'S-EAR, L. auricula leporis, from the shape of the 
 leaves, Bupleurum rotundifolium, L. 
 
 and also Erysimum orientale, L. 
 
 HARE'S-FOOT, Yr.pied de lievre, G. hasenfms, from its soft 
 downy heads of flowers, Trifoliuin arvense, L. 
 
 HARE'S LETTUCE, from its name in Apuleius, Lactuca 
 leporina, called so, says he, because " when the hare is 
 fainting with heat, she recruits her strength with it : " or 
 as Anthony Askham says, " yf a hare eate of this herbe in 
 somer, when he is mad, he shal be hole." Topsell also 
 tells us in his Natural History, p. 209, that, " when Hares 
 are overcome with heat, they eat of an herb called Lactuca 
 leporina, that is the Hares-lettice, Hares-house, Hares- 
 palace; and there is no disease in this beast, the cure 
 whereof she does not seek for in this herb." 
 
 Sonchus oleraceus, L. 
 
 HARE'S PALACE, Fr. palais de lievre, L. palatium leporis,
 
 102 POPULAR NAMES 
 
 Q-. hasen-ham, the same as the hare's lettuce, and so called 
 from a superstition that the hare derives shelter and courage 
 from it; as we learn from the Ortus Sanitatis, ch. 334: 
 " Dises kraut heissend etlich hasenstrauch, etlich hasen- 
 hauss ; dann so der hase darunder ist, so furchtet er sich 
 nit, und duncket sich gantz sicher, wann dises kraut hat 
 macht iiber die melancoley. Nun ist kein thiere als gar ein 
 melancholicus als der hase." 
 
 Sonchus oleraceus, L. 
 
 HARE'S-PARSLEY, in Aubrey's Wilts, probably 
 
 Anthriscus sylvestris, L. 
 
 HARE'S-TAIL, from its soft flower-heads, 
 
 Lagurus ovatus, L. 
 
 HARE'S-TAIL-RUSH, a translation of Lat. Juncus cum 
 cauda leporina, its name in Bauhin (Th. Bot. ii. 514), 
 and Plukenet (Aim. 201.), from the protrusion, after flower- 
 ing, of soft hypogynous bristles resembling a hare's tail, 
 and its wiry rush-like stems, Eriophorum vaginatum, L. 
 
 HARE-THISTLE, see HARE'S-LETTTJCE. 
 
 HARIF, HEIRIFF, HAIREVE or HARITCH, in Pr. Pm. 
 hayryf, A.S. hegerife, from A.S. hege, hedge, and reafa, 
 which, significantly enough, means both a tax-gatherer and 
 a robber, so called, we may suppose, from its plucking wool 
 from passing sheep ; originally the burdock, at present the 
 goose-grass, Galium Aparine, L. 
 
 HARLOCK, as usually printed in K. Lear (a. iv. sc. 4), and 
 in Dray ton, Eel. 4 : 
 
 "The honeysuckle, the harlocke, 
 The lily, and the lady-smocke:" 
 
 is a word that does not occur in the herbals, and which the 
 commentators have supposed to be a misprint for charlock. 
 There can be little doubt that Hardock is the correct reading 
 and that the plant meant is the one now called Burdock. 
 See above HARDOCK. Arctium Lappa, L.
 
 OF BRITISH PLANTS. 103 
 
 HARSTRONG, or HORESTRONG, Du. harstrang, G. harn- 
 stranye, strangury, from, its supposed curative powers in 
 this complaint, Peucedanum officinale, L. 
 
 HART'S CLOVER, the melilot, so called, says R. Turner 
 (Bot. p. 199), "because deer delight to feed on it," 
 
 Melilotus officinalis, L. 
 
 HART'S-HORN, from its furcated leaves, 
 
 Plantago Coronopus, L. 
 
 HART'S-THORN, Florio in v., the buckthorn, L. spina 
 cervina, Rhamnus catharticus, L. 
 
 HART'S-TONGUE, from the shape of the frond, the Lingua 
 cervina of the apothecaries, 
 
 Scolopendrium vulgare, Gart. 
 
 HARTWORT, so called, because, as Parkinson tells us, 
 (Th. Bot. p. 908), "Pliny saith that women use it before 
 their delivery, to help them at that time, being taught by 
 hindes that eate it to speade their delivery, as Aristotle did 
 declare it before." Tordylium maximum, L. 
 
 HARVEST-BELLS, from its season of flowering, 
 
 Gentian a Pneumonanthe, L. 
 
 HASK-WORT, a plant used for the hask or inflamed trachea, 
 being from its open throat-like appearance supposed, on the 
 doctrine of signatures, to cure throat diseases. Hask in 
 the Pr. Pm. is set down as synonymous with harske, austere, 
 Sw. and Du. harsh, a term applied to fruits. Turner writes 
 it harrish, as " dates are good for the harrishnes or rough- 
 nes of the throte," or what we should at present call 
 huskiness. Campanula latifolia, L. 
 
 HASSOCKS, A.S. cassuc, rushes, sedges and coarse grasses. 
 " In Norfolk coarse grass which grows in rank tufts on 
 boggy ground is termed hassock." A. Way in Pr. Pm. in 
 v. " Hassock." The use of this term for the thick matted 
 foot-stools used in churches seems to be taken from the 
 application to such purpose of the natural tumps of a large 
 sedge, the Carex paniculata, L.
 
 104 POPULAR NAMES 
 
 HATHER, see HEATH. 
 
 HAVER, wild oat, Du. haver, G. haber or hafer, O.H.G. 
 haparo, O.N. hafra, Sw. hafre, Da. havre, Wai. hafar, a 
 name that, according to Holmboe, once meant corn generally, 
 but was gradually restricted to the species most commonly 
 used, the oat. J. Grimm (Gesch. d. D. Spr. i. 66,) supposes 
 it to be related to L. caper, a he-goat, but Diez with more 
 probability derives it from L. avena, with the usual prefix 
 of an aspirate, and the change of n to r. 
 
 Avena sativa, etc., L. 
 
 HAWK-BIT, or HAWK-WEED, from a notion entertained by 
 the ancients that with this plant hawks were in the habit 
 of clearing their eyesight. See Pliny (1. xx. c. 7). 
 
 Hieracium, L. 
 
 HAWK'S BEARD, a name invented by S. F. Gray, and 
 assigned, without any reason given, to the genus 
 
 Crepis, L. 
 
 HAWK-NUT, a name of which Kay says, (Syn. p. 209,) 
 "cujus noininis rationem non assequor," but undoubtedly 
 corrupted from Hog-nut, as it is correctly spelt in Jacob's 
 PI. Fav. p. 16. Bunium flexuosum, With. 
 
 HAWTHORN, the thorn of haws, hays, or hedges, A.S. 
 hagaftorn, hceg-, or hege^orn, G. hagedorn, Sw. hagtorn, 
 an interesting word, as being a testimony to the use of 
 hedges, and the appropriation of plots of land, from a very 
 early period in the history of the Germanic races. The 
 term haw is incorrectly applied to the fruit of this tree in 
 the expression " hips and haws," meaning, as it does, the 
 fence on which it grows, A.S. haga or hcege, G, hage. 
 
 CrataBgus Oxyacantha, L. 
 
 HAYMAIDS, or HEDGEMAIDS, the ground ivy, a plant 
 common in hays and hedges, which has derived the 
 second syllable of its name from having been used as a 
 "gill" to ferment beer, Fr. guiller, a word that also bore 
 the meaning of "girl," or "maid," as in the proverb
 
 OF BRITTSH PLANTS. , 105 
 
 " Every Jack must have his Gill." 1 ' From the same equi- 
 vocation have arisen other such names as " Lizzie, up the 
 hedge !" etc. See GILL. Nepeta Glechoma, Benth. 
 
 HAZEL, A.S. hcesl or hcesel, and, allowing for dialect, the 
 same word in all Germanic languages, the instrumental 
 form of A.S. hces, a behest, an order, from A.S. hatan, 
 O.H.G. haizan, G. heissen, give orders, a hazel stick having 
 been used to enforce orders among slaves and cattle, and 
 been the baton of the master. J. Grimm (Gesch. d. Deuts. 
 Spr. p. 1016,) observes, " Der hirt zeigt uns das einfache 
 vorbild des fursten, des TTO^T/Z/ \awv, und sein haselstab 
 erscheint wieder im zepter der konige : ' hafa i hendi 
 heslikylfo' ['hold in hand a hazel staff'];" an expression 
 that occurs in Ssemund's Edda in the second lay of the 
 Helgaquida, str. 20. The verb hcelsian, foretell, seems to 
 be derived from the use of the hazel rod for purposes of 
 divination. Corylus Avellana, L. 
 
 HAZEL-WOKT, G. hasel-rourz, from the similarity of its 
 calyx to the involucre of a nut, and not, as the books tell 
 us, from its growing under hazel bushes. Frisch considers 
 it to be corrupted from L. asarum. A. europseum, L. 
 
 HEADACHE, or HEAD-WARKE, from the effect of its 
 odour, the red field-poppy, Papaver Rhceas, L. 
 
 HEART'S-EASE, a term meaning ' a cordial,' as in Sir W. 
 Scott's Antiquary, ch. xi : " buy a dram to be eilding and 
 claise, and a supper and hearts-ease into the bargain," 
 given to certain plants supposed to be cardiac ; at pre- 
 sent to the pansy only, but by Lyte, Bulleyn, and W. 
 Turner to the Wallflower equally. The most probable ex- 
 planation of the name is this. There was a medicine 
 " good," as Cotgrave tells us, " for the passions of the 
 heart" and called gariojile, from the cloves in it, L. caryo- 
 philla. The wall-flower also took its name from the clove, 
 and was called giro/flee, from the same Latin word. See 
 GILLIFLOWER. The cardiac qualities of the medicine were
 
 106 POPULAR NAMES 
 
 also extended to it, and the name of Heart' s-ease ; and, as 
 the wallflower and the pansy were both comprehended 
 among the Violets, that of Hearts-ease seems to have been 
 transferred from the former to the species of the latter now 
 called so. H. Brunschwygk, in his curious work " de arte 
 distillandi," tells us of the wallflower : " Gel violen wasser 
 kiilet ein wenig das herz : das geschycht uss ursach syner 
 kreftigung und Bterckung, ob es zu vil keltin het, so tem- 
 perier es, ob es zu vil hytz het, so temperier es ouch 
 darumb das es das herz erfrowet" Tabernsemontanus also, 
 (Kraut, p. 689,) says of the wallflower : " Welchem men- 
 schen das Herz zittert von Kalte, der soil sich dieses 
 gebrauchen." The instances are so numerous of the trans- 
 ference of an appropriate name to a plant to which it is 
 quite unsuited, that we can find no difficulty in assigning 
 this origin to the term Hearts-ease as at present employed. 
 
 Viola tricolor, L. 
 
 HEART-CLOVER, or, TREFOIL, "is so called," says W. 
 Coles, in his Art of Simpling, p. 89, " not onely because 
 the leaf is triangular like the heart of a man, but also 
 because each leafe contains the perfect icon of an heart, 
 and that in its proper colour, viz., a flesh colour. It 
 defendeth the heart against the noisome vapour of the 
 spleen." Medicago rnaculata, Sibth. 
 
 HEATH, HEATHER, or HATHER, A.S. haft, G. heide, O.N. 
 heffii, Go. haipi, a word which primarily meant the country 
 in which the heath grows, Skr. kshetra, a field, Beng. kheta, 
 and Skr. kshiti, land, from kshi, dwell. It is from the 
 same root, kshi, that is derived Skr. kshama, ground, Prakr. 
 khama, to which are related Gr. %<tyww, Go. haims, O.N. 
 heimi, and our home. When the north of Europe was a 
 forest, open land was naturally preferred for the site of 
 dwellings, the heath was the only open land, and this ac- 
 quired a name that had been used to designate a field, or 
 homestead. Erica and Calluna.
 
 OF BRITISH PLANTS. 107 
 
 HEATH, IRISH-, or ST. DABEOC'B-, 
 
 Menziesia polifolia, L. 
 
 SEA-, Frankenia pulverulenta, L. 
 
 HEATH-CYPRESS, from its resemblance to a small cypress 
 tree, and its growth upon heathy ground, 
 
 Lycopodium alpinum, L. 
 
 HEATH-PEA, from its pea-like esculent tuber, and usually 
 growing upon sandy heaths, 
 
 Lathy rus macrorrhizus, Wim. 
 
 HEDGE BELLS, G. zaun-glocke, a local, but expressive 
 name for the larger bindweed, Convolvulus sepium, L. 
 
 HEDGEHOG PARSLEY, from its prickly burs, 
 
 Caucalis daucoides, L. 
 
 HEDGE HYSSOP, a name transferred from a foreign 
 species, a Gratiola, to the lesser skullcap, 
 
 Scutellaria minor, L. 
 
 HEDGE-MAIDS, see HAYMAIDS. 
 
 HEDGE MUSTARD, Sisymbrium officinale, L. 
 
 HEDGE NETTLE, or -DEAD NETTLE, Stachys sylvatica, L. 
 
 HEDGE PARSLEY, Caucalis Anthriscus, H. 
 
 HEDGE TAPER, see HIG-TAPER. 
 
 HEDGE THORN, see HAWTHORN. 
 
 HEDGE VINE, the Virgin's bower, Clematis Vitalba, L. 
 
 HEG-BERRY, HEDGE-BERRY, HAG-, or HACK-BERRY, Sw. 
 hdgg, N. and Da. hcegebwr, " a wood berry," from a wood 
 being in the northern counties called a hag, a word related 
 to A.S. hege, hedge, Prunus Padus, L. 
 
 HELL-WEED, dodder, so called from the trouble and ruin 
 it causes in flax fields. Threlkeld observes, that " after it 
 has fastened upon a plant, it quits the root, and like a 
 coshering parasite lives upon another's trencher, and first 
 starves, and then kills its entertainer. For which reason 
 irreligious clowns curse it by the name of Hell-weed and 
 Deoil's-guts." Cuscuta, L.
 
 108 POPULAR NAMES 
 
 HELLEBORE, L. helleborus, Gr. eXtefiopos, a word of 
 doubtful origin, at present applied to certain ranunculaceous 
 plants, but not so in ancient works. 
 
 ,, BLACK-, the Christmas rose, H. niger, L. 
 
 FETID-, or STINKING-, H. foetidus, L. 
 
 GREEN-, H. viridis, L. 
 
 ,, WINTER-, Eranthis hyemalis, S. 
 
 HELLEBORINE, from the resemblance of its leaves to those 
 of a veratrum called "white hellebore," Epipactis, RB. 
 HELM, see HALM. Psamma arenaria, PB. 
 
 HELMET-FLOWER, from the shape of the corolla, 
 
 Scutellaria, L. 
 
 HEMLOCK, or, as Gerarde spells it, HOMLOCK, A.S. /teem 
 or kealm, straw or haulm, and leac, plant, so called from 
 the dry hollow stalks that remain after flowering ; a name 
 originally applied to any of the Umbelliferae, at present 
 confined to two poisonous species. 
 
 COMMON-, Conium maculatum, L. 
 
 ,, WATER-, Cicuta virosa, L. 
 
 HEMP, A.S. hcenep, It. canapa, Gr. Kavvapis, from an 
 Oriental root, Pers. keneb, Ar. kinneb, or qunnab, Arm. 
 ganap. Herodotus speaks of the plant, (b. iv. c. 74) as a 
 novelty lately introduced into Thrace from Scythia. 
 
 Cannabis sativa, L. 
 
 HEMP-AGRIMONY, from the resemblance of the leaves to 
 those of hemp, and its being classed by the old Herbalists 
 with agrimony under the general name of Eupatorium, or, 
 as Gerarde writes it, Hepatorium, E. cannabinum, L. 
 
 HEMP-NETTLE, or more properly HEMP-DEAD-NETTLE, 
 from its flowers resembling those of the dead-nettles, and 
 its leaves the leaflets of hemp, Galeopsis Tetrahit, L. 
 
 HENBANE, a plant so called from the baneful effects of 
 its seed upon poultry, of which Matthioli says (1. iv. c. 64) 
 that " birds, especially gallinaceous birds, that have eaten 
 the seeds perish soon after, as do fishes also." In old works
 
 OF BKITISH PLANTS. 109 
 
 it is called Henbell, A.S. henne-belle, a word that would 
 seem to refer to the resemblance of its persistent and en- 
 larged calyx to the scallop-edged bells of the middle ages, 
 and the more so as the plant is called in some of the old 
 plant-lists Symphoniaca, from symphonia, a ring of bells to 
 be struck with the hammer. See below, YEVERING BELLS. 
 .Nevertheless this is possibly a case, such as so frequently 
 occurs, of accommodating an ill-understood name to plain 
 ideas. The plant is called in A.S. belene, and belune, in 
 German bilse, in old German belisa, Pol. bielun, Hung. 
 belend, Russ. belend, words derived (according toZeuss, p. 34) 
 from an ancient Celtic God Belenus corresponding to the 
 Apollo of the Latins : " Dem Belenus war das Bilsenkraut 
 heilig, das von ihm Belisa und Apollinaris hiess." It is 
 only in comparatively recent times that the bell has been 
 replaced by bane, and it is difficult to see how it ever was 
 connected with henne, if the henne referred to the bird so 
 called. Hyoscyamus niger, L. 
 
 HEN BIT, G. humr-biss, Fl. koender-beet, L.morsusgallince, 
 from some fancied nibbling of its leaves by poultry : 
 THE GREATER-, Lamium amplexicaule, L. 
 
 THE LESSER-, Veronica hederifolia, L. 
 
 HEN'S-FOOT, a mere translation of Lat. pes pulli, a name 
 that Stapei, in Theophrast. p. 812, says was given to it 
 from the resemblance of its leaves to a hen's claw, an 
 observation that he must have made on a bad picture, 
 
 Caucalis daucoides, L. 
 
 HEPATICA, an adopted Greek word, adj. of hepar, the 
 liver, applied to a plant with three-lobed leaves, used in 
 affections of that organ: " Hepatica in Hepatis morbis, 
 quod folia visceris istius gerunt figuram." Linn. Bibl. Bot. 
 p. 117. In the medieval writers, such as Platearius, it 
 means a Marchantia, M. polymorpha, L. 
 
 in popular language at the present day, 
 
 Anemone hepatica, L.
 
 110 POPULAR NAMES 
 
 HERB BENNETT, L. Herba benedicta, Blessed Herb, the 
 avens, so called, Platearius tells us, as quoted in Ort. San. 
 c. clxxix, because " where the root is in the house the devil 
 can do nothing, and flies from it : wherefore it is blessed 
 above all other herbs." He adds that if a man carries this 
 root about him, no venomous beast can harm him. The 
 author of the Ortus says further, that, where it is growing 
 in a garden, no venomous beast will approach within scent 
 of it. Geum urbanum, L. 
 
 alst) the hemlock from the same cause perhaps, 
 since we learn from Ort. San. c. Ixxxvii, that, on Pliny's 
 authority, serpents fly from its leaves, because they also 
 chill to the death, " sye auch kelten biss auf den tod." 
 Pliny, however, alludes to a different plant from this. 
 
 Conium maculatum, L. 
 
 also the valerian, Sp. yerva benedetta as being a 
 preservative against all poisons, Tab. i. p. 471 ; and there- 
 fore " gut fur die biss der bosen vergifftigen thieren," says 
 Brunschwygk. Valeriana officinalis, L. 
 
 But in point of fact the proper name of these plants was 
 not Herba benedicta, but S u - Benedicti herba, St. Benedict's 
 herb, G. Sanct Benedicten-kraut, and was assigned to such 
 as were supposed to be antidotes, in allusion to a legend of 
 St. Benedict, which represents, that upon his blessing a cup 
 of poisoned wine, which a monk had given him to destroy 
 him, the glass was shivered to pieces. (Mrs. Jameson, 
 Mon. Ord. p. 9). 
 
 HERB CHRISTOPHER, a name vaguely applied to many 
 plants which have no qualities in common. The three to 
 which it has been given by our own writers are 
 1st, the baneberry, "but," says Parkinson, "from what 
 cause or respect it is called so, I cannot learn," 
 
 Actsea spicata, L. 
 
 2nd, the Osmund fern, Osmunda regalis, L. 
 
 3rd, the fleabane, Pulicaria dysenterica, Cass.
 
 OF BRITISH PLANTS. Ill 
 
 But besides these there are others which by the older 
 herbalists are called $" Christophori herba, and Kristoffels- 
 kraut; such as Spiraea ulmaria, L. Gnaphalium ger- 
 manicum, Hud. Betonica officinalis, L. Vicia Cracca and 
 sepium L. 
 
 HERB GERARD, Du. Geraerts cruyt, called so, says 
 Forster in Nat. Phen. p. 101, from St. Gerard, who used 
 to be invoked against the gout, 
 
 ^Egopodium Podagraria, L. 
 
 HERB OP GRACE, rue, from this word rue having also 
 the meaning of " repentance," which is needful to obtain 
 God's grace, a frequent subject of puns in the old dramatists. 
 See quotations in London's Arboretum, vol. i. p. 485. 
 
 Ruta graveolens, L. 
 
 HERB IMPIOUS, from the younger flowers overtopping 
 
 the older ones, like undutiful children rising over the heads 
 
 of their parents ; " ob id irnpiam appellavere, quoniam liberi 
 
 super parentem excellant." Plin. Nat. Hist, (l.xxiv. 113). 
 
 Gnaphalium germanicum, Huds. 
 
 HERB IVY, or HERB IVE, or -EvE, a name given to 
 several different plants with deeply divided leaves, a cor- 
 ruption of the Abiga of Pliny. Beckrnann, in his Lexicon 
 Botanicum, explains it thus : " Iva, Ruellius ib'iga ; hinc 
 duabus abjectis literis i et g, iba, et tandem wa manavit in 
 vulgi nomenclationem." The name has been given by 
 the herbalists to Ajuga Iva, Coronopus Ruellii, 
 
 and Plantago Coronopus, L. 
 
 HERB OF LIFE, in Erasmus' Praise of Folly, some 
 mythical plant that cannot be identified. 
 
 HERB MARGARET, the daisy, see MARGUERITE. 
 
 Bellis perennis, L. 
 
 HERB PARIS, incorrectly so spelt with a capital P, being 
 its Lat. name Herba paris, Herb of a pair, of a betrothed 
 couple, in reference to its four leaves being set upon the
 
 112 POPULAR NAMES 
 
 stalk like a trulove-knot, the emblem of an engagement, 
 whence its synonym, Herb Trulove, 
 
 Paris quadrifolia, L. 
 
 HERB PETER, the cowslip, from its resemblance to St. 
 Peter's badge, a bunch of keys, whence its G. name, 
 schlussel-blume, Primula veris, L. 
 
 HERB ROBERT, a geranium, that according to Adelung, 
 was so called from its being used to cure a disease known 
 in Germany as the Ruprechts-Plage, from Robert, duke of 
 Normandy, for whom was written the celebrated medical 
 treatise of the middle ages, the " Regimen Sanitatis Saler- 
 nitanum," or " Schola Salernitana." In some old writers 
 it is called Sancti Ruperti kerba. See Bauhin de plant, 
 sanct. p. 81. There are four saints of that name, and one 
 of them, a bishop of Salzburg, is said by Alban Butler in 
 his Lives of the Saints to have cured all the maladies of 
 body and soul. In a MS. vocabulary of the 13th century, 
 in Rel. Ant. vol. i. p. 37, it occurs as " Herba Roberti, 
 Herb Robert." Adelung's explanation is probably the cor- 
 rect one. Geranium Robertianum, L. 
 
 HERB TRINITY, L. Herba Trinitatis, G. dreifaltigTceits- 
 blume, from having three colours combined in one flower, 
 the pansy, Viola tricolor, L. 
 
 and also from having three leaflets combined into one leaf, 
 
 Anemone hepatica, L. 
 
 HERB TWOPENCE, from its pairs of round leaves, the 
 moneywort, Lysimachia Nummularia, L. 
 
 HERB WILLIAM, in R. Turner's Botanologia, p. 45, 
 
 Ammi majus, L. 
 
 HERON'S BILL, from the shape of the seed vessel, 
 
 Erodium, L'Her. 
 
 HIG TAPER, HAG-TAPER, in Turner, HYGGIB-TAPER, in 
 Lupton, i. 3, HEDGE-TAPER, incorrectly spelt in our floras 
 High- taper, either from A.S. hig or hyg, hay and taper, 
 meaning a taper made of dry herbage, or from A.S. liege or
 
 OF BRITISH PLANTS. 113 
 
 i, a hedge, the usual place of its growth. Dodoens 
 tells us that it was called candela, " folia siquidem habet 
 mollia, hirsuta, ad lucernarum fuuiculos apta ;" " a plant," 
 says the Grete Herball, "whereof is made a maner of lynke, 
 if it be talowed;" or, as Parkinson says, (Th. Bot. p. 62,) 
 " Verbascum is called of the Latines Candela regia and 
 Candelaria, because the elder age used the stalks dipped in 
 suet to burne, whether at Funeralls or otherwise." Brun- 
 felsius, ed. 1531, says, p. 197, that it is called Wull- or 
 Konig-kerz, " darum das sein stengel von vilen gedorrt 
 wiirt, iiberzogen mit harz, wachs, oder bech, und stang- 
 kerzen oder dartschen davon gemacht, und gebrannt fur 
 schaub-fackelen." Schaub means a wisp of straw, and 
 rather supports the above explanation of hig as hay. 
 
 Verbascum Thapsus, L. 
 
 HINDBERRY, A.S. Mndberie, a name that was once very 
 generally given to the raspberry, and is still retained in 
 some counties, derived, apparently, from hind, as the gentler, 
 the tamer kind of bramble, contrasted with the heorot-berie, 
 the hart-berry. Adelung suggests its derivation from Lat. 
 Idaeus, by a change that is quite consistent with analogy, 
 viz. prefixing an h to the initial vowel, and an n before d. 
 Ray's explanation, " forte sic dicta, quia inter hinnulos et 
 cervos, i.e. in sylvis et saltibus crescunt," is very unsatis- 
 factory, a mere guess, as are nearly all his explanations of 
 English names. Rubus idaeus, L. 
 
 HINDHEAL, A.S. hind-hele, -heoltf&e, or -haleft, from its 
 curingthe hind, probably the same herb as the Elaphoboscum, 
 which deer were supposed to eat when stung by serpents, 
 and of which Lupton tells us, No. 80, that "it is said that 
 harts in Crete being struck with darts envenomed, do eat of 
 a certain herb called Dittany, and thereby the prick that 
 sticks in them, is driven out." Teucrium Scorodonia, L. 
 
 HIP-, or HEP-ROSE, the dog-rose, that which bears the 
 hip, A.S. kiop, heap, heope, O.S. hiopa, O.H.G. hiofa, Norw.
 
 114 POPULAR NAMES 
 
 hiupa, and jupe, a corruption from Gr. fy&fav, M. Lat. 
 jujuba, the j of which has become hi, as in many other 
 instances, through the intermediate sound of y. Thus Job 
 becomes in German Hiob, and jejunium, hunger, and con- 
 versely an initial hi is in Norway always pronounced y ; 
 hierte, heart, yerte; and similarly in our own western counties 
 heifer becomes yeffer. It seems to confirm this view of the 
 derivation of hip from jujuba, that the Ortus Sanitatis, the 
 figures of which, bad as they are, are traditional copies of 
 very ancient ones, gives (c. ccxx), a rosebush with hips on it 
 for the Jujube, and titles the chapter: " Hanbotten, jujube 
 grece et latine :" the hanbotte being the same as the hage- 
 butte or hip. In the Old Saxon of the Heliand, hiopa seems 
 to have meant the briar rather than the fruit : (1. 3488) 
 " nee oc figun ni lesat an hiopon :" nor gather figs on hips : 
 where hiopon represents the Gr. rpi(3o\o<; of Matth. vii. 16, 
 a word that Wycliffe translates " breris," briars, but our 
 authorized version, less correctly, " thistles." 
 
 Rosa canina, L. 
 
 HIP-WOKT, from the resemblance of the leaf to the aceta- 
 bulum or hip-socket, whence its former name of herba cox- 
 endicum, herb of the hips, Cotyledon umbilicus, Hud. 
 
 HIKSB, G. hirse, L. cererisia, ale, from ale being brewed 
 from it, a kind of millet, Panicum, L. 
 
 HOCK, or HOCK-HERB, the mallow, from Lat. Alcea by 
 the change of / to u, and the usual prefix of h to Lat. words 
 beginning with a vowel upon their becoming English ; Ale, 
 auc, hauc. See HOLLIHOCK. Althaea and Malva, L. 
 
 HOG'S-FENNEL, a coarse rank plant, fennel for a hog, 
 Peucedanum officinale, L. 
 
 HOG-NUT, the pig-nut, Bunium flexuosum, With. 
 
 HOG-WEED, from the fondness of hogs for its roots, the 
 cow-parsnep, Heracleum Sphondylium, L. 
 
 HOLLIHOCK, in Huloet's Dict y . HOLY HOKE, a perplex- 
 ing word. The hock is clearly from the L. alcea, (see
 
 OF BRITISH PLANTS. 115 
 
 HOCK,) but the Holli is very difficult to explain. The most 
 probable origin of it is L. caulis, with the meaning of a 
 cale-j coley-, or cabbage-hock, and referring, as in cabbage- 
 rose, to its well-filled double flowers, or used in the sense 
 of stalk, and referring to its lofty habit, in contrast with 
 that of the lowly Hock-herb, or mallow. Cauli- or Coley- 
 hock would easily pass into Holly- and Holy-hock. 
 
 Althaea rosea, L. and ficifolia, Cav. 
 HOLLOW-WORT, or HOLE-WORT, from its hollow root, 
 
 Corydalis tuberosa, DC. 
 
 HOLLY, or HOLM, on the Eastern Border called HOLLEN, 
 the old form of the word, and that from which holm has 
 been formed by the change of n to m, as Lime from Line ; 
 A.S. holen or holegn, a word derived from L. uleoc, which 
 in the middle ages was confused with ilex, the holm oak 
 of the ancients, whence the adjective uligna, and with the 
 aspirate, huligna and holegn. The form Holly will have 
 been the more readily adopted, and the tree have been 
 called in Anglo-Saxon times elebeam, or oil-tree, from its 
 branches having being used for olive branches, and strewed 
 before the image of Jesus, in certain solemnities of the 
 church that represented his entrance into Jerusalem. Thus 
 in Googe's Naogeorgus : 
 
 "He is even the same, that, long agone, 
 
 While in the streete he roade, 
 
 The people mette, and olive bowes 
 
 So thicke before him stroade." 
 
 Ilex Aquifolium, L. 
 
 KNEE-, Ruscus aculeatus, L. 
 
 SEA-, Eryngium maritimum, L. 
 
 HOLLY-, or HOLM-OAK, see HOLLY. Quercus Ilex, L. 
 HOLY GHOST, so called "for the angel-like properties 
 therein," says Parkinson, (Th. Bot. p. 941). " It is good 
 against poison, pestilent agues, and the pestilence itself," 
 says W. Turner (b. iii. 5.). Angelica sylvestris, L.
 
 116 POPULAR NAMES 
 
 HOLY GRASS, from its Gr. name, iepa 
 
 Hierochloe borealis, Rm. 
 
 HOLY HAY, in some old works, the lucern, a mistaken 
 translation of Fr. sain-foin. See SAINFOIN. 
 
 Medicago sativa, L. 
 
 HOLY HERB, L. herba sacra, Gr. iepa ftoTavrj, the vervain, 
 so called, says Dioscorides, (b. iv. 61,) 8ia TO evxprja-rov ev 
 Tot9 KaQap/jbois eivai ei9 7Tpiafjifjuira, " from its being good in 
 expiations for making amulets." It acquired this character 
 from being used to decorate altars : " Ex ara sume verbenas 
 tibi;" Ter. in Andria; and, as Pliny tells us (b. 22, c. 2) f 
 "non aliunde sagmina in remediis publicis fuere, et in 
 sacris legationibus, quam verbena ; " and adds, " hoc est 
 gramen ex ara cum sua terra evulsum." It would seem 
 that branches of any kind used about the altar at sacred 
 festivals were called verbena, and being borne by an am- 
 bassador rendered his person inviolable ; and that the word 
 did not originally apply exclusively to that which we now 
 call vervain. Verbena officinalis, L. 
 
 HOLY HOPE, a plant that from its hemp-like leaves was 
 fixed upon as the one that yielded the rope with which Jesus 
 was bound; just as there was a Christ's thorn, a Christ's 
 gall, a reed-mace, a Christ's ladder, etc., found to represent 
 the other incidents of the Crucifixion, 
 
 Eupatorium cannabinum, L. 
 
 HONESTY, from the transparency of its dissepiments, 
 
 Lunaria biennis, L. 
 
 HONEWORT, from its curing the hone, a hard swelling in 
 the cheek so called, Ger. p. 1018, Trinia glaberrima, L. 
 
 and Sison Amomum, L. 
 
 HONEYSUCKLE, A.S. hunig-sucle, a name that is now 
 applied to the woodbine, but it is very doubtful to what 
 plant it properly belongs. In the A.S. vocabularies it is 
 translated Ligustrum, which in other places means the 
 cowslip and primrose. In Parkinson and other herbalists
 
 OF BRITISH PLANTS. 117 
 
 it is assigned to the meadow clover, which in our Western 
 counties is still called so. This, too, is the plant meant by 
 the rede hony suckle gres in the Stockholm Med. M.S. 
 (Archseol. v. xxx. p. 399). The name seems to have been 
 transferred to the woodbine on account of the honey-dew 
 so plentifully deposited on its leaves. But it is not at all 
 clear, what is the proper meaning of the word honeysuckle. 
 In poetry and popular usage, Lonicera, L. 
 
 but in farmer's language, the meadow clover, 
 
 Trifolium pratense, L. 
 
 HONEYSUCKLE, DWARF-, Cornus suecica, L. 
 
 FLY-, Lonicera xylosteum, L. 
 
 ,, FRENCH-, a plant used on the Continent for forage 
 as the meadow clover is with us ; a foreign honeysuckle- 
 clover ; Hedysarum coronarium, L. 
 
 HONEY-WARE, A.S. war, sea-weed, and honey from its 
 being covered with a layer of sugar, " dont les Islandais se 
 servent tres bien," says Duchesne, p. 364. Alaria esculenta, 
 and Laminaria saccharina, Lam. 
 
 HOODED MILFOIL, Fr. millefeuille, thousand leaf, from 
 its very finely divided leaves and the hood shape of its 
 corolla, Utricularia vulgaris, L. 
 
 HOOK-HEAL, from its being supposed on the doctrine of 
 signatures to heal wounds from a bill-hook, which its 
 corolla was thought to resemble, Prunella vulgaris, L. 
 
 HOP, a name adopted from the Netherlands with the 
 culture of the plant, L. Ger. happen, G. hopfe, M. Lat. hupa, 
 possibly connected with words that mean " head," as haupt, 
 haube, etc. but only by an accidental coincidence approach- 
 ing the Fr. houblon, Humulus Lupulus, L. 
 
 HOP-CLOVER, from the resemblance of its fruiting 
 capitules to little heads of hop, 
 
 Trifolium procumbens, and agrarium, L. 
 
 HOREHOUND, A S. hara-hune, from hara, hoary, and hune, 
 honey, a name that may have been, and most likely was,
 
 118 POPULAR NAMES 
 
 suggested by that of another labiate plant, melissa, Gr. 
 /LteXtcro-a, honey, but may very possibly be a corruption of 
 Lat. Urinaria ; the plant having been regarded as one of 
 great efficacy in cases of strangury and dysuria. See Ort. 
 Sanit. ch. 256. Marrubium vulgare, L. 
 
 HOREHOUND, BLACK-, from its dark flowers, 
 
 Ballota nigra. L. 
 WATER-, Lycopus europseus, L. 
 
 HORE-STRANGE, or -STRANG, from its supposed virtue in 
 strangury. See HARSTRONG. 
 
 HORNBEAM, or -BEECH, from its wood being used to yoke 
 horned cattle, " as well by the Romans in old time," says 
 Gerarde, p. 1479, " as in our own, and growing so hard and 
 tough with age as to be more like horn than wood," 
 
 Carpinus Betulus, L. 
 
 HORNWORT, from its bi- and tri-furcate leaves, 
 
 Ceratophyllum, L. 
 
 HORNED POPPY, from its long curved horn-like seedpods, 
 
 Glaucium luteum, L. 
 
 HORSE-BANE, from its being supposed in Sweden to 
 cause in horses a kind of palsy, an effect that has been 
 ascribed by Linnaeus not so much to the noxious qualities 
 of the plant itself, as to an insect, curculio paraplecticus, 
 that breeds in its stem (Syst. Nat. 610), 
 
 (Enanthe Phellandrium, Lam. 
 
 HORSE-BEAN, the variety of bean grown for the food of 
 horses, Vicia Faba, L. 
 
 HORSE-BEECH, see HURST-BEECH, of which it is a corrup- 
 tion. 
 
 HORSE-CHESTNUT, said to be called so from its fruit being 
 used in Turkey, the country from which we received it, as 
 food for " horses that are broken or touched in the wind ; " 
 see Selby, p. 34. Parkinson says (Th. Bot. p. 1402) : 
 " Horse chesnuts are given in the East, and so through all 
 Turkic, unto Horses to cure them of the cough, short- 
 nesse of winde, and such other diseases." In this country
 
 OF BRITISH PLANTS. 119 
 
 horses will not eat them, and the name is more likely to 
 have been given to these nuts to express coarseness. The 
 ingenious conjecture of a writer in N. and Q. (3, ser. x. 45,) 
 that it was suggested by the cicatrix of its leaf resembling a 
 horse-shoe, with all its nails evenly placed, has no support 
 of ancient authors. ^Esculus Hippocastanum, L. 
 
 HORSE-CHIRE, the germander, from its growing after 
 horse-droppings, Fr. chier, Teucrium Chamaedrys, L. 
 
 HORSE-FLOWER, Lyte, b. ii. c. 14, from Flem. peerd- 
 bloeme, horse-flower, a name that it seems to have acquired 
 from the py rum of its Latin name having been misunderstood 
 to mean "pear," Flem. peere, and this word being confused 
 with peerd, a horse, Melampyrum sylvaticum, L. 
 
 HORS-HELE, -HEAL, or -HEEL, A.S. hors-elcne, L. Inula 
 Helenium, which by a double blunder of Inula for hinnula, 
 a colt, and Helenium for something to do with heels or 
 healing, has been corrupted into Hors-hele, and the plant 
 employed by apothecaries to heal horses of scabs, and sore 
 heels, Inula Helenium, L. 
 
 HORSE-HOOF, from the shape of the leaf, 
 
 Tussilago Farfara, L. 
 
 HORSE-KNOB, a coarse knapweed, Centaurea nigra, L. 
 
 HORSE-MINT, Mentha sylvestris, L. 
 
 HORSE-MUSHROOM, from its size as compared with the 
 species more commonly eaten, Agaricus arvensis, Sch. 
 
 HORSE-PARSLEY, from its coarseness as compared with 
 small age or celery, Smyrnium Olus atrum, L. 
 
 HORSE-RADISH, Cochlearia Armoracia, L. 
 
 HORSE-SHOE-VETCH, Off. L. ferrum equinum, from the 
 shape of the legumes, Hippocrepis comosa, L. 
 
 HORSETAIL, L. cauda eguina, a name descriptive of its 
 shape, and under which it was sold in the shops, 
 
 Equisetum, L. 
 
 HORSE-THYME, a coarse kind of thyme, 
 
 Calamintha Clinopodium, Benth.
 
 120 POPULAR NAMES 
 
 HOUND'S-BERRY-TREE, or HOUND'B-TREE, a mistaken 
 equivalent for Dogwood ; see DOGWOOD. 
 
 HOTJND'S-TONGUE, from the Gr. KWOJ^WO-O-OV now ap- 
 plied to a plant, of which W. Coles tells us in his Art of 
 Simpling, ch. xxvii, that "it will tye the Tongues of 
 Houndes, so that they shall not bark at you, if it be laid 
 under the bottom of your feet, as Miraldus writeth." The 
 name was probably given to the Greek plant on account 
 of the shape and soft surface of the leaf, and in contrast to 
 the rough bugloss or oxtongue. 
 
 Cynoglossum officinale, L. 
 
 HOUSE-LEEK, a leek or plant, A.S. leac, that grows on 
 houses, Sempervivum tectorum, L. 
 
 HOVE, A.S. hufe, a chaplet, after its Latin name, corona, 
 Gr. <rre<aww/ia, and so called, says Parkinson, " because 
 it spreadeth as a garland upon the ground," the ground 
 ivy, also called in old MSS. Heyhowe, Heyoue, Haihoue, 
 Halehoue, and Horshoue. See Pr. Pm. p. 250, note by 
 Way. Nepeta Glechoma, Benth. 
 
 HULST, Du. hukt, which Weiland derives from L. ilex, 
 but without accounting for the terminal st, which would 
 seem in this, and several other words, to be the Lat. cetum, 
 indicating the locality of its growth. Its immediate origin 
 would thus be ulicetum for ilicetum, a bed of ulex or ilex, 
 two names frequently confused in medieval writings, whence 
 also G. huh, and Fr. houx. Ilex Aquifolium, L. 
 
 HULVER, in Chaucer HULFEERE, Fr. olivier, olive-tree, 
 a name given to the holly from its being strown on the road 
 in place of olive branches at the public festivals of the 
 church ; as was that of " palm," for a similar reason, to 
 the flowering branches of the willow. See quotation under 
 HOLLY. Ilex Aquifolium, L. 
 
 ,, KNEE-, the butcher's broom, see under KNEE-. 
 SEA-, from its prickly leaves, 
 
 Eryngium maritimum, L.
 
 OF BRITISH PLANTS. 121 
 
 HUNGER-GRASS, from its starving cereal crops among 
 which it grows, and thus causing famine, 
 
 Alopecurus agrestis, L. 
 
 -WEED, from its abundance indicating a bad crop, 
 and season of famine, Ranunculus arvensis, L. 
 
 HURR-BURR, the burdock, whose involucres form the 
 nucleus of the hardes or hurds, Norw. horr, the tangled 
 lumps that are carded out of flax and wool, 
 
 Arctium Lappa, L. 
 
 HURST- or HORST- or HORSE-BEECH, the hornbeam, 
 from its growth on hursts, and some resemblance of its 
 leaves to those of the beech-tree, Carpinus Betulus, L. 
 
 HURT-SICKLE, "because," says Culpeper, "with its hard 
 wiry stem it turneth the edge of the sickle, that reapeth 
 the corn;" called, for the same reason, by Brunsfelsius 
 Blaptisecula, from Gr. /SXavrTto, injure, 
 
 Centaurea Cyanus, L. 
 
 HURTLE-BERRY, and HUCKLE-BERRY, corruptions of 
 W/wr tie-berry, itself a corruption of Myrtle-berry, 
 
 Vaccinium Myrtillus, L. 
 
 HYACINTH, Gr. vaKivOos, a plant to which frequent 
 allusion is made by the Greek poets, but which, from the 
 vague way in which they used the names of flowers, it is 
 impossible to identify. It can scarcely have been the 
 hyacinth of our gardens. Some suppose it to have been 
 the martagon lily, some a gladiole. The former seems to 
 have been Ovid's plant, the latter that of the Sicilian 
 poets, Theocritus and Moschus. But it would here be out 
 of place to enter into the question. See Ovid. Met. b. x, 
 164. Theocr. Id. x, 28. Moschus, Id. iii, 6. As now 
 understood, it is the genus Hyacinthus, L. 
 
 HYSSOP, the name given in our authorized version of 
 the Bible to the caper, but in popular language assigned to 
 a labiate plant, the supposed VO-O-WTTO? of Dioscorides, 
 
 Hyssopus officinalis, L.
 
 122 POPULAR NAMES 
 
 ICELAND Moss, a lichen so called from its abundance in 
 Iceland, whence it is imported for medicinal and culinary 
 purposes, Cetraria Islandica, Ach. 
 
 INUL, L. Inula, see ELECAMPANE. 
 
 IREOS, the genitive case of iris, used by apothecaries to 
 mean the orrice root, radix being understood. See ORRICE. 
 
 IRISH HEATH, from its occurrence chiefly in the west of 
 Ireland, Menziesia polifolia, Jus. 
 
 IRISH, or CARRAGEEN Moss, a sea-weed so called, im- 
 ported from Ireland, Chondrus crispus, Lyngb. 
 
 IRON-HEADS, from the resemblance of its knobbed invo- 
 lucre to a weapon with an iron ball fixed to a long handle, 
 called a Loggerhead, Centaurea nigra, L. 
 
 IRON-WORT, a translation of its Lat. name, Sideritis, from 
 Gr. a-iSrjpov, iron, a name formerly applied to several 
 different plants, supposed to heal wounds from iron 
 weapons, but now confined to a genus of Labiatse, of 
 which we have no British representative. In Jacob's 
 Plant. Faversh. Galeopsis Ladanum, L. 
 
 IVRAY, Fr. ivraie, drunkenness. See RAY-GRASS. 
 
 IVY, in MS. Sloane, No. 3489, 3, spelt Ivyne, A.S. ifg, 
 a word strangely mixed up with the names of the yew- 
 tree, O.H.G. ebah, from which, according to Grimm, arose 
 ebowe, ebhowe, ebihowe, ephou, epheu, and in Alsace eppkau. 
 It seems to have originated with the Lat. abiga, used by 
 Pliny as the name of the plant called in Greek Chamse- 
 pitys, and uiiswritten by some copyist ajuga, which was 
 further corrupted to the M. Lat. wa. See YEW. Looking 
 at the names of the two trees, the Ivy and the Yew, in the 
 different languages of Europe, we cannot doubt that they 
 are in reality the same word. Indeed in Hofer's " Worter- 
 buch der in Oberdeutschland ublichen Mundart" we find 
 that Ive or Ivenbaum belongs equally to one or the other. 
 In English we get ivy from iva, and yew from the same 
 word, written iua. The source of the confusion seems to
 
 OF BRITISH PLANTS. 123 
 
 have been this. The Chamsepitys of Pliny, as we learn 
 from Parkinson (Th. Bot. p. 284,) was " called in English 
 Ground-pine, and Ground-ivie, after the Latin word Iva." 
 But this name Ground-ivy had been assigned to another 
 plant, which was called in Latin Hedera terrestris, and thus 
 Ivy and Hedera came to be regarded as equivalent terms. 
 But there was again another plant that was also called 
 Hedera terrestris, viz., the creeping form of Hedera helix, 
 and as Ivy had become the equivalent of Hedera in the 
 former case, so it did in this too, and eventually was appro- 
 priated to the full-grown ever-green shrub so well-known. 
 How iva became the name of the Yew-tree will be ex- 
 plained below. Hedera Helix, L. 
 
 IVY, GROUND-, see GROUND-IVY. 
 
 IVY-LEAFED CHICKWEED, Veronica hederifolia, L. 
 
 JACINTH, Fr. jacinthe, L. Tiyacinthus, the hyacinth. 
 
 JACK BY THE HEDGE, from Jack or Jakes, latrina, allud- 
 ing to its offensive smell, and its usual place of growth, 
 
 Alliaria officinalis, L. 
 
 JACK OF THE BUTTERY, a ridiculous name that seems to 
 be a corruption of Bot-theriacque to Buttery Jack, the plant 
 having been used as a theriac or anthelmintic, and called 
 Vermicularis from its supposed virtue in destroying bots 
 and other intestinal worms, Sedum acre, L. 
 
 JACOB'S LADDER, usually supposed to be called so from its 
 successive pairs of leaflets, Polemonium cseruleum, L. 
 
 JASMINE, JESSAMINE, JESSE, or GESSE, Sp. and Fr. 
 jasmin, from Pers. jasemin, Ar. jdsamum, 
 
 Jasminum, L. 
 
 JERSEY LIVELONG, from its occurrence in Jersey, and 
 being of the same genus as many of the so-called everlast- 
 ing flowers, t Gnaphalium luteo-album, L. 
 
 JERUSALEM ARTICHOKE, called artichoke from the flavour 
 of its tubers, and Jerusalem from It. girasole, turn-sun, that
 
 124 POPULAR NAMES 
 
 is, a sun that turns about, the sun-flower, to which genus 
 this plant belongs. By a quibble on Jerusalem the soup 
 made from it is called " Palestine." 
 
 Helianthus tuberosus, L. 
 
 JERUSALEM COWSLIP, from being like a cowslip " floribus 
 primulse veris purpureis," as described by Lobel, and from 
 having been confounded under the name of Phlomis with 
 the Sage of Jerusalem, Pulmonaria officinalis, L. 
 
 JERUSALEM CROSS, from an occasional variety of it with 
 four instead of five petals, of the colour and form of a 
 Jerusalem cross, Lychnis chalcedouica, L. 
 
 JERUSALEM, OAK OF-, called oak from the resemblance of 
 its leaf in an outline picture to that of the oak, and its 
 confusion under the name of xajjuuSpvs, ground oak, with 
 the Cheuopodium Botrys. The Jerusalem seems here as 
 in other cases to stand as a vague name for a distant foreign 
 country. Teucrium Botrys, L. 
 
 STAR OF-, It. girasole, turn-sun, in allusion to the 
 popular belief that it turns with the sun, whence it was 
 also called solsecle, from Lat. solsequium, A.S. sol-sece, (see 
 JERUSALEM ARTICHOKE ;) and star from the stellate expan- 
 sion of the involucre. See SALSIFY". 
 
 Tragopogon porrifolius, L. 
 
 JEWS-EARS, L. auricula Judee, a fungus resembling the 
 human ear, and usually growing from trunks of the elder, 
 the tree upon which the legend represents Judas as having 
 hanged himself. Mandeville tells us that he saw the very 
 tree. Exidia auricula Judse, Fries. 
 
 JOAN-, or JONE-SILVER-PIN, the red poppy, called so, as 
 Parkinson tells us, p. 367, because it is " Fair without and 
 foul within," alluding to its showy flower and staining 
 yellow juice. According to Forby the term " Joan's silver 
 pin " means among the East Anglians " a single article of 
 finery produced occasionally and ostentatiously among dirt 
 and sluttery," and in this sense too it is a fit name for this
 
 OF BRITISH PLANTS. 125 
 
 gaudy flower so conspicuous among the weeds of the corn- 
 field. Papaver Rhceas, L. 
 
 JOINTED CHARLOCK, from its pod being contracted be- 
 tween the seeds, so as to appear articulated, but being 
 otherwise like charlock, Raphanus Raphanistrum, L. 
 
 JONQUIL, 8p.junquillo, dim. ofjunco, L.juncus, a rush, 
 from its slender rush-like stem, Narcissus Jonquilla, L. 
 
 JOSEPH'S FLOWER, Du. Joseph's bloem, in allusion to its 
 popular name of Oo-to-bed-at-noon, and Joseph's refusal to 
 do so, the implements and memorials of their achievements 
 and trials having been usually adopted as the badge of 
 the Bible heroes, and exhibited in their pictures. Thus 
 Samson had his jawbone, David his giant's head, Jonah his 
 gourd, etc. Tragopogon pratensis, L. 
 
 JOUBARB, see JUPITER'S BEARD. 
 
 JUDAS TREE, from this, and not the elder, being the one 
 upon which some of the legends represent that traitor as 
 having hung himself, Cercis Siliquastrum, L. 
 
 JULY FLOWER, used by Drayton under the mistaken 
 notion that it gave the meaning of Gilliflower, 
 
 Matthiola, L. 
 
 JUNIPER, from the Lat. Juniperus, a word of uncertain 
 origin, J. communis, L. 
 
 JUNO'S ROSE, L. rosa junonis, the white lily. We are 
 told by Cassianus Bassus in his Geoponica (1. xi. c. 20), 
 that Jupiter, to make his son Hercules immortal, put him 
 to the breast of Juno while she was sleeping, and that the 
 milk which was spilt, as the child withdrew from her, 
 formed the milky way in the heavens, and gave rise to the 
 lily upon earth. The story is curious as an instance of one 
 that was transferred from the pagan to the Roman Catholic 
 mythology ; for it is evidently the source of a similar one 
 of the Virgin and the milk thistle. See Lyte, b. ii. c. 42. 
 Lobel, Kruydtb. p. 201. Dodoens, ii. 2. 1. 
 
 Lilium candidum, L.
 
 126 POPULAR NAMES 
 
 JUNO'S TEARS, Gr. 'Hpas Saicpvov, a name that by Dios- 
 corides was given to the Coix lacryma, now called " Job's 
 tears/' in allusion to its hard, polished, bead -like seeds, but 
 through some confusion with the peristereon, as in Apuleius, 
 c. 66, transferred to the vervain, which has nothing about 
 it that resembles a tear, Verbena officinalis, L. 
 
 JUPITER'S BEARD, Yr.joubarb, L. Jovis barba, the house- 
 leek, so called from its massive inflorescence, like the 
 sculptured beard of Jupiter. 
 
 Quam sempervivam dicunt, quoniam viret omni 
 
 Tempore : larba Jovis vulgar! more vocatur : 
 
 Esse refert similem prsedictae Plinius istam. Macer. 
 
 Sempervivum tectorum, L. 
 
 JUPITER'S STAFF, R. Turner, Bot. p. 216, the mullein, 
 Verbascum Thapsus, L. 
 JUR-NUT, Da. jord-nod, earth-nut, 
 
 Bunium flexuosum, L. 
 
 KALE, see GALE. 
 
 KATHARINE'S FLOWER, from the persistent styles spread- 
 ing like the spokes of a wheel, the symbol of St. Katharine, 
 from her having been martyred upon a wheel, 
 
 Nigella damascena, L. 
 
 KECKS, KEX, KECKSIES, KAXES, KIXES, or CASHES, the 
 dry hollow stalks or haulms of umbelliferous plants, so 
 called from an old English word keek or kike retained in 
 the Northern counties (Brockett) in the sense of "peep" 
 or " spy," Go. kika, Da. kige, Du, kiiken, a name suggested 
 by their most obvious peculiarity : viz., that one may look 
 through them. It is most commonly given to the stems 
 of the cow-parsnep and cow-parsley. 
 
 KEDLOCK, or KETLOCK. See CHEDLOCK. 
 
 KELPWARE, a sea-wrack or ware that produces kelp or 
 barilla, Fucus nodosus, and vesiculosus, L.
 
 OF BRITISH PLANTS. 127 
 
 KEMPS, the flower stalks of the ribwort plantain, A.S. 
 cempa, a warrior, Da. kcempe, a word peculiar to the 
 Northern counties, and more probably of Danish than Ang. 
 Sax. origin, alluding to the child's pastime of fighting them 
 against one another, a game that is known in Sweden also, 
 where they are called Kampar, Plantago lanceolata, L. 
 
 KERNEL-WORT, from having kernels or tubers attached 
 to the roots, and being therefore supposed, on the doctrine 
 of signatures, to cure diseased kernels, or scrophulous glands 
 in the neck, Scrophularia nodosa, L. 
 
 KIDNEY-VETCH, because " it shall prevayle much against 
 the strangury, and against the payne of the reynes." 
 Lyte, (b. i. ch. 7). Anthyllis vulneraria, L. 
 
 KIDNEY-WORT, from a distant resemblance of its leaves 
 to the outline of a kidney, Umbilicus pendulinus, DC. 
 
 KING'S CLOVER, from its M.Lat. name corona regia, royal 
 crown, " because," as Parkinson says, (Th. Bot. p. 720,) 
 " the yellowe flowers doe crown the top of the stalkes," as 
 with a chaplet of gold, Melilotus oflicmalis, L. 
 
 KING'S CUP or COB, AS. copp, a head, from the resem- 
 blance of the unexpanded flower-bud, and of its double 
 variety, to a stud of gold, such as kings wore, Fr. bouton 
 d'or, Ranunculus acris and bulbosus, L. 
 
 KING'S KNOB, see KING'S CUP. A.S. cncsp, a button, 
 Da. knap. 
 
 KIPPER or KNIPPER NUT, called in Scotland knapparts, 
 from knap, a knob, and urt, wort, the heath-pea, from its 
 knotty tubers, Vicia Orobus, DC. 
 
 KlSS-ME-ERE-I-RISE, KlSS-ME-BEHIND-THE-GARDEN-GATE, 
 
 LOOK-UP-, or JUMP-UP-AND-KISS-ME, see PANSY. 
 
 KISS-ME-TWICE-BEFORE-I-RISE, R. Turner. Bot. p. 223, 
 the fennel flower, Nigella damascena, L. 
 
 KNAP-BOTTLE, from its inflated calyx, resembling a little 
 bottle, and snapping when suddenly compressed, Du. knap- 
 pen, crack, snap, Silene inflata, L.
 
 128 POPULAR NAMES 
 
 KNAP-WEED, KNOP-, or KNOB-WEED, Da. knopurt, from 
 its knob-like heads, A.S. cncep, L.Ger. knoop, Da. knop, 
 G. knopf, Centaurea nigra, L. 
 
 KNAWEL, G. knauel or knduel, a hank of thread, from 
 its spreading stems, Scleranthus, L. 
 
 KNEE-HOLM, -HULVER, or -HOLLY, A.S, cneorv-holen, a 
 shrub referred to the holms or hollies on account of its 
 evergreen prickly leaves, and deriving the prefix knee from 
 confusion, under the name of daphne, and mctoriola, with 
 Lat. cneorum, a plant used in chaplets, as were some 
 species of this genus. See Pliny, N.H. xxi. 9. 
 
 Kuscus aculeatus, L. 
 
 KNIGHT'S SPURS, the larkspur, from its long, slender, 
 projecting nectaries, Delphinium, L. 
 
 KNIGHT'S-WORT, -WOUND-WORT, or -PONDWORT, from its 
 sword-like leaves, Stratiotes aloides, L. 
 
 KNIT-BACK, L. confirma, from being used as a strength- 
 ener or restorative, the comfrey, 
 
 Symphytum officinale, L. 
 
 KNOB-TANG, Da. tang, sea-weed, and knob, A.S. cncep, a 
 word connected with many others beginning with kn, kl, 
 gn, and gl, in all the Germanic languages, and signifying 
 a lump, or something knotted and hard, 
 
 Fucus nodosus, L. 
 KNOLLES, turnips, Du. knol, Da. knold, a tuber, 
 
 Brassica Rapa, L. 
 KNOT-BERRY, from the knotty joints of the stems, 
 
 Rubus Chamsemorus, L. 
 
 KNOT-GRASS, or KNOT-WORT, the centinode, from its 
 trailing jointed stems and grass-like leaves. The " hinder- 
 ing knotgrass" of Shakspere, (M.N.D. iii. 2), was pro- 
 bably so called from the belief that it would stop the growth 
 of children, as in Beaumont and Fletcher's Coxcomb, A. ii. : 
 
 ""We want a boy 
 Kept under for a year with milk and knotgrass." 
 
 Polygonum aviculare, L.
 
 OF BRITISH PLANTS. 129 
 
 That of Aubrey in his Nat. Hist, of Wilts, p. 51, 
 was according to Dr. Maton, (Linn. Trans. Vol. v,) and 
 Britton's Beauties of Wiltshire, (v. ii. p. 79), 
 
 Agrostis stolonifera, L. 
 
 KOHL-RABI, a German name, from It. cavolo-rapa, Fr. 
 chou-rave, L. caulo-rapum, a cabbage-turnip, a cabbage 
 whose stem is swollen so as to resemble a turnip, 
 
 Brassica oleracea, L. v. gongylodes, L. 
 
 LABURNUM, an adjective from L. labor, denoting what 
 belongs to the hour of labour, and which may allude to its 
 closing its leaflets together at night, and expanding them 
 by day, Cytisus Laburnum, L. 
 
 LAD'S LOVE, the southernwood, see BOY'S LOVE. 
 
 LADDER TO HEAVEN, the Solomon's seal, called so, Par- 
 kinson tells us, (Th. Bot. p. 699,) " from the forme of the 
 stalke of the leaves, one being set above the other," but 
 more probably from a confusion of seel de Notre Dame, 
 our Lady's seal, with fahelle de N.D. our Lady's ladder. 
 See below LADY'S SEAL. Convallaria Polygonatum, L. 
 in Hudson, by mistake, Polemonium cseruleum, L. 
 
 LADY'S BEDSTRAW, see BEDSTRAW. 
 
 Lady in the names of plants almost always alludes 
 to Our Lady, Notre Dame, the Virgin Mary, and often 
 replaces, and is often replaced by that of Venus. Thus Our 
 Lady's comb is the Venus 1 comb, etc. 
 
 LADY'S BOWER, so named by Gerarde, p. 740, from "its 
 aptness in making of arbors, bowers, and shadie covertures 
 in gardens," Clematis Vitalba, L. 
 
 LADY'S COMB, from the long slender parallel beaks of the 
 seed-vessels, Scandix Pecten Veneris, L. 
 
 LADY'S CUSHION, from its close cushion-like growth, 
 thrift, Armeria vulgaris, W. 
 
 9
 
 130 POPULAR NAMES 
 
 LADY FERN, from its Latin name in modern works, 
 
 Asplenium filix fbemina, Bern. 
 
 LADY'S FINGERS from its palmate bracts, 
 
 An thy His vulneraria, L. 
 
 LADY'S GARTERS, from the ribbon-like striped leaves, a 
 variety of Digraphis arundinacea, P.B. 
 
 LADY'S HAIR, the quake-grass, Briza media, L. 
 
 LADY'S LACES, dodder, from its string-like stems, 
 
 Cuscuta. 
 
 LADY'S LOOKING-GLASS, from the resemblance of its ex- 
 panded flower set on the elongated ovary to an ancient 
 metallic mirror on its straight handle, 
 
 Campanula hybrida, L. 
 
 LADY'S MANTLE, from the shape and vandyked edge of 
 the leaf, a translation of its Arabic name al kemelyeh, Sw. 
 Mariekapa, Alchernilla vulgaris, L. 
 
 LADY'S NAVEL, see NAVELWORT, 
 
 Umbilicus pendulinus, DC. 
 
 LADY'S NIGHTCAP, in Wiltshire, (Akerman) the larger 
 bindweed, Convolvulus sepium, L. 
 
 LADY'S SEAL, or^-siGNET, M. Lat. Sigillum Stce. Maries, 
 a name that in the older writers is correctly given to a Con- 
 vallaria, the plant now called Solomon's seal, from round 
 cicatrices on the root-stock, which resemble the impressions 
 of a seal, but has been injudiciously transferred to a different 
 plant, the black bryony, which has no such characteristic 
 markings. This change seems to have been introduced by 
 the herb-sellers. The latter plant, the bryony, is described 
 by Fernelius and others as one, "quse herbariis et officinis 
 sigillum beatse Mariae nuncupatur." Csesalpinus, and 
 Matthiolus tell us that the former, the Convallaria, was called 
 indifferently St. Mary's or Solomon's seal. " Sunt qui poly- 
 gonatum sigillum 8. Maries, et qui sigillum Salomonis 
 vocitent." Matt, in Diosc. 1. iv. c. 5. " It is al one herbe, 
 Solomon's seale, and our Lady's scale," says the Grete
 
 OF BRITISH PLANTS. 131 
 
 Herbal. See Gasp. Bauhin, de Plantis sanctis, p. 67. 
 The original and right plant, 
 
 Convallaria polygonatum, L. 
 The plant of modern writers, Tamus communis, L. 
 
 LADY'S SLIPPER, from the shape of the labellum of its 
 flower, Cypripedium Calceolus, L. 
 
 LADY'S SMOCK, from the resemblance of its white flowers 
 to little smocks hung out to dry, as they used to be once a 
 year, at that season especially, 
 
 "When daisies pied and violets blue, 
 And lady-smocks all silver white, 
 And cuckoo-buds of yellow hue, 
 
 Do paint the meadows with delight. 
 "When shepherds pipe on oaten straws, 
 
 And maidens bleach their summer smocks, etc. 
 Shaksp. L.LX. v. 2. 
 
 Cardamine pratensis, L. 
 LADY'S THIMBLE, called also WITCH'S THIMBLE, 
 
 Campanula rotundifolia, L. 
 
 LADY'S THISTLE, the milk thistle. See above JUNO'S 
 ROSE. Carduus Marianus, L. 
 
 LADY'S TRESSES, from the resemblance of the flower- 
 spikes, with their protuberant ovaries placed regularly one 
 over the other, to a lady's hair braided, 
 
 Neottia spiralis, Eich. 
 LAKE WEED, from its growth in still water, 
 
 Polygonum Hydropiper, L. 
 
 LAMB'S LETTUCE, formerly classed with the lettuces, and 
 called in Latin Lactuca agnina, " from appearing about the 
 time when lambs are dropped ;" See Martyn, Fl. rustica. 
 or according to Tabernsemontanus, (i. 475), because it is 
 a favourite food of lambs, Valerianella olitoria, L. 
 
 LAMB'S QUARTERS, properly Lammas quarter, from its 
 blossoming about the first of August, old style, the 
 day of a festival instituted as a thanksgiving for the
 
 132 POPULAR NAMES 
 
 first fruits of the harvest, when an oblation was made 
 of loaves of the new corn, the A.S. hlaf-m&sse, loaf mass, 
 missa panum, in the Salisbury Manual called Benedictio 
 novorumfructuum, Atriplex patula, L. 
 
 LAMB'S TOE, from its soft downy heads of flowers, 
 
 Anthyllis vulneraria, L. 
 
 LAMB'S TONGUE, Gr. apvoy\a><rcrov, from the shape of the 
 leaf, Plantago media, L. 
 
 LANCASHIEE ASPHODEL, a plant allied to the asphodels 
 and abundant in Lancashire, Narthecium ossifragum, L. 
 
 LANG DE BEEF, Fr. langue de bceuf, from the tongue- 
 shaped papillated surface of the leaf, 
 
 Helminthia echioides, Gart. 
 
 LARCH, It. larice, G. Idrche, Gr. \apij;, a name that it 
 may have derived from its use in building and carpentry, 
 L. lar, a house, O.N. and Kuss. lar, a chest, Gr. \apva%, 
 
 Pinus Larix, L. 
 
 LARK-SPUK, -HEEL, -TOE, or -CLAW, from the projecting 
 nectary, Delphinium, L. 
 
 LAUREL, Sp. laurel, L. laurellus, dim. of laurus, a name 
 originally applied to the sweet bay called in Chaucer, 
 Douglas, and other early writers laurer, from Fr. laurier, 
 but subsequently extended to other evergreens, and at pre- 
 sent in common parlance confined to the cherry laurel, 
 
 Prunus Laurocerasus, L. 
 
 ALEXANDRIAN-, from Paris, who is called in Homer 
 Alexander, having been crowned with it as victor in the 
 public games, (Stapel in Theophrast. p. 253), whence its 
 names in Apuleius, c. 58, Daphne Aleocandrina, and 
 Stephane Alexandrina, Euscus racemosus, L. 
 
 ,, BAY-, Laurus nobilis, L. 
 
 ,, COPSE-, or SPURGE-, from its place of growth, 
 
 Daphne Laureola, L. 
 PORTUGAL-, from its native country, 
 
 Prunus lusitanica, L.
 
 OF BRITISH PLANTS. 133 
 
 LAUREL, ROMAN-, from its being used in the chaplets worn 
 by the Roman emperors, the sweet bay, Laurus nobilis, L. 
 
 LAURESTINE, or more commonly LAURESTINUS, L. laurus 
 tinus, from being regarded as a laurel, and as the shrub 
 described by Pliny, and by Ovid (Met. x. 98), under the 
 name of Tinus, Viburnum Tinus, L. 
 
 LAVENDER, by change of I to r from Du. and G. lavendel, 
 It. lavandola, M. Lat. lavendula, from lavare, wash, as 
 being the plant used to scent newly-washed linen, whence 
 the expression of " laid up in lavender ;" or, as Diez tells 
 us, from its being used at the baths in washing the body. 
 In support of this last opinion C. Stephan tells us (De re 
 hort. p. 54) : " Lavendula autem dicta quoniam magnum 
 vectigal Genuensibus prabet in Africam earn ferentibus, ubi 
 lavandis corporibus Lybes ea utuntur, nee nisi decocto ejus 
 abluti mane domo egrediuntur." Lavandula Spica, L. 
 SEA-, Statice, L. 
 
 LAVER, A.S. Icefer, L. laver, a name given by Pliny to 
 some unknown aquatic plant, now applied to certain escu- 
 lent sea-weeds, as Porphyra laciniata, Ag. 
 and Ulva latissima, Grev. 
 
 LEEK, a remnant of A.S. porleac, from L. porrum, and 
 leac, a plant, G. lauch, Du. look, Allium Porrum, L. 
 
 LENT-LILY, the daffodil, from the season of flowering, 
 the spring, A.S. lencten, O.H.G. lenzo, 
 
 Narcissus Pseudonarcissus, L, 
 
 LENTILS, Fr. lentille, Ervum Lens, L. 
 
 LEOPARD'S BANE, Gr. TrapSaXiaryxw from TrapSaXis, a 
 pard, and o7%&>, choke, the name of some poisonous plant, 
 which Nicander says in his Theriaca was used on Mount 
 Ida to destroy wild beasts, transferred by Turner to the 
 trulove, a very innoxious one, Paris quadrifolia, L. 
 
 LETTUCE, L. lactuca, from Gr. ya\a, yaka-cros, milk, and 
 e'^o), contain, through lattouce, an older form of the word 
 that is still retained in Scotland, L. sativa, L.
 
 134 POPULAR NAMES 
 
 LETTUCE, FROG'S-, Potamogeton densus, L. 
 
 ,, LAMB'S-, Valerianella olitoria, Mn. 
 
 WALL-, a plant of the lettuce tribe found upon 
 walls, Prenanthes muralis, L. 
 
 LICHEN, Gr. \i-)(r)v, a tetter, from its roundish, leprous- 
 looking apothecia, as seen upon old buildings, Lichen, L. 
 
 LICHWALE, or, as in a MS. of the fifteenth century, 
 LYTHEWALE, stone-switch, the gromwell, so called in allu- 
 sion to its stony seeds, and their medicinal use in cases of 
 calculus, from Gr. Xt#o9, a stone, through M.Lat. licho or 
 lincho, a pebble, as in the Grant herbier, where the lapis 
 demonis is called lincho- and licko-d.em.oma, and. wale, O.Fr. 
 waule, now gaule, from the Breton gwalen, a switch, 
 
 Lithospermum officinale, L. 
 
 LICHWORT, from its growing on stones (see LICHWALE), 
 the wall-pellitory, Parietaria officinalis, L. 
 
 LILAC, a Persian word introduced with the shrub, 
 
 Syringa vulgaris, L. 
 
 LILY, L. lilium, Gr. \eipiov, of unknown, very ancient 
 origin, used in some oriental languages for a flower in 
 general, as in Cant. vi. 2-3, and Mat. vi. 23, and as rosje, 
 rose, is used in the Illyrian ; a trope of frequent occurrence 
 among all nations, particularly the less cultivated races. 
 
 Lilium. 
 
 ,, CHECKERED-, the fritillary, from the markings on 
 its petals, Fritillaria Meleagris, L. 
 
 WATER-, Nymphsea alba, L. 
 
 LILY-AMONG-THORNS, of Canticles ii. 2, L. Lilium inter 
 spinas, understood by the herbalists as the woodbine, 
 which, as W. Bulleyn says, " spredeth forth his sweete 
 lilies like ladies' fingers among the thorns," 
 
 Lonicera Caprifolium, L. 
 
 LlLY-OF-THE-VALLEY, Or LlLY-CONVALLY, L. Mum COn- 
 
 vallium, lily of combes or hollows, a name taken from Cant, 
 ii. 1, " I am the lily of the valleys," 
 
 Convallaria majalis, L.
 
 OF BRITISH PLANTS. 135 
 
 LIME, LINE, or LINDEN-TREE, called in all Germanic 
 languages, and in Chaucer, Linde, a word connected with 
 Ic. and Sw. linda, a band, and A.S. Iffie, pliant, which 
 stands in the same relation to the continental name, as, 
 e.g. hrffier, cattle, to G. rind, and tcfc to Fris. tond, that is 
 having a final d changed to 8, and the n omitted. The 
 name has evidently been originally applied to the inner 
 bark, or bast, of the tree so much used in the North for 
 cordage. In the Herbals, and all old works after Chaucer's 
 time, it is spelt Lyne or Line, as in the ballad of Kobin 
 Hood and Guy of Gisborne, where it rhymes to " thine," 
 " Now tell me thy name, good fellow," said he, 
 
 " Under the leaves of lyne." 
 
 The n has in later writers been changed to m, and lyne 
 become lime, as kollen holw, henep hewp, and mayne maiw. 
 Linden is the adjectival form of lind with 'tree' or ' timber' 
 understood, and it is to be remarked that the names of 
 most trees are properly adjectives, and in the Western 
 counties are generally used with an adjectival termination, 
 as elmen-tree, holmen-tree, &c. Tilia europsea, L. 
 
 LINE and LINSEED, L. linum, Gr. \ivov, flax, probably a 
 word adopted from a language alien to the Greek, upon the 
 introduction of its culture, Linum usitatissimum, L. 
 
 LINQ, Da. Nor. and Sw. lyng, a word which Holmboe 
 considers to represent Skr. gangala, by a replacing of g 
 with I, the common heath, possibly a form of A.S. lig, 
 fire, as implying " fuel," and connected with L. lignum, 
 firewood. This word is often combined with hede, a heath, 
 as in Sw. ljunghed, Da. lynghede, ericetum, a heath-land, 
 and conversely hedelyng, the heath-plant; leading to the 
 belief that heath was the waste land, and lyng the shrub 
 growing on it. See Diefenbach (Lex. Cornp. ii. 496.) 
 
 Calluna vulgaris, L. 
 
 LION'S-FOOT, or -PAW, from the shape of the leaf re- 
 sembling the impress of his foot, Alchemilla vulgaris, L.
 
 136 POPULAR NAMES 
 
 LIQUORICE-VETCH, a vetch-like plant with a sweet root, 
 M. Lat. liquiricia, from L. glycyrrhiza, Gr. 7\ivo;9, sweet, 
 and pi&, root, Astragalus glycyphyllus, L. 
 
 LIRY-CONFANCY, a corruption of L. lilium convallium, lily 
 of the valleys, Convallaria majalis, L. 
 
 LITHY-TREE, from A.S. Ifa, pliant, a word etymologi- 
 cally identical with lind (See LINDEN,) ; the tree being so 
 called, because, as Parkinson says: (Th. Bot. p. 1448,) 
 " the branches hereof are so tough and strong withall, that 
 they serve better for bands to tye bundels or any other thing 
 withall, or to make wreathes to hold together the gates of 
 fields, then either withy or any other the like," the way- 
 farer tree, Viburnum Lantana, L. 
 
 LITMUS, G. lackmus, from lac, Skr. laksha, a red dye, 
 and moos, moss, a lichen, in popular language a moss, used 
 in dyeing, Eoccella tinctoria, DC. 
 
 LITTLEGOOD, a plant so called on the Eastern Border 
 (Johnst.) to distinguish it from the allgood, 
 
 Euphorbia Helioscopia, L. 
 
 LIVELONG, or LIBLONG, from its remaining alive hung 
 up in a room. Brande in Pop. Ant. says that it is a habit 
 with girls to set up two plants of it, one for themselves 
 and another for their lover, upon a slate or trencher, on 
 Midsummer eve, and to estimate the lover's fidelity by his 
 plant living and turning to theirs, or not. The name should 
 probably be " Livelong and Liblong " (Live long and Love 
 long). See MIDSUMMER MEN. Sedum Telephium, L. 
 
 LIVERWORT, from the liver shape of the thallus, and its 
 supposed effects in disease of the liver. See Brunschwygk, 
 (b. ii. c. 11). Marchantia polymorpha, L. 
 
 GROUND-, Peltidea canina, Ach. 
 
 NOBLE-, in America called Liverleaf, and from its 
 three-lobed leaves supposed to be, as Lyte tells us, (b. i. 
 ch. 40,) " a sovereign medicine against the heate and in- 
 flammation of the liver," Anemone hepatica, L.
 
 OF BRITISH PLANTS. 137 
 
 LOBGRASS. from lob, or lop, to loll or hang about, as in 
 loblolly, etc., so called from its hanging panicles, 
 
 Bromus mollis, L. 
 
 LOCKEN, or LUCKEN GOWAN, or GowLON, a closed goole 
 or goldin, a term applied, according to Lightfoot and Jamie- 
 son, to the globe flower, called for the same reason, viz., its 
 connivent petals, the cabbage daisy, 
 
 Trollius europseus, L. 
 
 LOGGERHEADS, from the resemblance of its knobbed in- 
 volucres to a weapon so called, consisting of a ball of iron 
 at the end of a stick, the knapweed, the Clobbewed of 
 old MSS., Centaurea nigra, L. 
 
 LONDON PRIDE, a name given in the first place to a 
 speckled Sweet William, from its being a plant of which 
 London might be proud, and similar to that of the Moun- 
 tain Pride, the Pride of India, and the Pride of Barbadoes, 
 (see Parkinson's Parad. p. 320,) but of late years transferred 
 to a saxifrage, which is commonly supposed to be so called, 
 because it is one of the few flowers that will grow in the 
 dingy lanes of a town. See Seeman's Journal, vol. i. It is 
 understood, however, upon apparently good authority, that 
 of Mr. R. Heward in the Gardener's Chronicle, to have 
 been given to this latter plant in reference to the person 
 who introduced it into cultivation, Mr. London, of the firm 
 of London and Wise, the celebrated Royal Gardeners of the 
 early part of the last century. Saxifraga umbrosa, L. 
 
 LONDON ROCKET, called rocket from its leaves resembling 
 those of an eruca, and London from its springing up abun- 
 dantly in 1667 among the ruins left by the Great Fire, 
 
 Sisymbrium Irio, L. 
 
 LONG PURPLES, of Shakspeare's Hamlet, (iv. 7,) sup- 
 posed to be the purple-flowered orchis, 0. mascula, L. 
 
 LOOSESTRIFE, a translation of the Lat. lysimachia, as 
 though the plant were called so from its stopping strife, 
 Gr, Xucrt and fj-a^rj. Pliny tells us (b. xxv. c. 35) that
 
 138 POPULAR NAMES 
 
 the name was given to it after a certain king Lysimachus ; 
 but, nevertheless, in deference to a popular notion, he adds 
 that, if it be laid on the yoke of oxen, when they are 
 quarrelling, it will quiet them. Lysimachia vulgaris, L. 
 
 LOOSESTRIFE, PURPLE-, Lythrum Salicaria, L. 
 
 LORDS AND LADIES, from children so calling the spadix 
 of the Wake Robin, as they find it to be purple or white ; a 
 name of recent introduction, to replace certain older, and 
 generally very indecent ones ; Arum maculatum, L. 
 
 LORER, Fr. laurier, the bay tree, in Chaucer and Gower's 
 works, Laurus nobilis, L. 
 
 LOUSE-BERRY TREE, from its fruit having once been used 
 to destroy lice in children's heads : " The powder kills nits, 
 and is good for scurfy heads." Diet, of Husbandry, under 
 " Spindle tree ;" and Loudon, (Arb. Brit. ii. 406) ; 
 
 Evonymus europseus, L. 
 
 LOUSE-BUR, from its burs, or seed-pods, clinging like 
 lice to the clothes, Xanthium strumarium, L. 
 
 LOUSE-WORT, "because," says Gerarde, p. 913, "itfilleth 
 sheep and other cattle, that feed in meadows where this 
 groweth, full of lice," Pedicularis, L. 
 
 LOVAGE, in Pr.Pm. and in Holland's translation of Pliny, 
 spelt Love-ache, as though it were love-parsley, Fr. levescke, 
 corruptions of Lat. levisticum, whence also, through the 
 same mistake, G. liebstockel, and A.S. lufestice and lube- 
 stice, Levisticum officinale, Ko. 
 
 LOVE, the virgin's bower: "The gentlewomen call it 
 Love," says Parkinson, (Th. Bot. p. 384), from its habit of 
 embracing, perhaps, Clematis Vitalba, L. 
 
 LOVE-APPLES, L. poma amoris, Fr. pommes d? amour, from 
 It. pomi del Mori, Moors' apples, this fruit having been in- 
 troduced as mala cetkiopica, Solanum Lycopersicum, L. 
 
 LOVE-IN-A-MIST, or -IN-A-PUZZLE, from its flower being 
 enveloped in a dense entanglement of finely divided bracts, 
 
 Nigella damascena, L.
 
 OF BRITISH PLANTS. 139 
 
 LOVE-IN-IDLENESS, or LOVE-AND-IDLE, or, with more 
 accuracy, LOVE-IN-IDLE, i.e., in vain, as in the phrase in 
 Exod. xx., 7 : A.S., " Ne nem ]?u Drihtnes namen on ydel" 
 " Tac J>u noght in idel min namen," a name of the pansy 
 that perpetuates a current phrase, as in the couplet, 
 " When passions are let loose without a bridle, 
 Then precious time is turned to love and idle ; 
 
 Taylor. 
 
 but why it was attached to this flower, is not apparent. 
 
 Viola tricolor, L. 
 
 LOVE-LIES-BLEEDING, from the resemblance of its crim- 
 son flower-spike to a stream of blood, and the confusion of 
 the two first syllables Amar of its Latin name with amor, 
 love, Amaranthus caudatus, L. 
 
 LOVEMAN, the goosegrass, a name given to it by Turner 
 to express the Gr. <J3i\av0poyn-o^, from its clinging to people, 
 
 Galium Aparine, L. 
 
 LOWRY, L. laurea, adj. of laurus, laurel, the spurge laurel, 
 so called from its evergreen leaves, Daphne Laureola, L. 
 
 LUCERNE, apparently from the Swiss canton of that 
 name, but Diez says that its derivation is unknown. By 
 some of the older herbalists the sainfoin was called so. At 
 present the name is confined to the Medicago sativa, L. 
 
 LUJULA, contracted from It. Alleluiola, dim. of Alleluia ; 
 see HALLELUJAH. 
 
 LUNARIE, L. lunaria, from luna, moon, a name given to 
 a great number of different plants. The following descrip- 
 tion of one is copied by Gesner, in his treatise upon plants 
 called Lunaria, from some anonymous author : " Lunaria 
 emicat in montibus humidis. Caule visitur procero et 
 rubente, anguloso, nigris asperso maculis. Folia instar 
 Lunse orbis, aut nummi alicujus, rotunda sunt, aut samp- 
 suchi foliis similia. Flos luteus ; odor moschi. Chymistse 
 facultatem fere eandem, quam chelidonio ei attribuunt. 
 Metalla omnia vi ejus in Solem et Lunam convert! pollicen-
 
 140 POPULAR NAMES 
 
 tur. Noctibus lucere aiunt, crescente Luna. Colligi 
 oportere sestate pridie Divi Joannis Baptistse, Luna plena, 
 ante ortum Soils ; crescit enim (aiunt), et decrescit cum 
 Luna." Gesner observes that "the chymists, who first 
 wrote in this way, and those who have since believed them, 
 were either ignorant men, who easily and rashly placed 
 reliance in the fables of others, and published monstrous 
 descriptions of plants that have no existence ; or signified 
 by enigmatical descriptions, not any plants, but things very 
 different, as by the name of chelidonium and efydrium, I 
 know not what quintessence or philosopher's stone." As at 
 present understood, it is the fern that from its semilunar 
 fronds is called Moonwort, Botrychium Lunaria, L. 
 
 LUNG-FLOWER a translation of Gr. TrvevpovavQr), from 
 TTvev/jiwv, lungs, and av0os, flower, 
 
 Gentiana Pneumonanthe, L. 
 
 LUNG-WORT, L. pulmonaria, from pulmo, lungs, being 
 supposed, from its spotted leaves, to be a remedy for dis- 
 eased lungs, P. officinalis, L. 
 TREE-, Sticta pulmonaria, Hook. 
 
 LUPINE, L. lupinm, literally "wolfish," but supposed to 
 be related to Gr. XOTTO? or Xo/3o9, a husk, and XeTrw, hull or 
 peel. If we had any reason to think it an Asiatic genus 
 that was introduced into Italy, we might explain its name 
 as a translation of Xu/teios, Lycian, mistaken for an adjective 
 from \VKO<?, a wolf. Wedgwood's derivation of it from a 
 Slavonian root is, for reasons geographical and historical, 
 quite inadmissible. Lupinus, L. 
 
 LUSTWORT, a name translated from Du. loopich-cruydt, 
 which, according to Dodoens, has that meaning, and has 
 been given to the plant, he says, " quia acrimonia sua 
 sopitum Veneris desiderium excitet," the sundew, 
 
 Drosera, L. 
 
 LYME-GRASS, from L. elymiis, E. europseus, L. 
 
 LYON'S SNAP, from L. Leontostomium, Gr. Xeoj/?, and
 
 OF BRITISH PLANTS. 141 
 
 /, the snapdragon, snap having formerly had the 
 meaning of the Gr. oro/uoy, a little mouth, 
 
 Antirrhinum majus, L. 
 
 MADDER, in old MSS. madyr, from the plural of L. Ger. 
 made, a worm, and called in an Anglo-Saxon MS. of the 
 thirteenth century vermiculum. See Mayer and Wright, 
 p. 139, Made is the same word as the Go. and AS. ma^a, 
 whence mad, used by Tusser for a maggot, and moth, which 
 properly means the worm " that fretteth the garment," 
 and not its winged imago, a word related to Go. matjan, eat, 
 L. mandere, its root mad. The name was applied to the 
 plant now called so from confusion with another red dye, 
 that was the product of worms, viz., the cocci ilicis, which 
 infest the Quercus coccifera, L., and which were called in 
 the middle ages vermiculi, whence Fr. vermeil and vermilion, 
 a term now transferred to a mineral colour. 
 
 Rubia tinctorum, W. 
 ,, FIELD-, Sherardia arvensis, L. 
 
 MADNEP, the mead-nape, or -parsnep, or as it was once 
 spelt, pas-nep, the cowparsnep. From Gerarde's assertion 
 that "if a phrenetiche or melancholic man's head be anointed 
 with oyle wherein the leaves and roots have been sodden, 
 it helpeth him very much," it would seem as though pas-nep 
 was misunderstood as It. pazzo-napo, mad turnep, and mead 
 conformably changed to mad. 
 
 Heracleum Sphondylium, L. 
 
 MAD-WORT, Du. meed, madder, for which its root was 
 used, Asperugo procurnbens, L. 
 
 MAGHET, maid, an adopted Flemish word, Go. magaps^ 
 O.H.G. magad, Fris. mageth, A.S. mceffS, Fl. maghet, as in 
 the hymn beginning 
 
 " 0, moeder ende maghet, reine vrouwe ! " 
 
 Willems, No. 114. 
 Lat. fios virgineus, Gr. irapQeviov, a name given to many
 
 142 POPULAR NAMES 
 
 radiate composite with white ray florets, says Stapel in 
 Theophrast. (p. 833, b.) "quod morbis muliemm uter- 
 inis rnedeantur ;" an idea suggested by their fancied 
 resemblance to the moon, which, from its regulating the 
 monthly periods of the year, was supposed to influence 
 the complaints peculiar to young women, and all affections 
 of the womb. See MAITHES, MARGUERITE, MATHER, 
 MAUDLIN, MAYDWEED, MAYWEED, and MOONWORT. These 
 plants were, in ancient times, and for the same reason, 
 dedicated to the virgin goddess of the night, the #eo? row 
 /caOapfjuarmv, or Diana ; but in Christian times have been 
 transferred to the two saints, who in this particular replace 
 her, St. Mary Magdalene and St. Margaret. 
 
 Anthemis, Achillsea, Pyrethrum, Bellis, Chrysanthemum, 
 Matricaria, &c. 
 
 MAIDEN-HAIR, from its hair-like fine stalks, 
 
 Adiantuin Capillus Veneris, L. 
 
 According to Lobel (Kruydtboek, p. 126), the name of 
 Mayden heere was in his time given to the bog asphodel, 
 " om dat de jonge dochters haer hayr daermede geel 
 maecken;" because young girls make their hair yellow 
 with it. This fashion of dyeing the hair yellow was very 
 prevalent in the middle ages, but the lye of wood ashes 
 was most generally used for the purpose, and as the em- 
 ployment of this plant is not noticed by other writers, nor 
 any such name given to it, he was probably mistaken. See 
 MAID'S HAIR. Narthecium ossifragum, JLam. 
 
 MAIDEN-HAIR-GRASS, G. (in Bauhin's Th. ~Bot.}jungfrauen 
 haar, but by Parkinson (Th. Bot. p. 1166,) spelt Mead Hair- 
 grass ; in either case from its delicate hair-like stalks ; the 
 quaking-grass, Briza media, L. 
 
 MAIDEN-PINK, a mistake for MEAD-PINK, G. wiesen-nelke, 
 a pink that grows in meadows, Dianthus deltoides, L. 
 
 MAID'S HAIR from its soft flocculent habit, like the loose 
 un-snooded hair of maidens, and its yellow colour, to
 
 OF BRITISH PLANTS. 143 
 
 which, as a beauty in the hair of women, such frequent 
 allusion is made by Chaucer and other romance writers. 
 Even so late as Henry the Eighth's reign Horman says, 
 "May dens were silken callis, with the whiche they keepe 
 in ordre theyr heare made yelowe with lye." See Way's 
 Promp. Pm. p. 294. Galium verum, L. 
 
 MAITHES, that is maids, A.S. magee, mag^e, in Pr. Pm. 
 and other old works mayde-wede and maylhys, from Gr. 
 Trapdeviov, because, says W. Coles, " it is effectual against 
 those distempers of the womb to which virgins are subject," 
 meaning hysterics, ancj* other irregularities of the system. 
 See MAGHET. Pyrethrum Parthenium, L. 
 
 RED-, or RED MAYDE-WEED, from its having been 
 classed with the composite flowers called maithes, and its 
 crimson colour, Adonis autumnalis, L. 
 
 MAKEBATE, because, says Skinner, " if it is put into the 
 bed of a married couple, it sets them quarrelling," but a 
 mere translation of its Latin name as if from TroXe/io?, war, 
 
 Polemonium cseruleum, L. 
 
 MALLOW, A.S. malwe, L. malva, Gr. /jM\a^r), which 
 Pliny and Isidore derive from futhao-a-eiv, soften, as alluding 
 to the laxative property of the plant, Malva. 
 
 MARSH-, Althaea officinalis, L. 
 
 MUSK-, M. moschata, L. 
 
 TREE-, Lavatera arborea, L. 
 
 MANDRAKE, Gr. pavSpcvyopas, a plant generally believed 
 to have been one nearly related to the deadly night-shade. 
 See Hogg in Hooker's Journal, 2nd ser. vol. i. p. 132. 
 Fraudulent dealers used to replace its roots with those of 
 the white bryony cut to the shape of men and women, and 
 dried in a hot sand bath. See Brown's Popular Errors, b. ii. 
 ch. 6 ; Tragus, ch. cxxvi. ; Stapel in Theophrast. p. 583 ; 
 and especially Matthioli, 1. iv. c. 61, where he tells us that 
 Italian ladies in his own time had been known to pay as 
 much as 25 and 30 ducats [aureos] for one of the artificial
 
 144 POPULAR NAMES 
 
 Mandrakes of certain itinerant quacks ; and describes the 
 process by which they are made. They were supposed to 
 remove sterility, a notion that has prevailed in the East 
 from the remotest antiquity. Hence Rachel's desire to 
 obtain them, as related in Gen. ch. xxx., v. 14. That of 
 these dealers was the common white bryony, 
 
 Bryonia dioica, L. 
 
 MANGEL WTJRZEL, literally " scarcity root," but origi- 
 nally Mangold, a word of unknown meaning, and as Mengel 
 or Menwel applied to docks, 
 
 Beta vulgaris, Jj. var. hybrida, Sal. 
 
 MANNA-GRASS, from the sweet taste of the seed, 
 
 Glyceria fluitans, RB. 
 
 MAP-LICHEN, from the curious map-like figures formed 
 by its thallus on flat stones, Lecidea geographica, Hook. 
 
 MAPEL, A.S. mapel-treow, or mapulder, in Pr. Pm. 
 mapulle, a word adopted from the language of the ancient 
 Britons, and of early and general use throughout England, 
 as is shown by the number of places named after the tree. 
 It is clearly the Welsh mapwl, a knob in the middle of any 
 thing, and refers to the knotty excrescence from the trunk 
 of the tree, the bruscum, so much employed and so highly 
 valued in the Roman times and in the Middle ages for 
 making bowls and tables, that single specimens of it have 
 fetched many thousand pounds. See Pliny, N.H. xvi. 27, 
 and Smith, Diet. Ant. art. Mensa. The tree was naturally 
 named after its most valuable product, its mapwl, and the 
 word adopted, upon their arrival here, by the Anglo-Saxons. 
 
 Acer campestre, L. 
 
 MARAM, either the Gael muram, or, as is more probable, 
 the Fris. and Dan. marhalm, sea-haulm or straw, a word 
 which in Norway is applied to the zostera and certain fuci, 
 the grass called mat-weed, Psamma arenaria, PB. 
 
 MARCH or MERCH, Da. marke, Sw. mcerki, the old name 
 of parsley, preserved in stanmarch, the Alexander, and in
 
 OF BRITISH PLANTS. 145 
 
 the G. wasser-merke and Da. vand-merke, celery, formed 
 from L. armoracia, in the fifteenth century called in German 
 merich and mirrich, and to this day in Wetterau mirch. 
 In A.S. the parsley is called merce, meric, and merici. See 
 L. Diefenbach, Or. Eur. No. 26. Apium, L. 
 
 MARE-BLOBS, from A.S. mere and myre, a marsh, and 
 also a mare, and blob or bleb, a bladder, the marsh-mallow, 
 so called from its round flower-buds, 
 
 Caltha palustris, L. 
 
 MARE'S-TAIL, a plant called in old herbals " Female 
 Horse-tail," Lat. cauda equina fcemina, being looked upon 
 as the female of the larger and stronger Equisetum fluvia- 
 tile. Modern botanists, following Hudson, have shifted the 
 hyphen, and chosen to understand the name as " Female- 
 horse Tail," or " Mare's Tail." Hippuris vulgaris, L. 
 
 MARGUERITE, from the French, the daisy, in Chaucer 
 MARGARETTE, a plant so called, not from its fancied inno- 
 cence and simplicity, but because, for reasons given under 
 MAGHET, it was formerly used in uterine diseases, which 
 were under the especial care of St. Margaret, of Cortona. 
 This lady, according to Mrs. Jameson, (Mon. Ord. p. 329), 
 had for some years led an abandoned life, but had repented 
 and been canonised, and was regarded by the people of her 
 native town as a local Magdalene, and, like her prototype, 
 supposed, in respect of her early habits, to preside over the 
 diseases of the womb, and others peculiar to young women. 
 See MAUDLIN. Her name has been mixed up with that of 
 a 8t. Margaret, of Antioch, who, according to Hampson, 
 (Med. JSv. Kal. ii. 257), "was invoked as another Lucina, 
 because in her martyrdom she prayed for lying-in-women." 
 But it is the Cortona saint, and not this one of Antioch, 
 whose name has been given to the daisy, and probably in 
 the first place to the moon-daisy. The story of the maiden 
 of Antioch, 
 
 "Maid Margarete, that was so meeke and mild;" 
 
 10
 
 146 POPULAR NAMES 
 
 to whom it is popularly assigned, is given by Mrs. 
 Jameson, in Sacr. and Legend. Art. p. 306. 
 
 Bellis perennis, L. 
 
 MARIET, the Coventry bell, its French name, L. viola 
 Mariana, Campanula Trachelium, L. 
 
 MARIGOLD, called in the Grete Herball Mary Gowles, a 
 name that seems to have originated from the A.8. mersc- 
 mear-gealla, marsh-horse-gowl, the marsh marigold, or 
 caltha, transferred to the exotic plant of our gardens, and 
 misunderstood as "Mary gold." Its foreign synonyms 
 have no reference to the Virgin Mary. It is often men- 
 tioned by the older poets under the name of Gold simply. 
 
 Calendula officinalis, L. 
 CORN-, from its place of growth, and yellow flowers, 
 
 Chrysanthemum segetum, L. 
 
 MARSH-, A.8. mersc-mear-gealla, the second term 
 of which, meaning properly " horse," has been understood 
 as " Mary." See MARE-BLOBS, and GOOL. 
 
 Caltha palustris, L. 
 
 MARJORAM, or MAJORAM, L. majorana, with change of 
 to m, as in Lime, Holm, etc. Origanum Majorana, L. 
 
 MARMARITIN, in Middleton's "Witch," Lat. in Pliny 
 marmaritis, the peony, Peeonia corallina, L. 
 
 MARROW, VEGETABLE-, from its soft and delicate flesh, 
 
 Cucurbita ovifera, W. 
 
 MARSH-ASPHODEL, a plant of the asphodel tribe grow- 
 ing on moors, Narthecium ossifragum, L. 
 
 MARSH-BEETLE, or -PESTLE, from its shape, the reed- 
 mace, Typha latifolia, L. 
 
 MARSH-CISTUS, Ledum palustre, L. 
 
 MARSH-ELDER, Viburnum Opulus, L. 
 
 MARSH-FERN, Aspidium Thelypteris, Sw. 
 
 MARSH-FLOWER, Limnanthemum nyrnphseoides, Lk. 
 
 MARSH-HOLYROSB, Andromeda polifolia, L. 
 
 MARSH-MALLOW, Althsea officinalis, L.
 
 OF BRITISH PLANTS. 147 
 
 MARSH-MARIGOLD, Caltha palustris, L. 
 
 MARSH-PARSLEY, Apium graveolens, L. 
 
 MARSH-PENNYWORT, Hydrocotyle vulgaris, L. 
 
 MARSH-SAMPHIRE, Salicornia herbacea, L. 
 
 MARSH-TREFOIL, Menyanthes trifoliata, L. 
 
 MARSH-WORTS, Vaccinium Oxycoccos, L. 
 
 MARY-BUD, in the aubade in Cymbeline, (A. ii. sc. 3), 
 
 " And winking Mary buds begin 
 To ope their golden eyes : " 
 
 the marigold, Columella's " flaventia lumina calthse :" 1. 97: 
 " The Marigold that goes to bed -with the sun, 
 
 And with him rises weeping : " Wint. T. A. iv. sc. 3 : 
 in allusion to its flowers, which, as Lyte says, " do close at 
 the setting downe of the sunne, and do spread and open 
 againe at the sunne rising : " a phenomenon to which the 
 older poets allude with great delight, both in respect to 
 this flower and the daisy. Calendula officinalis, L. 
 
 MASER-TREE, the maple, from the bowls or drinking 
 cups, called masers, being made from the knotty parts of 
 its wood, called in O.H.G. masar, whence M. Lat. scypki 
 maserini, Du. maes-hout, from maese, a spot, O.H.G. mazel- 
 dera, masel-tree, whence G. massholder. See MAPLE. Bowls 
 made of silver and gold were called by the same name, as 
 in Kitson's Ancient Popular Poetry, p. 77, 
 
 " Pecys of syluyr, masers of golde." 
 See Pr. Pm. p. 328, Way's note. Acer campestre, L. 
 
 MASTER-WORT, a translation of its Latin name, Impera- 
 toria, which was understood by the herbalists as indicating 
 the masterly virtues of the plant, but has more probably 
 been given to it, with the sense of " Imperial," under the 
 idea that it was the one described by Apuleius, c. 130, as 
 having been used by Augustus under the names of Basilica 
 and Regia, as a protection against serpents : " Hac utebatur 
 Imperator Augustus." Imperatoria Ostruthium, L. 
 
 MATFELLON, from L. mar atriphy lion, fennel-leaf, Gr.
 
 148 POPULAR NAMES 
 
 fuipadpov (})v\\ov, called in the Ort. Sanit. c. 432, and in 
 the Grete Herball, Marefolon, in Gerarde Matfellon, in 
 Dodoens Materfillon and " Matrefilon, voce, ut apparet, 
 corrupta," in W. Coles Madefelon, in Parkinson " Matre- 
 Jillon," in old MSS. Mattefelone, Maudefelune, Madfeloun, 
 etc. The Lat. maratripkyllon, the source of all these bar- 
 barous terms, seems in the first place to have been given 
 to the water violet, Hottonia, on account of its finely 
 divided fennel-like leaves, and this is the plant which 
 bears the name in Lobel and Pena's Kruydtboek, 1581, 
 p. 965. From this it would seem to have been extended 
 to other so-called violets, viz. the genus Viola, and the 
 centauries. Thus in the Grete Herball, cap. ccccii, we 
 read " Jacea, Herba clavellata, Torquea, Marefolon. Jacea 
 is an herbe," etc. In EL Brunschwygk, p. xlix, these 
 synonyms are assigned to the pansy : " Freissam krut von 
 den kriechen torqueta, und von den arabischen marefolon 
 genant, und in latin yacea oder herba clavellata, ouch von 
 ettichen dreifaltigkeit blumen genant umb dreyerley farb 
 siner blumen, gelb, blow, und weyss." In the Ortus Sani- 
 tatis also it is figured and described as a pansy, under the 
 German name Freyschem-kraut, epilepsy-wort, and en- 
 titled " Jacea vel herba clavelata, Latine, grece torqueta, 
 arabice marefolon." Jacea being extended to the genus 
 Centaurea has carried the name from the violet tribe to 
 the knapweed, but under the corrupt form of Matfellon. 
 
 Centaurea nigra, L. 
 
 MAT-GRASS, or SMALL MAT-WEED, from its dense mat- 
 like tufts, Nardus stricta, L. 
 MAT-WEED, from its use in making mats, 
 
 Psamma arenaria, K.S. 
 
 and also the cord-grass, because as Gerarde says, p. 39, 
 " these kindes of grassie or rather rushie reede serve for to 
 make mats and hangings for chambers, frailes, baskets, 
 and such like, and the people of the country where they
 
 OF BRITISH PLANTS. 149 
 
 grow do make beds of them, and strawe their houses and 
 chambers with them, insteede of rushes." 
 
 Spartina stricta, L. 
 
 MATHER or MAUTHER, a word used in the Eastern 
 counties to mean a girl of the working class, O.N. tnd&r, 
 a man, a human being, a word from which it is probable 
 that some prefix has been lost, a name applied to the wild 
 chamomiles as a translation of their Greek name irapdeviov. 
 See MAGHET and MAITHE. Anthemis Cotula, L. 
 
 MAUDLIN, MAUDELINE, or MAWDELEYN, L. herba dh-ce 
 MaricB, It. herba di santa Maria, so called after St. Mary 
 Magdalene, either in allusion to her box of scented ointment, 
 as containing this aromatic ; or that, like other plants with 
 white ray florets, it was employed in uterine diseases, over 
 which, as the especial patroness of loose women, she was 
 supposed to preside. See COSTMARY and MAGHET. 
 
 Balsamita vulgaris, L. 
 and Achillaea Ageratum, L. 
 
 MAUDLIN-WORT, from its use in the same complaints as 
 the above, the moon-daisy, 
 
 Chrysanthemum Leucanthemum, L. 
 It is necessary to observe that the monks in the middle 
 ages mixed up with the story of the Magdalene, as recorded 
 in Scripture, that of another St. Mary, whose early life was 
 passed in a course of debauchery : 
 
 ' ' Seint Marie Egipciake in Egipt was ibore. 
 Al hire yong lif heo ladde in sinne and in hore, 
 Unnethe zhe was tuelf yer old, ar zhe gon do folie, 
 Hire bodi and al here wille heo tok to sinne of lecherie." 
 
 Cott. MS. Julius, D. ix., fol. 52, b, quoted 
 by Hampson, ii. 257. 
 
 Her penance and pardon were a favourite subject for the 
 legends of all Western Europe. The attributes of the im- 
 pure goddess of the Egyptians, Isis, and of the Greek 
 Artemis, and the Koman Juno Lucina, have been transferred
 
 150 POPULAR NAMES 
 
 in Roman Catholic times to this saint, and her counterpart, 
 St. Margaret. 
 
 MAULE, the mallow, It. and Sp. maula, by transposition 
 of the u, from L. malva, M. sylvestris, L. 
 
 MAWSEED, G. magsamen, Pol. mak, poppynseed, 
 
 Papaver somniferum, L. 
 
 MAWTHER see MATHER. 
 
 MAY or MAY-BUSH, from its time of flowering, the 
 hawthorn, Crataegus Oxyacantha, L. 
 
 MAY-LILY, the lily of the valley, 
 
 Convallaria majalis, L. 
 
 MAYWEED, from may, a maiden, Da. mo, Ic. mey, and not 
 from the month, a plant used for the complaints of young 
 women, Gr. irapdeviov. See MAGHET. 
 
 Pyrethrum Parthenium, L. 
 STINKING-, Matricaria Chamomilla, L. 
 
 MAYDWEED, says Lupton, (b, 8, n. 46), "is a stinking 
 hearbe, having a flower like a dayseye," one so named 
 from being used in the same cases as the inathers and 
 mayweeds, Anthemis Cotula, L. 
 
 MAY-WORT from the month of its flowering, 
 
 Galium cruciatum, L. 
 
 MAZZARDS, from L. manzar, explained in Pr. Pm. by 
 " spurius, pelignus," a wild, a spurious cherry, 
 
 Prunus avium, L. 
 
 MEADSWEET, see MEADOW SWEET. 
 
 MEADOW BOUTS, Fr. bouton d' or, the wild bachelor but- 
 ton of moist grass-lands, Caltha palustris, L. 
 
 MEADOW CLARY, Salvia pratensis, L. 
 
 MEADOW CRESS, Cardamine pratensis, L. 
 
 MEADOW PARSNIP, Heracleum Sphondylium, L. 
 
 MEADOW PINK, the ragged Robin, 
 
 Lychnis flos cuculi, L. 
 and the maiden pink, Dianthus deltoides, L. 
 
 MEADOW RUE, from its finely divided rue-like leaves,
 
 OF BRITISH PLANTS. 151 
 
 whence its name in old writers Peganon or Pigamon, from 
 Gr. Trrjyavov, rue, Thalictrum flavum, L. 
 
 MEADOW SAFFRON, from the resemblance of its flowers 
 to those of the crocus or true saffron, 
 
 Colchicum autumn ale, L. 
 
 MEADOW SAXIFRAGE, from its leaves resembling those of 
 the burnet saxifrage, Silaus pratensis, Bess. 
 
 MEADOW SWEET, an ungrammatical and ridiculous name, 
 a corruption of mead-wort, A.S. mede- or medo-wyrt, Da. 
 miod-urt, Sw. miod-ort, the mead-, or honey-wine- herb. 
 Hill tells us in his Herbal, p. 23, that " the flowers mixed 
 with mead give it the flavour of the Greek wines," and this 
 is unquestionably the source of the word. Nemnich also 
 says that it gives beer, and various wines, and other drinks 
 an agreeable flavour. The Latin Eegina prati, meadow's 
 queen, seems to have misled our herbalists to form the 
 strangely compounded name now in use. 
 
 Spiraea ulmaria, L. 
 
 MEAD-WORT, or MEDE-WORT, the old and correct name 
 of the so-called MEADOW SWEET. See above. 
 
 MEAL-BERRY, Da. meelbwr, Norw. miolbasr, from the 
 floury character of the cellular structure of its fruit, 
 
 Arbutus Uva ursi, L. 
 
 MEALY-TREE, from the mealy surface of the young shoots 
 and leaves, Viburnum Lantana, L. 
 
 MEDICK, L. Medica, Gr. p^Sitcr) Poravi], (Diosc. ii., 177), 
 the name of some plant that according to Pliny (1. xviii. 
 c. 43) was introduced into Greece by the army of Darius, 
 and called so to mean Median. It seems formerly to have 
 been given to a sainfoin, but is at present assigned to the 
 lucerne and its congeners. Medicago sativa, L., etc. 
 
 MEDLAR, called in Normandy and Anjou meslier, from 
 L. mespilus, but as the verb mesler became in English 
 meddle, so this fruit also, although a word of different 
 origin, took a d for an s, and became medlar. 
 
 Mespilus germanica, L.
 
 152 POPULAR NAMES 
 
 MELANCHOLY GENTLEMAN, from its sad colour, 
 
 Hesperis tristis, L. 
 
 MELANCHOLY THISTLE, from its supposed virtue in the 
 cure of melancholy, Carduus heterophyllus, L. 
 
 MELILOT, L. melilotus, Gr. /u,eXt\eoT09, from fteXt, honey, 
 and X<BT09, a name applied by Greek writers to some very 
 different plant from the one at present called so, 
 
 Melilotus officinalis, L. 
 
 MELON, a word derived in the dictionaries from L. melo- 
 pepo, but more probably an augmentative of its first two 
 syllables melo, from Gr. /LI^XOI/, an apple, Fr. and Sp. melon, 
 M.Lat. melo, Cucumis Melo, L. 
 
 MERCHE, see MARCHE. 
 
 MERCURY, a name rather vaguely applied in old works, 
 and now limited to a poisonous weed, from the god Mer- 
 cury, in respect of some fancied activity in its operation ; 
 or, according to Pliny, from its having been discovered by 
 him; Mercurialis, L. 
 
 ,, DOG'S-, from its worthlessness, 
 
 Mercurialis perennis, L. 
 ENGLISH-, the all-good, 
 
 Chenopodium Bonus Henricus, L. 
 FRENCH-, Mercurialis annua, L. 
 
 MERCURY'S VIOLET, the Mariet, 
 
 Campanula Trachelium, L. 
 
 MERRY, Fr. merise, mistaken for a plural noun, as cherry 
 from cerise, L. mericea, adj. ofmerica, some unknown berry 
 mentioned by Pliny, the wild cherry, 
 
 Prunus avium, L. 
 
 MEW, Gr. MOV, Meum athamanticum, L. 
 
 MEZEREON, a name derived by Mesue from a Persian 
 name signifying a " destroyer of life," but by others from 
 Arab, magzeroun, a dwarf olive, a name adopted by the 
 herbalists from the writings of the Arabian physicians, 
 
 Daphne Mezereon, L.
 
 OF BRITISH PLANTS. 153 
 
 MICHAELMAS DAISY, from its resemblance to a daisy, and 
 its season of flowering, Aster Tradescanti, L. 
 
 MIDSUMMER DAISY, 
 
 Chrysanthemum Leucanthemum L. 
 
 MIDSUMMER MEN, from a custom of girls to try their 
 lovers' fidelity with it on Midsummer eve. See LIVELONG. 
 
 Sedum Telephium, L. 
 
 MIQNONETTE, dim. of Fr. mignon, darling, from G. 
 tninne, love, a name applied in France to several very 
 different plants, Eeseda odorata, L. 
 
 MILDEW, A.S., mele-deau, from melu, meal, and deau, 
 dew, Q. mehlthau, a name descriptive of the powdery ap- 
 pearance upon leaves and stems of plants from the growth 
 of certain minute fungi, Erisiphe, DC., etc. 
 
 MILFOIL, Fr. mille audfeuilles, L. millefoliola, from the 
 numerous fine segments of its leaves, a name under which 
 Apuleius seems to have meant the horsetail, Equisetum, 
 describing it (in c. 89) as a plant " thyrso unius radicis, 
 molli, fulvo, ita cosequato atque elimato, ut manufactus 
 videatur, foliis foaniculi similibus ;" but at present given 
 to the yarrow, Achillaea Millefolium, L. 
 
 HOODED-, Utricularia, L. 
 
 WATER-, Myriophyllum, L. 
 
 and also Hottonia palustris, L. 
 
 MILK PARSLEY, from its milky juice, 
 
 Peucedanum palustre, Mn. 
 
 MILK-THISTLE, a thistle supposed to have derived the 
 colour of its leaves from the milk of the Virgin Mary 
 having fallen upon them, as she nursed the infant Jesus, 
 a fable suggested by the similar one of the lily having been 
 whitened by the milk of Juno as she nursed the infant 
 Hercules. See JUNO'S ROSE. 
 
 Silybum Marianum, DC. 
 
 MILK-VETCH, from a belief that it increased the secretion 
 of milk in the goats that fed on it, Astragalus, L.
 
 154 
 
 POPULAR NAMES 
 
 MILK-WORT, from its " virtues in procuring milk in the 
 breasts of nurses," says Gerarde, p. 450, 
 
 Polygala vulgaris, L. 
 SEA-, Glaux maritima, L. 
 
 MILL-MOUNTAIN, from the Lat. cha-7wce/-inum monta- 
 num, Gr. xapai-Xivov, ground flax, 
 
 Linum catharticum, L. 
 
 MILLET, Fr. millet, It. miglietto, dim. of miglio, from L. 
 milium, a name which, for want of good distinctive terms, 
 is popularly extended to several different species of the 
 genera Milium, Panicum, Paspalum, and Sorghum. 
 
 MILTWASTE, the finger-fern or ceterach of which Du 
 Bartas says, p. 79 (Sylvester's transl. 1611), 
 
 " The Finger-ferne, which being given to swine, 
 
 It makes their Milt to melt away in fine;" 
 a notion adopted from an assertion made by Vitruvius, as 
 quoted by Matthioli (1. iii., c. 134), that in the island 
 Crete, near the river Poterius, which flows between Gnosus 
 and Cortyna, on the side towards Cortyna, the flocks and 
 herds were found without spleens because they browsed on 
 this herb ; while, on the other side, towards Gnosus, they 
 had spleens because it does not grow there. W. Coles, to 
 improve the story, tells us that " if the asse be oppressed 
 with melancholy he eates of this herbe, Asplenion or Milt- 
 waste, and so eases himself of the swelling of the spleen." 
 The notion was probably suggested, on the doctrine of 
 signatures, by the lobular milt-like outline of the leaf in 
 the species to which the name was originally given, the 
 ceterach ; a species which is now rather inconsistently made 
 the type of a genus bearing this last name of " Ceterach," 
 while another set of plants, in no respect resembling a 
 spleen, are called " Spleenworts," and " Miltwastes." The 
 enlarged spleen, called ague-cake, was that which it was 
 supposed to waste or diminish when given medicinally. 
 Gerarde and other herbalists praise its efficacy in all in-
 
 OF BRITISH PLANTS. 155 
 
 firmities of this organ. W. Bulleyn indeed says (fol. 1) 
 that " no herbe maie be compared therewith for his singular 
 vertue to help the sickness or grief of the splene." 
 
 Asplenium, L. 
 
 MINT, L. mentha, Gr. pivQi]. 
 BERGAMOT-, M. citrata, Ehr. 
 
 BROOK-, HORSE-, or WATER-, M. sylvestris, L. 
 PEPPER-, M. piperita, L. 
 
 SPEAR-, or GARDEN-, M. viridis, L. 
 
 MISTLETOE, AS. mistiltan, from mistl, different, and tan, 
 twig, being so unlike the tree it grows upon, a feature 
 which Bacon in his Natural History (cent. vi. 556) has 
 noted as its distinguishing character. " It is a plant," 
 says he, " utterly differing from the plant upon which it 
 groweth." By some it is derived from mist, dung, and 
 much has been written in N. and Q. in support of this 
 fanciful derivation. Viscum album, L. 
 
 MITHRIDATE MUSTARD, from beitfg used in a medicine, 
 named after Mithridates, a king of Pontus, who invented, 
 as an antidote to all poisons, the famous preparation called 
 after him Mithridaticum, into which this plant, among 
 many more, was subsequently introduced. The original 
 prescription, discovered by Pompey among the archives of 
 the king, was very simple. Q. Serenus tells us that 
 
 " Magnus scrinia regis 
 
 Cum raperet victor, vilem deprehendit in illis 
 Synthesin, et vulgata satis medicamina risit : 
 Bis denum rutae folium, salis et breve granum, 
 Juglandesque duas, terno cum corpore ficus." 
 Other ingredients, animal as well as vegetable, were 
 added to it from time to time, and the name changed to 
 Theriaca. See TREACLE MUSTARD. Thlaspi arvense, L. 
 MITHRIDATE PEPPERWORT, Lepidium campestre, Br. 
 MOCK-PLANE, the sycamore, a translation of its Latin 
 specific name, Acer Pseudoplatanus, L,
 
 156 POPULAR NAMES 
 
 MOLT, the name of a plant in Homer's Odyssey, and 
 occasionally introduced into modern poetry, as in Milton's 
 Comus, 1. 636, but not identified with any known species, 
 and probably meant by Homer to be understood allegori- 
 cally. See note on this subject in Hawkins's Milton, 
 v. iv. p. 89. 
 
 MONEY-FLOWER, from its glittering round dissepiments 
 left after the falling of the valves, Lunaria biennis, L. 
 
 MONEY-WORT, from its round leaves, 
 
 Lysimachia Nummularia, L. 
 
 CORNISH-, from its round leaves, and its growing 
 in Cornwall, Sibthorpia europgea, L. 
 
 MONKSHOOD, from the resemblance of the upper sepal to 
 the cowl of a monk, Aconitum Napellus, L. 
 
 MONK'S RHUBARB, a dock that, according to Tabernse- 
 montanus (p. 824), was so called, " dieweil die wurzel der 
 Rhabarbaren ahnlich ist, und von den Barfiissern und 
 Carthaiisern in den klostern eine zeitlang heimlich gehal- 
 ten ;" according to Parkinson, from its being the dock 
 described as a rhubarb by the monks who commented upon 
 Mesues. Rumex Patientia, L. 
 
 MOON DAISY, a large daisy-like flower resembling the 
 pictures of a full moon, the type of a class of plants, which, 
 on the doctrine of signatures, were exhibited in uterine 
 complaints, and dedicated in pagan times to the goddess of 
 the moon and regulator of monthly periods, Artemis, 
 whom Horsley (on Hosea ix. 10) would identify with Isis, 
 the goddess of the Egyptians, with Juno Lucina, and with 
 Eileithuia, a deity who had special charge over the functions 
 of women ; an office in Roman Catholic mythology assigned 
 to Mary Magdalene and Margaret. See MAUDLIN, MAR- 
 GUERITE, and MAGHET. 
 
 Chrysanthemum leucanthemum, L. 
 
 MOON-WORT, a fern so called from the semilunar shape 
 of the segments of its frond, Botrychium Lunaria, Sw.
 
 OF BRITISH PLANTS. 157 
 
 MOOR-BALLS, from their globular form and occurrence in 
 the lakes upon moors, Conferva segagropila, L. 
 
 MOOR-GRASS, Sesleria cserulea, Scop. 
 
 MOOR-WHIN, or MOSS-WHIN, a whin that grows on 
 bleak heaths and mosses, Genista anglica, L. 
 
 MOOR-WORT, see WORTS, Andromeda polifolia, L. 
 MOREL, Fr. morelle, It. morello, dim. of moro, a Moor, 
 L. Maurus, so called from its black berries. 
 GREAT-, the deadly nightshade, 
 
 Atropa Belladonna, L. 
 PETTY-, the garden nightshade, 
 
 Solanum nigrum, L. 
 also a fungus, Fr. morilk, Morchella esculenta, P. 
 
 MORGELINE, from the French, L. morsus gallince, the 
 henbit, Veronica hederifolia, L. 
 
 MOSCHATELL, It. moscatellina, from L. moschus, musk, 
 through mosco, moscado, musky, and its dim. moscadello, a 
 plant so called from its faint musky odour, 
 
 Adoxa Moschatellina, L. 
 Moss, Fr. mousse, L. muscus. 
 
 ,, BOG-, Sphagnum. 
 
 ,, CUP-, Cenomyce pyxidata, Ach. 
 
 ICELAND-, Cetraria islandica, Ach. 
 
 ,, IRISH-, Chondrus crispus, Lyng. 
 
 ,, EOCK-, Koccella tinctoria, Ag. 
 
 WATER-, Fontinalis antipyretica, L. 
 
 MOSS-BERRY, or MOOR-BERRY, the cranberry, from its 
 growing on moors or mosses, Vaccinium Oxycoccus, L. 
 Moss CAMPION, from its moss-like growth, 
 
 Silene acaulis, L. 
 
 MOSS-CROPS, from crop, a head of flowers, and its place 
 of growth. Ray and Plukenet (Aim. p. 201) say that in 
 Westmoreland it is called by this name, because sheep are 
 fond of it. It means merely moor-flowers. 
 
 Eriophorum yaginatum, L.
 
 158 POPULAR NAMES 
 
 MOSS-RUSH, from its growing on heaths and mosses, 
 
 Juncus squarrosus, L. 
 
 MOTHER OP THOUSANDS (Treas. of Botany) a pun on 
 its old name penny-wort, Linaria cymbalaria, L. 
 
 MOTHER OF THYME, a name that undoubtedly ought to 
 be written Mother-Thyme, as meaning " womb-thyme," 
 having been given to this plant from its supposed effect 
 upon the womb, which in our old writers is called mother, 
 a use of the word adopted from the Flemish. According 
 to Isidore (c. ix.) this plant was in Latin also called 
 " matris animula, quod menstrua mo vet." Hence, too, its 
 German names Quendel and Kuttelkraut. See HOFER, 
 v. ii., p. 184. Platearius says of it : 
 
 "Serpyllum matricem comfortat et mundificat. Mulieres 
 Salernitanse hoc fomento multum utuntur." 
 
 The nearly allied genus Melissa is, for the same reason, 
 called by Herbarius (c. 84) Muderkrut, a word exactly 
 equivalent to Moth'erwort. See below. 
 
 Thymus Serpyllum, L. 
 
 MOTHERWORT, so called, says Parkinson (Th. Bot. p. 44), 
 from its being " of wonderful helpe to women in the risings 
 of the mother," Leonurus Cardiaca, L. 
 
 also in old works the mugwort, which, from its 
 being used in uterine diseases, was called moder-wort, 
 womb-wort, a name that by JElfric is correctly rendered 
 matrum-herba, wort of mothers, but by later writers mis- 
 understood and rendered mater herbarum, mother of worts. 
 Thus Macer (c. i.) 
 
 " Herlarum matrem justum puto ponere primo : 
 Praecipue morbis muliebribus ilia medetur." 
 
 Indeed its use in these affections was so general that 
 Ray tells us (Cat. Plant, p. 29), quoting the words of 
 Schroder : " Uterina est, adeoque usus est creberrimi 
 mulierculis, quse earn adhibent interne et extern e, ut vix
 
 OF BRITISH PLANTS. 159 
 
 balnea et lotiones parent in quibus artemisia non conti- 
 neatur." Like other uterine herbs it was dedicated to 
 the goddess Artemis, and thence its Latin name. 
 
 Artemisia vulgaris, L. 
 
 MOULD, in ink and other fluids, usually 
 
 Hygrocrocis, Ag. 
 
 MOULDINESS, Aspergillus, Mich. 
 
 MOUNTAIN ASH, from its pinnate leaves called an Ash, 
 the wild service tree, Pyrus Aucuparia, L. 
 
 MOUNTAIN COWSLIP, Primula Auricula, L. 
 
 MOUNTAIN ELM, the wych elm, Ulmus montana, L. 
 
 MOUNTAIN FERN, Aspidium Oreopteris, Sw. 
 
 MOUNTAIN SORREL, Oxyria reniformis, L. 
 
 MOUSE-BARLEY, G. maus-gerste, Sw. mus-korn, a trans- 
 lation of its Latin name, which was given to it either from 
 the belief that it was the lolium murinum of Pliny (1. xxii. 
 c. 25), or, through a confusion between murinum, of a 
 mouse, and murale, of a wall, to express that it was a wall- 
 barley; and this last is the most probable origin of the 
 name, since Tragus tells us that it was called so, because 
 it grows upon walls : " weil es von sich selbst auf den 
 Mauren wachst ;" and Dr. Wm. Turner (pt. ii. p. 17) : 
 " that it was called of the Latines Hordeum murinum^ 
 that is wall-barley." Hordeum murinum, L. 
 
 MOUSE-EAR, from the shape of the leaf, 
 
 Hieracium Pilosella, L. 
 
 MOUSE-EAR CHICKWEED, Cerastium vulgare, L. 
 
 MOUSE-EAR SCORPION-GRASS, the plant now called " For- 
 get-me-not," from its one-sided raceme being curved like 
 that creature's tail, and its small soft oval leaves, 
 
 Myosotis palustris, L. 
 MOUSE-TAIL, from its slender cylindrical seed-spike, 
 
 Myosurus minimus, L. 
 
 MOUSE-TAIL GRASS, Martyn in Fl. rustica, from the 
 shape of the spike, Alopecurus agrestis, L.
 
 160 
 
 POPULAR NAMES 
 
 MOUTAN, from the Chinese Meu-tang, king of flowers, 
 the tree peony, Paeonia Moutan, L. 
 
 MUDWORT, from its place of growth, 
 
 Limosella aquatica, L. 
 
 MUGGET, Fr. muguet, O.Fr. musguet, from L. muscatus, 
 scented with musk, a name applied in French to several 
 flowers, and to the nutmeg as noix muguette, in English to 
 the lily of the valley, Fr. muguet de Mai, 
 
 Con vail aria majalis, L. 
 
 MUGGET, PETTY-, Fr. petit-muguet, little dandy, a word 
 applied to effeminate dressy young men, Jemmy Jessamies, 
 with puffy yellow hair, Galium verum, L. 
 
 MUG-WEET, GOLDEN-, a corruption of Fr. muguet, 
 
 Galium cruciatum, DC. 
 
 MUGWORT, a name that corresponds in meaning with its 
 synonym wyrmwyrt, wormwood, from O.E. mough, moghe, 
 or moughte, a maggot or moth, a word used by Hampole 
 (P. o. C. 1. 5572) : 
 
 " And wormes and moglies on ]>e same raanere 
 Sal J?at day be in wittenes broght;" 
 and by Wycliffe (Matt. vi. 20) : 
 
 " Where ne}?er ruste ne moughte destruye}> ;" 
 a name given to this plant from its having been recom- 
 mended by Dioscorides to ward off the attacks of these 
 insects, whence Macer (c. 3) de Absinthio : 
 
 " A tineis tutam reddit qua conditur arcam." 
 and Wm. Bulleyn, speaking of wormwood, says, fol. 2 : 
 
 "It kepeth clothes from wormes and mothes." 
 The name is explained by an old writer in MS. Arimdel, 
 42, fol. 35, as a form of Mothenvort. " Mogwort, al on 
 as seyn some, modirwort : lewed folk J?at in manye wordes 
 conne no rygt sownynge, but ofte shortyn wordys, and 
 changyn lettrys and silablys, J>ey corruptyn J?e o in to u, 
 and d into g, and syncopyn i, smytyn awey i and r, and 
 seyn mugwort." It is unnecessary to have recourse to this
 
 OF BRITISH PLANTS. 161 
 
 singular process. The plant was known both as a moth- 
 ivort and as a mother-wort, but while it was used almost 
 exclusively as a mother-wort, it still retained, at the same 
 time, the name of mug-wort, a synonym of moth-wort. In 
 JElfric's glossary it is called matrum herba. 
 
 Artemisia vulgaris, L. 
 
 MULBERRY, by a change of r to /, from L. morus, Gr. 
 popov, a word of unknown origin, which was introduced 
 into Greece with the tree, M. nigra, L. 
 
 MULLEIN, or WHITE MULLEIN, in old works Molayne, 
 A.S. molegn, the hig-taper, Fr. moleine, the scab in cattle, 
 O.Fr. malen, L. malandrium, the malanders or leprosy, 
 whence malandrin, a brigand, from lepers having been 
 driven from society, and forced to a lawless life. The term 
 malandre was applied to other diseases of cattle, to lung 
 diseases among the rest, and Marcellus Bmpiricus explains 
 it as "morbus jumenti quo tussit." The hig-taper, being 
 used for these, acquired its names of Mullein, and bullock's 
 lungwort. Verbascum Thapsus, L. 
 
 PETTY-, the cowslip. " Those herbes," says Ge- 
 rarde, " which at this day are called Primroses, Cowslips, 
 and Oxelips, are reckoned among the kinds of Mulleins, 
 for that the ancients have named them Verbasculi, that is 
 to saie, small Mulleins." Primula veris, L. 
 
 MULLET, FLEABANE-, a plant used to destroy fleas, and 
 called mullet, Fr. mollet, from its soft leaves, 
 
 Inula dysenterica, L. 
 
 MUSCOVY, or MUSK, from its odour, 
 
 Erodium moschatum, L'Her. 
 
 MUSHROOM, Fr. mouscheron, at present spelt moicsseron, 
 a name applied to several species of Agaricus, and derived 
 by Diez from mousse, moss, with which it is difficult to see 
 how mushrooms are connected. One of the most con- 
 spicuous of the genus, the A. muscarius, is used for the 
 
 11
 
 162 POPULAR NAMES 
 
 destruction of flies, mousckes, and as Albertus Magnus 
 says (1. vii. 345) : 
 
 " Vocatur fungus muscarum, eo quod in lacte pulverizatus 
 interficit muscas." 
 
 and this seems to be the real source of the word, which, by 
 a singular caprice of language, has been transferred from 
 this poisonous species to mean, in the popular acceptation 
 of it, the wholesome kinds exclusively. Agaricus, L. 
 MUSK ORCHIS, from its scent, 
 
 Herminium monorchis, RB. 
 
 MUSK THISTLE, from its scent, Carduus nutans, L. 
 MUSTARD, according to Diez, from L. mustum, new wine, 
 which he says is used in preparing it. It seems far more 
 likely to be the Sp. mastuerzo, from L. nasturtium, cress, 
 so called, it is said, from nasitortium, a naso torquendo, 
 alluding to the wry faces and sneezing that it causes. 
 
 Brassica alba, Bois. 
 
 BLACK-, Brassica nigra, Bois. 
 
 BOWYERS-, Lepidium ruderale, L. 
 
 GARLIC-, Erysimum Alliaria, DC. 
 
 HEDGE-, Sisymbrium officinale, L. 
 
 MITHRIDATE-, Thlaspi arvense, L. 
 
 TOWER-, Turritis glabra, L. 
 
 WILD-, see CHARLOCK,BrassicaSinapistrum, Bois. 
 
 MYPE, Wei. maip, Gael, neip, given in Gerarde (p. 871) 
 
 as a name of the parsnip, a corruption of L. napus, and 
 
 properly meaning the turnip, Brassica Bapa, L. 
 
 MYRTLE, It. mirtillo, dim. of mirto, L. myrtus, Gr. 
 
 Myrtus communis, L. 
 
 NAILWORT, perhaps more correctly Agnail-wort, the 
 whitlow-grass, from its supposed curative powers, in cases 
 of agnail, Draba verna, L. and Saxifraga tridactylites, L. 
 
 NAKED LADIES, G. ndkte jungfer, from the pink flowers 
 rising naked from the earth, the meadow saffron, 
 
 Colchicum autumnale, L.
 
 OF BRITISH PLANTS. 163 
 
 NANCY PRETTY, or NONE-SO-PRETTY, an unexplained 
 name of the London pride, Saxifraga umbrosa, L. 
 
 NAP-AT-NOON, from it flowers closing at midday, the 
 goat's beard, Tragopogon porrifolius, L. 
 
 NARCISSUS, Gr. vaprctcra-os, from vapxaa), become numb, 
 related to Skr. nark, hell, so called from the torpidity 
 caused by the odour of the flower, as remarked by Plutarch, 
 who (in Sympos. con. 3, c. 1) says : TOV vaptuo-o-ov, &>9 
 afj,^\,vvovra ra vevpa teat /3apvTr)Ta$ ep/jroiovvra 
 Sio icai, o ^o(f)OK\Tj^ CLVTOV ap%aiov /j,eya\&)v 
 (rovTeaTi Tew ^6oviwv) TrpoarjjopevKe : " Narcissus, as 
 blunting the nerves, and causing narcotic heaviness : 
 wherefore also Sophocles called it the ancient chaplet of 
 the Great (that is the Infernal) gods." The passage is 
 quoted from an exquisite chorus of the (Edipus at Colonos, 
 where (at 1. 682) the original has (M=ya\aiv Oecuv, the two 
 great goddesses, meaning Ceres and Proserpine. The 
 epithet which the poet here applies to the narcissus, /caXXt- 
 /3oT/3u?, finely clustered, suggests that he meant the hya- 
 cinth, a plant which, from its heavy odour and dark colour, 
 was more likely than the one we now call narcissus to have 
 been consecrated to those deities. Plutarch adds that, 
 " those who are numbed with death should very fittingly 
 be crowned with a benumbing flower." The coincidence 
 of the name narcissm with the Skr. nark indicates some 
 very ancient traditionary connexion of Greek with Asiatic 
 mythology. Ovid, who undoubtedly means one of the 
 plants which still bear this name, represents it as having 
 been so* called after a youth who pined away for love of his 
 own image reflected in a pool of water ; an instance, among 
 many more, of a legend written to a name ; for as an old 
 poet, Pamphilus, remarks, Proserpine was gathering Nar- 
 cissi long before that youth was born. Narcissus, L. 
 
 NARD, Gr. vapSos, the name of various aromatic plants, 
 chiefly of the valerian tribe, that were formerly, and are 
 still used in Asiatic harems.
 
 164 POPULAR NAMES 
 
 NAVEL-WORT, from the shape of its leaf, 
 
 Umbilicus pendulinus, DC. 
 
 NAVEW, Fr. naveau, from napellus, dim. of napus, the 
 rape, Brassica Napus, L. 
 
 NECKWEED, a cant term for hemp, as furnishing halters 
 for the necks of criminals, Cannabis sativa, L. 
 
 NECTARINE, It. nettarino, dim. of nettare, L. nectar, Gr. 
 veKTap, the drink of the gods, and called so from its flavour, 
 
 Amygdalus persica, var. laevis, L. 
 NEELE, found in old books as a translation of Gr. fy&via, 
 and equivalent to cockle or darnel, Fr. nielle, L. nigella, 
 blackish, once used to mean weeds generally, but in later 
 works restricted to the larger ray grass. 
 
 "Frumentis nocuam lolium Grsecus vocat herbam, 
 Quam nostri dicunt vulgar! more nigellam" Macer, c. 64. 
 
 Lolium temulentum, L. 
 NEEDLE FURZE, from its delicate spines, 
 
 Genista anglica, L. 
 NEP or NEPPE, contracted from L. nepeta, 
 
 Nepeta cataria, L. 
 
 NETTLE, A.S. and Du. netel, Da. naelde, Sw. naetla, 
 G. nessel, the instrumental form of net, the passive parti- 
 ciple of ne, a verb common to most of the Ind-European 
 languages in the sense of " spin" and " sew," Gr. veeiv, 
 L. ne-re, G. nd-hen, Skr. nah, bind. Nettle would seem to 
 have meant primarily that with which one sews. Applied to 
 the plant now called so, it indicates that this supplied the 
 thread used in former times by the Germanic and Scandi- 
 navian nations, which we know as a fact to have been the 
 case in Scotland in the seventeenth century. Westmacott 
 says (p. 76) " Scotch cloth is only the housewifery of the 
 nettle." In Friesland also it has been used till a late 
 period. Flax and hemp bear southern names, and were 
 introduced into the North to replace it. Urtica, L. 
 
 BEE-, Galeopsis versicolor, Curt.
 
 OF BRITISH PLANTS. 165 
 
 NETTLE, DEAI>-, Lamium, L. 
 
 HEDGE-, from its nettle-like leaves and place of 
 growth, more properly Hedge Dead-nettle, 
 
 Stachys sylvatica, L. 
 
 HEMP-, Galeopsis, L. 
 
 ,, ROMAN-, from being found abundantly about 
 Romney in Kent, and the report that " Roman soldiers 
 brought the seed with them, and sowed it there for their 
 own use, to rub and chafe their limbs, when through 
 extreme cold they should be stifle and benurnmed ; having 
 been told that the climate of Britain was so cold, that it 
 was not to be endured without some friction or rubbing, to 
 warm their bloods and to stir up natural heat." Park- 
 kinson (Th. Bot. p. 441). Lyte's explanation of this and 
 other applications of the term " Roman" is more probable. 
 " It is a straunge herbe, and not common in the countrey, 
 and they do call al such straunge herbes as be unknowen 
 of the common people, Romish or Romayne herbes, although 
 the same be brought from Norweigh." 
 
 Urtica pilulifera, L. 
 
 NIGHTSHADE, A.S. niht-scada, O.H.G. naht-scato, from 
 its officinal Lat. name solatrum., which is derived, as an in- 
 strumental noun, from L. solari, soothe, as aratrum from 
 arare, and means " anodyne." Under this form we find it 
 in the Ort. San. (c, 349) ; and Matthioli, in speaking of the 
 Belladonna (c. 59), describes it as " earn plantam quam 
 herbariorum vulgus solatrum majus nominat." This word 
 solatrum has been mistaken for solem atrum, a black sun, 
 an eclipse, a shade as of night. Solanum, L. 
 
 BITTERSWEET-, see BITTER-SWEET, 
 
 Solanum Dulcamara, L. 
 
 DEADLY-, Atropa Belladonna, L. 
 
 ENCHANTER'S-, Circsea Lutetiana, L. 
 
 WOODY-, the bittersweet. 
 NINETY-KNOT, see KNOT-GRASS and CENTINODE.
 
 166 POPULAR NAMES 
 
 NIPPLE-WORT, Fr. herbe aux mamelles, from its use in 
 cases of sore nipple, Lapsana cominunis, L. 
 
 NIT-GRASS, from its little nit-like flowers, a translation 
 of its L. specific name, lendigerum, 
 
 Gastridium lendigerum, L. 
 
 NONE-SO-PRETTY, or NANCY-PRETTY, the London pride, or 
 Pratling parnel, terms that seem to allude to the heroine of 
 some popular farce, song, or tale, Saxifraga umbrosa, L. 
 
 NONSUCH, " a name conferred upon it from its supposed 
 superiority as fodder." Smith in Eng. Bot. 
 
 Medicago lupulina, L. 
 
 in Gerarde and Parkinson applied to the scarlet lychnis, 
 
 Lychnis chalcedonica, L. 
 
 NOON-FLOWER, or NOON-TIDE, from its closing at mid- 
 day, and marking the hour of noon, 
 
 Tragopogon pratensis, L. 
 
 NOOPS, i.e. knops, A.S. cncep, a button, a name of the 
 cloudberry used on the Eastern Border, 
 
 Rubus Chamsemorus, L. 
 
 NOSEBLEED, the yarrow, from its having been put into 
 the nose, as we learn from Gerarde, to cause bleeding and 
 to cure the megrim, and also from its being used as a 
 means of testing a lover's fidelity. Forby in his East 
 Anglia (p. 424) tells us that in that part of England a girl 
 will tickle the inside of the nostril with a leaf of this plant, 
 saying, 
 
 " Yarroway, yarroway, bear a white blow; 
 
 If my love love me, my nose will bleed now." 
 Parkinson (Th. Bot. p. 695) says that "it is called of 
 some Nose-bleede from making the nose bleede, if it be 
 put into it, but assuredly it will stay the bleeding of it." 
 This application of the yarrow, and all the superstitions con- 
 nected with it, have arisen, as in so many other instances, 
 from the medieval herbalists having been misled by a 
 name, and taken one plant for another. Isidore (c. ix.) in
 
 OF BRITISH PLANTS. 167 
 
 speaking of a polygonum, but meaning by that name a 
 horse-tail, says that it was called herba sanguinaria, from 
 its being used to make the nose bleed. Apuleius calls the 
 horsetail millefolium, and this term millefolium was subse- 
 quently transferred to the yarrow, which acquired the 
 names of Herba sanguinaria and Nose bleed, and with the 
 names the remedial character of the horse-tail, and its 
 superstitious appliances. See SANGUINARY. 
 
 Achillsea Millefolium, L. 
 
 NOSTOC, some alien word, the name of a genus of Algse 
 so called. See FALLEN STARS. Tremella Nostoc, L. 
 
 NUT, A.S. hnut, Ic. hnitt, Sw. nott, Da. nodd, G. nms, 
 L. nux, words connected with knit, knot, knopf, knob, im- 
 plying a hard round lump. 
 
 BLADDER-, from its inflated capsule, 
 
 Staphylea pinnata, L. 
 
 CHEST-, . Castanea vesca, DC. 
 
 EARTH-, or PIG-, or JUR-, or HOG-, 
 
 Bunium flexuosum, With. 
 
 FRENCH-, the walnut, Juglans regia, L. 
 
 HAZEL-, or WOOD-, Corylus Avellana, L. 
 
 WAL-, Juglans regia, L. 
 
 OAK, A.S. ac, cec, Scot aik, O.N. eik, Sw. ek, Da. eg, 
 Ic. eyk, L.G-. eek and eik, G. eiche, O.H.G. eih, the h having 
 a guttural sound. All these words refer to the fruit of the 
 tree, the acorn, from which, as its most useful product, the 
 oak took its name. " During the Anglo-Saxon rule," says 
 Selby, p. 227, " and even for some time after the Conquest, 
 oak forests were chiefly valued for the fattening of swine. 
 Laws relating to pannage, or the fattening of hogs in the 
 forest, were enacted during the Heptarchy, and by Ina's 
 statutes any person wantonly injuring or destroying an 
 oak-tree was mulcted in a fine varying according to its 
 size, or the quantity of mast it produced." Quercus, L.
 
 168 
 
 POPULAR NAMES 
 
 OAK OP CAPPADOCIA, or -OP JERUSALEM, from a fancied 
 resemblance of its leaf to that of an oak, and its coming 
 from a foreign country, Chenopodium ambrosioides, L. 
 OAK-PERN, of old herbals, Polypodium vulgare, L. 
 of modern botanists, 
 
 Polypodium Dryopteris, L. 
 
 OAT, A.S. ata, a word that seems originally to have 
 meant " food," the O.N. ata, and Lat. esca, for edca or etca, 
 and derived from words signifying " eat," A.S. etan, Lat. 
 edere, from an ancient root, the Skr. ad, and applied to the 
 oat exclusively, as being once the chief food of the north of 
 Europe. With this word ata is etymologically connected, 
 and indeed, identical, G. aas, a carcase, the term having, 
 apparently, been adopted, in the former sense by an agri- 
 cultural, and in the latter by a carnivorous, a shepherd or 
 hunter tribe of the Germanic race : an evidence, as far as 
 it goes, that we must not assume our various dialects to 
 have originated simultaneously from any one common 
 tongue, or in any one district. Avena sativa, L. 
 
 WILD-, Avena fatua, L. 
 
 OAT-GRASS, a fanner's term, according to Martyn in 
 Fl. Rust., but certainly not a common one, for 
 
 Bromus mollis, L. 
 
 OPBIT, in Turner OPBITEN, for bitten-q/, the Devil's bit, 
 from the appearance of the root, Scabiosa succisa, L. 
 OIL-SEED, from oil being made from it, 
 
 Camelina sativa, L. 
 
 OLD-MAN, southernwood, from its use as recommended 
 by Pliny (1. xxi. c. 21), and as explained in the line of 
 Macer, c. ii. : 
 
 "Haec etiam venerem, pulvino subdita tantum, 
 Incitat." 
 
 Artemisia Abrotanum, L. 
 
 OLD-MAN'S-BEARD, from its long white feathery awns, 
 the traveller's joy, Clematis Vitalba, L.
 
 OY BRITISH PLANTS. 169 
 
 ONE-BERRY, from its one central fruit, the trulove, 
 
 Paris quadrifolia, L. 
 
 ONE-BLADE, from its barren stalk having only one leaf. 
 Its Latin specific name implying " two-leaved " refers to 
 the flowering stalk. Maianthemum bifolium, DC. 
 
 ONION, Fr. oignon, in a Wycliffite version of Num. xi. 5, 
 uniowns, from L. unio, some species of it mentioned by 
 Columella, Allium Cepa, L. 
 
 WELSH-, not from Wales, but the G. wdlsch, 
 foreign, the plant having been introduced through Ger- 
 many from Siberia, Allium fistulosum, L. 
 
 ORACH, formerly Arach, in Pr. Pm. Arage, in MS. Harl. 
 978, Arasches, Fr. arroche, a word that Menage and Diez 
 derive from L. atriplice. Its Gr. name %puo-o\a%ai/oz/, 
 golden herb, suggests a more probable explanation of it in 
 a presumed M.Lat. aurago, formed from aurum, gold, by 
 the addition to it of ago, wort, as in plantago, lappago, 
 solidago, etc., and this word aurago would become in French 
 arroche, as borago bourroche. At the same time its use in 
 the cure of jaundice, aurugo, may have fixed upon the 
 plant the name of the disease. 
 
 " Atriplicem tritam cum nitro, melle, et aceto, 
 Dicunt appositam calidam sedare podagram : 
 Ictericis dicitque Galenus toilers morbum 
 Illius semen cum vino srepius haustum." 
 
 Macer, c. xxviii. 1. 7. 
 Atriplex hortensis, L. 
 
 ORCHANET, from the French. See ALCANET. 
 ORCHARD-GRASS, from its growing in orchards under the 
 drip of trees, Dactylis glomerata, L. 
 
 ORCHAL, ORCHEL, or ORCHIL, the rock-moss, supposed 
 by Scheler to be a transposition of rochelle, a small rock, 
 
 Eoccella tinctoria, Ag. 
 ORCHIS, Gr. op%t9, from its double tubers, 
 BEE-, from the resemblance of its flowers to a bee, 
 
 Ophrys apifera, L.
 
 170 
 
 POPULAR NAMES 
 
 ORCHIS, BOG-, 
 
 BUTTERFLY-, 
 
 DRONE-, 
 
 FLY-, 
 
 FROG-, 
 
 GREEN-MAN-, 
 
 GREEN MUSK-, 
 
 HAND-, 
 
 LIZARD-, 
 
 MAN-, 
 
 MILITARY-, 
 
 MONKEY-, 
 
 MUSK-, 
 SPIDER-, 
 
 Malaxis paludosa, Sw. 
 Habenaria bifolia, RB. 
 Ophrys fucifera, Sm. 
 Ophrys niuscifera, Huds. 
 Habenaria viridis, RB. 
 Aceras anthropophora, RB. 
 Herminium monorchis, RB. 
 Orchis maculata, L. 
 Orchis hircina, Scop. 
 Aceras anthropophora, RB. 
 Orchis militaris, L. 
 Orchis tephrosanthos, Vill. 
 Herminium monorchis, RB. 
 Ophrys aranifera, Hud. 
 and arachnites, Willd. 
 
 ORGANY, or ORGAN, marjoram, from L. origanum, Gr. 
 opvyavov, Origanum vulgare, L. 
 
 also the penny-royal, Mentha Pulegium, L. 
 
 ORPINE, Fr. orpin, contracted from orpiment, L. auripig- 
 mentum, gold pigment, a sulphuret of arsenic, a name 
 given in old works to certain yellow-flowered species of 
 the genus, but, perversely enough, transferred of late to 
 almost the only European one that has pink flowers, 
 
 Sedum Telephium, L. 
 
 ORRICE, either from its officinal Latin name, Acorus 
 Dioscoridis, or from Ireos, (sc. radix) by transposition of 
 the vowels, or very probably from some confusion between 
 these two words, ireos and acorus ; since the roots of two 
 different species of Iris were known as Acorus falsus or 
 adulterinus, and sold for those of Acorus Calamus, L. 
 (Bauhin's Pinax. p. 34.) It cannot be derived, as in our 
 dictionaries, from Iris, the initial I of which could not 
 have become 0, and could scarcely have remained unaspi- 
 rated. At present it means the Florentine Iris, but is used 
 in older works as a generic name, and in Cotgrave, and old
 
 OF BRITISH PLANTS. 171 
 
 German herbals, applied as Wild Ireos, to the water flower 
 de luce, and to the stinking gladdon. Iris, L. 
 
 OSIER, Fr. osier, M.Lat. oseria, whence oseretum, a 
 withy-bed, from a Celtic word meaning water, or ooze, 
 that has given its name to the Oise in France, and to 
 several rivers in England, spelt according to the dialect of 
 the district, Ouse, Ose, Use, or Ise, and which in M.Lat. 
 would have made Osa, whence an adjective osaria, aqueous, 
 and osier. Salix viminalis, L. 
 
 OSMUND, OSMUND ROYAL, or OSMUND THE WATERMAN, 
 apparently a corruption of G. gross mond-kraut, greater 
 moon-wort, representing its ancient officinal name lunaria 
 major. There are other derivations of it, such as that by 
 Beckmann, from the name of some person ; by Nemnich, 
 on the authority of Houttuyn, from os, mouth, and mundare, 
 cleanse ; by others from os, bone, and mundare, cleanse. 
 The Waterman would seem, to be its Flemish name, Water- 
 varn. The Royal refers, we are told by Lobel (Kruydb. i. 
 p. 991), to its great and excellent virtues. 
 
 Osmunda regalis, L. 
 
 OSTERICK, M.Lat. ostriacum, apparently a corruption of 
 L. aristolochia, a name transferred to it from another plant, 
 
 Polygonum Bistorta, L. 
 
 OUR LADY'S BEDSTRAW, etc. See LADY'S. 
 
 OWLER, a corruption of Aller, the alder tree. 
 
 OX-EYE, the great daisy, a translation of L. bupkthal- 
 mus, Gr. @ov<f>0a\fjiov, a name now appropriated to a different 
 genus, Chrysanthemum Leucanthemum, L. 
 
 OX-HEEL, or more properly OX-HEAL, A.S., oxnalib, 
 from its being used in settering oxen. See SETTERWORT. 
 
 Helleborus foatidus, L. 
 
 OXLIP, A.S., oxan-slippe, a word that, like Cowslip, is 
 of very uncertain derivation. 0. Cockayne (in Leech, ii. 
 p. 378) suggests that the second syllable may be slyppa, a 
 soft viscid mass, but leaves unexplained what this has to do 
 with the plant. Primula veris caulescens, L. elatior, Jacq.
 
 172 POPULAR NAMES 
 
 OXTONGUE, from the shape and roughness of its leaf, 
 Helminthia echioides, Giirt. 
 
 OYSTER-GBEEN, a sea-weed, so named from its bright 
 green tint, and its being frequently found attached to the 
 oyster, Ulva lactuca, L. 
 
 PADDOCK-PIPES, in Cotgrave TOAD-PIPES, from its straight 
 
 hollow pipe-like stalks, and growth in mud, where toads 
 haunt, the horse-tail, Equisetum limosum, L. 
 
 PADDOCK-STOOLS, in Topsell PADSTOOLE, Du. padde-stoel, 
 toad-stool, from their resemblance to the tripods called 
 joint-stools, and the notion that toads sit upon them. (See 
 TOADSTOOL). Boletus and Agaricus. 
 
 PADELION, Fr. pas de lion, from the resemblance of its 
 leaf to the impress of a lion's foot, the lady's mantle, 
 
 Alchemilla vulgaris, L. 
 
 PAIGLE, PAGLE, PAGEL, PEAGLE, PEGYLL, and PYGIL, 
 a name that is now scarcely heard except in the Eastern 
 counties, and usually assigned to the cowslip, but by Ray 
 and Moore to the Ranunculus bulbosus, a word of extremely 
 obscure and disputed origin. Most of the dictionaries de- 
 rive it from paralysis. Latham from Fr. epingle, a pin, in 
 allusion to its pin-shaped pistil ; Forby, strangely enough, 
 from A.S. paett, a die-plant, a purple robe; Forster, in 
 Perennial Calendar, p. 191, says that it " evidently signi- 
 fies pratingale, from prata, meadows, where it delighteth to 
 grow." An East Anglian correspondent informs me that 
 paigle means a spangle. In Flemish pegel is a gauge. It 
 is possible that it may be corrupted from A.S. c&g, a key, or 
 from some word compounded with it. The primroses and 
 mulleins are so mixed up together by the herbalists, that I 
 rather incline to the belief that it is a name of the mullein 
 under which cowslips and primroses were comprehended, and 
 that it is not descriptive of these latter. It may possibly 
 be a corruption of verbasculum, through a lost French word, 
 in which the s was omitted before c. Primula veris, L.
 
 OF BRITISH PLANTS. 173 
 
 PALM, L. palma, Gr. TraXa//,?;, the palm of the hand, 
 from the shape of the leaf in the species most familiar to 
 Greek and Latin writers, the dwarf palm of the south of 
 Europe, a name given in England to the sallow with its 
 catkins in flower, from its branches having formerly been 
 carried in processions, and strown on the road the Sunday 
 next before Easter, in imitation of the palm leaves that 
 were strown before Jesus on his entry into Jerusalem. 
 A representative of the Eastern tree was required, and these 
 golden tassels presented themselves at precisely the right 
 season. Branches of the yew tree, on account of its leaves 
 being green at this season, were also used. In an old 
 sermon on Palm Sunday, quoted by Hampson, (ii. 300) 
 the account of it is as follows : " pan Ihu yode towerde 
 Jerusalem, and }>e pepul brokon brawnches of olyfe and of 
 palme and keston in ]>Q way, &c., but for encheson we have 
 non olyfe >at bereth grene leves, we takon in stede of hit 
 hew and palmes wyth, and bereth abowte in procession." 
 (Cott. MS. Claud. A. 11. fo. 52.) This was the ancient 
 usage in Scotland, as described by Sir Walter Scott in his 
 Castle Dangerous : " Several of the Scottish people, bear- 
 ing willow branches, or those of yew, to represent the palms 
 which were the symbol of the day [Palm Sunday] were 
 wandering in the churchyard." It was the custom also in 
 East Kent, according to Evelyn's Sylva; in Dorsetshire 
 (Notes and Queries, 3 S. vii. p. 364) ; and in Ireland ; and 
 the yew-tree which, as well as the willow, was popularly 
 called " Palm," was planted in churchyards to supply 
 boughs for these occasions. 
 
 Salix caprea, L., and Taxus baccata, L. 
 
 PALSY-WORT, L. Herba paralyseos, from its supposed 
 power to cure the palsy, the cowslip, Primula veris, L. 
 
 PANCE or PAUNCE, see PANSY. 
 
 PANICK-GRASS, L. panicum, which Pliny says was "a 
 paniculis dictum," so called from its panicles. The word
 
 174 POPULAR NAMES 
 
 seems to be formed from pantts, a head of millet, and to be 
 connected with panis, bread, from an ancient root pa, feed, 
 retained in pa-sco, pa-bulum, and pa-ter. See Bopp. comp. 
 Gram. p. 1164. Panicum, L. 
 
 PANSY, or PAUNCE, Yr.pensee, thought, once called menues 
 pensees, It. pensieri menuti, idle thoughts, G. unnutze sorge. 
 Dr. Johnson and Talbot would derive the name from 
 L. panacea, but the plant has never been called so, nor 
 regarded as a panacea. Its habit of coquettishly hanging 
 its head, and half hiding its face, as well as some fancied 
 resemblances in the throat of the corolla, has led to many 
 quaint names in our own, and in foreign languages : " Cull 
 me-," or " Cuddle me to you," " Love and idle," " Live in 
 idleness," or " Love in idleness," a line, perhaps, of some 
 song or poem, " To live and love in idleness," but origi- 
 nally, it would seem, " Love in idle," that is, " in vain," 
 and in Lobel, " Love in idle Pances," " Tittle my fancy," 
 " Kiss me, ere I rise," " Jump up and kiss me," " Kiss me 
 at the garden gate," " Pink of my John," and several 
 more of the same amatory character. From its three 
 colours combined in one flower, it is called " Herb Trinity," 
 and " Three faces under a hood ;" from confusion with the 
 wallflower, "Heartsease;" and from M.Lat. viola flammea, 
 " Flame flower." There is no plant, except, possibly, the 
 ground ivy, that has obtained so many names, and curious 
 sobriquets. Viola tricolor, L. 
 
 PARIS, see HERB PARIS. 
 
 PARK-LEAVES, a name that seems, like its Danish, 
 Swedish, and Norwegian synonym, pirkum or perkum, to 
 have been suggested by L. Hypericum, Gr. vjrepitcov, but 
 taken in the sense of perked or pricked leaves, from those 
 of the commonest species of the genus, H. perforatum, L. 
 being so dotted with resinous deposits, as to look as if they 
 were pricked all over ; a character not observable in that 
 to which the name of Park-leaf is now restricted. Its
 
 OF BRITISH PLANTS. 175 
 
 French synonym, parcoeur, by heart, seems, like the Eng- 
 lish name, to have been suggested by the Latin, through 
 an accidental coincidence of sound. H. Androssemum, L. 
 
 PARNASSUS GRASS, a plant supposed to be one described 
 by Dioscorides as growing on Mount Parnassus, 
 
 Parnassia palustris, L. 
 
 PARSLEY, spelt in the Grete Herball Percely, Fr. persil, 
 L. petroselinum, from Gr. Trerpo?, rock, and cre\ivov, some 
 umbelliferous plant, P. sativum, Koch. 
 
 BASTARD-, or BUR, Caucalis daucoides, L. 
 
 Cow-, Chserophyllum sylvestre, L. 
 
 FOOL'S-, (Ethusa Cynapium, L. 
 
 HEDGE-, Caucalis Anthriscus, Huds. 
 
 MILK-, Peucedanum palustre, Mn. 
 
 STONE-, Sison Amomum, L. 
 
 PARSLEY-FERN, from the resemblance of its fronds to 
 parsley leaves, Cryptogramma crispa, R.B. 
 
 PARSLEY-PIERT, or PARSLEY-BREAK-STONE, Fr. perce- 
 pierre, of percer, pierce, and pierre, stone, from its being 
 used in cases of stone in the bladder, and so called, accord- 
 ing to W. Coles (Ad. in Ed. ch. 222), "from its eminent 
 faculties to that purpose," Alchemilla arvensis, Sm. 
 
 PARSNIP, or, as it is spelt in old herbals, PASNEP and 
 PASTNIP, from It. pastinaca, by change of c to p, 
 
 Pastinaca sativa, L. 
 
 Cow-, Heracleum Sphondylium, L. 
 
 WATER-, Sium latifolium, L. 
 
 PASQUE-or PASSE-FLOWER, Fr. pasques, Gr. Troo^a, Heb. 
 pesach, a crossing over, from its blossoming at Easter, that 
 in old works was called Pask, as in Robert of Brunne, 
 p. 263 : 
 
 "Fro gole to }?e pasTi, werred Sir Edward," 
 
 and Passe or Pase, as in Levin's Hanip. col. 36. 
 
 Anemone Pulsatilla, L. 
 PASSIONS, or PATIENCE, a dock so called, apparently,
 
 176 POPULAR NAMES 
 
 from the Italian name under which it was introduced 
 from the South, Lapazio, a corruption of L. lapathum, 
 having been mistaken for la Passio, the Passion of Jesus 
 Christ, Rumex Patientia, L. 
 
 PAUL'S BETONY, a name given to it by Turner, as being 
 the plant described as a betony by Paul ^Egineta, 
 
 Veronica serpyllifolia, L. 
 PAWNCE, in Spenser, the Pansy. 
 PEA, in old works PEASE, a word that has either arisen 
 from Fr. pois, pronounced, as it used to be, pay, or from 
 the old form pease being, like cerise, a cherry, mistaken for 
 a plural. The Lat. pisum, from which it is derived, means 
 brayed in a mortar, pinsum, or, as it is spelt in Apuleius, 
 pisatum, Gr. tna-o^, from Skr. pish, bray, whence pesckana, 
 a quern or handmill. Tusser makes the plural peason 
 agreeably to a practice of ending the plural with n, when 
 the singular ends with s, as e.g. oxen, housen, hosen, from 
 ox, house, hose. Pisum sativum, L. 
 
 CHICK-, Cicer arietinum, L. 
 
 CHICKLING-, Lathyrus, L. 
 
 EVERLASTING-, Lathyrus latifolius, L. 
 
 ,, HEATH-, Orobus tuberosus, L. 
 
 SWEET-, Lathyrus odoratus, L. 
 
 WOOD-, Orobus tuberosus, L. 
 
 PEACH, in old works spelt PESKE, PEESK, PESHE, and 
 PECHE, O.Fr. pesche, L. persica, formerly called malum 
 persicum, Persian apple, from which the Arabs formed 
 their name for it with the prefix el or al, and thence the 
 Spaniards alberchigo, Amydalus Persica, W. 
 
 PEACH-WORT, from the resemblance of its leaves to those 
 of the peach, Polygonum Persicaria, L. 
 
 PEAR, a foreign word adopted from the Southern into 
 the Germanic languages, It. and Sp. pera, Fr. poire, pro- 
 bably once pronounced paire, from L. pyrus, 
 
 Pyrus communis, L.
 
 OF BRITISH PLANTS. 177 
 
 PEARL-PLANT, from its smooth hard pearly seed, 
 
 Lithospernmm officinale, L. 
 
 PEARL-GRASS, from its glittering panicles, 
 
 Briza maxima, L. 
 
 PEARL-WORT, from its being used to cure a disease of 
 the eye called pearl, Sagina, L. 
 
 PEASELING, an inferior Pea, (compare Chickling, Vetch- 
 ling, Crambling), Orobus, L. 
 
 PEGROOTS, (Dale, p. 177) the green hellebore, from 
 its roots being used by cattle doctors in the operation of 
 pegging or Bettering. See SETTERWORT. 
 
 Helleborus viridis, L. 
 
 PELL-A-MOUNTAIN, or PENNY MOUNTAIN, corruptions of 
 aerpyllum montanum, hill thyme, Thymus Serpyllum, L. 
 
 PELLITORY, or PARITORY, OF THE WALL, L. parietaria, 
 from paries, a house-wall, into which this weed usually 
 grows, Parietaria officinalis, L. 
 
 PELLITORY, or PELLETER OF SPAIN, Sp. pelitre, L. pyre- 
 thrum, Gr. irvpedpov, " by reason of his hot and fiery taste," 
 says Gerard e, p. 758. The term Pellitory of Spain seems 
 merely to refer to its being the plant called so in Spain, 
 and not to its being brought thence. 
 
 Anacyclus Pyrethruin, DC. 
 
 PENNY-CRESS, from its round flat silicules, resembling 
 silver pennies, Thlaspi arvense, L. 
 
 PENNY-GRASS, from its round seeds like silver pennies, 
 Rhinanthus Crista galli, L. 
 
 PENNY-ROT, in Lyte PENNY-GRASS, from its character of 
 giving sheep the rot, and its small round leaves, 
 
 Hydrocotyle vulgaris, L. 
 
 PENNY-ROYAL, from L. puleium regium, through Du. 
 poley, in the old herbals called puliol royal; its Latin name 
 being derived from its supposed efficacy in destroying fleas, 
 pulices, Pliny (b. xx. c. 54). 
 
 Mentha Pulegium, L.
 
 178 POPULAR NAMES 
 
 PENNY-WORT, from its round leaves, 
 
 Sibthorpia europsea, L. 
 
 in old works Linaria Cymbalaria, L. 
 
 MARSH-, Hydrocotyle vulgaris, L. 
 
 WALL-, Cotyledon Umbilicus, L. 
 
 PEONY, or PIONY, L. Pceonia, Gr. Trauovia, from IIcuwv, 
 a god of physic, supposed to be the same as Apollo, who 
 healed the gods Ares and Hades of their wounds (Horn. 
 II. v. 401 and 899), Paeonia corallina, Retz. 
 
 PEPPER, L. piper, Gr. irnrepi, Skr.pippali. 
 
 WALL-, from its biting taste, and place of growth, 
 
 Sedum acre, L. 
 
 ,, WATER-, Polygonum Hydropiper, L. 
 
 and also Elatine Hydropiper, L. 
 
 PEPPER-CROP, a cyme or head of flowers with the pun- 
 gent taste of pepper, the stone-crop, Sedum acre, L. 
 
 PEPPER-GRASS, a plant with linear grass-like leaves, and 
 pepper-corn-like pellets of inflorescence, 
 
 Pilularia globulifera, L. 
 
 PEPPER-MINT, Mentha piperita, L. 
 
 PEPPER SAXIFRAGE, Silaus pratensis, L. 
 
 PEPPER-WORT, from their acrid taste, the cresses, but 
 more particularly Lepidium latifolium, L. 
 
 PERCEPIER, Fr. percepierre, pierce-stone, from its sup- 
 posed lithontriptic virtues, Alchemilla arvensis, Sin. 
 
 PERIWINKLE, in Chaucer and other old poets spelt PER- 
 VINKE and PERVENKE, M.Lat. pervincula, dim. of L. per- 
 mnca, from per, about, and vincire, bind, this plant having 
 been used for chaplets, as in the Ballad against the Scots, 
 1.123: 
 " A garlande ofpervenke set on his heved." Bitson, vol. i. p. 33. 
 
 Vinca major, and minor, L. 
 
 PERSIAN WILLOW, oftener called FRENCH WILLOW, al- 
 though really an American plant, from the resemblance 
 of its leaves to willow leaves, and its foreign origin, 
 
 Epilobium angustifolium, L.
 
 OF BRITISH PLANTS. 179 
 
 PERSICARIA, see PEACH-WORT. 
 
 PESTILENCE-WEED, G. pestilenz-wurz, the butterbur 
 coltsfoot, from its having been formerly, as Lyte tells us, 
 of great repute as "a sovereign medicine against the plague 
 and pestilent fevers;" for, as the Ortus Sanitatis more 
 explicitly declares (c. ccxlv.) ; " Der safft von disem 
 kraute, gemischet mit essig und rauten-safft, yeglichs 
 gleich vil, und dis getrunckeii des abents auff ein loffel 
 foil, machet sere schwitzen, und treibet mit dem schweiss 
 auss die pestilentz." Tussilago Petasites, L. 
 
 PETTIGREE or PETTIGRUE, Fr. petit, little, and greou, 
 holly, the butcher's broom, so called from its prickly 
 leaves, Ruscus aculeatus r I/Her. 
 
 PETTY-MULLEIN, the cowslip, its name in old herbals, as 
 translated from L. verbasculum, this plant having been 
 regarded as a small species of verbascum or mullein, 
 
 Primula veris, L. 
 
 PETTY-WHIN, a small prickly shrub, a name given in 
 Lyte's Herbal to the restharrow, but by later botanists to 
 the needle-furze, Genista anglica, L. 
 
 PEWTER-WORT, from its being used to clean pewter 
 vessels, Equisetum hyemale, L. 
 
 PHEASANT'S EYE, from its bright red corolla and dark 
 centre, Adonis autumnalis, L. 
 
 PICK-NEEDLE, see PINK-NEEDLE, and POWKE-NEEDLE. 
 Erodium moschatum, L. 
 
 PICK-PURSE, from its robbing the farmer by stealing the 
 goodness of his land ; a name that in some counties is 
 given to the spurry, but seems to have been assigned to 
 the shepherd's pouch more especially, on account of the 
 number of little purses that it displays, its purse-like 
 silicles ; Capsella Bursa pastoris, L. 
 
 PIGEON'S-GRASS, Gr. Trepiarepewv, a place for pigeons, 
 a name given to it, according to Galen, as quoted by 
 Matthioli (1. iv. c. 56), from pigeons frequenting it : " quod
 
 180 POPULAR NAMES 
 
 in ea peristerse, hoc est columbae, versentur." So also 
 the Medical MS., Sloane 1571, 1. 699: 
 
 And gyt sayth mayster Macrobius, 
 Gyf yt be cast in a duffe hows, 
 Alle the duffys ther abowte 
 Schulle gedyr theder on a rowte. 
 
 Verbena officinalis, L. 
 
 PIGEON'S PEA, Fr. pois-plgeon, Ervuni Ervilia, L. 
 PIG-NUT, from its tubers being a favourite food of pigs, 
 and resembling nuts in size and flavour, 
 
 Bunium flexuosum, With. 
 
 PIG-WEED, from its being supposed to be fatal to swine, 
 see SOWBANE, Chenopodium rubrum, L. 
 
 PIGGESNIE, or, as in MS. Harl. 7334, PIGGESNEYGHE, a 
 word that occurs in a line of Chaucer, applied to a lady, 
 and associated with the primrose, 
 
 11 A primerole, a piggesnie" C. T. 3268. 
 And in the ancient song, My suete swetyng, in Ritson's 
 collection (vol. ii. p. 21) : 
 
 " And love my pretty pygmy e?' 
 
 The commentators on Chaucer explain it, amusingly 
 enough, as a "pig's eye." It seems to mean a "Whit- 
 suntide pink," from L.G. Pingsten, G. PJingst, and eye, 
 Fr. oeillet, L. ocellus, the name of these flowers from the 
 circular marking of their corolla. Pingst is shortened 
 from Gr. 7rezm;o<rr?7, meaning the fiftieth day after Easter, 
 and Pinksten-eye has been corrupted into Piggesnie. 
 
 Dianthus Caryophyllus, L. 
 
 PILE-WORT, L. pila, a ball, in allusion to the small tubers 
 on the roots, and its supposed efficacy, on the doctrine of 
 signatures, as a remedial agent, 
 
 Ranunculus Ficaria, L. 
 
 PILL-CORN, or PILD-CORN, that is, peel-corn, from its 
 grain separating from the chaff, Avena nuda, L.
 
 OF BRITISH PLANTS. 181 
 
 PILL-WORT, from its small globular involucres, L. pilula, 
 dim. of pila, a ball, Pilularia globulifera, L. 
 
 PIMPINELL, or PIMPERNELL, Fr. primprenelle, M.Lat, 
 bipennella, from having secondary little pinnae, or feather- 
 like leaflets; in old authors, as Evelyn in his Acetaria, and 
 Lyte, the burnet, of which the Italian proverb says : 
 " L'insalata non e bella Ove non e la Pimpinella." 
 
 Poterium Sanguisorba, L, 
 in modern works more generally 
 
 Pimpinella Saxifraga, L. 
 
 RED-, a plant entirely different from the above, 
 as are the two following species, and in no way agreeing 
 with the name as just explained. Why it was called so, is 
 unknown. Anagallis arvensis, L. 
 
 ,, WATER-, Samolus Valerandi, L. 
 
 and in Lyte Veronica Beccabunga, and V. Anagallis, L. 
 YELLOW-, Lysimachia nemorum, L. 
 
 PIN-RUSH, Juncus effusus, L. 
 
 PINE-TREE, L. pinus, a word that J. Grimm considers to 
 be a contraction of picimis, pitchy, and others as related 
 to Skr. pina, fat, L. pinguis, in allusion to its resinous 
 secretion. Isidore says that it was called so " ab acumine 
 foliorum : pinum enim antiqui acutum nominabant " (from 
 the sharp point of its leaves ; for picked was by the ancients 
 called pinum}. The derivation of it from the Celtic pen, 
 a peak, as the usual habitat of these trees, is highly im- 
 probable ; and Wedgwood's, from the English word pin, in 
 respect of its pin-shaped leaves, no less so; for although 
 this word may be an old one in the Germanic languages in 
 the sense of " a peg," it is only within a few centuries that 
 it has been applied to a small familiar article of female 
 dress. Pinus, L. 
 
 GROUND-, from its terebinthinate odour and lowly 
 habit, a translation of its Gr. name ^a/wu-Trm;?, 
 
 Ajuga chamsepitys, L.
 
 1H2 POPULAR NAMES 
 
 PINE-SAP, either from its sapping the pine, or growing 
 from the juices of the pine, a modern term left by its 
 author unexplained, Monotropa Hipopitys, L. 
 
 PINK, L.Germ. pinksten, Whitsuntide, as in the first 
 line of Reineke de Vos, 
 
 " It geschach up einen pinkste dach," 
 " It happened on a Whitsunday," 
 
 the season of flowering of one of its species, the Whitsun- 
 tide-gilliflower of old authors. The dictionaries derive it 
 from a supposed Dutch word, pink, an eye ; one, however, 
 that does not appear to have any such meaning in that 
 language. It is a curious accident, that a word, that 
 originally meant " fiftieth/' irevr^Koa-rrj, should come to 
 be successively the name of a festival of the Church, of a 
 flower, of an ornament in muslin called pinking, of a colour, 
 and of a sword-stab. See PIGGESNIE. Dianthus, L. 
 
 CHEDDAR-, or CLIFF-, from its occurrence on 
 Cheddar clifis, D. csesius, L. 
 
 CLOVE-, from its odour of cloves, 
 
 D. Caryophyllus, L. 
 
 CUSHION-, from its habit, Silene acaulis, L. 
 DEPTFOBD-, from its place of growth in Gerarde's 
 time, D. Armeria, L. 
 
 MAIDEN-, more properly, MEADOW-, G. wiesen- 
 nelke, from its place of growth, a confusion of maid and 
 mead, D. deltoides, L. 
 
 PINK-NEEDLE, from the resemblance of its long tapering 
 awns to the needle used in pinking, or making eyelet holes 
 like pinks, in muslin, 
 
 Erodium moschatum and cicutarium, L. 
 PINK-WEED, from the colour of the stems, 
 
 Polygonum aviculare, L. 
 
 PIPE-TREE, the lilac, from its branches having a large 
 pith that is easily bored out to make pipe-sticks, whence 
 also its Latin name from Gr. avp^, Syringa, L.
 
 OF BRITISH PLANTS. 183 
 
 PIPEWOBT, Eriocaulon septangulare, L. 
 
 PIPPERIDGB, or PIPRAGE, red-pip, the barberry, Fr. 
 pepin, a pip, and rouge, red, a name descriptive of the 
 colour and character of its small juiceless fruit, which 
 seems to be rather a pip than a berry, 
 
 Berberis vulgaris, L. 
 
 PISSABED, the dandelion, its name in nearly all the 
 languages of Western Europe, and called so, says Dale, 
 p. 83, " quia plus lotii derivat in vesicam, quam pueruli 
 retinendo sunt, praesertim inter dormiendum, eoque tune 
 imprudentes et inviti stragula permingunt." Beckmann 
 assigns the same reason. But it is questionable, whether a 
 name so general could have originally belonged to a plant 
 that has never been an article of diet, and more probable, 
 that it has been transferred to the dandelion from the salsify 
 or the asphodel. Taraxacum officinale, L. 
 
 PIXIE-STOOLS, a synonym of " toad-stools " and " pad- 
 dock-stools," the work of those elves, 
 
 " whose pastime 
 
 Is to make midnight mushrooms," 
 
 and a name of some interest as showing the identity of the 
 king of the fairies, Puck, with the toad, Fries, pogge ; for 
 pixie is the feminine or diminutive of Puck, and the pixie- 
 stool the toad-stool. The name is in the Western counties 
 given to all suspicious mushrooms alike, but in printed 
 books is generally assigned to the champignon. 
 
 Agaricus Chanterellus, L. 
 
 PLAISTER-CLOVER, from its trefoil leaves, and use in 
 ointments, Melilotus officinalis, L. 
 
 PLANE, its Old Fr. and idiomatically correct form, re- 
 placed in Spenser (F. Q. I. i. 8) and in Milton (P. L. iv. 
 478), with PLATAN E, L.platanus, Gr. 7r\aravo<f, 
 
 Platanus orientalis, and occidentalis, L. 
 MOCK-, the sycamore, Acer pseudoplatanus, L. 
 
 PLANTAGE, a name that occurs in Shakspeare's Troilus
 
 184 POPULAR NAMES 
 
 and Cressida, iii. 2, with an allusion to a superstitious 
 belief that seems to be due to a false derivation of the 
 word, as planet-age, i.e. planet-wort : 
 
 " As true as steel, zsplantage to the moon." 
 The poet probably meant not the plantain, but the moon- 
 wort. Botrychium Lunaria, L. 
 
 PLANTAIN, \i.plantago, from planta, sole of the foot, and 
 ago, which seems to have been used in plant-names with 
 the sense of " wort," from the shape of the leaf in the 
 larger species resembling a footstep, P. major, L. etc. 
 WATER-, Alisma Plantago, L. 
 
 PLANTAIN-SHOREWEED, a weed of the plantain tribe 
 found beside lakes and ponds, Littorella lacustris, L. 
 
 PLOWMAN'S ALLHEAL, see CLOWN'S- ALLHEAL. 
 
 PLOWMAN'S SPIKENARD, from the fragrant smell of the 
 root, and its being supposed by Gerarde, p. 647, to be the 
 Baccharis of Dioscorides, the vapSos dypia, nardus rustica, 
 clown's nard, of other writers, Conyza squarrosa, L. 
 
 PLUM, A.S. plum, L.G. prume, L. prunum, from some 
 Asiatic name. In Gate's time the fruit was known to the 
 Romans, but not the tree. 
 
 Primus communis, Huds. var. domestica, L. 
 
 POLE-REED, properly, as in Newton's Bible Herbal, 
 POOL-REED, from its place of growth, 
 
 Arundo phragmites, L. 
 
 POLE-RUSH, properly POOL-RUSH, see BULRUSH. 
 
 POLIANTHUS, Gr. 7ro\u9, and avdos, many-flowered, a 
 garden variety of the oxlip, Primula veris, L. elatior. 
 
 POLY-MOUNTAIN, L. polium montanum, 
 
 Bartsia alpina, L. 
 
 POLYPODY, Gr. TroXu?, and -n-oSe?, many feet, a name 
 given to certain ferns with pectinate fronds, from the 
 resemblance of some of them to an insect called scolo- 
 pendrium, Polypodium, L.
 
 OF BRITISH PLANTS. 185 
 
 POMPION, see PUMPKIN. 
 
 PONDWEED, from its growing in ponds, 
 
 Potamogeton, L. 
 
 HORNED-, Zannichellia, L. 
 
 POOR-MAN'S PARMACETTY, L. sperma ceti, whale's sperm, 
 " the sovereignst remedy for bruises," a joke on the Latin 
 name Bursa, a purse, which to a poor man is always the 
 best remedy for his bruises ; a\\a 0-1*76 ircnnws TO 
 lacrai,, fjuicpov eTrnraoras rov 'xpv&iov, Seiixos yap l 
 e'errt TO (frapfjuiKov. Lucian, Timon, c. 15. 
 
 Capsella Bursa pastoris, L. 
 
 POOR-MAN'S PEPPER, Lepidium latifolium, L. 
 
 POOR-MAN'S TREACLE, garlick, a translation of Lat. 
 Theriaca rusticorum, the Gr. Oypiatcov ayporwv of Galen, 
 so called because it was supposed to be an antidote to 
 animal poisons (Plin. 1. xx. c. 23). See TREACLE 
 MUSTARD. In Arund. MS. 42, f. 15&, as quoted in Pr. 
 Pm. (Way), p. 501, we read that juice of garlick " fordo]? 
 venym and poyson mygtily, and )>at is }>e skyle why it is 
 called Triacle of uppelonde, or ellys homly folkys Triacle." 
 
 Allium sativum, L. 
 
 POOR-MAN'S-WEATHER-GLASS, the red pimpernel, from its 
 closing its flowers before rain, whence the proverb : 
 "No ear hath heard, no tongue can tell 
 The virtues of the Pimpernell." 
 
 Anagallis arvensis, L. 
 
 POPLAR, Fr. peuplier, from L. popularia, adj. ofpoptilus, 
 a word that seems to be identical with pepul, the name of 
 the Indian Ficus religiosa, the leaves of which so closely 
 resemble those of the poplar, as in the varnished and 
 pictured specimens to be very commonly taken for poplar 
 leaves ; a name that was probably brought westward to 
 Europe by the early Asiatic colonists, and carried eastward 
 into India, in connexion with some religious observances, 
 
 Populus, L.
 
 186 POPULAR NAMES 
 
 POPLAR, BLACK-, in contrast to the White poplar, . 
 
 P. nigra, L. 
 
 LOMBARDY-, from a perhaps mistaken belief that it 
 came originally from the north of Italy, 
 
 P. fastigiata, Dsf. 
 
 WHITE-, or GREY-, from the colour of the under- 
 surface of its leaves, P. alba, L. 
 
 POPPY, A.S. papig, L. papaver, 
 
 GARDEN-, or OPIUM-, or WHITE-, 
 
 P. somniferum, L. 
 HORNED-, from its long curved seed-pods, 
 
 Glaucium luteum, L. 
 
 BED-, or CORN-, or FIELD-, P. Ehceas, L. 
 
 SEA-, Glaucium luteum, L. 
 
 SPATLING-, from the froth called cuckoo-spittle so 
 frequently found upon it, Silene inflata, L. 
 
 WELSH-, from its occurrence in Wales, 
 
 Meconopsis cambrica, L. 
 
 POTATO, Sp. Batatas, the name of a tropical convol- 
 vulus, the so-called "Sweet-potato," injudiciously trans- 
 ferred to a very different plant, Solanuin tuberosum, L. 
 
 POTHERB, WHITE-, the lamb's lettuce, in contrast to the 
 Olus atrum, or Black potherb, Valerianella olitoria, L. 
 
 POUKENEL, or POWKE-NEEDLE, L. acus demonis, Devil's 
 darning needle, from Pouke or Puck, Satan, in allusion to 
 the long beaks of its seed-vessels, Scandix Pecten, L. 
 
 PRATLING PARNELL, a name that seems to imply a girl 
 of suspicious character, who has let out secrets, or told 
 tales to her own discredit. Like the other names of this 
 flower, London Pride, Nancy Pretty, etc., it may allude to 
 some popular tale, song, or farce, that was in vogue in the 
 last century. Saxifraga umbrosa, L. 
 
 PRICKLY SAMPHIRE, see SAMPHIRE. 
 PRICKET, Fr. triacquette, dim. of triacque^ and 
 PRICK-MADAM, Fr. trique-madame, for triacque madame,
 
 OF BRITISH PLANTS. 187 
 
 from L. theriaca, an anthelmintic medicine, among the 
 principal ingredients of which were stone-crops, 
 
 Sedum acre, album, and reflexum, L. 
 
 PRICK-TIMBER, or PRICK-WOOD, from its being used to 
 make skewers, shoemakers' pegs, and goads, which were 
 formerly called pricks, G. pinnholtz, the spindle tree, 
 
 Evonymus europseus, L. 
 
 PRIEST'S CROWN, from its bald receptacle, after the 
 pappus has fallen from it, resembling the shorn heads of 
 the Roman Catholic clergy, Taraxacum officinale, Vill. 
 
 PRIEST'S PINTLE, G. pfajf en-pint and pfajfen-zagel, Fr. 
 vit de prestre, so called from the appearance of the spadix, 
 
 Arum maculatum, L. 
 
 PRIMEROLE, in Chaucer, 1. 3268, from the Fr. primeve- 
 role ) dim. of primavera, shortened from It. for di prima 
 vera. See PRIMROSE. 
 
 PRIMPRINT, or PRIM, a name now given to the privet, 
 but formerly to the primrose, from the Fr. prime printemps, 
 first spring, and exactly corresponding to the modern Fr. 
 name of this flower, primevtre. In the middle ages, how- 
 ever, the primrose was called in Latin Ligustrum, as may 
 be seen in a Nominale of the fifteenth century in Mayer 
 and Wright's vocabularies, p. 192 and p. 264, and several 
 other lists, and so late as the seventeenth century in W. 
 Coles's Adam in Eden, where he says of Ligustrum, " This 
 herbe is called primrose. It is good to potage." But 
 Ligustrum was used on the continent, and adopted by 
 Turner, as the generic name of the Privet ; and prim-print, 
 as the English of Ligustrum, thus came to be transferred 
 from the herb to the shrub. Ligustrum vulgare, L. 
 
 PRIMET, shortened from primprint, and correctly applied 
 in the Grete Herball, ch. cccl., to the primrose, 
 
 Primula veris, L. 
 
 PRIMROSE, from Pryme rolles, the name it bears in old 
 books and MSS. The Grete Herball, ch. cccl., says, " It is
 
 188 POPULAR NAMES 
 
 called Pryme Rolles of pryme tyme, because it beareth the 
 first floure in pryme tyme" It is also called so in Frere 
 Randolph's catalogue. Chaucer writes it in one word 
 primerole. This little common plant affords a most extra- 
 ordinary example of blundering. Primerole is an abbre- 
 viation of Fr. primeverole, It. primaverola, dim. of prima 
 vera, from fior di prima vera, the first spring flower. 
 Primerole, as an outlandish unintelligible word, was soon 
 familiarized into prime rolles, and this into primrose. This 
 is explained in popular works as meaning the first rose of 
 the spring, a name that never would have been given to a 
 plant that in form and colour is so unlike a rose. But the 
 rightful claimant of it, strange to say, is the daisy, which 
 in the south of Europe is a common and conspicuous flower 
 in early spring, while the primrose is an extremely rare 
 one, and it is the daisy that bears the name in all the old 
 books. See Fuchs, p. 145, where there is an excellent 
 figure of it, titled primula veris ; and the Ortus Sanitatis, 
 Ed. Augsb. 1486, ch. cccxxxiii., where we have a very 
 good woodcut of a daisy titled " masslieben, Premula 
 veris, Latine." Brunfelsius, ed. 1531, speaking of the 
 Herba paralysis, the cowslip, says, p. 190, expressly, "Sye 
 wiirt von etlichen Doctores Primula veris genannt, das 
 doch falsch ist wann Primula veris ist matsomen oder 
 zeitlosen." Brunschwygk (b. ii. c. viii.) uses the same 
 words. The Zeitlose is the daisy. Parkinson (Th. Bot. 
 p. 531) assigns the name to both the daisy and the prim- 
 rose. Matthioli (Ed. Frankf. 1586, p. 653) calls his Bellis 
 major " Primojiore maggiore, seu Fiore di prima vera, non- 
 nullis Primula veris major," and figures the moon-daisy. 
 His Bellis minor, which seems to be our daisy, he calls 
 '* Primojiore minore, Fior di primavera, Gallis Marguerites, 
 Germanis Masslieben." At p. 883 he figures the cowslip, 
 and calls that also " Primula veris, Italis Fiore di prima- 
 vera, Gallis primevere." But all the older writers, as the
 
 OF BRITISH PLANTS. 189 
 
 author of the Ortus Sanitatis, Brunschwygk, Brunsfels, 
 Fuchs, Lonicerus, and their cotemporaries, with the single 
 exception of Ruellius, assign the name to the daisy only. 
 Primula veris, L. acaulis. 
 
 SCOTCH-, from its growth upon the mountains of 
 Scotland, Primula farinosa, L. 
 
 PRIMROSE PEERLESS, a name now given to a narcissus, 
 apparently transferred to it from a lady, the favourite of 
 Thomas a Becket, of whom it is related by Bale, that 
 " Holye Thomas would sumtyme for his pleasure make 
 a journey of pylgrymage to the prymerose peerlesse of 
 Stafforde." Hampson, v. i. p. 121. The term primerose 
 was not unfrequently applied to ladies in the middle ages. 
 See Chaucer, C. T. 1. 3268. Narcissus biflorus, Curt. 
 
 PRINCE'S FEATHER, from its resemblance to that of the 
 Prince of Wales, Amarantus hypochondriacus, L. 
 
 PRIVET, in Tusser called PRIVY, altered from Prymet, 
 the primrose, through a confusion between this flower and 
 the shrub, from the application to both of them by medie- 
 val writers of the Latin Liyustrum. See above PRIM- 
 PRINT. Ligustrum vulgare, L. 
 
 ,, BARREN-, from its want of the conspicuous white 
 flowers of the real privet, to which it certainly bears no 
 other resemblance than in being an evergreen, 
 
 Rhamnus Alaternus, L. 
 
 PROCESSION FLOWER, see ROGATION FLOWER. 
 
 PRUNE, L. prunea, adj. of prunus, Gr. Trpovvrj, 
 
 P. communis, Huds. var. domestica, L. 
 
 PUCKFISTS, fromjist, G. feist, crepitus, and Puck, O.N. 
 puki, who, in Pierce Plowman and other old works, seems 
 to have been the same as Satan, but in later tales the king 
 of the fairies, and given to coarse practical jokes. See 
 PIXIE STOOLS. Lycoperdon, L. 
 
 PUDDING-GRASS, pennyroyal, from its being used to make
 
 190 POPULAR NAMES 
 
 stuffings for meat, formerly called puddings, as in an Old 
 Play, The Ordinary (Dodsley vol. x. p. 229) : 
 
 " Let the Corporal 
 
 Come sweating under a hreast of mutton, stuffed 
 With Pudding." 
 
 R. Turner says (Bot. p. 247), that it was especially "used 
 in Hogs-puddings," which, according to Halliwell, were 
 made of flour, currants, and spice, and stuffed into the en- 
 trail of a hog. Mentha Pulegium, L. 
 
 PUFF-BALL, from its resemblance to a powder puff, 
 
 Lycoperdon giganteum, Bat. 
 
 PULSE, L.puls, Gr. TroXro?, Hebr. phul, a pottage of 
 meal and peas, the food of the Romans before the intro- 
 duction of bread, and afterwards used to feed the sacred 
 chicken, a term now confined to the fruit of Leguminosae. 
 
 PUMPKIN, or POMPION, Fr. pompon, whence bumpkin, 
 L. pepo, -onis, Gr. Trerrmv, which was used in the same 
 sense; as, e.g. in Homer (II. ii. 235), o> irex-oves, blockheads ! 
 and in the phrase Trerrovos //.aXa/eeore/w, softer than a pump- 
 kin; see Talbot in Engl. Etym. Cucurbita Pepo, L. 
 
 PURIFICATION FLOWER, the snowdrop, see FAIR MAIDS 
 OF FEBRUARY. 
 
 PURPLE LOOSESTRIFE, Ly thrum Salicaria, L. 
 
 PURPLE MARSHWORT, or-MARSHLOCK, or PURPLE- WORT, 
 from the colour of its flowers, and its being consequently 
 regarded, as W. Coles tells us in his Art of Simpling, 
 ch. xxvii., as " an excellent remedy against the purples," 
 
 Comarum palustre, L. 
 
 PURRET, It. porreta, dim ofporro, the leek, L. porrum, 
 
 Allium Porrum, L. 
 
 PURSLANE, in Turner PURCELLAINE, in the Grete Herball 
 PORCELAYNE, Fr. porcellaine, It. porcellana, a name first 
 used by Marco Polo in describing the fine earthenware 
 made in China, and adopted from the name of a sea-shell, 
 which resembles it in texture, and is so called from par-
 
 OF BRITISH PLANTS. 191 
 
 cella, a dim. of L. porcus or porca, used in a figurative 
 sense, as explained by Diez and Scheler. In Latin the 
 plant was called portulaca, and this word seems to have 
 been confounded with the more familiar porcellana. It 
 certainly bears no resemblance to porcelain. Fuchs (Hist, 
 plant, p. Ill) derives its German name of Portzel kraut 
 from L. porcettus, a pig. Portulaca oleracea, L. 
 
 PURSLANE, SEA-, Atriplex portulacoides, L. 
 
 PYBRIE, the pear-tree, A.S. pirige, 
 
 Pyrus communis, L. 
 
 QUAKERS and SHAKERS, QUAKE-, or QUAKING-GRASS, 
 from its trembling spikelets, Briza media, L. 
 
 QUEEN OP THE MEAD, L. Eegma prati, from its flowers 
 resembling ostrich feathers, the badge of royalty, 
 
 Spiraea ulmaria, L. 
 
 QUICK-IN-THE-HAND, that is "Alive in the hand," the 
 Touch-me-not, from the sudden bursting and contortion of 
 its seed-pods upon being pressed, 
 
 Impatiens Noli me tangere, L. 
 
 QUICKEN or QUICK-BEAM, or WICKEN, a tree ever moving, 
 A.S. civic-beam, from civic, alive, and beam, tree, translated 
 in ^Elfric's glossary " tremulus," a name applied by him to 
 the aspen, but which has been transferred to this, the wild 
 service, or roan tree, probably through some confusion 
 between civic and wicce, a witch, and the roan being re- 
 garded as a preservative against witch-craft. See KOAN. 
 Wicken is merely a different spelling of the same word. 
 Whick is given in Levin's Manipulus as meaning " alive," 
 " vivus." Pyrus aucuparia, L. 
 
 QUICK-SET, from its being set to grow in a hedge, a 
 quick or living plant, and forming what Hyll calls " a 
 livelye hedge," as contrasted with a paling or other fence 
 of dead wood, the hawthorn, 
 
 Cratsegus Oxyacantha, L.
 
 192 POPULAR NAMES 
 
 QUILL-WORT, from its resemblance to a bunch of quills, 
 
 Isoetes lacustris, L. 
 
 QUINCE, in Chaucer (R.R. 1. 1375) come, of which quince 
 seems to be the plural, Fr. coing, It. and Span, cotogna, 
 L. cydonium, called in Greek f^rjKa KvScovia, from Cydon, a 
 place in Crete, Pyrus Cydonia, L. 
 
 QUITCH-GRASS, or TWITCH, with an interchange of the 
 initial consonant of frequent occurrence, owing partly, 
 perhaps, to the early copyists writing the letters c and t 
 exactly alike, but also from a dialectic tendency in some 
 districts to pronounce tw as qu, and qu as tw, (see Atkin- 
 son's Clev. Dial, in v. Twill) the couch-grass, A.S. cwice, 
 from civic, vivacious, Sw. kivikka. See COUCH. 
 
 Triticurn repens, L. 
 
 RABONE, Sp. rabano, L. raphanus, the radish, 
 
 Raphanus sativus, L. 
 
 RADISH, It. radice, root, L. radix, a plant valued for its 
 root, Raphanus sativus, L. 
 
 HORSE-, a larger and stronger radish, 
 
 Cochlearia Armoracia, L. 
 
 RAGGED ROBIN, Fr. Robinet dechird. The word Robin 
 may have reference to a popular farce of Robin and 
 Marion, that used to be acted in country places at Pente- 
 cost (see Ducange in v. Robinetus), and it is probable that 
 from characters in this piece the keepers' followers in the 
 New Forest were called Ragged Robins. The Ragged refers 
 to its finely laciniated petals, and seems to have suggested 
 the Robin from familiar association. 
 
 Lychnis Flos Cuculi, L. 
 
 RAGWORT, G. ragwurz, a term of indecent meaning ex- 
 pressive of supposed aphrodisiac virtues, and originally 
 assigned to plants of the Orchis tribe, as it is in Germany 
 to the present day, and as we find it in all our own early 
 herbals. With the same implied meaning the pommes
 
 OF BRITISH PLANTS, 193 
 
 d'amour are called by Lyte (b. iii. ch. 85) Rage-apples. 
 In our modern floras the name Ragwort is, for no other 
 assignable reason than its laciniated leaves, transferred to 
 a large groundsel. Senecio Jacobsea, L. 
 
 RAINBERRY-THORN, (Florio in v.) the buckthorn, from 
 L. rhamnus. See RHINE-BERRIES. 
 
 Rhamnus catharticus, L. 
 
 RAISIN-TREE, the red currant tree, from confusion of its 
 fruit with the small raisins from Corinth called currants, 
 
 Ribes rubrum, L. 
 
 RAMPK, in the sense of "wanton," from its supposed 
 aphrodisiac powers, the cuckoo pint, 
 
 Arum maculatum, L. 
 
 RAMPION, Fr. raiponce, a word mistaken, as in the 
 
 cases of "cerise" and "pease," for a plural, and the m 
 
 inserted for euphony ; from L. rapunculus, a small rapa, 
 
 or turnip ; a bell-flower so called from its esculent tubers, 
 
 Campanula Rapunculus, L. 
 
 RAMSIES or RAMSON, A.S. hramsa, Norw. rams, Da. 
 ramsc, Sw. rams, G. ramsel, from Da. Sw. and Ic. ram, rank, 
 a wild garlick so called from its strong odour, and the rank 
 flavour that it communicates to milk and butter. Ramson 
 would be the plural of ramse, as peason of pease, and oxen 
 of ox. Allium ursinum, L. 
 
 RAPE, L. rapus, or rapum, Brassica Rapa, L. 
 
 RASPBERRY, in Turner's herbal called Raspis or Raspices, 
 of which the last syllables look like the Du. bes, besje, a 
 berry. The first is more obscure. It can scarcely be rasp, 
 as the dictionaries explain it ; for, although the stems are 
 rough, the fruit is not so. It seems, like several other 
 names of plants, to be of double origin ; being partly cor- 
 rupted from Fr. ronce or rouce, a bramble, as brass from 
 bronce, and partly from resp, as it is called in Tusser, a 
 word that in the Eastern counties means a shoot, a sucker, 
 a young stem, and especially the fruit-bearing stem of 
 
 13
 
 194 
 
 POPULAR NAMES 
 
 raspberries. (Forby.) This name it may owe to the 
 circumstance that the fruit grows on the young shoots of 
 the previous year. Fr. in Cotgrave meure de ronce. 
 
 Rubus idseus, L. 
 
 RATTLE-BOX or YELLOW RATTLE, A.S. hrcetele or hrcBtel- 
 wyrt, L. crotalum, Gr. Kpora\ov, from the rattling of the 
 ripe seed in its pod, Rhinanthus Crista galli, L. 
 
 ,, RED-, Pedicularis sylvatica, L. 
 
 RAWBONE, properly RABONE. See RUNCH. 
 
 RAY-GRASS, Fr. ivraie, drunkenness, from the supposed 
 intoxicating quality of the seeds of the darnel, a species of 
 the same genus, Lolium perenne, L. 
 
 RED-KNEES, from its red angular joints, the culrage or 
 arsmart, Polygonum Hydropiper, L. 
 
 RED-LEGS, from its red stalks, 
 
 Polygonum Bistorta, L. 
 
 RED MOROCCO, from the colour of the petals, 
 
 Adonis autumnalis, L. 
 
 RED-ROT, from its supposed baneful effect upon sheep, 
 and its red colour, Drosera, L. 
 
 RED-SHANKS from its red stalks, 
 
 Polygonum Persicaria, L. 
 
 and in the Northern counties, where it is a nickname for the 
 Scotch Highlanders, the herb Robert, 
 
 Geranium Robertianum, L. 
 
 REDWEED, the red poppy, not merely from its red 
 flowers, but from these being used as a tveed or dye. 
 " Us teignent la laine en beau rouge, lorsqu'elle est traitee 
 par Talum et 1'acide acetique." Duchesne, pi. utiles, 
 p. 183. Papaver Rhoeas, L. 
 
 REED, A.S. hreod, G. riet, and a similar name in all 
 Germanic languages, seems to be identical with Lat. 
 arundo, in which the i of the former is replaced with u, as 
 in hirundo compared with Gr. ^eXtS&jz/, a swallow, and an n 
 inserted before d for euphony. The initial h of the A.S.
 
 OF BRITISH PLANTS. 195 
 
 hreod is also found in the Lat. harundo of several MSS. and 
 inscriptions. The root of the word unknown. 
 
 Arundo Phragmites, L. 
 
 REED-MACE, from the " Ecce homo " pictures, and 
 familiar statues of Jesus in his crown of thorns, with this 
 reed-like plant in his hand as a mace or sceptre, 
 
 Typha latifolia, L. 
 
 REINDEER-MOSS, a lichen on which the reindeer feeds, 
 Cladonia rangiferina, Hoffm. 
 
 REST-HARROW, arrest-harrow, Fr. arrete-bceuf, from its 
 strong matted roots impeding the progress of plough and 
 harrow, Ononis arvensis, L. 
 
 RHINE-BERRIES, the fruit of the buckthorn, Du. rhyn- 
 besien, G. rainbeere, a name explained by Lyte (b. vi. 
 c. 30) as meaning berries from the Rhine, by Adelung 
 derived from rain, a boundary, the usual place of growth 
 of the shrub, but perhaps from L. rhamnus, 
 
 Rhamnus catharticus, L. 
 
 RHUBARB, M.Lat. rha, from its oriental name raved, and 
 barbarum, foreign, to distinguish this, a plant of the Volga, 
 from the Rha ponticum, another kind from the Roman 
 province, Pontus, Rheum, L. 
 
 MONK'S-, Rumex Patientia, L. 
 
 RIBBON-GRASS, the striped variety of 
 
 Digraph's arundinacea, PB. 
 
 RIBWORT, or RIBGRASS, from the strong parallel veins in 
 its leaves, Plantago lanceolata, L. 
 
 RIE-GRASS, a name that through some confusion between 
 rie and ray is by many farmers wrongly applied to the ray- 
 grass, a perennial darnel, Lolium perenne, L. 
 but by Ray, by Martyn in his Flora Rustica, and all care- 
 ful writers assigned, with more propriety, to the meadow 
 barley, the flowering spike of which somewhat resembles 
 that of rye, Hordeum pratense, L. 
 
 RISH, the old spelling of rush
 
 196 POPULAR NAMES 
 
 ROAN-TREE, See ROWAN. 
 
 ROAST-BEEF, from the smell of the bruised leaf, the 
 stinking gladdon, Iris foetidissima, L. 
 
 ROBIN-RUN-IN-THE- HEDGE, LlZZY-RUN-UP- THE -HEDGE, 
 
 names of the ground ivy, which seem to have been given 
 to it from confusion of gill, ferment, Fr. guiller, with gill, 
 a girl. See GILL and HAYMAIDS. Nepeta Glechoma, B. 
 
 ROCAMBOLE, Fr. rocambolle, a word of uncertain deriva- 
 tion, Allium Scorodoprasum, L. 
 
 ROCK-CRESS, from its alliance to the cresses, and its 
 growth upon rocks, Arabis stricta and petraa, Lam. 
 ROCK-MOSS, a lichen that grows on rocks, 
 
 Roccella tinctoria, Ag. 
 
 ROCK-ROSE, a name that properly belongs to the Cisti, 
 with which the English representatives of the order were 
 once comprised, from the resemblance of some of them to 
 a rose, and their growth on rocks, Helianthemum, L. 
 
 ROCK-TRIPE, Fr. tripe de rocke, an edible lichen, upon 
 which Sir J. Franklin and his companions supported them- 
 selves in Arctic America, and so called from some fancied 
 resemblance, Gyrophora vellea, Ach. 
 
 ROCKET, Fr. roquette, It. rucchetta, dim. of L. eruca, 
 
 Eruca sativa, Lam. 
 
 ,, BASE-, or DYER'S-, Reseda lutea, L. 
 
 ,, BASTARD-, Brassica Erucastrum, L. 
 
 DAME'S-, or GARDEN-, or WHITE-, 
 
 Hesperis matronalis, L. 
 
 ,, LONDON-, Sisymbrium Irio, L. 
 
 ,, SEA-, Cakile maritima, L. 
 
 WALL-, Brassica muralis, Bois. 
 
 WINTER-, or YELLOW-, Barbarea vulgaris, RB. 
 ROGATION-FLOWER, from its flowering in Rogation week, 
 the next but one before Whitsuntide, when processions 
 were made to perambulate the parishes with the Holy 
 Cross and Litanies, to mark the boundaries, and invoke
 
 OF BRITISH PLANTS. 197 
 
 the blessing of God on the crops. Gerarde says (p. 450) 
 that " the maidens which use in the countries to walke 
 the procession, make themselves garlands and nosegaies 
 of it." It was for the same reason called Cross-, Gang-, 
 and Procession-flower. Polygala vulgaris, L. 
 
 ROSE, L. rosa, a word adopted into most of the modern 
 languages of Europe, Gr. poSov, which evidently means 
 "red," and is nearly related to Go. rauds, G. roth, W. 
 rhudd, Rus. rdeyu, and Skr. rohide, red. The L. rosa 
 appears to be a foreign word introduced to replace a more 
 ancient name for this shrub, rubus, which, like the Gr. 
 poSov, is expressive of a red colour, as we see from its 
 derivatives, rubeus, ruber, rubidus, rubicundus, rubere, 
 erubescere, rubigo, rubia, but which is employed by Latin 
 writers merely in the sense of a bramble bush. Rosa 
 would seem to be connected with poBov through a form in 
 t, rota, whence rutilus, reddish, and L. rota, Wei. rhod, 
 Gael, roth, a wheel, so named, we may presume, from' the 
 resemblance of its outline to a rose. The one cultivated in 
 ancient times must have been a crimson species, to judge 
 from the myth of its springing from the blood of Adonis ; 
 Homer's poSoSa/mAo? 'Ha?; the comparison of it with 
 Tyrian purple in Columella's line : 
 
 Jam rosa mitescit Sarrano clarior ostro ; 
 and the distinct statement of Isidore (c. ix.) that it was 
 called so, " quod rutilante colore rubet." Rosa, L. 
 
 BRIER-, or DOG-, R. canina, L. 
 
 BDRNET-, from the resemblance of its leaf to that 
 of the burnet, R. spinosissima, L. 
 
 CANKER-, from its supposed injurious effect on 
 wheat-crops, the red or field poppy, Papaver Rhceas, L. 
 
 CHRISTMAS-, from its rose-like flowers, and its 
 blossoming in the winter, Helleborus niger, L. 
 
 CORN-, the field poppy, Papaver Rhoeas, L. 
 
 GUELDER-, from its balls of white flowers which
 
 198 POPULAR NAMES 
 
 somewhat resemble a double rose, and its native country 
 Gueldres, the sterile-flowered var. of the water elder, 
 
 Viburnum Opulus, L. 
 
 ROSE, PEOVINCE-, from Provins, a small village near 
 Paris, where it used to be cultivated, R. gallica, L. var. 
 ROSE-A-BUBY, L. rosa rubea, from its rich red flowers, 
 Adonis autumnalis, L. 
 
 ROSE BAY, the name given by Turner to the oleander, 
 but now, from resemblance of leaf in an outline drawing, 
 applied in some books to a very different plant, 
 
 Epilobium angustifolium, L. 
 ROSE CAMPION, the rose-coloured campion, 
 
 Lychnis coronaria, L. 
 
 ROSE ELDER, the elder that bears roses, the Guelder 
 rose, Viburnum Opulus, L. 
 
 ROSE-ROOT, or -WORT, L. rhodia radix, from the odour 
 of its rootstock, Rhodiola rosea, L. 
 
 ROSEMARY, L. *rosmarinus, sea-spray, from its usually 
 growing on the sea-coast, and its odour, 
 
 Rosmarinus ofEcinalis, L. 
 
 ,, MARSH-, or WILD-, from its narrow linear leaves 
 like those of rosemary, Andromeda polifolia, L. 
 
 ROT-GRASS, from its being supposed to bane sheep, a 
 grass in the sense of herbage, Pinguicula vulgaris, L. 
 
 ROWAN, or ROAN-TREE, called in the Northern counties 
 RAN or ROYNE, Da. and Sw. ronn or runn, the O.Norse 
 runa, a charm, from its being supposed to have power to 
 avert the evil eye. "The most approved charm against 
 cantrips and spells was a branch of the Rowan-tree planted 
 and placed over the byre. This sacred tree cannot be 
 removed by unholy fingers." Jamieson's Scot. Dict y - 
 " Roan-tree and red thread 
 Haud the witches a' in dread." 
 
 Johnston in East. Bord. 
 
 The word runn, from Skr. ru, murmur, meant a secret.
 
 OF BRITISH PLANTS. 199 
 
 A run-wita was a private secretary, one who knew his 
 master's secrets ; and from the same word were derived 
 rynan, to whisper, runa, a whisperer, in earlier times a 
 magician, and run-stafas, mysterious staves. From this 
 last use of the word the name run came naturally to be 
 applied to the tree from which such staves were usually 
 cut, as boc to that from which bookstaves, bocstafas, 
 were made ; but it does not appear to be ascertained 
 why this tree should have been so exclusively used for 
 carving runes upon, as to have derived its name from 
 them, not only in the British isles, but in the Scandinavian 
 countries also. There was probably a superstitious feeling 
 of respect for it derived from ancient times. 
 
 Pyrus Aucuparia, Gart. 
 
 RUDDES, a name that should mean a red or ruddy flower, 
 and is hardly applicable in the present sense of the word 
 to a yellow one, such as the marigold, to which it is given 
 in early writers. But ruddy was formerly said of gold ; 
 and the author of the Grete Herball, in speaking of this 
 plant, says, " Maydens make garlands of it, when they go 
 to feestes and bryde ales, because it hath fayre yellowe 
 floures and ruddy." Calendula officinalis, L. 
 
 and also Chrysanthemum segetum, L. 
 
 RUE, L. ruta, its meaning unknown, 
 
 Ruta graveolens, L. 
 
 MEADOW-, or FEN-, from its rue-like much divided 
 leaves, and its place of growth, Thalictrum flavum, L. 
 ,, WALL-, Asplenium Ruta muraria, L. 
 
 RUNCH, a word that in Scotland is applied to a strong 
 rawboned woman, as a " runchie quean," in reference, as 
 Jamieson thinks, to a coarse wild radish, the jointed char- 
 lock, so called from another meaning of the word runch, viz., 
 to crunch, Raphanus Raphanistrum, L. 
 
 RUPTURE-WORT, from its fancied remedial powers, 
 
 Herniaria glabra, L.
 
 200 POPULAR NAMES 
 
 HUSH, called in old authors RYSCHYS, RISE, RESH, and 
 RASHES, A.S. rise, related to It. lisca, reed, Go. raus, 
 
 Juncus, L. 
 
 BOG-, Schoanus, L. 
 
 BUL-, Scirpus lacustris, L. 
 
 CLUB-, Scirpus palustris, L. 
 
 DUTCH-, or SCOUKING-, Equisetum hyemale, L. 
 FLOWERING-, from its tall rush-like stem and 
 handsome head of flowers, Butoinus umbellatus, L. 
 ,, PIN-, Juncus effusus, L. 
 
 RUST, from an effect similar to the rust of iron produced 
 upon plants by certain minute fungi. 
 
 RUTABAGA, the Swede turnip, so called from Sw. rota- 
 baggar, root-rams. J. H. Lundgren in N. & Q., 4th 
 ser., v. 76. Brassica campestris, L. var. rutabaga. 
 
 RYE, A.S. ryge, O.N. rugr, W. rhyg, O.H.G. roggo, Lith. 
 ruggei, Rus. rosk, Pol. rez', Esth. rukki, a word extending, 
 with dialectic modifications, all over Northern Asia, from 
 which this grain seems to have travelled to the South and 
 West. Its derivation unknown. See L. Diefenbach, Or. 
 Eur. No. 29, and J. Grimm, Gesch. d. D. Spr. p. 64. 
 
 Secale cereale, L. 
 RYE-GRASS, see RIE-GRASS, and RAY-GRASS. 
 
 SABIN, see SAVINE. 
 
 SAPPLOWER, from its flowers being sold, as a dye, for 
 genuine saffron, Carthamus tinctorum, L. 
 
 SAPFRON, Sp. azafran, Ar. al zahafaran, 
 
 Crocus sativus, L. 
 
 SAGE, Fr. sauge, It. and Lat. salvia, which by change of 
 / to u became sauuia, sauja, sauge, as alveus, a trough, by 
 the same process, auge, Salvia, L. 
 
 WOOD-, from its sage-like leaves, and growth in 
 woods, and about their borders, Teucrium Scorodonia, L. 
 
 SAINFOIN, sometimes spelt, as in Lyte, in Dale, and in
 
 OF BRITISH PLANTS. 
 
 201 
 
 Martyn's Flora Rustica, Saintfoin, in Hudson St. Foin, in 
 Plukenet Sainct-foin, and thence translated by some of our 
 old writers " Holy hay," but really formed from Fr. sain, 
 wholesome, andfoin, hay, L. sanum foemim, representing 
 its older name Medica, which properly meant " of Media," 
 but was misunderstood as meaning " curative." According 
 to Plukenet and Hill, the name was first given to the 
 lucerne, Medicago sativa, and that of lucerne to an 
 Onobrychis, our present sainfoin. There does not appear 
 to be any saint named Foin, nor any reason for ascribing 
 divine properties to this plant. According to Bomare 
 quoted by Duchesne, "Le S. est ainsi appele parceque c'est 
 le fourage le plus appetisant, le plus nourrissant, et le plus 
 sain, qu'on puisse donner aux chevaux et aux bestiaux." 
 Good reasons for a name follow of course. The equivocal 
 word Medica is undoubtedly the origin of this one. See 
 MEDICK. As at present applied, Onobrychis sativa, Lam. 
 
 SAINFOIN,UI the Dictionary of Husbandry, 1717,lucerne, 
 which is explained as " Medick fodder, Spanish trefoil, and 
 Snail or Horned clover grass," Medicago sativa, L. 
 
 ST. ANTHONY'S NUT, the pignut, from his being the 
 patron saint of pigs. " Immundissimas porcorum greges 
 custodire cogitur miser Antonius." Moresini Papatus, 
 p. 133. Bunium flexuosum, L. 
 
 ST. ANTHONY'S RAPE or TURNEP, from its tubers being a 
 favourite food of pigs, Ranunculus bulbosus, L. 
 
 ST. BARBARA'S CRESS, from its growing in the winter, 
 her day being the 4th Dec. old style ; or as the Grimms 
 explain the G. synonym barbel- or barben-kraut, " weil es 
 die barben im bach fressen," because the barbel in the 
 brook eat it, Barbarea vulgaris, DC. 
 
 ST. BARNABY'S THISTLE, from its flowering at the sum- 
 mer solstice, the llth June, old style, now the 22nd, his 
 day, whence its Latin specific name, 
 
 Centaurea solstitialis, L.
 
 202 POPULAR NAMES 
 
 ST. BENNET'S HERB, see HERB BENNET. 
 
 ST. CATHARINE'S FLOWER, from its persistent styles re- 
 sembling the spokes of her wheel, Nigella damascena, L. 
 
 ST. CHRISTOPHER'S HERB, see HERB CHRISTOPHER. 
 
 ST. DABOEC'S HEATH, from an Irish saint of that name, 
 a species found in Ireland, Menziesia polifolia, Jus. 
 
 ST. JAMES'S WORT, either from its being used for the 
 diseases of horses, of which this great warrior and pilgrim 
 saint was the patron ; or, according to Tabernsemontanus, 
 because it blossoms about his day, the 25th July, which 
 may have led to its use in a veterinary practice upon male 
 colts at this season ; Senecio Jacobsea, L. 
 
 ST. JOHN'S WORT, from its being gathered on the eve of 
 St. John's day, the 24th June, to be hung up at windows 
 as a preservative against thunder and evil spirits, whence 
 it was called Fuga daemonum, and given internally against 
 mania, Hypericum perforatum, L. 
 
 ST. PATRICK'S CABBAGE, from its occurrence in the West 
 of Ireland, where St. Patrick lived, the London pride, 
 
 Saxifraga umbrosa, L. 
 
 ST. PETER'S WORT, of the old Herbals, the cowslip, from 
 its resemblance to St. Peter's badge, a bunch of keys, 
 whence G. schlussel-blume, Primula veris, L. 
 
 ST. PETER'S WORT of modern floras, from its flowering on 
 his day, the 29th June, Hypericum quadrangulum, L. 
 
 SALAD, or SALLET, CORN-, from it being eaten as a salad, 
 and growing in corn-fields, Valerianella olitoria, Poll. 
 
 SALAD BURNET, a burnet eaten with salad, 
 
 Poterium sanguisorba, L. 
 
 SALEP, Mod. Gr. o-aXerri, Pers. sahaleb, the plant from 
 which salep is made, Orchis latifolia, L. 
 
 SALIGOT, Fr. saligot, a sloven, or one who lives in dirt, 
 from its growing in mud, a plant that Lyte tells us (p. 536) 
 was found in his time " in certayne places of this countrie, 
 as in stues and pondes of cleare water," Trapa natans, L.
 
 OF BRITISH PLANTS. 203 
 
 SALLOW, A.S. sealh, salh, salig, O.H.G. solatia, Da. selje, 
 O.N. selja, L. salix, Gr. e\t, Ir. sail and saileog, Sw. salg, 
 Fin. salawa, different forms of a word that implies a shrub 
 fit for withes, A.S. sal, or seel, a strap or tie, with a termi- 
 nating adjectival ig or h, corresponding to the ix, or ex, or 
 ica in the Latin names of shrubs. Sal, a hall, in O.H.G. 
 a house, G. saal, seems to be of the same origin, and to tell 
 us that our ancestors dwelt in houses of wicker work, even 
 men of rank. The L. aula, Gr. av\tj, is perhaps the same 
 word as sal. It means both a stall and a hall. In fact, 
 the royal sheepcote was in the primitive nation the royal 
 palace, as among the Tartars of the interior of Asia is the 
 aoul at the present day. See Westmacott, p. 84. 
 
 Salix, L. 
 
 SALLOW-THORN, from its white willow-like leaves, and 
 spinous branches, Hippophae rhamnoides, L. 
 
 SALSIFY, Fr. salsifis, L. solsequium, from sol, sun, and 
 sequi, follow, a plant whose flower was supposed to follow 
 the sun, Tragopogon porrifolius, L. 
 
 SALTWORT, from its officinal Latin name Salicornia, salt- 
 horn, Salicornia herbacea, L. 
 BLACK-, Glaux maritima, L. 
 
 SAMPHIRE, more properly spelt SAMPIRB or SAMPIER, 
 Fr. Saint Pierre, It. Herba di San Pietro, contracted to 
 Sampetra; from being, from its love of sea-cliffs, dedicated 
 to the fisherman saint, whose name is the Gr. Trerpo?, a 
 rock, Fr. pierre, Crithmum maritimum, L. 
 
 MARSH-, Salicornia herbacea, L. 
 
 SAND-WEED, or -WORT, from its place of growth, 
 
 Arenaria, L. 
 
 SANGUINARY, L. sanguinaria, the yarrow, from being 
 confused, under the equivocal name millefolium, with a 
 horsetail that Isidore tells us (c. ix.) was formerly used to 
 make the nose bleed, and thence called herba sanguinaria. 
 See NOSEBLEED. Achillsea Millefolium, L.
 
 204 POPULAR NAMES 
 
 SANICLB, a word usually derived immediately from 
 L. sanare, heal, which on principles of etymology is impos- 
 sible. Indeed it is, as Adelung remarks, an even question, 
 whether its origin is Latin or German. Its great abundance 
 in the middle and north of Europe would incline us rather 
 to the latter as the likeliest, and it may be a corruption of 
 Saint Nicolas called in German Nickel. Whatever its 
 derivation, the name was understood in the Middle ages 
 as meaning "curative/ 1 and suggested many proverbial 
 axioms, such as : 
 
 "Q,ui a la bugle et la sanicle, Fait aux chirurgions la nicle." 
 " He who has bugle and sanicle makes a joke of the sur- 
 geons ; " and 
 
 " Celuy qui sanicle a, De mire affaire il n'a." 
 " He who keeps sanicle, has no business with a doctor." 
 Sanicula does not occur in classical Latin writers, and there 
 is no such word as sanis or sanicus from which it could 
 have been formed. But in favour of the derivation from 
 San Nicola or Sanct Nickel, is the wonderful Tale of a Tub, 
 the legend of his having interceded with God in favour of 
 the two children, whom an innkeeper had murdered and 
 pickled in a pork tub, and obtained their restoration to life 
 and health. See Forster's Perennial Calendar, p. 688, 
 and Mrs. Jameson's Sacred and Legendary Art, p. 273. 
 A plant named after this saint, and dedicated to him, might 
 very reasonably be expected to " make whole and sound 
 all wounds and hurts both inward and outward," as Lyte 
 and other herbalists tell us of the sanicle. The Latin 
 name, as in so many other cases, would be the nearest 
 approach that could be made to the German. See SELF- 
 HEAL. Sanicula europaea, L. 
 
 SARACENS CONSOUND, M.Lat. Consolida Saracennica. 
 Parkinson says (Th. Bot. p. 540), that "it is called Solidago 
 and Consolida from the old Latine word consolidare, which 
 in the barbarous Latine age did signify to soder, close, or
 
 OF BRITISH PLANTS. 205 
 
 glue up the lips of wounds ; and Saracenica, because the 
 Turks and Saracens had a great opinion thereof in healing 
 the wounds and hurts of their people, and were accounted 
 great chirurgions, and of wonderful skill therein." Hence 
 it was in German also called Heidnisch wundkraut. 
 
 Senecio Saracenicus, W. 
 
 SATIN-FLOWER, from the satiny dissepiments of its seed 
 vessel, Lunaria bienuis, L. 
 
 SATYRION, L. satyrium, Gr. a-arvpiov from aarvpos, a 
 satyr, a name applied to several species of orchis, from 
 their supposed aphrodisiac character. " Mulieres partium 
 Italise dant earn radicem tritam cum lacte caprino ad 
 incitandam libidinem." Herbarius, c. cxxviii. Orchis, L. 
 
 SAUCE-ALONE, so called, according to W. Coles, from 
 being " eaten in spring-time with meat, and so highly 
 flavoured that it serves of itself for sauce instead of many 
 others." This is an ingenious explanation of the name ; 
 but the real origin of it is more likely to be the It. eyKone, 
 Fr. ailloignon, coarse garlick. Like its German name, 
 Sasskraut, sauce-herb, the English will mean " sauce- 
 garlick," and refer to its strong alliaceous odour. 
 
 Erysimum Alliaria, L. 
 
 SAUGH, the sallow, A.S. sealh, Salix Caprea, L. 
 
 SAVINE, from the Sabine district of Italy, 
 
 Juniperus sabina, L. 
 
 SAVOURY, Fr. savoree, It. savoreggia, L. satureja, 
 
 Satureja hortensis, L. 
 
 SAVOY, from the country of its discovery, 
 
 Brassica oleracea, L. var. Sabauda. 
 
 SAW-WORT, from its leaves being nicked like a saw, 
 
 Serratula arvensis, L. 
 
 SAXIFRAGE, L. saxifraga, from saxum, rock, andfrango, 
 break, being supposed to disintegrate the rocks, in the 
 crevices of which it grows, and thence, on the doctrine 
 of signatures, to dissolve stone in the bladder. Isidore of
 
 206 POPULAR NAMES 
 
 Seville derives it primarily from this latter quality. The 
 words in the Ort. San. are : " Der meister Ysidorus spricht, 
 das dises krant umb des willen heysst saxifraga, wann es 
 den stein brichet in der blasen, und den zu sandt machet." 
 It is for the same reason called in Scotland Thirlstane. 
 
 Saxifraga, L. 
 also from its supposed similar virtues, 
 
 Pirnpinella Saxifraga, L. 
 
 SAXIFRAGE, BTJRNET-, Pimpinella Saxifraga, L. 
 
 GOLDEN-, Chrysosplenium, L. 
 
 MEADOW-, Silaus pratensis, Bess. 
 
 SCABWORT, from its use in veterinary medicine to cure 
 
 scabby heels, the elecampane, Inula Helenium, L. 
 
 SCABIOUS, L. scabiosa, scurfy, from scabies, scurf, in allu- 
 sion to the scaly pappus of its seeds, which, on the doctrine 
 of signatures, led to its use in leprous diseases, and its 
 being regarded as a specific remedy for all such as were 
 "raiidig" or "grindig," itchy or mangy. See Brunschwygk. 
 
 Scabiosa, L. 
 SCAD-TREE, in Jacob's PI. Faversh. the bullace, 
 
 Prunus insititia, Huds. 
 
 SCALD-BERRY, from the supposed curative effect of its 
 leaves boiled in lye in cases of scalled head, Park. Th. Bot., 
 p. 1016, the blackberry, Rubus fruticosus, L. 
 
 SCALE-FERN, from the scales that clothe the back of the 
 fronds, Ceterach officinaruin, W. 
 
 SCALLION, a garlick from Ascalon in Syria, 
 
 Allium ascalonicurn, L. 
 SCARLET-RUNNER, a climber with scarlet flowers, 
 
 Phaseolus multiflorus, L. 
 
 SCIATICA-CRESS, from Lat. Ischiatica, so called from its 
 supposed effect in cases of irritation of the ischiatic nerve, 
 a species of candytuft, Iberis ainara, L. 
 
 SCORPION-GRASS, the old name of the plant now called 
 "Forget-me-not," and that under which it is described
 
 OF BRITISH PLANTS. 207 
 
 in all our Herbals, and all our Floras, inclusive of the 
 Flora Londinensis and Gray's Natural Arrangement, till 
 the end of the first quarter of this century, when the term 
 " Forget-me-not " was introduced with a pretty popular 
 tale from Germany, and superseded it. It was called 
 Scorpion-grass from being supposed, on the doctrine of 
 signatures, from its spike resembling a scorpion's tail, to be 
 good against the sting of a scorpion. Lyte tells us (b. i. 
 c. 42) that in his day, 1578, it had " none other knowen 
 name than this." Myosotis, L. 
 
 SCOTCH ASPHODEL, a plant of the Asphodel tribe com- 
 mon in Scotland, Tofieldia palustris, Huds. 
 
 SCOTCH FIB, from its growing wild in Scotland, 
 
 Pinus sylvestris, L. 
 
 SCOTCH THISTLE, the thistle adopted as the badge of 
 Scotland in the national arms, usually taken to be the 
 musk thistle, Carduus nutans, L. 
 
 but according to Johnston in East. Bord. 
 
 ODOpordon Acanthium, L. 
 
 SCOURING RUSH, or SCRUB-GRASS, a rush-like plant used 
 in scouring utensils of wood or pewter, the Dutch rush, a 
 species of horsetail, Equisetum hyemale, L. 
 
 SCRAMBLING ROCKET, a corruption of Crambling. 
 
 SCRATCHWEED, Fr. grateron, from gratter, scratch, the 
 goose-grass or cleavers, Galium Aparine, L. 
 
 SCURVY-GRASS, -CRESS, or -WEED, from its use against 
 scurvy, Cochlearia officinalis, L. 
 
 SEA-BEET, Beta maritima, L. 
 
 SEA-BELLS, -BINDWEED, or -WITHWIND, 
 
 Convolvulus Soldanella, L. 
 
 SEA-BELT, Laminaria saccharina, Lam. 
 
 SEA-BUCKTHORN, Hippophae rhamnoides, L. 
 
 SEA-BUGLOSS, Pulmonaria maritima, L. 
 
 SEA-CALE, or -KALE, a cale or colewort that grows by 
 the sea-side. Crambe maritima, L.
 
 208 POPULAR NAMES 
 
 SEA-GILLI FLOWER, Statice Armeria, L. 
 
 SEA-GRAPE, Salicornia herbacea, L. 
 
 SEA-GRASS, Ruppia maritima, L. 
 
 SEA-HARD-GRASS, Ophiurus incurvatus, RB. 
 
 SEA-HEATH, Frankenia pulverulenta, L. 
 
 SEA-HOLLY, -HOLME, or -HULVER, 
 
 Eryngiuin maritiinum, L. 
 
 SEA-LACES, -CATGUT, or -WHIPCORD, 
 
 Chorda Filnm, Lam. 
 
 SEA-LAVENDER, Statice Limonium, L. 
 
 SEA-LYME-GRASS, Elymus arenarius, L. 
 
 SEA-MAT-WEED, Psamma arenaria, P.B. 
 
 SEA-MILK-WORT, Glaux maritima, L. 
 
 SEA-POPPY, Glaucium luteum, L. 
 
 SEA-PURSLANE, Atriplex portulacoides, L. 
 
 SEA- REED, Psamma arenaria, P.B. 
 
 SEA-ROCKET, Cakile maritima, L. 
 
 SEA-STARWORT, Aster Tripolium, L. 
 
 SEA-WEEDS, Algse. 
 
 SEAL-WORT, from the round markings, like impressions 
 of a seal, on the root-stock, the Solomon's seal, 
 
 Convallaria Polygonatum, L. 
 
 SEAVES, rushes, a North-country word, Da. siv, 
 
 Juncus, L. 
 
 SEDGE, SEGG, or SEGS, originally the same word, A.S. 
 secff, which is identical with scecg, and seasc, a small sword, 
 a dagger, and was applied indiscriminately to all sharp- 
 pointed plants growing in fens, rushes, reeds, and sedges. 
 Thus in a Wycliffite version of Exod. ii. 3, " she took a 
 basket of rush," is, " sche took a leep of segg" Their 
 sense is at present limited ; Sedge being now confined to 
 the genus Carex, L. 
 
 and Segg to the gladdon and flag-flowers, Iris, L. 
 
 SEE-BRIGHT, from its supposed effect on the eyes (see 
 CLARY), Salvia Sclarea, L.
 
 OP BRITISH PLANTS. 209 
 
 SEGGRUM, from its application as a vulnerary to newly- 
 cut rams, bulls, and colts, which in the North are called 
 seggrams and seggs. See STAGGERWORT. 
 
 Senecio Jacobsea, L. 
 
 SELF-HEAL, correctly so spelt, and not Slough-heal, for 
 reasons stated under this latter term. It meant that with 
 which one may cure one's self, without the help of a sur- 
 geon, to which effect Ruellius quotes a French proverb, 
 that " No one wants a surgeon who keeps Prunelle." See 
 Park. Th. Bot. p. 526. Prunella vulgaris, L. 
 
 and also, for the same reason, Sanicula europsea, L. 
 
 SENGREEN, A.S. sin, ever, and grene, green, from its 
 evergreen leaves, the houseleek, 
 
 Sempervivum tectorum, L. 
 
 SENVY, Fr. seneve, G. senf, L. sinapis, Gr. a-warn, 
 mustard, Brassica nigra, Boiss. 
 
 SEPTFOIL, or SETFOIL, from its seven leaflets, Fr. sept, 
 and feuilles, Lat. in Apuleius, (c. 117,) septefolium, Gr. 
 7TTo<f>v\\ov, Potentilla Tormentilla, Sib. 
 
 SERVICE-, or, as in Ph. Holland's Pliny more correctly 
 spelt, SERVISE-TREE, from L. cervisia, its fruit having from 
 ancient times been used for making a fermented liquor, a 
 kind of beer : 
 
 " Et pocula laeti 
 Fermento atque acidis imitantur vitea sorbts." 
 
 Yirg. Geor. iii. 379. 
 
 Diefenbach remarks : (Or. Eur. 102) " bisweilen bedeutet 
 cervisia einen nicht aus Getreide gebrauten Trank ; " and 
 Evelyn tells us in his Sylva (ch. xv), that " ale and beer 
 brewed with these berries, being ripe, is an incomparable 
 drink." The Ceremsia of the ancients was made from 
 malt, and took its name, we are told by Isidore of 
 Seville, from Ceres, Cereris, but this has come to be used 
 in a secondary sense without regard to its etymological 
 meaning, just as in Balm-tea we use tea in the sense of an 
 
 14
 
 210 POPULAR NAMES 
 
 infusion, without regard to its being properly the name of 
 a different plant. Pyrus doniestica, Sm. 
 
 SERVICE, WILD-, the rowan tree, Pyrus aucuparia, Gart. 
 
 SETWALL, from M.Lat. Zedoar or Zeduar, the name of 
 an Oriental plant for which this was sold, through the 
 changes of r to I, and z to s, by which we get Zeduar, 
 Zedualle, Setewale, as in Chaucer, and Setwal, a plant 
 usually understood to be Valeriana officinalis, L. 
 
 but according to Lyte Valeriana pyrenaica, L. 
 
 SETTERWORT, a plant so called because it was used for 
 the operation of Bettering, " Husbandmen are used to 
 make a hole, and put a piece of the root into the dewlap 
 of their cattle, as a seton, in cases of diseased lungs ; and 
 this is called pegging or Bettering." (Gerarde, p. 979.) 
 Setter is a corruption of seton, It. setone, a large seta, or 
 thread of silk. Helleborus ftetidus, L. 
 
 SHAKER, from the tremulous motion of its spikelets, a 
 synonym of its other name, quaker, Briza media, L. 
 
 SHALLOT, Fr. eschalotte, from L. Ascalonitis, of Ascalon 
 in Palestine, its native country, Allium ascalonicum, L. 
 
 SHAMROCK, Erse seamrog, compounded of seamar, trefoil, 
 and og, little, the seamar, in the opinion of L. Diefenbach, 
 the same as sumar, in a word that is given by Marcellus 
 of Bordeaux, physician to Theodosius the Great, as the 
 Celtic name of clover, visumarus. The plants that for a 
 long time past have been regarded by the Irish as the true 
 shamrock, and worn by them on St. Patrick's Day, are the 
 black nonsuch, and the Dutch clover ; and these, but 
 chiefly and almost exclusively the first, are sold for the 
 national badge in Covent Garden, as well as in Dublin. 
 Intermixed with them are several other species of the same 
 two genera, medicago and trifolium, but no plant of any 
 other genus. Of late years, however, several writers have 
 adopted Mr. Bicheno's fancy, and advocated the claims of 
 the wood-sorrel to this honour, but certainly without the
 
 OF BRITISH PLANTS. 211 
 
 smallest shadow of reason. Mr. J. Hardy, in an excellent 
 article on the subject in the third number of the Border 
 Magazine, has shown that the plant intended by the writers 
 of Queen Elizabeth's reign was the watercress. Thus 
 Stanihurst, in Holinshed's^Chronicle, ed. 1586, says : 
 " Watercresses, which they tearme shamrocks, roots, and 
 other herbs they feed upon ; " a statement which he re- 
 peats in his work, " De rebus in Hibernia," p. 52. Fynes 
 Morison also says that "they willingly eate the herbe sham- 
 rock, being of a sharp taste, which, as they run to and 
 fro, they snatch like beasts out of the ditches." It will be 
 objected to the watercress, that its leaf is not trifoliate, and 
 could not have been used by St. Patrick to illustrate the 
 doctrine of the Trinity. But this story is of modern date, 
 and not to be found in any of the lives of that saint. In 
 Chambers' Book of Days, vol. i. p. 384, it is stated that 
 the trefoil is in Arabic called shamrakh, and held sacred 
 in Iran, as emblematical of the Persian Triads. The word 
 is shimrakh, and means a bunch of dates ! The plant 
 which is figured upon our coins, both Irish and English, is 
 a conventional trefoil. As its leaflets are stipitate, it can- 
 not have been meant for a wood-sorrel, as some writers have 
 pretended it to be. The plant that, upon the authority of 
 Dr. Moore, of Dublin, and other competent persons, has for 
 many years been recognized in Ireland as the true sham- 
 rock, is the black nonsuch, Medicago lupulina, L. 
 and occasionally mixed with it, or mistaken for it, the 
 Dutch clover, Trifolium repens, L. 
 
 SHAREWORT, L. inguinalis, from being supposed to cure 
 diseases of the share or groin, called buboes, whence one of 
 its synonyms in old authors bubonium. The misunder- 
 standing of this word bubonium led to some ludicrous 
 theories of the effect of the plant upon toads. The Ortus 
 Sanitatis tells us (ch. 431) that it means toad-wort, for that 
 " bubo means toad. Inde bubonium. And it is so called,
 
 1812 POPULAR NAMES 
 
 because it is a great remedy for the toads. When a spider 
 stings a toad, and the toad is becoming vanquished, and 
 the spider stings it thickly and frequently, and the toad 
 >cannot avenge itself, it bursts asunder. But if such a 
 burst toad is near this pla$t, it chews it, and becomes 
 sound again. But if it happens that the wounded toad 
 cannot get to the plant, another toad fetches it, and gives 
 it to the wounded one." A case is recorded in Topsell's 
 Natural History, p. 729, as having been actually witnessed 
 by the Duke of Bedford and his attendants, at a place called 
 Owbourn, (a mis-spelling perhaps of Woburn,) and often- 
 times related by himself. The error has arisen from the 
 confusion of bubo with bufo. The toad-flax has acquired 
 its name from a similar blunder. Aster Tripolium, L. 
 
 SHAVE-GKASS, from being " used by fletchers and comb- 
 makers to polish their work therewith," ^says W. Coles, 
 Du. schaaf-stroo, from schaaf, a plane, and stroo, straw, 
 
 Equisetum hyemale, L. 
 
 SHBEP'S-BANE, from its character of baning sheep (see 
 Ger. p. 528), the whiterot, Hydrocotyle vulgaris, L. 
 
 SHEEP'S-BIT, or SHEEP'S-BIT-SCABIOUS, so called to dis- 
 tinguish it from the Devil's-bit-scabious, 
 
 Jasione montana, L. 
 
 SHEEP'S PARSLEY, in Suffolk, 
 
 Chserophyllum temulum, L. 
 
 SHEEP'S SORREL, Rumex Acetosella, L. 
 
 SHELLEY GRASS, or, as Threlkeld spells it, SKALLY 
 GRASS, a word the origin of which is obscure, perhaps the 
 Sc. skellie, which means " charlock," extended to weeds in 
 general, the couch-grass, Triticum repens, L. 
 
 SHEPHERD'S CRESS, Teesdalia nudicaulis, RB. 
 
 SHEPHERD'S NEEDLE, Scandix Pecten, L. 
 
 SHEPHERD'S PURSE, Capsella Bursa, DC. 
 
 SHEPHERD'S ROD, or STAFF, L. virga pastoris, 
 
 Dipsacus pilosus, L.
 
 OF BRITISH PLANTS. 213 
 
 SHEPHERD'S, or POOR MAN'S WEATHER-GLASS, from its 
 closing its flowers before rain, the pimpernel, 
 
 Anagallis arvensis, L. 
 
 SHERE-GRASS (Turn. i. 112), sedge, from its cutting 
 edges, A.S. sceran, shear, Cares, L. 
 
 SHORE-GRASS, or SHORE-WEED, from its usual place of 
 growth, Littorella lacustris, L. 
 
 SICKLE-WORT, L. secula, from the shape of its flowers, 
 which seen in profile resemble a sickle, 
 
 Prunella vulgaris, L. 
 
 SIETHES, in Tusser, a kind of chives, spelt in Holybande 
 SIEVES, from the Fr. cive, Allium fissile, L. 
 
 SILVER FIR, from its silvery whiteness, 
 
 Pinus picea, L. 
 
 SILVER-WEED, L. Argentina, from the silvery glitter of 
 the under surface of its leaves, Potentilla anserina, L. 
 
 SIMPLERS' JOY, from the good sale they had for so highly 
 esteemed a plant, the vervain, Verbena omcinalis, L. 
 
 SIMSON, Fr. sene$on, in Bulleyn SBNTION, and in the 
 Eastern counties SENCION, corruptions of L. senecio, -onis, 
 a name derived from senex, an old man, and given to the 
 common groundsel in allusion to its heads of white hair, 
 the pappus upon the seed : 
 
 " Quod canis similis videatur flore capillis." Macer ; 
 
 or, as Bulleyn expresses it: "because the flower of this 
 herbe hath white hair, and when the winde bloweth it 
 away, then it appereth like a bald-headed man." 
 
 Senecio vulgaris, L. 
 
 SINKFIELD, a corruption of cinquefoil, Potentilla, L. 
 
 SKEG, the sloe-tree,, in Ph. Holland's Pliny (b. xviii. c. 6) 
 and Florio, from its rending clothes, as a sceg, or ragged 
 projecting stump might, Prunus spinosa, L. 
 
 SKEWER-WOOD, from skewers being made of it, the 
 spindle-tree, Evonymus europseus, L.
 
 214 POPULAR NAMES 
 
 SKIRRET, in old works called SKYRWORT or SKYRWYT, 
 Du. suikerwortel, sugar-root, Slum Sisarum, L. 
 
 SKULLCAP, from the shape of the calyx, 
 
 Scutellaria galericulata, L. 
 
 SLEEP-AT-NOON, from its flowers closing at midday, the 
 goat's beard, Tragopogon pratense, L. 
 
 SLEEPWORT, from its narcotic properties, 
 
 Lactuca virosa, L. 
 
 SLOE, in Lancashire slaigh or sleawgh, A.S. sla-, slag-, 
 or slah-porn, the sla meaning not the fruit, but the hard 
 trunk, a word that we find in our own, and in all its kin- 
 dred languages, to be intimately connected with a verb 
 meaning slay or strike. 
 
 A.S. sla slean 
 
 slage slagan 
 
 Eng. sloe, O.E. sle slay 
 Du. and L.G. slee slaan 
 G. schlehe schlagen 
 
 Da. slaaen slaa 
 
 Sw. sla sla 
 
 Icel. sla 
 
 Old Fries. sla 
 
 Old Sax. slahan or slan 
 
 Whether this connexion is due to the wood having been 
 used as a flail (as, from its being so used at this day, is 
 most probable) or as a bludgeon, can only be discovered 
 by a comparison of its synonyms and the corresponding- 
 verb in other languages of the Ind-European group. 
 
 Prunus spinosa, L. 
 
 SLOKE, or SLAKE, a name given to several species of 
 edible Porphyrae and Ulvse. 
 
 SLOUGH-HEAL, a supposed, but mistaken correction of 
 Self-heal, the slough being that which is thrown off from 
 a foul sore, and not that which is healed, the wound itself. 
 Besides, the term slough was not used in surgical language 
 till long after the plant had been called Selfe-heal, and 
 applied as a remedy, not to sloughing sores, but to fresh 
 cut wounds. See SELF-HEAL. Prunella vulgaris, L. 
 
 SMALLAGE, a former name of the celery, meaning the
 
 OP BRITISH PLANTS. 215 
 
 small ache or parsley, as compared with the If 
 
 or great parsley, olus atruin. See Turner's Nomenclator, 
 
 A.D. 1548, and Gerarde. See also ACHE. 
 
 Apium graveolens, L. 
 SMOKE-WOOD, from boys smoking its porous stalks, 
 
 Clematis Vitalba, L. 
 SMUT, from its resemblance to the smut on kettles, 
 
 Uredo caries, L. 
 
 SNAG, in Cotgrave, and in Lyte (b. vi. ch. 47), the sloe, 
 from its branches being full of small snags or projections, 
 
 Prunus spinosa, L. 
 
 SNAIL CLOVER, from the spiral convolutions of its 
 legumes, the lucerne genus, Medicago, L. 
 
 SNAKE'S HEAD, from the checkered markings on the 
 petals like the scales on a snake's head, 
 
 Fritillaria Meleagris, L. 
 
 SNAKE'S TAIL, from its cylindrical spikes, the sea hard- 
 grass, Ophiurus incurvatus, RB. 
 
 SNAKE-WEED, the bistort, from its writhed roots, 
 
 Polygonum Bistorta, L. 
 
 SNAP-DRAGON, from its corolla resembling the snap or 
 snout, Du. sneb, G. schnabel, of some animal. It means, 
 perhaps, " Snap, dragon ! " Antirrhinum majus, L. 
 
 SNEEZE-WORT, from the powder made from it causing 
 to sneeze, L. sternutamentoria, Gr. Trrappua), 
 
 Achillaea Ptarmica, L. 
 
 SNOW-BALL TREE, from its round balls of white flowers, 
 the Guelder rose, a cultivated variety of the water-elder, 
 
 Viburnum Opulus, L. 
 
 SNOWBERRY, from the white colour and snowlike pulp 
 of its fruit, Symphoria racemosa, Ph. 
 
 SNOW-DROP, from G. schneetropfen, a word that in its 
 usually accepted sense of a drop of snow is inconsistent ; 
 for a dry powdery substance, like snow, cannot form a 
 drop. In fact, the drop refers not to icicles, but to the
 
 216 POPULAR NAMES 
 
 large pendants, or drops, that were worn by the ladies in 
 the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, both as ear-rings 
 and hangings to their brooches, and which we see so often 
 represented by the Dutch and Italian painters of that 
 period. Galanthus nivalis, L. 
 
 SNOW-FLAKE, a name invented by W. Curtis to dis- 
 tinguish it from the snow-drop, Leucojum sestivum, L. 
 
 SOAPWORT, from its being used in scouring (Ger. p. 360), 
 and frothing in the hands like soap, says Brunschwygk, 
 
 Saponaria officinalis, L. 
 
 SOLDIER-ORCHIS, from a fancied resemblance in it to a 
 soldier, Orchis militaris, L. 
 
 SOLOMON'S SEAL, from the flat round scars on the root- 
 stock, resembling what is called a Solomon's seal, a name 
 given by the Arabs to a six-pointed star, formed by two 
 equilateral triangles intersecting each other, and of frequent 
 occurrence in Oriental tales, 
 
 Convallaria Polygonatum, L. 
 
 SOPS-IN-WINE, from the flowers being used to flavour 
 wine. Chaucer says of it, writing in Edw. Ill's reign : 
 "There springen herbes grete and smal, 
 The licoris and setewale, 
 And many a clove gilofre, 
 To put in ale, 
 
 Whether it be moist or stale." C.T. 1. 13690. 
 The plant intended was the clove-pink, -gilofre, or -gilli- 
 flower, Dianthus Caryophyllus, L. 
 
 SORB, L. sorbus, from sorbeo, drink down, in allusion to 
 a beverage made from the fruit. See SERVICE-TREE. A 
 name formerly given to Pyrus domestica, L. 
 
 at present to Pyrus torminalis, L. 
 
 SORREL, Fr. surelle, a dim. derived from L. Germ, suur, 
 sour, from the acidity of the leaves, Rumex Acetosa, L. 
 SHEEP'S-, Rumex Acetosella, L. 
 
 WOOD-, Oxalis Acetosella, L.
 
 OF BRITISH PLANTS. 217 
 
 SOURINGS and SWEETINGS, crabs and sweet apples. 
 
 SOUTHERNWOOD, A.S. sufternewude, abridged from 
 sufierne ivermod, southern wormwood, as in Lib. Med. 
 (0. Cockayne, Leechd. i. p. 51). 
 
 Artemisia Abrotanum, L. 
 
 SOWBANE, from being, as Parkinson tells us (Th. Bot. 
 p. 749), " found certain to kill swine," 
 
 Chenopodium rubrum, L. 
 
 SOWBREAD, G. saubrodt, L. panis pordnus, from its 
 tuber being the food of wild swine, 
 
 Cyclamen europseum, L. 
 
 Sow THISTLE, in Pr. Pm. thowthystil, A.S. pufepistel, or 
 pupistel, O.G. du-tistel, sprout thistle, from pufe, a sprout, 
 an indication of the plant having been valued for its edible 
 sprouts, which Evelyn tells us were eaten by Galen as a 
 lettuce, and, as we learn from Matthioli (1. ii. c. 124), they 
 were by the Tuscans, even in his day: "Soncho nostri 
 utuntur hyeme in acetariis." It seems to have been called 
 soiv-thistle, through its name in the Ortus Sanitatis (c. 
 cxlviii.) smve-distel, or, in some editions, saw-distel, a cor- 
 ruption of its A.S. and older German name. 
 
 Sonchus oleraceus, L. 
 
 SOWD-WORT, the soda-plant, the plant from the ashes of 
 which soda is obtained, Fr. soude, L. solida, soda being the 
 solid residue left by boiling a lye of its ashes, 
 
 Salsola Kali, L. 
 
 SOWER, WOOD-, see SORREL. 
 
 SPARAGUS, in Evelyn's Acetaria, shortened from Lat. 
 Asparagus, as Emony from Anemony, by the mistake of 
 the initial vowel for the indefinite article, a or an, and still 
 further corrupted to SPARROW-GRASS ; an example of the 
 habit of the uneducated to explain an unknown word by a 
 more familiar one ; Asparagus officinalis, L. 
 
 SPARROW-TONGUE, from its small acute leaves, the knot- 
 grass, Polygonum aviculare, L.
 
 218 POPULAR NAMES 
 
 SPART-GRASS, in the Northern counties (Brockett), " a 
 dwarf rush common on moors and wastes," Sp. esparto. 
 See SPURT-GRASS. Spartina stricta, Sm. 
 
 SPATLING-POPPY, from A.S. spatlian, froth, from the 
 spittle-like froth often seen upon it caused by the bite of 
 an insect, Silene inflata, L. 
 
 SPEAR-GRASS, in Shakspeare (Henry IV. 1st part, a. ii. 
 sc. 4), and in Lupton's Notable Things, a plant used to 
 tickle the nose and make it bleed, perhaps the common 
 reed, Phragmites communis, Trin. 
 
 SPEAR-MINT or SPIRE-MINT, from its spiry, not capitate 
 inflorescence, Mentha viridis, L. 
 
 SPEEDWELL, from its corolla falling off and flying away 
 as soon as it is gathered ; " Speed- well !" being equivalent 
 to "Farewell!" "Good-bye!" and a common form of 
 valediction in old times. " Forget-me-not," a name that 
 has since passed to a myosotis, appears to have first been 
 given to this plant, and addressed to its fleeting flowers. 
 See FORGET-ME-NOT. Veronica Chamsedrys, L. 
 
 SPELT, the same word in Du. G. Da. and Sw. the It. 
 spelda, Sp. espelta, Fr. espeautre, from G. spalten, split. 
 Spelt is explained in Levin's Manipulus by eglumare, to 
 husk. Triticum Spelta, L. 
 
 SPERAGE, Fr. esperage, from L. asparagus, 
 
 Asparagus officinalis, L. 
 
 SPIKENEL, SPICKNEL, or SPIGNEL, Sp. espiga, spike, and 
 eneldo, from L. anetkum, dill, a plant that was imported 
 from Spain under that name ; see Lyte, b. iii. c. 15 ; 
 
 Meum athamanticum, L. 
 
 SPINACH, It. spinace, derived, according to Diez and 
 Scheler, through a presumed M.Lat. spinaceus, spiny, from 
 L. spina, a thorn, in allusion to its sharp-pointed leaves, or, 
 as others with more reason say, to its prickly fruit. If we 
 assume a word for which we have no authority, spinax 
 would bring us nearer to the It. spinace than spinaceus.
 
 OF BRITISH PLANTS. 219 
 
 The analogy of other plant-names would suggest a M.Lat. 
 spinago. But the word seems to have an entirely different 
 origin. Fuchs tells us (Hist. Stirp. p. 668), that it is 
 called in Arabic Hispanach : " Arabicse factionis principes 
 Hispanack, hoc est, Hispanicum olus nominant." Dodoens 
 (b. v. i. 5) tells us also, " Spinachiam nostra setas appellat, 
 nonnulli spinacheum olus. Ab Arabibus et Serapione 
 Hispanac dicitur." Brunfelsius (ed. 1531) says expressly 
 at p. 16, "Quse.vulgo spinachia hodie, Atriplex Hispa- 
 niensis dicta est quondam ; eo quod ab Hispania primum 
 allata est ad alias exteras nationes." Tragus also calls it 
 Olus Hispanicum ; Cotgrave Her be d'Espaigne; and the 
 modern Greeks (rrrava^iov. It is only in deference to the 
 very high authority of Diez, that it has seemed necessary 
 to quote these ancient authors. Talbot in Engl. Etym. 
 takes the same view, and considers the name as meaning 
 " Spanish." Spinacia oleracea, L. 
 
 SPINDLE-TREE, from its furnishing wood for spindles, 
 A.S. spindel, which meant, not so much the implement 
 used in spinning, as a pin or skewer, a purpose for which 
 it is used to this day, and whence it has taken its other 
 names of Gadrise, Prickwood, etc. 
 
 Evonymus europseus, L. 
 
 SPINKS, or BOG-SPINKS, Du. pinkster-bloem, from their 
 blossoming at pinksten or Pentecost, Gr. TrevryKovTri (see 
 PINK), the Lady's smock, Cardamine pratensis, L. 
 
 SPIRES, or SPIRE-REED, the pool-reed, A.S. pol-spere, 
 in the Wycliffite version of Is. xix. 6, called spier, and in 
 the Owl and Nightingale, 1. 19, spire ; 
 
 " I-meind mid spire and grene segge." 
 
 Probably it meant a spear, A.S. spior or spere, and perhaps 
 in the first place was so named from the Spanish reed, 
 Arundo Donax, having been imported and used for missiles. 
 In later times we find this word in the sense of a pointed 
 inflorescence, as a "spyre of come," Palsg. "I spyre
 
 220 POPULAR NAMES 
 
 as come doth." ib. Spire is in different counties applied 
 to several different plants, such as rushes and sedges. It 
 usually means the common reed, Arundo Phragmites, L. 
 
 SPLEEN-WORT, from its supposed efficacy in diseases of 
 the spleen, Gr. <nr\i>)v, a notion suggested, on the doctrine 
 of signatures, by the lobular form of the leaf in the species 
 to which the name was first given, the ceterach. See 
 MILTWASTE. Asplenium, L. 
 
 SPOONWORT, G. Iq/el-kraut, from its leaf being shaped 
 like an old-fashioned spoon ; whence also its Latin name ; 
 
 Cochlearia officinalis, L. 
 
 SPREUSIDANY, from L. peucedanum, 
 
 Peucedanum officinale, L. 
 
 SPRING-GRASS, see VERNAL-GRASS. 
 
 SPRUCE, from G. sprossen, a sprout, as the tree from the 
 sprouts of which sprossen-bier, our spruce-beer, is made, 
 Evelyn, from the expression he uses : " Those of Prussia, 
 which we call Spruse," seems to have fancied that it meant 
 " Prussian." Pinus Abies, L. 
 
 SPURGE, Fr. espurge, L. expurgare, from its medicinal 
 effects, Euphorbia, L. 
 
 CAPER-, from its immature fruit being substituted 
 for the real caper, Euphorbia Lathyris, L. 
 
 SUN-, from its flowers turning to the sun, 
 
 Euphorbia helioscopia, L. 
 
 SPURGE LAUREL, Daphne Laureola, L 
 
 SPURGE OLIVE, Daphne Mezereon, L. 
 
 SPUR-WORT, It. speronella, from its verticils of leaves 
 resembling the large spur-rowels formerly worn, 
 
 Sherardia arvensis, L. 
 
 SPURRY, a word from which Lyte says (b. i. ch. 38) that 
 the Lat. spergula was formed. It seems more likely that 
 spergula is contracted from asparagula, a presumed dim. of 
 asparagus, a plant which it somewhat resembles, and spurry 
 from spergula. The G. spark, and Fr. espargoutte, seem to
 
 OF BRITISH PLANTS. 221 
 
 be the same word differently developed. Cotgrave gives a 
 Fr. spurrie. Spergula arvensis, L. 
 
 SPURT-GRASS, a rush of which the baskets were made, 
 that were called in A.S. spyrtan, and which seem, from one 
 of JSlfric's colloquies, to have been used for catching fish. 
 This word spyrta has probably been formed from L.sporta, 
 a basket made of spartum, the Sp. esparto, the grass so 
 much used for mats and baskets in the South, and related 
 to Gr. o-Treipao), twist, wreathe. 
 
 Scirpus lacustris and maritimus, L. 
 
 SQUILL, L. scilla or squilla, Gr. ovaXXa. The same word, 
 the It. squilla, is now used to mean the small evening bell 
 sounded from the campanili in Italy for vespers service, 
 and this Diez would derive from O.H.G. skilla, G. schelle, 
 and the verb skellan, ring, and quotes a passage from the 
 Lex. Sal. " Si quis schillam de caballo furaverit," to show 
 its original use as a horse-bell. It seems far more probable 
 that the little bell should have been so called from its 
 resemblance to the bulb of an Italian plant, and its name 
 have been adopted by other nations with the Christian 
 religious rites, than that Italians should have first learnt a 
 name for such an old invention from the Germans. But 
 be the origin of squilla what it may, the flower was not 
 called so from any resemblance to a bell, as its synonym 
 " Harebell" might lead us to suppose, but is simply the 
 Gr. word ovaXXa. Scilla nutans, etc. Sm. 
 
 SQUINANCY, from its supposed efficacy in curing the 
 disease so called in old authors, viz. the quinsy, Fr. esqui- 
 nancie, M.L. squinancia, It. schinanzia, Gr. Kwcvyx?), from 
 KVO)V, dog, and o7%o>, strangle, a dog-choking disease, one 
 in which the patient, from inflammation and swelling of 
 the fauces, is obliged to gasp with his mouth open like a 
 strangled dog, Asperula cynanchica, L. 
 
 SQUINANCY BERRIES, black currants, from their use in 
 sore throat, Eibes nigrum, L.
 
 222 POPULAR NAMES 
 
 SQUIRREL TAIL, from the shape of the flower-spike, 
 Hordeum maritimum, With. 
 
 SQUITCH, or QUITCH, A.S, civice, from, cwic, vivacious, 
 the couch-grass, so called from its tenacity of life, 
 
 Triticum repens, and Agrostis stolonifera, L. 
 
 STAB-WORT, the wood-sorrel, so called, according to Par- 
 kinson (Th. Bot. p. 747), " because it is singular good in 
 all wounds and stabbes into the body." By most authors 
 it is spelt stubwort. Oxalis acetosella, L. 
 
 STAGGERWORT, usually understood to be so called from 
 curing the staggers in horses, but to judge from its 
 synonym Seggrum, and its being found in some works 
 spelt Staggwort, more probably derived from its applica- 
 tion to newly-castrated bulls called Seggs and Staggs, 
 
 Senecio Jacobaea, L. 
 
 STANDERWORT, or STANDERGRASS, Fl. standelkruid, G. 
 stendel-wurtz, Sw. standort, names of which it is needless 
 to unveil the meaning, but descriptive of a supposed effect 
 of the " Foul standergrass," suggested by its double tubers, 
 which, on the doctrine of signatures, indicate aphrodisiac 
 virtues, Orchis mascula, L. 
 
 STAN MARCH, O.E. stane, stone, and march, parsley, a 
 translation of Gr. Trerpoo-eXtzw, the Alexander, 
 
 Smyrnium Olusatrum, L. 
 
 STAR- FRUIT, from the radiated star-like growth of its 
 seed-pods, Actinocarpus Damasonium, L. 
 
 STAR-GRASS, a grassy-looking aquatic plant with stellate 
 leaves, Callitriche, L. 
 
 STAR HYACINTH, from its open stellate flowers, 
 
 Scilla verna, Hud. 
 
 STAR-JELLY, the nostoc, a jelly-like alga popularly sup- 
 posed to be shed from the stars, Treinella Nostoc, L. 
 
 STAR THISTLE, from its spiny involucre, resembling the 
 weapon called a morning star, Centaurea solstitialis, L.
 
 OF BRITISH PLANTS. 223 
 
 STAR- WORT, from the shape of the flower, 
 
 Aster Tripolium, L. 
 
 STAR OF BETHLEHEM, from its white stellate flowers, 
 like pictures of the star that indicated the birth of Jesus, 
 Ornithogalum umbellatum, L. 
 
 STAR OF THE EARTH, from its leaves spreading on the 
 ground in star fashion, Plantago Coronopus, L. 
 
 STAR OF JERUSALEM, It. girasole, turn-sun, its Italian 
 name familiarized into Jerusalem, the salsify, 
 
 Tragopogon porrifolius, L. 
 
 STARCH-CORN, from starch being made of it, 
 
 Triticum Spelta, L. 
 
 STARCH-WORT, from its tubers yielding the finest starch 
 for the large collars worn in Queen Elizabeth's reign, 
 
 Arum maculatum, L. 
 
 STARE, or STARR, Dan. star, or stdr-grds, Ic. stor, Sw. 
 starr, words meaning " stiff grass," as in Douglas's Virgil, 
 b. vi. 1. 870 : 
 
 "rispis harsk and stare," 
 
 a name applied to various sedges and coarse sea-side 
 grasses, more especially Carex arenaria, L. 
 
 and Ammophila arundinacea, Host. 
 
 STAVER-WORT, from being supposed to cure the stavers 
 or staggers in horses, Senecio Jacobsea, L. 
 
 STAVESACRE, a plant that was once in great use for de- 
 stroying lice, but which with the gradual increase of cleanly 
 habits is become scarce in our gardens, L. staphisagria, Gr. 
 of Galen aa-Tafaaaypia, from aerra^t?, raisin, and arypta, 
 wild, referring to the similarity of its leaf to that of the 
 vine ; unless Galen's plant was an entirely different one, 
 for which ours has been mistaken ; 
 
 Delphinium Staphisagria, L. 
 
 STAY-PLOUGH, the rest-harrow, Ononis arvensis, L. 
 
 STICKADOVE, a name corrupted from the officinal Lat. 
 flos stoechados, flower of the stoechas, a lavender so called
 
 224 POPULAR NAMES 
 
 from growing on the Hyeres, islands opposite Marseilles, 
 and called by the ancients Stoechades, from standing in a 
 row, Gr. o-rot^a?, Lavandula Stoechas, L. 
 
 STINKHORN, from its shape and offensive odour, 
 
 Phallus impudicus, L. 
 
 STITCH-WORT, in a thirteenth century MS. in Mayer and 
 Wright, p. 140, spelt Stich-wurt, and given as the transla- 
 tion of " Valeriane," a plant used to cure the sting, G. stick, 
 of venemous reptiles ; but in later works explained as 
 curing the stitch in the side. See Gerarde, p. 140. 
 
 Stellaria Holostea, L. 
 
 STOCK-GILLIFLOWER, now shortened to STOCK, from 
 stock, the trunk or woody stem of a tree or shrub, added 
 to Gilliflower to distinguish it from plants of the Pink 
 tribe, called, from their scent, Clove- Gilliflowers, 
 
 Matthiola incana, L. 
 
 STOCK-NUT, from its growing on a stick, G. stock, and 
 not on a tree like the walnut, Corylus Avellana, L. 
 
 STONE BASIL, a basil that grows among stones, 
 
 Calamintha Clinopodium, Benth. 
 
 STONE-BREAK, G. steinbrech, from L. saxifraga, so named 
 from its supposed power of rending rocks, and thence em- 
 ployed to break stone in the bladder, Saxifraga, L. 
 
 STONE-CROP, from crop, a top, a bunch of flowers, a cima, 
 and stone; being a plant that grows on stone walls in dense 
 tufts of yellow flowers ; Sedum acre, L. 
 
 STONE-FERN, from its growth on stone walls, 
 
 Ceterach officinarum, W. 
 
 STONE-HOT, or STONNORD, corruptions of stone-wort, and 
 
 STONE-HORE, or'STONOR, of stone-orpine, (see ORPINE,) 
 
 Sedum reflexum, L. 
 
 STONE-WORT, from calcareous deposits on its stalk, 
 
 Chara, L. 
 
 STONES, a translation of Gr. op%*9, a name given to 
 several orchideous plants from their double tubers, and in
 
 OF BRITISH PLANTS. 225 
 
 old herbals used with the name of some animal prefixed, 
 as, e.g. that of the dog, fox, goat, or hare, Orchis, L. 
 
 STKANGLE-TARE, a tare that strangles, 
 
 Vicia lathyroides, L. 
 and also a plant that strangles a tare, 
 
 Cuscuta europsea, L. 
 
 STRAP-WORT, L. corrigwla, a little strap, dim. of L. cor- 
 rigia, so called from its trailing habit, 
 
 Corrigiola littoralis, L. 
 
 STRAWBERRY, A.S. streowberie, either from its straw-like 
 halms, or from their lying strown on the ground. Some 
 have supposed that the name is derived from the custom in 
 some parts of England to sell the wild fruit threaded on 
 grass-straws. But it dates from a time earlier than any at 
 which wild strawberries are likely to have been marketable. 
 
 Fragaria vesca, L. 
 
 STRAWBERRY CLOVER, from its round pink strawberry- 
 like heads of seed, formed by the inflated calyx, 
 
 Trifolium fragiferum, L. 
 
 STRAWBERRY-TREE, from the shape and colour of its 
 fruit, Arbutus Unedo, L. 
 
 STUB WORT, from its growing about the stubs of hewn 
 trees, the wood-sorrel, Oxalis Acetosella, L. 
 
 STURTION, a corruption of L. nasturtium, a cress, a 
 popular name of a plant which from the flavour of its 
 leaves was by the old herbalists ranked with the cresses, 
 
 Tropseolum majus, L. 
 
 SUCCORY, Fr. chkoree, Gr. Ki^pV) the wild endive, too 
 often replaced by fraudulent dealers with dandelion roots, 
 
 Cichorium Intybus, L. 
 
 SULPHUR-WORT, from its roots being, according to Ge- 
 rarde (p. 1053), "full of a yellow sap, which quickly 
 waxeth hard and dry, smelling not much unlike brimstone, 
 called Sulphur," Peucedanum officinale, L. 
 
 SUNDEW, a name explained by Lyte in the following 
 
 15
 
 226 POPULAR NAMES 
 
 description of the plant. " It is a lierbe of a very strange 
 nature and marvellous: for although that the Sonne do 
 shine hoate and a long time thereon, yet you shall finde it 
 alwayes moyst and bedewed, and the small heares [hairs] 
 thereof alwayes full of little droppes of water : and the 
 hoater the Sonne shineth upon this herbe, so much the 
 moystier it is, and the more bedewed, and for that cause it 
 was called Ros Soils in Latine, whiche is to say in Eng- 
 lishe, The dewe of the Sonne, or Sonnedewe." Neverthe- 
 less, the Germ, name, sindau, leads us to suspect that the 
 proper meaning of the word was " ever-dewy," from A.S. 
 O.S, and Fris. sin, ever, rather than from sun. The Latin 
 name, Ros soils, is modern, and, as the plant is seldom met 
 with in the South of Europe, is probably a mistranslation 
 of the German or English one. Drosera, L. 
 
 SUNFLOWER, from its " resembling the radiant beams of 
 the sun," as Gerarde says ; or, as another old herbalist 
 expresses it in Latin, " idea sua exprirnens solis corpus, 
 quale a pictoribus pingitur;" and not, as some of our 
 popular poets have supposed, from, its flowers turning to 
 face the sun, which they never do ; a delusion that Thom- 
 son expresses in the lines : 
 
 " But one, the lofty follower of the sun, 
 
 Sad when he sets, shuts up her yellow leaves, 
 Drooping all night, and, when he warm returns, 
 Points her enamour'd bosom to his ray." 
 
 Summer, 1. 216. 
 Helianthus annuus, L. 
 
 also in some herbals, from its only opening in the sun- 
 shine, the rock rose, Helianthemum vulgare, Giirt. 
 in our older poets, the marigold, as in Heywood's Mar- 
 riage Triumphe : 
 
 "The yellow marigold, the sunne's own flower." 
 " It was so named," says Hyll, " for that after the rising 
 of the sun unto noon, this flower openeth larger and larger;
 
 OP BRITISH PLANTS. 227 
 
 but after the noontime unto the setting of the sun the 
 
 flower closeth more and more, so that after the setting 
 
 thereof it is wholly shut up." Hyll, Art of Gard. c. xxx. 
 
 " The Marigold observes the sun, 
 
 More than my subjects me have done." 
 
 K. Charles I. 
 
 This is also the flower that in Anglo-Saxon is called sohcece r 
 Fr. souci, from O.F. soucicle, L. sohequium, sun-following. 
 
 Calendula officinalis, L. 
 
 SUN-SPURGE, from its flowers turning to face the sun, 
 Euphorbia helioscopia, L. 
 
 SWALLOW-PEAR, a wild pear that is not a " choke-pear," 
 a kind that may be eaten, Pyrus torminalis, L. 
 
 SWALLOW-WORT, Gr. %e\t8owoi/, of ^eXiSow, a swallow, 
 because, according to Pliny (b. xxv. ch. 8), it blossoms at 
 the season of the swallow's arrival, and withers at her 
 departure, a name, that, for the same reason, has been 
 given to several other plants, as the Ranunculus Ficaria, 
 Fumaria bulbosa, Caltha palustris, and Saxifraga granu- 
 lata, L. ; but, according to Aristotle and Dioscorides, be- 
 cause swallows restore the eyesight of their young ones 
 with it, even if their eyes be put out. It is to be recol- 
 lected, that, however absurd some of these superstitions, 
 they may nevertheless be the real source of the name of a 
 plant. Chelidonium majus, L. 
 
 SWEDE, a turnip so called from having been introduced 
 from Sweden, Brassica campestris, L. var. rutabaga. 
 
 SWEET ALISON, a plant with the smell of honey, a 
 species of the genus Alyssum, of which Alison is a corrup- 
 tion, and not the name of a pretty lady, 
 
 Alyssum maritimum, L. 
 
 SWEET BAY, from the odour of its leaves, to distinguish 
 it from other evergreen shrubs, such as the strawberry tree 
 and cherry laurel, that were once reckoned among the 
 bays, Laurus nobilis, L.
 
 228 
 
 POPULAR NAMES 
 
 SWEET-BRIAR, a wild rose whose leaves are sweet-scented, 
 
 Rosa rubiginosa, L. 
 
 SWEET CHERVIL, or SWEET CICELY, from its agreeable 
 scent, Gr. trecrekt, Myrrhis odorata, Scop. 
 
 SWEET FLAG, to distinguish it from the unscented flag, 
 or iris, Acorus Calamus, L. 
 
 SWEET GALE, from its scent, Myrica Gale, L. 
 
 SWEET JOHN, probably a fanciful name given to certain 
 varieties of pink to distinguish them from those called 
 Sweet Williams. They seem to have been the narrow- 
 leaved kinds. Dianthus barbatus, L. 
 
 SWEET-PEA, a scented pea, Lathyrus odoratus, L. 
 
 SWEET-SEDGE, or -SEG, a plant which, having sword- 
 blade leaves, was comprised under the general name of 
 Segs and Sedges, and fraudulently sold in shops for the 
 sweet cane or calamus aromaticus, 
 
 Acorus Calamus, L. 
 
 SWEET WILLIAM, from Fr. oeillet, L. ocellus, a little eye, 
 corrupted to Willy, and thence to William, in reference, 
 perhaps, to a popular ballad ; a name assigned by W. 
 Bulleyn (fol. 48), to the wallflower, but by later herbalists 
 to a species of pink. See WILLIAM. 
 
 Dianthus barbatus, L. 
 
 SWEET WILLOW, from its having the habit of the dwarf 
 willows, and sweet-scented foliage, the sweet gale, 
 
 Myrica Gale, L. 
 
 SWEETING, a sweet apple, as contrasted with the crab, 
 
 Pyrus Malus, L. 
 
 SWETH, L. Germ, of Turner's time Suitlauch, perhaps a 
 misprint of snitlauch, or, as it is given in a German edition 
 of Macer (ed. 1590), snithlauch, properly schnittlauch, a 
 garlick to be cropped and grow again, chives, 
 
 Allium Schoanoprasum, L. 
 
 SWINE'S-BANE, see SOWBANE.
 
 OF BRITISH PLANTS. 229 
 
 SWINE' S-CRESS, a cress only good for swine, 
 
 Senebiera Coronopus, Poir. 
 
 SWINE'S-GRASS, Swynel grass of the Grete Herball, Da. 
 swinegrces, the knotgrass. Johnston in East. Bord. ob- 
 serves that " Swine are said to be very fond of it," a state- 
 ment confirmed by writers on agriculture. 
 
 Polygonum aviculare, L. 
 
 SWINE'S-SNOUT, L. rostrum porcinum, from the form of the 
 receptacle, the dandelion, Taraxacum Dens leonis, L. 
 
 SWINE SUCCORY, a translation of its Greek name from 
 uo9, pig's, and crept?, succory, Hyoseris minima, L. 
 
 SWORD FLAG, from its banner-like flower, and sword- 
 shaped leaf, Iris Pseudacorus, L. 
 
 SYCAMINE, in old authors the woodbine. 
 
 SYCAMORE, Gr. o-v/co/u-opo?, properly the name of the wild 
 fig, but by a mistake of Ruellius, according to J. Bauhin 
 (Hist. Plant, p. 168), transferred to the great maple. Thia 
 mistake arose, perhaps, from this tree, the great maple, 
 being, on account of the density of its foliage, used in 
 the sacred dramas of the Middle Ages to represent the 
 fig-tree into which Zaccheus climbed, and that in which 
 the Virgin Mary, on her journey into Egypt, had hidden 
 herself and the infant Jesus, to avoid the fury of Herod ; 
 a legend quoted by Stapel on Theophrastus (p. 290, a), and 
 by Thevenot in his Voyage de Levant (part i. p. 265) : 
 " At Matharee is a large sycamore or Pharaoh's fig, very 
 old, but which bears fruit every year. They say that upon 
 the Virgin passing that way with her son Jesus, and being 
 pursued by the people, this fig-tree opined to receive her, 
 and closed her in, until the people had passed by, and then 
 opened again." The tree is still shown to travellers. (See 
 Cowper's Apocryphal Gospels, p. 191, note.) The great 
 maple was naturally chosen to represent it, from its 
 making, a& W. Gilpin expresses it, " an impenetrable 
 shade." Acer Pseudoplatanus, L.
 
 230 POPULAR NAMES 
 
 The Sicamour of Chaucer in his Flower and Leaf (1. 54) 
 was some twining shrub, probably the honeysuckle : 
 " The hegge also that yede in compas, 
 And closed in all the greene herbere, 
 "With sicamour was set and eglatere, 
 Wrethen in fere." 
 and 1. 66, 
 
 " The hegge as thicke as any castle wall, 
 That who that list without to stond or go, 
 Though he would all day prien to and fro, 
 He should not see if there were any wight 
 Within or no." 
 
 Lonicera caprifolium, L. 
 
 SYNDAW, G. sindau, constant dew, in Fuchs and the 
 Ortus Sanitatis sinnau, a name at present confined to the 
 sun-dew, but by Win. Turner (b. iii. p. 24) given to the 
 Lady's mantle, both these plants having formerly been 
 comprehended by Cordus and others under that of Drosera, 
 
 Alchemilla vulgaris, L. 
 
 SYRINGA or STRING, a name commonly given to a shrub 
 whose stems are used in Turkey for making pipe-sticks, 
 from L. Syrinx, a nymph who was changed into a reed, 
 Philadelphus coronaria, L. 
 
 by Evelyn to the lilac, that for the same reason was called 
 Pipe tree, Syringa vulgaris, L. 
 
 TANG, O.N. pang, Da. tang, Fris. mar-tag, a word that 
 corresponds to Da. tag, A.S. ficece, thatch, from sea-weed 
 having formerly been used to cover houses, instead of 
 straw. The word has been adopted from one of the north- 
 ern languages, and refers to a time earlier than the cultiva- 
 tion of cereal grains in high latitudes. Fucus nodosus, L. 
 
 TANGLE, seemingly an attempted explanation of Tang, 
 as if it meant entangling, Laminaria digitata, Ag. 
 
 TANSY, Fr. athanasie, now contracted to tanacee and 
 tanaisie, M.Lat. athanasia, the name under which it was
 
 OF BRITISH PLANTS. 231 
 
 sold in the shops in Lyte's time, Gr. dOavacria, immortality, 
 referring to a passage in Lucian's Dialogues of the Gods 
 (no. iv.), where Jupiter, speaking of Ganymede, says to 
 Mercury, aTrcuye avrov, o> 'EpjAT), KO.L Tnovra TT;? aOavaaias 
 aye olvo-^orjaavra fjfjuv. " Take him away, and when he has 
 drunk of immortality, bring him back as cupbearer to us." 
 The aOavaaia here has been misunderstood, like afj,(3poa-ia 
 in other passages, for some special plant. Dodoens says 
 (1. i. 2, 16), that it was called so, " quod non cito.flos ina- 
 rescat," which is scarcely true. Hyac. Ambrosinus, in his 
 Phytologia, p. 82, says : " Athanasia ita vocata quia ejus 
 succus vel oleum extractum cadavera a putredine conser- 
 vat." Tanacetum, its systematic name, is properly a bed 
 of tansy, and is a word of modern origin. 
 
 Tanacetum vulgare, L. 
 GOOSE-, or WILD-, from its tansy-like leaves, 
 
 Potentilla anserina, L. 
 
 TARE, an obscure word for which many derivations have 
 been proposed. In old works it is usually combined with 
 fytcke, as the tare-fytche. The word tire-lupin in Rabelais' 
 preface seems to explain it as derived from Fr. tirer, drag, 
 and to mean a vetch that pulls other plants towards it. 
 
 Lathyrus, Ervum, Vicia. 
 
 TARRAGON, a corruption of its Lat. specific name, mean- 
 ing " a little dragon," Artemisia Dracunculus, L. 
 
 TASSEL-GRASS, a grass-like plant with bunches of delicate 
 leaves like tassels, Ruppia maritima, L. 
 
 TEASEL, A.S. tcesel, from tcesan, tease, applied metaphori- 
 cally to scratching cloth, Dipsacus fullonum, L. 
 
 TENCH-WEED, either from its growing in ponds where 
 tench have broken up the puddling by burrowing in it ; or, 
 as Forby says, " from its having a slime or mucilage about 
 it that is supposed to be very agreeable to that fish ; " 
 
 Potamogeton natans, L. 
 
 TENT-WORT, the wall rue, a fern so called from its having
 
 232 POPULAR NAMES 
 
 been used as a specific or sovereign remedy in the cure of 
 rickets, a disease once known as the Taint. Threlkeld, 
 under Adiantum album, says : " It is one of the capillary 
 plants, and a specific against the Kickets. For this reason 
 our ancestors gave it the name of Tent-wort" 
 
 Asplenium Ruta muraria, L. 
 
 TETTER-BERRY, from its curing a cutaneous disease called 
 tetters, Bryonia dioica, L. 
 
 TETTER-WORT, from its curing tetters, 
 
 Chelidonium majns, L. 
 
 TEYL-, TEIL-, TIL-, or TILLET-TREE, the lime, Fr. tille, 
 formerly spelt teille, a word now confined to the inner 
 bark or bast of the tree, and replaced with the dim. tilleul, 
 from M. Lat. tilliolus, dim. of tilia, Tilia europsea, L. 
 
 THALE-CRESS, from a Dr. Thalius, who published a cata- 
 logue of the plants of the Hartz mountains, 
 
 Arabis Thaliana, L. 
 
 THAPE, see FEABE. 
 
 THEVE-THORN, O.E. of Pr. Pm. thethorn, A.S. J>efe-, 
 pife-, or pyfe-porn, a word that occurs in Wycliffe's Bible, 
 in the fable of Jotham (Judg. ix. 14, 15), as a translation 
 of the L. rhamnus of the Vulgate, Heb. atad, the name 
 that Dioscorides, as cited by Bochart (i. 752), says that 
 the Carthaginians also called a large species of rhamnus. 
 It is unknown what bramble Wyclifie meant. T. Wright, 
 in his Manners of the Middle Ages, p. 296, takes it for the 
 Thape or gooseberry. The context requires a barren or 
 worthless brier, and the monks who commented upon 
 Mesues took it to be the dewberry : " Monachi qui in 
 Mesuem commentaries edidere, Rhamnum existimaverunt 
 rubum quendam, qui humi repens, incultisque proveniens, 
 mora cseruleo potius quam nigro colore profert." Matthioli 
 (1. i. c. 102). They probably followed an ecclesiastical 
 tradition, in fixing upon this particular bramble, as repre- 
 senting rhamnus. The word theve seems to be related to
 
 OF BRITISH PLANTS. 233 
 
 such as imply lowliness and subservience, Go. f>wan, to 
 subject, pivi, a female slave, etc. (See Diefenbach, Lex. 
 comp. ii. 708.) In this view of it Theve-thorn or Theue- 
 thorn, as we find it printed, will be the parent of Dew-berry 
 rather than of Thape, and I have no hesitation in referring 
 it to that species. Kubus csesius, L. 
 
 THISTLE, A.S. pistel, from pydan, stab, and the same 
 word essentially in all the kindred languages. 
 
 BLESSED-, from its use against venom, 
 
 Carduus benedictus, L. 
 
 CARLINE-, from its curing Charlemagne's army 
 of a pestilence, Carlina vulgaris, L. 
 
 CORN-, or WAY-, from its growing in fields, 
 Serratula arvensis, L. 
 
 COTTON-, from its cottony white stems and 
 leaves, Onopordon Acanthium, L. 
 
 ,, FULLER'S-, from its use in dressing cloth, 
 
 Dipsacus Fullonum, L. 
 
 ,, GENTLE-, from its comparatively soft, unarmed, 
 and inoffensive character, Carduus Anglicus, L. 
 
 ,, HOLY-, Carduus benedictus, L. 
 
 MELANCHOLY-, from its use in hypochondria, 
 Carduus heterophyllus, L. 
 MUSK-, from the scent of its flowers, 
 
 Carduus nutans, L. 
 OUR LADY'S-, from being dyed with her milk, 
 
 Carduus Marianus, L. 
 ST. BARNABY'S-, from its season of flowering, 
 
 Centaurea solstitialis, L. 
 SCOTCH-, as being the badge of Scotland, 
 
 Onopordon Acanthium, and Carduus nutans, L. 
 Sow-, a mistake of its A.S. name/w/este/, 
 
 Sonchus oleraceus, L. 
 STAR-, from its star-shaped involucre, 
 
 Centaurea Calcitrapa, L.
 
 234 POPULAR NAMES 
 
 THORN, A.S. porn, Go. fiaurnus, and, like thistle, the 
 same word in all the kindred languages, and used with it 
 alliteratively, extending to the Slavonian and Celtic dialects 
 also, related perhaps to Gr. ropem, hore, L. terebro, Skr. 
 tri, pass through, Boh. trn, Pol. tarn, Wei. draen, etc., 
 a word of unknown derivation. 
 
 BLACK-, the sloe, Prunus spinosa, L. 
 
 BUCK-, Rhamnus catharticus, L. 
 
 HAW-, Cratasgus oxyacantha, L. 
 
 SALLOW-, or WILLOW-, 
 
 Hippophae rhamnoides, L. 
 
 ,, WAY-, Rhamnus catharticus, L. 
 
 WHITE-, Cratsegus oxyacantha, L. 
 
 THORN-APPLE, a plant with a thorny fruit, 
 
 Datura Stramonium, L. 
 
 THORN-BROOM, the furze, Ulex europseus, L. 
 
 THOROW-WAX, or THROW-WAX, a name given to the 
 plant by Turner, because, as he says, " the stalke waxeth 
 throw the leaves," Bupleurtim rotundifolium, L. 
 
 THREE-FACES-UNDER-A-HOOD, the pansy, 
 
 Viola tricolor, L. 
 
 THRIFT, the passive participle of threave or thrive, press 
 close together, and meaning the "clustered" pink, so called 
 from its growing in dense tufts, Armeria vulgaris, W. 
 
 THROAT- WORT, G. halswurz, the Canterbury bell, from 
 being supposed, from its throat-like corolla, to be a cure 
 for sore throats, Campanula Trachelium, L. 
 
 THRUM-WORT, from thrum, a warp-end of a weaver's 
 web, as in the Teesdale proverb, " He's nae good weaver 
 that leaves lang thrums," a word used by Lyte in describ- 
 ing the reed-mace, the head of which he says (b. iv. c. 53), 
 " seemeth to be nothing els but a throm of gray wool, or 
 flockes, thicke set and thronge togither." The plant has 
 its name from its long tassel-like panicles of red flowers. 
 Amaranthus caudatus, L.
 
 OF BRITISH PLANTS. 235 
 
 THYME, Gr. 6vpo<s, from Ova*, fumigate, and identical 
 with Ij.fumus, Skr. d/tuma, smoke, from dhu, agitate, the 
 name of some odoriferous plant or shrub used in sacrifices, 
 at present appropriated to a genus of labiate plants, and 
 more particularly to the hill-thyme, 
 
 Thymus Serpyllum, L. 
 
 TILLET, in Ph. Holland's Pliny, the till or lime tree. 
 
 TILLS, abbreviated from lentils. " The country people," 
 says Parkinson (Th. Bot. p. 1068), " sow it in the fields 
 for their cattle's food, and call it Tills, leaving out the 
 Lent, as thinking that word agreeth not with the matter. 
 Ita sus JWinervam." Ervum Lens, L. 
 
 TIMOTHY-GRASS, from its having been brought from 
 New York by a Mr. Timothy Hanson, and introduced by 
 him into Carolina, and under that name first recommended 
 to the attention of English agriculturists, 
 
 Phleum pratense, L. 
 
 TINE-TARE, a tare that tines, or encloses and imprisons 
 other plants, Vicia hirsuta, Koch, 
 
 and in Linn. Soc. Journ. vol. v. Lathyrus tuberosus, L. 
 
 TITHYMALL, a name of the spurge tribe in old writers, 
 L. tithymalus, Euphorbia, L. 
 
 TOAD-FLAX, from its narrow, linear, flax-like leaves, 
 and its having been described by Dodoens, as " Herba 
 assimilis cum Bubonio facultatis," and Bubonio having 
 been mistaken for bufonio, from bufo, a toad ; as it is 
 in the Ortus Sanitatis, ch. 431, where the author, speak- 
 ing of the Bubonium, says, " dieses kraut wird von etlichen 
 genennet bubonium, das ist kroten-kr&ut ; wann bubo heisset 
 ein krot. Inde bubonium." Linaria vulgaris, L. 
 
 BASTARD-, from its leaves resembling those of the 
 preceding plant, Thesium linophyllum, L. 
 
 TOAD-PIPE, from its straight fistulous stalks, and growth 
 in damp places where toads haunt, and croak, and pipe to 
 one another, Equisetum limosum, L.
 
 236 POPULAR NAMES 
 
 TOAD-STOOL, any of the unwholesome fungi, from a 
 popular belief that toads sit on them. So Spenser, in 
 Sheph. Cal. Dec. 1. 69 : 
 
 " The griesly todestool grown there m ought I see, 
 And loathed paddocks lording on the same." 
 
 Boletus, Agaricus, etc. 
 
 TOBACCO, a name of the plant that was adopted by the 
 Spaniards from the Indians of Cuba, and properly the name 
 of the pipe in which it was smoked, the weed itself having 
 been called Cohiba, Nicotiana Tabacum, L. 
 
 TOLMENEER, TOLMEINER, or CoLMENiER, a name given 
 by the herbalists to a variety of the Sweet William. It is 
 spelt by Lyte (b. ii. ch. 7), in three syllables Tol-me-neer, 
 as though it meant " Toll or entice me near," and Colme- 
 nier might in the same way be explained as "Cull me 
 near." It is most likely a corruption of D'Almagne, or 
 D'Allemagne, as being a pink of Germany. 
 
 Dianthus barbatus, L. 
 
 TOMATO, its American-Indian name, Sp. tomate, 
 
 Solanum Lycopersicum, L. 
 
 TOOTH-CRESS, or TOOTH-VIOLET, from the tooth-like scales 
 of the root, Dentaria bulbifera, L. 
 
 TOOTHWORT, from the tooth-like scales of the root-stock, 
 and base of the stem, Lathrsea Squamaria, L. 
 
 TORCH, G. dartsch, the mullein, called so, because, 
 according to Parkinson (Th. Bot. p. 62), and W. Coles 
 (ch. 112), " the elder age used the stalks dipped in suet 
 to burn, whether at funerals or otherwise." See HIGTAPER. 
 
 Verbascum Thapsus, L. 
 
 TORMBNTIL, Off. L. tormentitta, from the use of the root 
 in cases of dysentery, L. tormina, or, as Lobel says, from 
 its relieving the pain of toothache, 
 
 Potentilla Tormentilla, Sibt. 
 
 TOUCH-ME-NOT, from the sudden bursting of its seed- 
 pods, upon being touched ; a phrase that was familiar from
 
 OF BRITISH PLANTS. 237 
 
 the " noli-me-tangere " pictures in Eoman Catholic coun- 
 tries ; Impatiens Noli me tangere, L. 
 
 TOUCH-WOOD, a fungus imported from Germany, and 
 apparently called for that reason Dutch-wood, 
 
 Boletus igniarius, L. 
 
 TOWER-CRESS, from its having been found growing upon 
 the tower of Magdalen College, Oxford. Its Lat. specific 
 name, turrita, expresses a pyramidal habit of growth, and 
 seems to have been given to it as a translation of its trivial 
 English name, in mistake of its intended meaning. 
 
 Arabis Turrita, L. 
 
 TOWER-MUSTARD, from the tapering growth of the in- 
 florescence something in the form of a Dutch spire, " om 
 de spits torrewijse oft naeldewijze ghewas van de steelkens," 
 says Lobel (Kruydtboek, p. 262), Turritis glabra, L. 
 
 TOWN-CRESS, A.S. tun-ccerse, a cress grown in a tun, or 
 enclosed ground, as contrasted with the water- and other 
 wild cresses. Tun seems usually to have meant, as in Ice- 
 land at the present day, a close or pasture in connexion 
 with farm buildings. So in Wycliffe's N. Test. (Luke 
 xiv. 18) : "I have bought a toune." It is still retained in 
 this sense in that very interesting and only half-explored 
 magazine of antiquities, the nomenclature of our fields ; 
 and met with occasionally as Tun-mead. It is also the Du. 
 luin, a garden. Lepidium sativum, L. 
 
 TOY-WORT, from the little imitations of purses that it 
 bears, Capsella Bursa, DC. 
 
 TRAVELLER'S JOY, from the shade and shelter that it 
 affords by the bowers it forms in roadside hedges, 
 
 Clematis Vitalba, L. 
 
 TREACLE-MUSTARD, or -WORMSEED, from its being used 
 among 72 other ingredients, in making " Venice treacle," a 
 famous vermifuge and antidote to all animal poisons, and 
 one that was in great vogue during the Middle Ages ; Du. 
 triakel, Off. L. theriaca, from. Gr. Brjptov, a small animal.
 
 238 POPULAR NAMES 
 
 It was so named from the vipers that were added to the 
 Mithridate by Andromachus, physician to the Emperor 
 Nero. 
 
 "Andromachus a voulu changer le nom de Mithridate 
 en celuy de Theriaque, a cause des viperes, auxquelles il a 
 attribue le nom de Oypwv, et lesquelles il a ajoute pour la 
 base principale de cette composition." Chares, 1'histoire 
 des animaux, etc., qui entrent dans la Theriaque. Paris, 
 1668. See also Heberden's Antitheriaca. 
 
 This remedy, triacle, as it was called, was the source of 
 many popular tales of sorcerers eating poison, and was re- 
 tained in the London Pharmacopeia till about 100 years ago. 
 It was to cure " all those that were bitten or stung of veno- 
 mous beastes, or had drunk poison, or were infected with 
 the pestilence." The name has extended into Persia, where 
 opium is called Teryak. Vambery (Central Asia, p. 428). 
 See Pr. Pm., v. Treacle. Erysimum cheiranthoides, L. 
 
 TEEACLB, POOR-MAN'S-, Allium sativum, L. 
 
 TREE, A.S. treow, a word in which we find very much 
 mixed up in different languages the meaning of a living 
 tree, timber, and an oak-tree especially : Skr. druma, druta, 
 dru, tree, ddru, wood ; Zend, dru ; Gr. Bopv, both a spear- 
 shaft and a tree, Spvs, an oak and a tree generally ; Slav. 
 drevo and dervo, both wood and tree ; Alban. dru, wood ; 
 Wei. dar, derw, oak ; Gael, darach ; Go. triu, A.S. treow, 
 Da. trd, both wood and tree. These words seem to be re- 
 lated to Skr. dhruva, Zend, drva, firm, O.H.G. triu, true. 
 It is certainly remarkable that at the early period of the 
 first formation in Asia of our common mother-language, 
 and long before the invention of steel, so hard a wood as 
 that of the oak should have been so commonly used, as to 
 have become synonymous with timber generally. Yet 
 the most ancient boats that have been discovered are of 
 this tree, hollowed out with the aid of fire, and tools of 
 stone.
 
 OF BRITISH PLANTS. 239 
 
 TREFOIL, L. trio, foliola, three-leaflets, a name given 
 more particularly to the clovers, Trifoliuin, L. 
 
 TREMBLING POPLAR, the aspen, from its quivering leaves. 
 
 Populus tremula, L. 
 
 TRIFFOLY, of Shakspeare's Cephalus and Procris, TRI- 
 FOLIE of others, a trefoil, so called from its three leaflets. 
 TRINITY, see HERB TRINITY. 
 
 TRIP MADAM, Fr. trippemadame, corrupted from triacque 
 madame, a plant used as a treacle or vermifuge, 
 
 Sedum reflexum, L. 
 
 TROLL-FLOWER, the globe-flower, from Sw. troll, Da. 
 trold, Fris. trol, a malignant supernatural being, a name 
 corresponding to Scotch Witches Goivan, and given to this 
 plant on account of its acrid poisonous qualities ; 
 
 Trollius europseus, L. 
 
 TRUELOVE, incorrectly so spelt for TRULOVE, a plant 
 called so from its four leaves being set together in the form 
 of a trulove-, or engaged lovers' knot, such as is seen in 
 coats of arms where the wife's is quartered with her hus- 
 band's ; from Da. trolovet, betrothed, of tro, faith, and love, 
 promise, O.N. trolofad, and not from faithfulness in love, 
 with which it has no etymological connexion ; 
 
 Paris quadrifolia, L. 
 
 TRUFFLE, in Parkinson and Dale TRUBBES, li.tartujfola, 
 dim. of tartufo, from L. terrce tuber, 
 
 Tuber cibarium, Sibt. 
 
 TULIP, in old works TULIPAN, a word that in Turkish 
 means " turban," Pers. dulbend, from its rich and varied 
 colours, and its shape resembling that of an inverted cap, 
 
 Tulipa Gesneriana, L. 
 
 TUNHOOF, from A.S. tun, a court or garden, Du. tuin, 
 and hufe, a crown, a translation of Gr. <rre^avw^jM 7779, and 
 L. terrce corona, the ground ivy, 
 
 Nepeta Glechoma, Benth.
 
 240 POPULAR NAMES 
 
 TURK'S CAP, in Parkinson's Paradisus, the tulip, a 
 translation of its Oriental name. See TULIP. 
 
 TURNIP, L. terrcB napus, Brassica Eapa, L. 
 
 TURNSOLE or TORNSOLE, a name given in some old 
 works to the wartwort, from its being supposed to turn its 
 flowers towards the sun, Fr. tournesol, Gr. rjXtorpoTriov, 
 Euphorbia helioscopia, L. 
 
 TUSSACK-GRASS, from its growing in thick tufts or 
 tussocks, Aira csespitosa, L. 
 
 TUTSAN, m old works TUTSAYNE, Fr. toute-saine, all- 
 wholesome, a word that Gerarde (p. 435), Nemnich, and 
 others derive from its " healing all." Thus Lobel tells us 
 (Kruydtb. pt. i. p. 768), that " it is called by the common 
 people in France Toute same, because, like the Panacea, it 
 cures all sicknesses and diseases." This idea has probably 
 been suggested by its M. Lat. name Androscemum, Gr. of 
 Dioscorides (iii. 172) avSpoo-cupov, of av&pos, man's, and 
 alfjui, blood, a name given to it in reference either to the 
 claret colour of the juice of its ripe capsule ; or the blood- 
 stain left on the fingers after rubbing the flower, as Fuchs 
 explains it ; or more probably to an unguent made from 
 this and a closely-allied species, of which Gerarde says 
 (p. 433) : " The leves, floures, and seeds stamped, and put 
 into a glasse with oile olive, and set in the sunne for 
 certain weekes, doth make an oile of the colour of blood, 
 which is a most pretious remedy for deep wounds, and 
 those that are thorow the body." 
 
 Hypericum Androssemum, L. 
 
 TWAT-BLADE, from its two root-leaves, 
 
 Listera ovata, L. 
 
 TWICE-WRITHEN, L. bistorta, Polygonum Bistorta, L. 
 
 TWIG-RUSH, from its tough, twiggy, branching growth, 
 
 Cladium Mariscus, L. 
 
 TWITCH, see QUITCH-GRASS. 
 
 TWOPENCE, see HERB TWOPENCE.
 
 OF BRITISH PLANTS. 241 
 
 TWOPENNY-GRASS, so called by Turner from its pairs of 
 round leaves " standyng together of ech syde of the stalke 
 lyke pence," Lysimachia Nummularia, L. 
 
 UNSHOE-THE-HORSE, It. sferra-cavallo, from its horse- 
 shoe-shaped legumes being, upon the doctrine of signatures, 
 supposed to have that power. " Wann die Pferde auf der 
 Weide gehen, und sie auf diess kraut oft treten, fallen 
 ihnen die Hufeisen bisweilen ab." Tabernsem. ii. p. 230. 
 
 Hippocrepis comosa, L. 
 
 also the moonwort, of which Du Bartas 
 says, p. 79, ed. 1611 : 
 
 " Horses that feeding on the grassie hills, 
 Tread upon Moonwort with their hollow heels, 
 Though lately shod, at night go barefoot home." 
 
 Botrychium Lunaria, Sw. 
 
 UPSTART, the meadow saffron, from its flowers starting 
 up suddenly from the ground, without putting out leaves 
 first, Colchicum autumnale, L. 
 
 VALERIAN, L. valeriana, a name of uncertain origin, 
 Valeriana officinalis, L. 
 
 VELVET-DOCK, the mullein, from its large soft leaves, 
 Verbascum Thapsus, L. 
 
 VELVET-FLOWER, the love-lies-bleeding, from its crimson 
 velvety tassels, Amaranthus caudatus, L. 
 
 VELVET-LEAP, Lavatera arborea, L. 
 
 VENUS'-BASON, L. Veneris labrum, Gr. lA.<^po^tr^ \ovrpov, 
 the teasel, so named after the goddess of beauty, from the 
 hollows formed by the united bases of the leaves being 
 usually filled with water, that was used, says Ray, "ad 
 verrucas abigendas," to remove warts and freckles, 
 
 Dipsacus sylvestris, L. 
 
 VENUS'-COMB, from the slender tapering beaks of the 
 seed-vessels being set together like the teeth of a comb, 
 
 Scandix Pecten, L. 
 
 16
 
 242 POPULAR NAMES 
 
 VENUS'-HAIR, the maidenhair fern, Adiantum, L. 
 VENUS'-LOOKING-GLASS, from the resemblance of its 
 flowers set upon their cylindrical ovary to an ancient 
 round mirror at the end of a straight handle. The name 
 is given by Spenser (F. Q. iii. i. 8) to a magic mirror, in 
 which a lady might see her destined husband. 
 
 Campanula hybrida, L. 
 VERNAL-GRASS, from its early flowering, 
 
 Anthoxanthum odoratum, L. 
 VERVAIN, Fr. verveine, L. verbena, 
 
 Verbena officinalis, L. 
 
 VETCH, or FETCH, or FITCH, It. veccia, L. vicia, related 
 to vincire, bind, as the G. wicke to wickeln, from its twining 
 habit. Used absolutely it means the common vetch, 
 
 Vicia sativa, L. 
 
 BITTER-, Vicia Orobus, DC. 
 
 ,, GRASS-, Lathyrus Nissolia, L. 
 
 HORSE-SHOE-, Hippocrepis comosa, L. 
 
 KIDNEY-, Anthyllis vulneraria, L. 
 
 MILK-, Astragalus glycyphyllos, L. 
 
 TARE-, Vicia hirsuta, Koch. 
 
 VETCHLING, a spurious vetch, Lathyrus pratensis, L. 
 VINE, Fr. vigne, L. vinea, adj. of vinum, wine, as being 
 the wine-shrub, G. wein-rebe, Gr. 00/09. Turner and some 
 other old writers spell it vynde, from confusion with A.S. 
 winde. The first syllable of vinum and vitis is probably a 
 radical wi or vi, whence L. mere, twist, with, withy, etc., 
 and given to the vine in reference to its twining habit. 
 
 Vitis vinifera, L. 
 
 VIOLET, It. violetta, dim. of L. viola, which itself is a 
 dim. of lov ; in botanical nomenclature now confined to the 
 genus to which the pansy belongs, but by ancient writers 
 extended to many other very different plants, especially 
 scented ones. Indeed Laurenberg in Appar. Plant, says 
 (p. 77) : " Videntur mihi antiqui suaveolentes quosque flores
 
 OF BRITISH PLANTS. 243 
 
 generatim Violas appellasse, cujuscunque etiam forent 
 generis." Even to the present day we retain it in the 
 popular names of several plants of very different orders. 
 Used absolutely, it means the genus Viola, L. 
 
 VIOLET, CORN-, Campanula hybrida, L. 
 
 DAMASK-, or DAME'S-, 
 
 Hesperis matronalis, L. 
 
 DOG-, Viola canina, L. 
 
 ,, MARCH-, Viola odorata, L. 
 
 TOOTH-, Dentaria bulbifera, L. 
 
 ,, WATER-, Hottonia palustris, L. 
 
 VIPER'S BUGLOSS, a bugloss which, from its seed being 
 like the head of that reptile, was supposed, on the doctrine 
 of signatures, to cure its bite. Thus Matthioli (1. iv. c. 69) : 
 " In Echio, herba contra viperarum morsus celeberrima, 
 natura semen viperinis capitibus simile procreavit." 
 
 Echium vulgare, L. 
 
 VIPER-GRASS, L. mperaria, because, according to Monar- 
 dus, a physician of Seville quoted in Parkinson's Th. Bot. 
 (p. 410), " a Moore, a bondslave, did helpe those that were 
 bitten of that venomous beast, the viper, which they of 
 Catalonia called Escuerso, with the juice of this herbe, 
 which both took away the poison, and healed the bitten 
 place very quickly, when Treakle [Theriaca] and other 
 things would do no good." Its Italian and officinal Latin 
 name, scorzonera, is derived from It. scorzone, a venemous 
 serpent, popularized into a word that would seem to mean 
 " black rind," scorza nera. Scorzonera edulis, Mn. 
 
 VIRGIN'S BOWER, a shrub so named by Gerarde, a& 
 fitting to be a bower for maidens, and with allusion, 
 perhaps, to Queen Elizabeth, but not, as we might be 
 tempted to imagine, to the Virgin Mary in a riposo, or 
 resting scene on the way to Egypt, the frequent subject 
 of pictures, Clematis Vitalba, L.
 
 244 POPULAR NAMES 
 
 WAGWANT, a West-country term supposed to mean wag- 
 ' wanton, Fr. in Clusius (p. ccxviii), amourettes tremblantes, 
 the quaking-grass, so called from its quivering spikelets, 
 
 Briza media, L. 
 
 WAKE-PINTLE, a name given in Florio and Torriano's 
 Dictionary as the translation of Ital. Aro, and apparently 
 identical in its meaning with Wake-robin, and Cuckoo-pint, 
 the wake being, like cuckoo, a modern form of A.S. cwic, 
 cucu, and Low. Germ, quek, alive, and the noun allusive 
 to its supposed aphrodisiac powers. Arum maculatum, L. 
 
 WAKE ROBIN, from Fr. robinet, a word of the same 
 meaning as pintle. See CUCKOO-PINT and WAKE-PINTLE. 
 
 Arum maculatum, L. 
 
 WALE-WORT, or WALL-WORT, the dwarf elder, A.S. weal- 
 wyrt, from A.S. wal, slaughter, or wealh, foreign, and cor- 
 responding to the other names of the plant, Danesblood and 
 Danewort, which Aubrey tells us were given to it from its 
 growing at a village called Slaughterford in Wiltshire, 
 where it is supposed that an army of Danes was destroyed. 
 In German walwurz means the comfrey. Ort. San. (c. xcv.). 
 Brunsch. (b. ii. c. xx.). Sambucus Ebulus, L. 
 
 WALNUT, or WELSH NUT, A.S. wealh-hnut, from wealh, 
 foreign, G. wdlsch, O.H.G. walah, Fr. gauge, an adjective 
 used more particularly of Italy, from whence the tree was 
 introduced into Northern Europe, Juglans regia, L. 
 
 WALL BARLEY, a barley that grows about walls, and 
 which seems to have been taken for the species called by 
 Pliny (1. xxii. c. 25) lolium murinum, mouse-darnel, the 
 murinum of which was confused with murale, and under- 
 stood as wa^-darnel. Thus Tragus explains the name, as 
 given to the plant, " weil es von sich selbst auf den Mawren 
 wachst ; " and Turner tells us (part ii. p. 17) : " It is called 
 of the Latines Hordeum murinum, that is, Wall-barley." 
 See MOUSE-BARLEY. Hordeum murinum, L. 
 
 WALL CRESS, Arabis, L.
 
 OF BRITISH PLANTS. 245 
 
 WALL FERN, Polypodiuin vulgare, L. 
 
 WALL-FLOWER, a plant introduced from Spain as a Wall 
 Stock-gillofer, which became successively Wall gilliflower, 
 and Wall-flower. The Gillofer was the French girqflier, and 
 under Stock-gillofer was comprehended the Stock, Matthiola 
 incana, as well as the wall-flower. 
 
 Cheiranthus Cheiri, L. 
 
 WALL PENNYWORT, from its round leaves, 
 
 Cotyledon Umbilicus, L. 
 
 WALL PEPPER, from its biting taste, Sedum acre, L. 
 
 WALL ROCKET, from its rocket-like leaves, 
 
 Brassica tenuifolia, Boiss. 
 
 WALL RUE, a fern so called from its rue-like leaves, 
 
 Asplenium Ruta muraria, L. . 
 
 WARE, A.S. war, sea-weed generally, Algae, L. 
 
 WARENCE, Fr. garance, M.L. mrantia, or verantia, the 
 madder, from vera, true, genuine, Gr. d\r)0wo<s, meaning, 
 par excellence, red, the most glowing colour ; as in Spanish 
 Colorado means not merely tinted, but blood-red ; 
 
 Rubia tinctorum, L. 
 
 WART-CRESS, a cress with wart-shaped fruit-, 
 
 Senebiera Coronopus, Poir. 
 
 WART-SPURGE, or WART-WEED, from being used to cure 
 warts, Euphorbia helioscopia, L. 
 
 WATER AGRIMONY, Bidens tripartita, L. 
 
 WATER BETONY, Scrophularia aquatica, L. 
 
 WATER BLINKS, Montia fontana, L. 
 
 WATER-CAN, Da. aakande, from the shape of the seed 
 vessel, Nuphar luteum, L. 
 
 WATER CHICKWEED, Montia fontana, L. 
 
 WATER CRESS, Nasturtium officinale, RB. 
 
 WATER CROWFOOT, Ranunculus aquatilis, L. 
 
 WATER DOCK, Rumex Hydrolapathum, L. 
 
 WATER DROPWORT, (Enanthe fistulosa, L. 
 
 WATER ELDER, Viburnum Opulus, L.
 
 246 POPULAR NAMES 
 
 WATER FEATHERPOIL, Hottonia palustris, L. 
 
 WATER FENNEL, (Enanthe Phellandrium, L. 
 
 WATER FERN, Osmunda regalis, L. 
 
 WATER FLAG, Iris Pseudacorus, L. 
 
 WATER GERMANDER, Teucriurn Scordium, L. 
 
 WATER HEMP, Bidens tripartita, L. 
 
 WATER HEMLOCK, Cicuta virosa, L. 
 
 WATER HOREHOUND, Lycopus europseus, L. 
 
 WATER HORSETAIL, Chara, L. 
 
 WATER LILY, FRINGED-, Villarsia nymphseoides, L. 
 WHITE-, Nymphaea alba, L. 
 
 YELLOW-, Nuphar luteum, L. 
 
 WATER LENTILS, Lemna, L. 
 
 WATER MILFOIL Myriophyllum verticillatum, L. 
 
 WATER Moss, Fontinalis antipyretica, L. 
 
 WATER PARSNIP, Slum latifolium, L. 
 
 WATER PEPPER, Polygonum Hydropiper, L. 
 
 WATER PIMPERNEL, Veronica Beccabunga, L. 
 
 WATER PLANTAIN, Alisma Plantago, L. 
 
 WATER PURSLANE, Peplis Portula, L. 
 
 WATER KOCKET, Sisymbrium sylvestre, L. 
 
 WATER SCORPION-GRASS, Myosotis palustris, L. 
 
 WATER SOLDIER, from its sword-shaped leaves, 
 
 Stratiotes aloides, L. 
 
 WATER SPIKE, Potamogeton, L. 
 
 WATER STARWORT, from its starry tufts of leaves, 
 
 Callitriche, L. 
 
 WATER THYME, a name given to a pestilent weed from 
 North America, that chokes our canals, from some resem- 
 blance of its leaves to those of thyme, 
 
 Elodea canadensis, Rd. 
 
 WATER TORCH, in Newton's Herbal of the Bible, the 
 reed-mace, Typha latifolia, L. 
 
 WATER VIOLET, Hottonia palustris, L. 
 
 WATER WORT, Elatine Hydropiper, L.
 
 OF BRITISH PLANTS. 247 
 
 WAY BARLEY, -BENNET, or -BENT, from its growing by 
 waysides, Hordeum inurinum, L. 
 
 WAYBREAD, the plaintain, A.S. wegbrced, Da. vejbred, 
 G. of Ort. San. wegbreyt, and wegbreidt, a word the mean- 
 ing of which is very uncertain. 0. Cockayne (Leechdoms, 
 iii. p. 347) explains it as waybroad. It probably meant 
 " spread on the way." Thus the Ort. San., under Incen- 
 saria, says, that it is " beynahet als wegbreidte und wechst 
 auch an den sandigen bergen, und breitet sich langes die 
 erde." Plantago major, L. 
 
 WAYFARING- or WAYFARER-TREE, from growing in 
 hedges by the road-side, a punning name given to it by 
 Gerarde, as implying that it is " ever on the road, 1 ' 
 
 Viburnum Lantana, L. 
 
 WAY-THORN, highway-thorn, G. wegedorn, 
 
 Rhamnus catharticus, L. 
 
 WEASEL-SNOUT, from the shape of the corolla, the yellow 
 dead nettle, Lamiurn Galeobdolon, Crz. 
 
 WEED, AMERICAN RIVER-, a name that, for want of a 
 more distinctive one, is now adopted for a pestilent weed 
 that was some years ago introduced with Canadian timber, 
 and now infests our rivers, ponds, and canals. It has 
 hitherto been generally known as " Babington's curse ; " 
 a name that conveys a most unjust imputation upon a 
 distinguished botanist, who, except drawing up an able 
 description of the plant, has had nothing at all to do with it. 
 
 Elodea canadensis, Rd. 
 
 WEED-WIND, a corruption of Withivind. 
 
 WEEPING WILLOW, a tree supposed, from the resem- 
 blance of its delicate pendulous branches to long dishevelled 
 hair, the conventional expression of grief, to be the willow 
 of Psalm cxxxvii. 1 : "By the rivers of Babylon we sat 
 down, we wept. We hanged our harps upon the willows" 
 
 Salix babylonica, L. 
 
 WELCOME-TO-OUR- HOUSE, perhaps a quibble on its name,
 
 248 POPULAR NAMES 
 
 s, as meaning " Sip ere ye see us," " help your- 
 self to the tankard, without waiting to be asked," 
 
 Euphorbia Cyparissias, L. 
 WELD, WOULD, or WOOLD, Sp. gualda, 
 
 Keseda Luteola, L. 
 
 WELSH ONION, G. wdlsch, foreign, being a Siberian 
 species, and introduced into England from Germany, 
 
 Allium fistulosum, L. 
 WELSH POPPY, from its growing in Wales, 
 
 Meconopsis cambrica, DC. 
 WHARRE, a crab, W. ckwenv, austere, bitter, 
 
 Pyrus Malus, L. 
 
 WHEAT, a term used in the first place with the meaning 
 of white, wheat being, in contrast to rye, and black oats, 
 and the black barley of Northern Asia, a white grain, A.S. 
 hwcete, Go. hvaiteis, O.K. hveiti, O.H.G. hveizi, Lith. kivetys, 
 Skr. s'veta, white, the initial sv answering, as in other cases, 
 to a German hu, and Lith. few, Triticum, L. 
 
 BUCK-, G. buchwaitzen, 
 
 Polygonum Fagopyrum, L. 
 Cow-, see under COW-WHEAT. 
 WHIN, from Fr. guinda or guindoula, M.Lat. guindolum, 
 a word that generally means a kind of cherry, but in 
 Languedoc is applied to the jujube, L. ziziphus, a name 
 extended to other thorny and prickly shrubs (see HIP), the 
 furze bush, Ulex europseus, L. 
 
 PETTY-, Ononis arvensis, L. 
 
 WHIN-BERRY, or WIMBERRY, the bilberry, from its 
 growing on whins or heaths, 
 
 Vaccinium Myrtillus, L. 
 
 WHIP-TONGUE, from children using its leaves in play to 
 draw blood from their tongues, Galium Mollugo, L. 
 
 WHITE BEAM-TREE, a pleonasm, as A.S. beam means 
 simply a tree. It is called White Beam from the white 
 down on the young shoots and under surface of the leaves ;
 
 OF BRITISH PLANTS. 249 
 
 but Beam-tree, as it is often given, without the White, is a 
 vague and silly term. Pyrus Aria, L. 
 
 WHITE BEN, from Ar. Behen, Silene inflata, L. 
 
 WHITE BLOW, a name given to two of our earliest spring 
 flowers very conspicuous upon walls, and also called Whit- 
 low-grasses, of which White Blow may perhaps be a corrup- 
 tion. Saxifraga tridactylites, L., and Draba verna, L. 
 
 WHITE BOTTLE, from the shape of the calyx, and in dis- 
 tinction from the blue bottle, Silene inflata, L. 
 
 WHITE-BOOT, or -WORT, its officinal name, the Solomon's 
 seal, Convallaria Polygonatum, L. 
 
 WHITE EOT, from its being supposed to bane sheep, 
 
 Hydrocotyle vulgaris, L. 
 also, for the same reason, the butterwort, 
 
 Pinguicula vulgaris, L. 
 
 WHITE POTHERB, in distinction from the black potherb 
 or olus atrum, the lamb's lettuce, 
 
 Yalerianella olitoria, L. 
 
 WHITE-THORN, Fr. aubespine, in distinction from the 
 sloe or black-thorn, from its comparatively light-coloured 
 rind, Cratsegus Oxyacantha, L. 
 
 WHITE WILD-VINE, the white bryony, in distinction 
 from the black bryony, L. vitis alba, Plin. (1. xxiii. i. 16), 
 Gr. a/ji7r\o\VKr), Bryonia dioica, L. 
 
 WHITLOW-GRASS, a name given to two small spring 
 flowers from their being supposed to be the Trapww^ta of 
 Dioscorides, and useful in the cure of whitlows, 
 
 Saxifraga tridactylites, L., and Draba verna, L. 
 
 WHITTEN-TREE, a tree so called from its white branches ; 
 in Berkshire, the wayfarer-tree, Viburnum Lantana, L. 
 but according to Gerarde (p. 1237), the water-elder, 
 
 Viburnum Opulus, L. 
 
 WHORT, or WHORTLEBERRY, the bilberry, corrupted from 
 L. myrta and myrtittus, the names in old vocabularies of 
 the myrtle-berry, a fruit largely imported in the Middle
 
 250 POPULAR NAMES 
 
 Ages, and used in medicine and cookery, and one that the 
 bilberry much resembles in outward appearance, the m 
 being replaced with w as in many other instances : e.g. in 
 wick from Lat. myxa, Vaccinium Myrtillus, L. 
 
 WICH or WITCH ELM, see WYCH. 
 
 WlCKEN-TREE, S66 QUICKEN. 
 
 WILDING, the crab apple, contrasted with the sweeting 
 or cultivated sweet apple ; as in Spenser (F. Q. iii. vii. 17) : 
 " Oft from the forest wildings did he bring." 
 
 Pyrus Malus, L. 
 
 WILL-OF-THE-WISP, from its sudden and mysterious 
 growth by night, as if dropped by some phantom, 
 
 Tremella Nostoc, L. 
 
 WILLIAM, from Fr. oeillet, a little eye, corrupted to 
 Willie, and thence to William, L. ocellus. 
 
 SWEET-, from its scent, and partly, perhaps, in allu- 
 sion to the hero of a popular ballad, " Fair Margaret and 
 Sweet William," if this was really in existence above 300 
 years ago. According to an article in the Quarterly 
 Review (No. 227), it formerly bore the name of " Sweet 
 Saint William;" but the writer gives no reference, and 
 probably had no authority for saying so. Bulleyn assigns 
 the name to the wallflower. Dianthus barbatus, L. 
 
 WILD, the Ragged Robin, 
 
 Lychnis flos cuculi, L. 
 
 WILLOW, a word that seems to express a pliancy, a wil- 
 lingness of disposition that well accords with the character 
 of this tree, whose branches have from time immemorial 
 been used for wicker-work, A.S. wilig, L.G. wilge, 
 
 Salix, L. 
 
 CRACK-, S. fragilis, L. 
 
 GOATS'-, S. caprea, L. 
 
 SWEET-, Myrica Gale, L. 
 
 WEEPING-, S. babylonica, L. 
 
 WHITE-, S. alba, L.
 
 OF BRITISH PLANTS. 251 
 
 WILLOW-HERB, in W. Coles WILLOW-WEED, from its 
 willow-like leaves, Epilobium, L. 
 
 SPIKED-, Lythram Salicaria, L. 
 
 WILLOW-THORN, a thorny shrub with the habit of a 
 willow, Hippophae rhamnoides, L. 
 
 WILLOW-WORT, in Sylvester's Du Bartas, p. 79, the loose- 
 strife, 
 
 " So willow-wort makes wonted hate shake hands." 
 
 Lysimachia vulgaris, L. 
 
 WIND-FLOWER, from Gr. avepavr}, see ANEMONY, 
 
 Anemone, L. 
 
 WIND-ROSE, Ecemeria hybrida, DC. 
 
 WINDLE-STRAW, A.S. wmdel-streow , from windan, twist, 
 and streow, straw, a grass whose halms are used for platting, 
 
 Agrostis Spica venti, L. 
 and Cynosurus cristatus, L. 
 
 WIN-BERRY, or WIM BERRY, probably a corruption of 
 whin-berry rather than of wine and berry, although a fer- 
 mented liquor was formerly made from this fruit, as it is in 
 Russia to the present day, the whortleberry, 
 
 Vaccinium Myrtillus, L. 
 
 WINE-BERRY, in the Northern counties, the red-currant, 
 
 Ribes rubrum, L. 
 
 WINTER ACONITE, a plant allied to the aconites, and 
 blowing at midwinter, Eranthis hyemalis, DC. 
 
 WINTER CHERRY, from its red cherry-like berry ripening 
 against the winter, Physalis Alkekengi, L. 
 
 WINTER CRESS, Barbarea praecox, RB. 
 
 WINTER-GREEN, a name adopted by Turner from the 
 German winter-griin, of the Ortus Sanitatis (c. 316). The 
 Danish winter-grunt means the ivy, and it is probable that 
 this latter, the ivy, is the rightful claimant of the name, as 
 being so conspicuously green when the trees are most of 
 them bare of leaf. Pyrola, L.
 
 252 POPULAR NAMES 
 
 WINTER-WEED, from its being in winter the weed that 
 spreads most, Veronica hederifolia, L. 
 
 WIRE-BENT, a bent-grass with wiry stems, 
 
 Nardus stricta, L. 
 
 WISDOM OF SURGEONS, (Anne Pratt's Wild Flowers, 
 p. 221,) from its name Sophia, meaning in Greek "wisdom," 
 
 Sisymbrium Sophia, L. 
 
 WITCHES'-BUTTER, Fris. traal-butter, Sw. troll-smor, 
 from its buttery appearance, and unaccountably rapid 
 growth in the night, which has given rise to a superstitious 
 belief, still prevalent in Sweden, that witches milk the cows, 
 and scatter about the butter on the ground, 
 
 Exidia glandulosa, Bull. 
 
 WITCH ELM, or -HAZEL, a mistaken spelling. See WYCH. 
 
 WITCHES* THIMBLE, Silene maritima, L. 
 
 WITCHEN, or QUICKEN, or WICKEN, the roan-tree, from 
 quycchyn, move (Pr. Pm.p. 421), a word related to A.S. cwic, 
 alive. Evelyn looking upon it as derived from witch, sup- 
 poses it to be so called, because " it is reputed to be 'a pre- 
 servative against fascination and evil spirits, if the boughs 
 be stuck about the house, or used for walking staffs." It 
 would seem in the first place to have meant the aspen, 
 and through some mistake to have been transferred to the 
 roan. Pyrus aucuparia, Gart. 
 
 WITHWIND, A.S. wt&winde, from wife, about, and windan, 
 wind, Convolvulus arvensis, L. 
 
 WITHY, A.S. wffiige, wrSie, or wift^e, G. wiede, and 
 etymologically identical with Du. winde, standing to it in 
 the same relation as litky to linde. Words closely related 
 to it occur in other languages, as the Lat. vitis and vimen, 
 Gr. Irea or yirea, and Pers. bid, all derived from a root vi, 
 the Skr. we, and having the sense of twisting and twining, 
 the especial use of the osier in all countries. See VINE. 
 
 Salix viminalis, L. 
 
 WOAD, or WADE, A.S. wad, O.S. twde, O.H.G. weit, in
 
 OF BRITISH PLANTS. 253 
 
 Charlemagne's capitulary waisda, whence O.Fr. guesde, Fr. 
 guede, andgaide, M.Lat. guasdium, guesdium, words derived 
 originally from some ancient barbaric language, 
 
 Isatis tinctoria, L. 
 
 WOAD, WILD-, Keseda Luteola, L. 
 
 WOLPSBANE, wolf-poison, a plant so called because, says 
 Gerarde (p. 822), " the hunters which seeke after woolfes, 
 put the juice thereof into rawe flesh, which the woolfes 
 devoure, and are killed," Aconitum Lycoctonum, L. 
 
 WOLF'S-CLAW, from the claw-like ends of the trailing 
 stems, Lycopodium clavatum, L. 
 
 WOLF'S MILK, from the acrid qualities of its milky 
 juice. Talbot, in Eng. Etym., suggests that the name has 
 arisen from a confusion of Gr. Xeu/co9, white, with Xu/co?, 
 wolf; but the plant does not seem to have been called 
 either white- or wolf s-milk by any Greek writer. 
 
 Euphorbia, L. 
 
 WOODBINE, not a bine that grows in woods, but a creeper 
 that binds or entwines trees, in old authors called WOOD- 
 VYNDE and WOODBINDE, A.S. wudu-winde and ivudu-Und, 
 from wudu, a tree, and windan, twine, or bindan, bind, 
 G. in TabernEem. ii. 616, Wald-winde, It. Vincibosco, 
 
 Lonicera Periclymenum, L. 
 
 It would seem in some passages to mean the bittersweet, 
 as in Mids. N. Dr. iv. 1. 
 
 " So doth the woodbine the sweet honeysuckle 
 Gently enfrwist." 
 
 WOOD BLADES, -GRASS, Or -KTJ8H, 
 
 Luzula sylvatica, DC. 
 
 WOOD CROWFOOT, of Parkinson, the wood anemony, from 
 its leaves resembling those of a crowfoot, 
 
 Anemone nemorosa, L. 
 
 WOOD LAUREL, L. laureola, dim. of laurus, a name under 
 which all evergreen shrubs were once included, 
 
 , Daphne Laureola, L. ,
 
 254 POPULAR NAMES 
 
 WOOD LILY, the lily of the valley, 
 
 Convallaria majalis, L. 
 
 WOOD NIGHTSHADE, the bittersweet, 
 
 Solanum Dulcamara, L. 
 
 WOOD NUT, Corylus Avellana, L. 
 
 WOOD PEA, from its small pea-like tubers, and its usually 
 growing in woods, Vicia Orobus, DC. 
 
 WOOD REED, in distinction from the pool-reed, 
 
 Calamagrostis epigeios, L. 
 
 WOOD-ROOF, -ROPE, -ROW, -ROWEL, or -RUFF, and agree- 
 ably to an old distich : 
 
 " Double IT, double 0, double D, E, 
 
 E, 0, double TJ, double F, E," 
 
 WOODDEROWFFE, A.S. wude-rofe, from Fr. roue, a wheel, 
 and its dim. rouelle, a little wheel or rowel, the leaves 
 being set upon the stem in verticils that resemble the large 
 rowels of ancient spurs. This is one among several other 
 words that we find to have been adopted into Anglo-Saxon 
 from the French, an occurrence a good deal more frequent 
 than philologists seem to be aware, who, looking upon the 
 former as a pure Germanic language, would trace its 
 vocabulary too exclusively to native roots. 
 
 Asperula odorata, L. 
 
 WOOD RUSH, or -GRASS, Luzula sylvatica, DC. 
 
 WOOD SAGE, Teucrium Scorodonia, L. 
 
 WOOD SORREL, or -SowR, Oxalis Acetosella, L. 
 
 WOOD SPURGE, Euphorbia amygdaloides, L. 
 
 WOOD VETCH, Vicia Orobus, DC. 
 
 WOOD VINE, Bryonia dioica, L. 
 
 WOOD-WAXEN, A.S. wudu-weaxe, which would seem to 
 mean "wood-grown," a word very inapplicable to a plant 
 that is always found in open meadows. It is most pro- 
 bably a corruption of some German name meaning " woad- 
 plant," waud-gewdchse. It is called in Sloane MS. 1571, 3, 
 Wodewex, Genista tinctoria, L.
 
 OF BRITISH PLANTS. 255 
 
 WOOLD, a dyer's term, see WELD. 
 WOOLLEN, the mullein, from its woolly leaf, Fl. wolle- 
 kruydt, G. of Ort. San. c. 110, Wulkraut, 
 
 Verbascum Thapsus, L. 
 WORM-GRASS, from its vermifuge qualities, 
 
 Sedum album, L. 
 WORM-SEED, from its reputed vermifuge qualities, 
 
 Erysimum cheiranthoides, L. 
 
 WORMWOOD, a word corrupted from A.S. wermod, G. wer- 
 muth, O.H.G. werimuota, O.S. weremede, words which seem 
 to be compounded with G. wehren, A.S. werian, keep off, 
 mod or made, maggot, but which, by an accidental coinci- 
 dence of sound, have been understood as though the first 
 syllable were worm. L. Diefenbach would prefer to derive 
 it from a Celtic root that means " bitter," Wei. chwerw, 
 Corn, wherow. Be its origin what it may, it was under- 
 stood in the Middle Ages as meaning a herb obnoxious to 
 maggots, and used to preserve things from them, and was 
 also given as an anthelmintic or worm medicine. 
 
 Artemisia Absinthium, L. 
 WORTS, see WHORTLEBERRY, 
 
 Vaccinium Myrtillus, L. 
 
 WORTS, in Chaucer a general name for cultivated plants, 
 A.S. wyrt, Go. aurts, Skr. vridh, grow ; but in Shakspeare 
 (M.W.W. act i. sc. 1), and in Lupton's Notable Things, 
 more especially cabbage, being an abbreviation of cole- 
 worts, Brassica, L. 
 
 WOUNDWORT, from its soft downy leaves having been 
 used instead of lint for dressing wounds, 
 
 Stachys Germanica, L. 
 
 also, for the same reason, Anthyllis vulneraria, L. 
 
 CLOWN'S, see under CLOWN. 
 KNIGHT'S WATER-, a plant that from its sword- 
 shaped leaves was supposed, on the doctrine of signatures, 
 to heal sword-wounds, Stratiotes abides, L.
 
 256 POPULAR NAMES 
 
 WRACK, seaweed thrown ashore, from a Norse or Frisian 
 word connected with Da. vrage, reject, Du. wraken, 
 GRASS-, a sea-plant with long grass-like leaves, 
 
 Zostera marina, L. 
 
 WYCH-ELM, an elm so named from its wood having been 
 used to make the chests called in old writers wyches, hucches, 
 or whycches, from Fr. huche, A.S. hwcscce, a term applied 
 by Sir John Mandeville (c. viii.) to the Ark of the Testi- 
 mony ; and in a poem called " Cleanness," edited by Dr. 
 R. Morris, to Noah's Ark : 
 
 "And alle woned in ]>e whicche ]>e wylde and ]>e tame ;" 
 but more generally to the boxes used for keeping provisions, 
 as in Hazlitt's Early Popular Poetry, p. 210 : 
 
 " His haU rofe was full of bacon flytches, 
 The chambre charged was with wyches 
 Full of egges, butter, and chese." 
 
 Ulmus montana, L. 
 
 WYCH-HAZEL, from the resemblance of its leaf to that of 
 the hazel, the wych-elm, Ulmus montana, L. 
 
 YARR, abbreviated from yarrow, and applied to a very 
 different plant, the spurry, from both having been confused 
 under the name of milfoil, Spergula arvensis, L. 
 
 YARROW, the milfoil, A.S. geartve, L.Ger. gerurce, 
 O.H.G-. garawa, O.Fris, kerva, G. garbe, a word that seems 
 to have been properly the name of the vervain, hiera- 
 botane, the gerebotanon of Apuleius, c. iii., from Gr. lepa 
 (Soravr), holy herb, with which and with the betony we 
 learn from a couplet in Macer, c. 58, that it was associated 
 in its vulnerary and other supposed virtues : 
 
 " Herbam, cui nomen/o/m de mitte dedere, 
 Betonicamque pari verbenae pondere junge." 
 
 The initial hi of Greek words has in the Germanic languages 
 been usually replaced with y orj, and thus, as Hieronymus
 
 OF BRITISH PLANTS. 257 
 
 and Hierosolyma have become Jerom and Jwusalem, so hiera 
 has become yarrow. Achillsea Millefolium, L. 
 
 YEAST-PLANT, Penicillium glaucum, Ber. 
 
 YELLOW ARCHANGEL, see ARCHANGEL, 
 
 Lamium Galeobdolon, Crz. 
 
 YELLOW BIRDSNEST, in contrast to the wild carrot, that 
 was also called Birdsnest, Monotropa Hypopitys, L. 
 
 YELLOW BUGLE, Ajuga Chamaepitys, L. 
 
 YELLOW CRESS, Barbarea prsecox, RB. 
 
 YELLOW LOOSESTRIFE, Lysimachia vulgaris, L. 
 
 YELLOW OX-EYE, Chrysanthemum segetum, L. 
 
 YELLOW PIMPERNEL, Lysimachia nernorum, L. 
 
 YELLOW RATTLE, Rhinanthus Crista galli, L. 
 
 YELLOW ROCKET, Barbarea vulgaris, RB. 
 
 YELLOW-WEED, a weed or dye-plant used for dyeing 
 yellow, the term weed being here, as in green-weed, red- 
 weed, etc., not the A.S. iveod, but the Du. weed, G. waid, 
 the weld, Reseda Luteola, L. 
 
 YELLOW-WORT, Chlora perfoliata, L. 
 
 YEVERING BELLS, L. tintinnabulum terrce, from the re- 
 semblance of its flowers to little bells hung one above the 
 other to be struck with a hammer. Yevering is usually spelt 
 yetkering, from Scotch y ether, beat. Pyrola secunda, L. 
 
 YEW, or YEUGH, in old authors variously spelt EWGH, 
 UGH, EWE, and U, A.S. iw, O.H.G. iwa, G. eibe, Sp. and 
 Port, iva, F. if, W. yw, from M.Lat. ivus, iva, or iua, a 
 name applied to several different plants, and of uncer- 
 tain derivation. Some of the dictionaries allege for it a 
 Celtic iw, green, but there does not appear to be any such 
 word. It seems to be an abbreviation of aiuga, a mis- 
 spelling of L. abiga, a plant mentioned by Pliny (b. xxiv. 
 ch. 20), as being the same as the Gr. x a f jLM7ri ' Tv ^> and 
 called so from its causing abortion. Under this name iua 
 we find the yew so inextricably mixed up with the ivy, 
 that, as dissimilar as are the two trees, there can be no 
 
 17
 
 258 POPULAR NAMES 
 
 doubt that their names are in their origin identical. How 
 they came to be attached to them both, is the difficulty. 
 Apuleius (ch. 26), speaking of chamsepitys, says, " Grseci 
 chamsepityn, Itali abigam, alii cupressum nigrani vocant." 
 Brunsfels too says of the chamsepitys (b. i. p. 161), " Ego 
 autem cipressen existimavi." The yew seems to have been 
 taken for this black cypress, and in this way to have 
 acquired the terms abiga and ajuga, and iua and iva. But 
 we learn from Parkinson (Th. Bot. p. 284) that the forget- 
 me-not, a weed of corn-fields, was " called in English 
 Ground pine, and Ground ivie, after the Latin word Iva." 
 This term Ground ivy was assigned by others to another 
 small labiate plant, (Nepeta Glechoma, B.) which was 
 formerly called Hedera terrestris, and ivy regarded as the 
 equivalent of hedera, and subsequently transferred to the 
 Hedera helix, our present Ivy. The origin of Ajuga 
 seems to have been a mere error of the copyist in tran- 
 scribing the passage from the 24th book of Pliny. For, 
 as distinct as are abiga and ajuga in our modern print, the 
 b of abiga might be written so as to look like a v or u, and 
 the word made to appear auiga, which, if the i were not 
 dotted, might be as easily read aiuga as auiga. See IVY. 
 Thus by a train of blunders, Pliny's abiga becomes ajuga, 
 and ajuga iua or iva. This abiga, (ajuga, or iua} was, as 
 Pliny tells us, the same as the Greek chamcepitys. The 
 yew-tree gets the name of chamcepitys through a remark 
 made by Apuleius, and thereby, as its synonym, that of 
 iua or iva. The ground-pine, from its terebinthinate odour, 
 also gets the name of chamcepitys, and thereby, as its 
 synonym, that of iua or iva. But from chamce- being 
 equivalent to terrestris, this name iua or iva passes over to 
 a weed called, from the shape of its leaf and creeping 
 habit, hedera terrestris, and the equivocal word hedera 
 conveys it to the shrub which thus gets the name of ivy. 
 
 Taxus baccata, L.
 
 OF BRITISH PLANTS. 259 
 
 YOKE-ELM, the hornbeam, from yokes heing made of it, 
 Gr. Zwyia, Carpinus Betulus, L. 
 
 YORKSHIRE SANICLE, the butterwort, from being, for its 
 healing qualities, called by Bauhin (Pin. 243) Sanicula, 
 and " growing so plentifully in Yorkshire," as Parkinson 
 tells us (Th. Bot. p. 534), Pinguicula vulgaris, L. 
 
 YORNUT, YERNUT, or YENNTJT, in the Northern counties, 
 a dialectic pronunciation of Earthnut, Da. jord-nod, 
 
 Bunium flexuosum, With. 
 
 YOUTHWORT, A.S. eow%, a flock, and rotian, rot, mistaken 
 for wort, so called from its being supposed to bane sheep, 
 the red-rot, Drosera rotundifolia, L.
 
 SYSTEMATIC NAMES OF BE1TISH PLANTS, 
 
 WITH THE OMISSION OF SUCH AS HAVE NO POPULAR EQUIVALENT. 
 
 ACER CAMPESIRE, L. Maple. Haser-tree. 
 
 ,, PSEUDOPLATANUS, L. Sycamore. Mock Plane. 
 ACERAS ANTHROPOPHORA, KB. Man-, or Green Man Orchis. 
 ACHILLA. MILLEFOLITJM, L. Yarrow. Nosebleed. Milfoil. 
 Sanguinary. 
 
 PTAHMICA, L. Sneezewort. Goose-tongue. 
 
 ,, AGERATTJM, L. Maudlin. 
 ACONITTTM NAPELLTJS, L. Monkshood. Wolfsbane. Aconite. 
 
 Friar's cap. 
 
 ACORTJS CALAMUS, L. Sweet Flag. Sweet Sedge. 
 A.CTMA. SPICATA, L. Baneberry. Herb Christopher. 
 
 ACTINOCABPtTS, 666 DAMASONirTM. 
 
 ADIANTUM CAPILLTJS, L. Maidenhair. Capillaire. Yenus' Hair. 
 ADONIS ATJTTTMNALIS, L. Pheasant' s eye. Eed Mayd-weed. Rose- 
 
 a-ruby. Red Morocco. 
 ADOXA MOSCHATELLINA, L. Moscatel. 
 
 PODAGRARIA, L. Goutweed. Ashweed. Herb Gerard. 
 HIPPOCASTANITM, L. Horse Chesnut. 
 CYNAPITTM, L. Fool's Parsley. Asses' Parsley. Dog's 
 
 Parsley. 
 
 AGABICTTS OREADES, Bolt. Champignon. Pixie- stools. 
 MTJSCARITJS, L. Bug Agaric. Flybane. 
 ,, CAJIPESTRIS, L. Mushroom. 
 ,, ARVENSIS, Sch. Horse Mushroom. 
 AGRIMOHIA EUPATORIA, L. Agrimony. Egremoine. 
 AGROSTEMMA, see LYCHNIS. 
 AGROSTIS AXBA, L. Fiorin. 
 
 var. stolonifera. Knot-grass.
 
 SYSTEMATIC NAMES OF BRITISH PLANTS. 261 
 
 AGROSTIS SPICA VENTI, L. "Windlestraw. 
 AIBA C^SPITOSA, L. Tussack-grass. 
 
 ,, CARYOPHYLLEA, L. Hair-grass. 
 
 AJTJGA CHAM^PITYS, L. Ground-pine. Forget-me-not. Herb 
 Ivy. Gout Ivy. Field Cypress. 
 
 REPTANS, L. Bugle. 
 ALARIA ESCTTLENTA, Lam. Honeyware. 
 AZCHEMHLA ARVENSIS, L. Parsley-piert. Breakstone. Percepier. 
 
 ,, VULGARIS, L. Lady's mantle. Lion's foot. Padelion. 
 
 Syndaw. 
 
 ALISMA PLANTAGO, L. Water Plantain. 
 ALLIARIA OFFICINALIS, DC. Jack-by-the-hedge. Sauce-alone. 
 
 Garlick Mustard. Garlick-wort. 
 ALLIUM ASCALOKTCTIIM:, L. Shallot. Scallion. Cibbols. 
 
 CEPA, L. Onion. 
 
 ,, SCORODOPRASTTM, L. Eocambole. 
 
 ,, SCH(E]S T OPRASTTM, L. ChivCS. 
 
 ,, VINEALE, L. Crow Garlick. 
 
 TTRsnonn, L. Ramsons. Bear's Garlick. Buckrams. 
 
 ,, FISTTTLOSTTO, L. "Welsh Onion. 
 
 ,, PORRTI&I, L. Leek. Purret. 
 
 ,, SATITT7M, L. Garlick. Poor-man's treacle. Churl's treacle. 
 ALLOSOHTJS CEISPTJS, Ber. Parsley-fern. 
 ALSTJS GLTJTiNOStJS, L. Alder. 
 
 ALOPECTTRtrs AGBESTIS, L. Black Bent. Mouse-tail Grass. Hunger 
 Grass. 
 
 ,, PEATENSIS, L. Meadow Foxtail. 
 ALTH^A OFFICINALIS, L. Marsh Mallow. Hock-herb. 
 
 BOSEA, L. Hollihock. 
 ALTSSUM MAEITIMTJM, L. Sweet Alison. 
 
 SAXATILE, L. Yellow Alison. 
 
 AMARANTOS CATJDAXTJS, L. Florimer. Love-lies-bleeding. Ama- 
 ranth. Thrumwort. Yelvet-flower. 
 
 ,, HYPOCHONDBIACTTS, L. Prince's feather. 
 AMBROSIA, L. Ambrose. 
 
 AMMI MAJTJS, L. Bull-wort. Herb "William. Bishop's weed. 
 AMTGDALUS PERSICA, W. Peach. Nectarine. 
 ANACHARIS ALSINASTRTJM, Bab. See ELODEA CANADENSIS, Rd.
 
 262 SYSTEMATIC NAMES 
 
 ANACYCLUS PYBETKBUM, DC. Pellitory of Spain. 
 ANAGALLIS ABVENSIS, L. Eed Pimpernell. Poor-man's "Weather- 
 glass. 
 
 ANCHUSA OFFTCINALIS, L. Alkanet. Bugloss. 
 ANDEOMEDA POLEFOLIA, L. Moor-wort. Marsh Eosemary. Marsh 
 
 Holyrose. 
 
 ANEMONE NEMOBOSA, L. "Wind-flower. "Wood Crowfoot. "Wild 
 Anemony. 
 
 PULSATILLA, L. Flaw-flower. Pasque-flower. 
 
 HEPATICA, L. Noble Liverwort. Hepatica. Liverleaf. 
 ANETHUM GEAVEOLENS, L. Dill-seed. Anet. 
 ANGELICA ARCHANGELICA, L. Archangel. 
 
 SYLVESTEIS, L. Holy Ghost. 
 ANTHEMIS NOBILIS, L. Chamomile. 
 
 ,, COTULA, L. Maydweed. Dog's Fennel. Mather. 
 ANTHOXANTHUM ODOEATUM, L. Sweet-scented Vernal-grass. 
 ANTHBISCUS SYLVESTEIS, L. Hare's Parsley. 
 ANTHTLLIS VULNEEAEIA, L. Lady's Fingers. Kidney Vetch. 
 
 Lamb's-toe. 
 
 ANTIEEHINTJM MAJUS, L. Snapdragon. Calves snout. Lion's snap. 
 APITJM: GEAVEOLENS, L. Celery, Smallage. Marsh Parsley. 
 AainLEGiA vuLGAEis, L. Columbine. Culverwort. 
 AEABIS PEEFOLIATA, Lam. Tower Mustard. 
 
 ,, TFEEITA, L. Tower Cress. 
 
 THALIANA, L. Codded Mouse-ear. "Wall Cress. 
 
 STEICTA, Huds. Bristol Eock Cress. 
 AEBUTUS UNEDO, L. Strawberry-tree. 
 AECTITJM LAPPA, L. Burdock. Hardock. Hurr-burr. 
 AECTOSTAPHTLOS UVA TOSI, Spr. Bearberry. Mealberry. 
 AEENAEIA, L. Sand- wort, or -weed. 
 ARISTOLOCHIA CLEMATITIS, L. Birthwort. 
 AEMEEIA VULGAEIS, "W. Thrift. Lady's cushion. Sea Gilliflower. 
 
 Cushion Pink. 
 AETEMISIA AssiNTHruM, L. "Wormwood. 
 
 ,, DEACiTNctrLTJS, L. Tarragon. 
 
 VULGAEIS, L. Mugwort. Motherwort. 
 
 ABEOTANUM, L. Southernwood. Boy's love. Lad's 
 love. Old Man. Averoyne.
 
 OF BRITISH PLANTS. 263 
 
 ARUM MACULATUM, L. Cuckoo-pint. Lords and Ladies. Wake- 
 pintle. Wake Robin. Aaron. Bloody-man's-finger. 
 Calves-foot. Rampe. Starch-wort. 
 AEUNDO PHRAGMITES, L. Reed. Pole-reed. Spires. 
 ASAEUM EUEOP.EUM, L. Asarabacca. Pole-foot. Hazel-wort. 
 ASPARAGUS OFFICINALIS, L. Sparrow-grass. Sperage. 
 ASPEEUGO PEOCUMBENS, L. German Madwort. 
 ASPERULA CYNANCHICA, L. Squinancy-wort. 
 
 ODOEATA, L. Woodroof. 
 ASPIDIUM LONCHITIS, Sw. Holly-fern. 
 
 ACTJLEATUM, Sw. Prickly Shield-fern. 
 
 THELYPTEEIS, Sw. Marsh-fern. 
 
 ,, OEEOPTEEIS, Sw. Sweet-fern. Mountain- fern. 
 
 FILIX MAS, Sw. Male-fern. 
 ASPLEIOUM, L. Spleenwort. Miltwaste. 
 
 ,, FILIX FCEMINA, Bern. Lady-fern. 
 
 ,, MARINUM, L. Sea Spleenwort. 
 
 ,, TEICHOMANES, L. Black Maidenhair. 
 
 RUTA MTTEAEIA, L. Wall Rue. Tent-wort. 
 ASTEE TEIPOLIUM, L. Sharewort. Sea Starwort. 
 
 ,, TEADESCANTI, L. Michaelmas Daisy. 
 ASTEAGALTJS GLYCYPHYLLOS, L. Liquorice Vetch. 
 ATEIPLEX HOETENSIS, L. Orache. 
 
 POETTJLACOIDES, L. Sea Purslane. 
 
 PATULA, L. Delt Orach. Lamb's Quarters. Fat hen. 
 ATEOPA BKLLADONNA, L. Deadly Nightshade. Dwale. Death's- 
 
 herb. Great Morel. 
 AVENA SATIVA, L. Oat. Haver. 
 
 ITUDA, L. Pill-corn. 
 
 FATTTA, L. Wild Oats. Drake. 
 
 BALLOTA NIGEA, L. Black Horehound. 
 
 BALSAMITA YULGAEIS, L. Alecost. Maudlin. Costmary. 
 
 BAEBAEEA PE^ICOX, RB. Belleisle Cress. 
 
 ,, YULGAEIS, RB. Winter Cress. Yellow Rocket. St. 
 
 Barbara's Cress. Land Cress. 
 BAETSIA ALPTNA, L. Poly -mountain. 
 
 ODOKTITES, L. Eyebright Cow- wheat.
 
 264 SYSTEMATIC NAMES 
 
 BELLIS PEBEJOTCS, L. Daisy. Bruisewort. Herb Margaret. 
 
 Marguerite. 
 
 BEBBEBIS VTJLGABIS, L. Barberry. Pipperidge. 
 BETA MAEITIMA, L. Beet. Mangel-wurzel. 
 BETULA ALBA, L. Birch. 
 BIDENS CEBXTJA, L. Kodding Bur Marigold. 
 
 TEIPAETITA, L. Trifid Bur Marigold. Water Agrimony. 
 
 Water Hemp. 
 
 BLECHNTJM BOEEALE, Sw. Hard-fern. 
 BOLETUS, L. Canker. 
 BOEAGO OFFICTNALTS, L. Borage. 
 
 BOTETCHIUM LTOAEIA, Sw. Moonwort. Lunarie. Plantage. 
 BEASSICA OLEEACEA, L. vars. Cabbage. Cauliflower. Broccoli. 
 
 Cale. Savoy. Kohl-rabi. Bore-cole. 
 CAMPESTBIS, L. var. Eapa, Rape. Coltza. Mype. 
 ,, var. Napus. Turnip. Knolles. Navew. 
 
 Eutabaga. Swede. 
 ALBA, Boiss. Mustard. 
 
 ,, SINAPISTBTJM, Boiss. Charlock. "Wild Mustard. Chedlock. 
 ,, mGBA, Boiss. Black Mustard. Senvy. 
 TEXITIFOLIA, Boiss. Wall Rocket. 
 BEIZA MEDIA, L. Quaking-grass. Wagwants. Lady's hair. 
 
 Maidenhair-grass. Shaker. Pearl-grass. 
 BEOMTJS MOLLIS, L. Lobgrass. Oatgrass. 
 
 ,, STEBILIS, L. Drake. 
 
 BEYONIA DIOICA, L. White Bryony. White Wild Vine. 
 BTTJOTTM FLEXTJOSTTM, W. Amut. Yor-nut. Jur-nut. Pig-nut. 
 Mandrake. Tetter-berry. Hog-nut. Earth-nut. 
 St. Anthony 's-nut. 
 
 BUPLETJBTJM EOTUNBrFOLiuM, L. Thorowax. Hare's ear. 
 BUTOMTTS TTMBELLATTJS, L. Flowering Rush. 
 
 BtJXUS SEMPEEVLEENS, L. Box. 
 
 CAKILE MAEITIMA, L. Sea Rocket. 
 
 CALAMAGEOSTIS EPIGEIOS, Roth. Wood-reed. 
 
 CALAMINTHA CLrNOPODruM, Benth. Stone Basil. Field Basil. 
 
 Horse Thyme. 
 ACINOS, Clair. Basil Thyme.
 
 OF BRITISH PLANTS. 265 
 
 CALEIOTOIA OITICINALIS, L. Marigold. Golde. Gools. Gowan. 
 
 Ruddes. Marybuds. 
 CALLITEICHE AOJTATICA, Sin. Star-grass. 
 CALTHA PALTJSTRIS, L. Marsh Marigold. Brave Bassinets. 
 
 Boots. Meadow Bouts. Mare-blobs. 
 CAMELIN A SATIVA, L. Gold of pleasure. Cheet. Oilseed. 
 CAMPANULA RAPUNCULTJS, L. Rampion. Coventry Rapes. 
 
 ,, BOTTTNDIFOLIA, L. Harebell. Lady's Thimble. Witches' 
 
 Thimble. 
 
 HTBEIDA, L. Yenus' Looking-glass. Lady's Looking- 
 glass. Corn Yiolet. 
 
 ,, TEACHELIUM, L. Canterbury Bells. Throat- wort. 
 Hask-wort. Mercury's Yiolet. Mariet. Coventry 
 Bells. 
 
 CANNABIS SATIVA, L. "Hemp. Gallow-grass. Neckweed. 
 CANTHAEELLTJS CTBAEITJS, Pr. Chantarelle. 
 
 CAPSELLA BITESA PASTOEIS, L. Shepherd's pouch. Casse-weed. 
 Clappedepouch. Toy- wort. Pickpurse. Poor-man's 
 Parmacetty. 
 CARDAMINE AMAEA, L. Bitter Cress. 
 
 ,, PKATENSIS, L. Lady's smock. Cuckoo-flower. Meadow 
 
 Cress. Spinks. 
 CAEDUTTS BENEDICTFS, L. Blessed Thistle. 
 
 ,, EEIOPHOETTS, L. Cotton Thistle. Friar's crown. 
 ,, HETEEOPHYLLUS, L. Melancholy Thistle. 
 ,, LANCEOLATUS, L. Spear Thistle. Bur Thistle. 
 ,, MAEIANTJS, L. Milk Thistle. Lady's Thistle. 
 miTAira, L. Musk Thistle. Scotch Thistle. 
 CAEEX, L. Sedge. 
 
 ,, PANICTTLATA, L. HaSSOcks. 
 
 ,, ARENAEIA, L. Stare. 
 
 ,, PANICEA, L. Carnation-grass. 
 CAELINA VULGAEIS, L. Carline Thistle. 
 CAEPINUS BETHLTJS, L. Hornbeam. Hurst Beech. Hard-beam. 
 
 Yoke Elm. 
 
 CAETHAMTTS TusrcTOEtnr, L. Safllower. 
 CAEUM CAEUT, L. Carraway. 
 
 ,, BULBOCASIAKTJM, L. Earth-nut. Pig-nut. Amut.
 
 2bb SYSTEMATIC NAMES 
 
 CATJCALIS ANTHEISCTJS, Huds. Hedge Parsley. Hemlock Chervil. 
 
 Kough Cicely. 
 DATJCOIDES, L. Bur Parsley. Hedgehog Parsley. Hen's 
 
 foot. 
 
 CENOMYCE PYXTDATA, Ach. Cup Moss. 
 CENTATTREA CYANTJS, L. Bluebottle. Corn-flower. Blue Blaw. 
 
 Hurt-sickle. 
 NIGEA, L. Knapweed. Horse-knob. Hard-head. Mat- 
 
 fellon. Bullweed. Churl's head. Loggerhead. 
 ,, CAICITEAPA, L. Caltrop. 
 
 snT.sTTTTAT.Ta, L. St. Baniaby's Thistle. Star Thistle. 
 CENTEANTHTJS ETJBENS, DC. Red Yalerian. 
 CENTUNCULFS MINIMUS, L. Chaff-weed. 
 CEEASTIUM VTJLGAEE, L. Mouse-ear Chickweed. 
 
 CEEATOPHYLLTTM, L. HoniWOrt. 
 
 CEECIS SILIQTJASTETJM, L. Judas-tree. 
 
 CETEEACH OFFICINAEUM, "Willd. Ceterach. Scaly-fern. Finger- 
 fern. 
 
 CETRAEIA ISLANDICA, Ach. Iceland Moss. 
 CH^EOPHTLLTJM srLVESTKE, L. Cow Parsley. Wild Cicely. 
 CHAEA, L. "Water Horsetail. Stone -wort. 
 CHEiBAsrTHFS CHEiRi, L. Wall-flower. Bleeding-heart. Bloody 
 
 warrior. "Wild Cheir. Chevisaunce. 
 
 CHELIDONITJM: MAJTJS, L. Celandine. Swallow-wort. Tetter-wort. 
 CHENOPODITJM, L. Goosefoot. 
 
 AiBT/M, L. Frostblite. 
 
 BONTJS HENEICTIS, L. Allgood. Good King Henry. Blite. 
 English Mercury. 
 
 ,, POLYSPEEMTJM, L. Allseed. 
 
 ,, ETJBETJM, L. Pig- weed. Sowbane. 
 
 VULVAEIA, L. Notch-weed. Dog's Orach. 
 
 AMBKOSIOIDES, L. Oak of Cappadocia. Oak of Jerusalem. 
 
 BOTEYS, L. Ambrose. 
 CHEELEEIA SEDOIDES, L. Cyphel. 
 CHLOEA PEEFOLIATA, L. More Centory. Yellow-wort. 
 CHONDETJS CEISPTJS, Lyn. Carrageen Moss. Irish Moss. 
 CHEYSANIHEMTJM LEFCANTHEMUM, L. Moon-wort. Ox-eye. Moon 
 Daisy. Maudlin-wort. Midsummer Daisy.
 
 OF BRITISH PLANTS. 267 
 
 CHRYSANTHEMUM SEGETUM, L. Bigold. Boodle. Goldins. Gools. 
 
 Ruddes. Yellow Ox-eye. Corn Marigold. 
 PAETHENIUM, L. Feverfew. 
 
 CHEYSOCOMA LINOSYEIS, L. Goldilocks. 
 
 CHBYSOSPLEITIUM, L. Golden Saxifrage. 
 
 CICEE AEIETINUM, L. Garavance. Gram. Chick pea. 
 
 CICHOEIUM INTYBUS, L. Succory. Chicory. 
 ENDIVIA, L. Endive. 
 
 CICUTA VIEOSA, L. Water Hemlock. Cowbane. 
 
 CiEOffiA LUTETIANA, L. Enchanter's Nightshade. 
 
 CLADIUM MAEISCUS, L. Twig-rush. 
 
 CLADONIA EANGIFEEINA, Hff. Keindeer Moss. 
 
 CLEMATIS YITALBA, L. Virgin's bower. Lady's bower. Old- 
 man' s-beard. Traveller's joy. Bind- with. Hedge- 
 vine. Love. Smoke-wood. Climbers. 
 
 COCHLEAEIA opFiciNALis, L. Scurvy-grass. Spoonwort. 
 AEMOEACIA, L. Horse Radish. 
 
 COLCHICUM AUTUMNALE, L. Meadow Saftron. Naked Ladies. 
 Upstart. 
 
 COMAEUM, see POTENTILLA. 
 
 CONFEEVA ^GAGEOPILA, L. Moorballs. 
 
 CONIUM MACTTLATTTM, L. Hemlock. Herb Bennett. 
 
 CONVALLAEIA MAJALis, L. Lily of the Valley. Liry-confancy. 
 
 May-lily. Lily-convally. 
 
 ,, POLYGONATUM, L. Solomon's seal. Ladder-to-heaven. 
 Lady's seal. Seal- wort. "White-root. 
 
 CONVOLVULUS AEVENSIS, L. Bindweed. Bearbind. "Withwind. 
 
 Cornbind. 
 SEPIUM, L. Hedge-bells. Lady's nightcap. Campa- 
 
 nelle. 
 SOLDANELLA, L. Sea-bells, -Bindweed, or -"Withwind. 
 
 COEALLOEHIZA DfNATA, RB. Coral-root. 
 
 COEIANDEUM SAiivuM, L. Coriander. Col. 
 
 COENUS SANGUINEA, L. Dogwood. Gadrise. Dog-cherry. 
 ,, SUECICA, L. Dwarf Honeysuckle. 
 
 COEEIGIOLA LITTOEALIS, L. Strapwort. 
 
 COEYDALIS TUBEEOSA, DC. Holewort. Hollowort. 
 
 COEYLUS AVELLANA, L. Hazel. Stocknut. Filbert. Cobnut.
 
 268 SYSTEMATIC NAMES 
 
 COTYLEDON UMBILICUS, L. Navel-wort. Kidney-wort. Hip- 
 wort. Lady's navel. "Wall Pennywort. 
 CEAMBE MAETTIMA, L. Sea-kale. Sea Cabbage. 
 CEAT.EGUS OXYACANTHA, L. Hawthorn. Quickset. "White-thorn. 
 
 May. Albespyne. 
 CEEPIS, L. Hawksbeard. 
 CEITHMUM MAEI-TIMUM, L. Samphire. 
 CEOCTJS SATPVUS, L. Saffron. 
 CUCUMIS MELO, L. Melon. 
 
 ,, SATIVTJS, L. Cucumber. 
 CTTCTTEBITA PEPO, L. Gourd. Pumpkin. 
 
 ,, OVIFEEA, W. Yegetable marrow. 
 CUMINTJM CYMINTTM, L. Cummin. 
 CUSCTTA EUEOP^EA, L. Dodder. Lady's laces. Bride's laces. 
 
 Hell-weed. Devil's guts. Strangle-tare. 
 CYCLAMEN EUEOP.EUM, L. Sowbread. Cyclamen. 
 CYNAEA SCOLYMUS, L. Artichoke. 
 
 ,, CAEDUNCULTJS, L. Cardoon. 
 CYNODON DACTYLON, L. Doob. Dog's tooth. 
 CYKOGLOSSTTM OFFICINALE, L. Hound's tongue. Dog's tongue. 
 CYNOSUETJS CEISTATTTS, L. Dogstail. 
 
 ,, ECHINATTTS, L. Cock's comb grass. 
 
 CYPEEUS LONGUS, L. Cypress-root. Sweet Cypress. Galangale. 
 CYPEIPEDIUM CALCEOLTJS, L. Lady's slipper. 
 CYSTOPTEEIS FEAGLLIS, Bern. Bladder-fern. 
 CYTISUS LABUENITM, L. Laburnum. Golden chain. 
 
 DACTYLIS GLOMERATA, L. Orchard-grass. Dew-grass. 
 DAMASONTOM STELLATTTM, P. Star-firuit. 
 
 DAPHNE LAUEEOLA, L. Spurge-, or "Wood-, or Copse-Laurel. 
 Lowry. Daphne. 
 
 ,, MEZEEEON, L. Mezereon. Spurge Olive. 
 DATTTEA STEAMONIUM, L. Thorn-apple. Dewtry. 
 DATJCTJS CAEOTA, L. Carrot. Bee's nest. Dauke. 
 DELPHINIUM, L. Larkspur. Knight's spurs. 
 
 ,, GEANDIFLOEUM, L. Bee Larkspur. 
 
 ,, STAPHISAGEIA, L. Stavesacre. 
 
 ,, CONSOLLDA, L. Consound.
 
 OF BRITISH PLANTS. 269 
 
 DENTABIA BTJLBIFEBA, L. Tooth Violet. Coral-wort. 
 DIANTHUS, L. Pink. 
 
 ,, AEMEBIA, L. Deptford Pink. 
 
 ,, DELTOIDES, L. Maiden Pink. Meadow Pink. 
 
 CJESIUS, L. Cheddar Pink. Cliff Pink. 
 
 BAEBATUS, L. Sweet William. Sweet John. Tol- 
 meiner. 
 
 ,, PROLLFEB, L. Childing Pink. 
 
 ,, CARYOPHYLLTTS, L. Carnation. Clove Pink. Gilli- 
 
 flower. Piggesnie. Sops-in-wine. 
 DIGITALIS PTJBPUBEA, L. Foxglove. Finger flower. 
 DIGRAPHIS ARTJNDLNACEA, P.B. Lady's garters. French-grass. 
 
 Ribbon-grass. 
 
 DIOTIS MAEITIMA, Dsf. Sea Cudweed. 
 DIPSACUS FULLOJOTM, L. Fuller's teasel. 
 
 PILOSUS, L. Shepherd's staff, or -rod. 
 
 ,, SYXVESTRIS, L. Teasel. Venus' bason. 
 DEABA VEKNA, L. Whitlow-grass. Nail- wort. White Blow. 
 DROSEBA KOTUNDIFOLIA, L. Sundew. Lustwort. Youthwort. 
 DEYAS OCTOPETALA, L. Mountain Avens. 
 
 ECHIUM VULGARE, L. Viper's-bugloss. 
 
 ELATINE HYDEOPIPEE, L. Water Pepper. Water- wort. 
 
 ELODEA CANADENSIS, Ed. American Eiver weed. Water Thyme. 
 
 ELYMUS AEENARIUS, L. Lyme-grass. 
 
 EMPETETJM NIGEUM, L. Crowberry. Crakeberry. 
 
 EPILOBIUM HIESCTUM:, L. Codlins and Cream. Willow-herb. 
 
 ,, ANGtrsTiFOLitTM, L. French willow. Persian willow. 
 
 Rose-bay. 
 
 EpniEDiuM ALPINTJM:, L. Barren-wort. 
 EPIPACTIS, RB. Helleborine. 
 EamsETTiM AKVENSE, L. Bottle-brush. 
 
 ,, HTEMALE, L. Dutch-rush. Shave-grass. Pewter- wort. 
 Scouring-rush. 
 
 ,, LIMOSUM, L. Paddock-pipes. Toad-pipes. 
 
 TELMATEJA, Ehr. Great Horsetail. 
 ERANTHIS HYEMALIS, DC. Winter Aconite. 
 ERICA TEIEAXIX, L. Cross-leaved Heath.
 
 270 SYSTEMATIC NAMES 
 
 ERICA CTNEEEA, L. Grey Heath. Scotch Heath. 
 
 ,, VCXGAB.IS, L. Ling. Heath. Grigg. 
 
 ,, VAGANS, L. Cornish Heath. 
 EEIGEEON ACHE, L. Blue Fleabane. 
 EEIOCATJLOHT SEPTANGULAEE, L. Pipe-wort. 
 EEIOPHOEUM, L. Cotton-rush. 
 
 ,, vAGiNATirar, L. Hare's-tail-rush. Moss-crops. 
 EEISIPHE, DC. Mildew. 
 EEODHJM MOSCHATTTM;, L'Her. Heron's bill. Muscovy. Musk. 
 
 Pink-, Powk-, or Pick-needle. 
 EEVUM LENS, L. Lentil. Tills. 
 
 EEVTLIA, L. Ers. Pigeon's pea. 
 EETNGIUM: MAEITIMTTM:, L. Eryngo. Sea Holly. 
 EETSIMTJM CHEIEANTHOIDES, L. Treacle Mustard. 
 EETTHE^A CENTAURIUE:, L. Lesser Centaury. Earth-gall. Christ's 
 
 ladder. 
 
 EtrpATOEitrM CAKNABINTJM, L. Hemp Agrimony. Holy rope. 
 ETTPHOEBIA HELIOSCOPIA, L. Sun-spurge. Turnsole. Wart- 
 weed. Devil's milk. Cat's milk. Littlegood. Churn- 
 staff. 
 
 LATHTEIS, L. "Wild Capers. 
 
 ,, CYPAEISSIAS, L. "Welcome-to-our-house. 
 EUPHEASIA OFFicrtfAiis, L. Eyebright. Euphrasy. 
 Evoirorus EUEOP^FS, L. Spindle-tree. Prick-wood. Skewer- 
 
 wood. Gadrise. Louse-berry-tree. 
 EXIDIA GLANDTTLOSA, B. Witches butter. 
 
 ATTEICUXA JTJB^, Pr. Jew's ears. 
 
 PAGTTS STLVATICA, L. Beech. Buck-mast. 
 FESTTTCA PEATENSIS, L. Fescue-grass. 
 Ficus CAEICA, L. Fig-tree. 
 FILAGO, see GNAPHALIUM. 
 FILIX, Fern. 
 
 F.ZEin:cuLUM VTTLGAEE, Ga'rt. Fennel. 
 FONTINALIS ANTiPYEETiCA, L. "Water Moss. 
 FEAGAEIA VESCA, L. Strawberry. 
 FEANKENIA L^VIS, L. Sea Heath. 
 FEAXINTJS EXCELSIOE, L. Ash.
 
 OF BRITISH PLANTS. 271 
 
 FEITILLAEIA MELEAGEIS, L. Fritillary. Guinea hen. Checkered 
 
 lily. Snake's head. 
 Fucus NODOSUS, L. Kelpware. Tang. Knob-tang. 
 
 ,, NATANS, Turn. See SAEGASSUM. 
 FUMAEIA OFFICTNALIS, L. Fumitory. Earth-smoke. 
 FUNGUS, L. Mushroom. Toadstool. Paddock-stool. 
 
 GAGEA LUTEA, Ker. Yellow Star of Bethlehem. 
 
 GALANTHUS NIVALIS, L. Snowdrop. Fair Maids of February. 
 
 Purification-flower. 
 GALEOPSIS LADANUM, L. Eed Hemp-nettle. Iron-wort. 
 
 TETEAHIT, L. Hemp-nettle. Bee-nettle. 
 GAIIUM CEUCIATA, Scop. Crosswort. Maywort. Golden Mug- 
 
 weet. 
 
 MOLLTJGO, L. Whip-tongue. White Bedstraw. 
 VEEUM, L. Lady's Bedstraw. Maid's hair. Petty 
 
 Mugget. Cheese Eennet. 
 
 APAEINE, L. Cleavers. Gliders. Goosegrass. Goosehill. 
 / Harif. Goose-heiriffe. Loveman, Beggar's lice. 
 
 Scratch-weed. Catch-weed. Grip-grass. 
 GASTEIDIUM LENDIGEEUM, P.B. Nit-grass. 
 GEASTEE, B. Earth-star. 
 
 GENISTA TINCTOEIA, L, Base-broom. Dyer's Green- weed. Wood- 
 waxen. 
 ANGLICA, L. Petty Whin. Needle Furze. Moor-, or 
 
 Moss- Whin. 
 GENTIANA, L. Bitterwort. Felwort. Gentian. 
 
 PNETTMONANTHE, L. Autumn bells. Calathian Violet. 
 
 Lung-flower. 
 GERANIUM PEATENSE, L. Meadow Cranesbill. Crowfoot Craues- 
 
 biU. 
 
 ,, EOBEETIANUM, L. Herb Robert. Eed-shanks. 
 ,, MOLLE, L. Dove's foot. 
 ,, COLUMBINUM, L. Culverfoot. 
 GEUM UEBANUM, L. Avens. Herb Bennet. 
 
 ,, EIVALE, L. Water Avens. 
 GLADIOLUS COMMUNIS, L. Gladiole. Corn-flag. 
 GLAUCIUM LUTEUM, L. Horned Poppy. Sea Poppy.
 
 272 SYSTEMATIC NAMES 
 
 GLATJX MAEIXIMA, L. Black Saltwort. Sea Milk-wort. 
 GLYCEEIA FLUITANS, EB. Manna-grass. 
 
 GrNAPHALIUM DIOICUM, L. Cat's-foot. 
 
 ,, MAEGAEITACEUM:, L. Everlasting. 
 
 LT7TEO- ALBUM, L. Jersey Livelong. 
 
 ,, ULIGINOSE!, L. Cudweed. Chafe-weed. Cotton-weed. 
 
 ,, GEBMANICTTM, L. Herb Impious. Chllding Cudweed. 
 GOODYEEA EEPENS, KB. Creeping Satyrion. 
 GYEOPHOEA VELLEA, Ach. Eock-tripe. 
 
 HABENAEIA BIFOLIA, EB. Butterfly Orchis. 
 
 VIKIDIS, EB. Frog Orchis. 
 HEDEBA HELIX, L. Ivy. 
 
 HEDYSABFM COEOJTABITJM, L. French Honeysuckle. 
 HELiAirrHEMirM VTiLGAEE, L. Eock-rose. Sunflower. 
 HELIANTHUS AKUTJTTS, L. Sunflower. 
 
 ,, TUBEEOSUS, L. Jerusalem artichoke. 
 HELLEBOEUS NIGEE, L. Christmas Eose. 
 
 ,, F<ETiDus, L. Bear's foot. Oxheel. Setterwort. 
 
 ,, viEiDis, L. Peg-roots. 
 
 HELMINTHIA ECHIOEDES, Gart. Lang-de-beef. Oxtongue. 
 HEEACLEUM SPHONBTLIUM, L. Cow Parsnip. Meadow Parsnip. 
 
 Madnep. Hog- weed. Clog- weed. Bear's breech. 
 HERMINITJM MONOECHIS, EB. Musk Orchis. 
 HEENIAEIA GLABEA, L. Kupture-wort. Burst- wort. 
 HESPEEIS MATEOIJALIS, L. Dame's Yiolet. Damask Violet. 
 Queen's Violet. Close Sciences. 
 
 TBisTis, L. Melancholy Gentleman. 
 HIEEACIITM, L. Hawk-bit. Hawk-weed. 
 
 ,, PILOSELLA, L. Mouse-ear. 
 
 ,, ATJEANIIACTJM, L. Grimm the Collier. 
 HIEEOCHXOE BOEEALIS, Em. Holy-grass. 
 
 HIPPOCEEPIS COMOSA, L. Horse-shoe-vetch. Unshoe-the-horse. 
 HIPPOPHAE EHAMNOIKES, L. Sea Buck-thorn. Sallow-thorn. 
 
 Willow-thorn. 
 
 HIPPUEIS VTJLGAEIS, L. Mare's tail. 
 HOEDETJM, L. Barley. Big. Bear. 
 
 ,, MAEITIMTJM, L. Squirrel- tail.
 
 OF BRITISH PLANTS. 273 
 
 HOEDETTM MUEINUM, L. Mouse Barley. "Wall Barley. 
 
 ,, PEATENSE, L. Rie-grass. 
 
 HOTTONIA PALTTSTEIS, L. Water Violet. Bog Featherfoil. Water 
 Milfoil. Water Gilliflower. 
 
 HUMFLUS LUPTTLTJS, L. Hop. 
 
 HYACINTHTTS, L. Hyacinth. Jacinth. 
 
 HYDEOCHAEIS MOESUS EAN.E, L. Frogbit. 
 
 HYDEOCOTYLE YITLGAEIS, L. Penny Rot. White Rot. Flook- 
 
 wort. Marsh Pennywort. 
 HYMENOPHYLLUM, Sm. Filmy Fern. 
 HYOSCYAMTJS NIGEE, L. Henbane. 
 HYOSEEIS MINIMA, L. Swine Succory. 
 HYPEEICUM ANDEOS^MTTM, L. Tutsan. Park-leaves. 
 
 PEEFOBATTJM, L. St. John's wort. 
 
 QTIADEANGFLUM, L. St. Peter's wort. Hard-hay. 
 HYPOCHEEIS MACULATA, L. Cat's ear. 
 HYSSOPUS OFFICINAIIS, L. Hyssop. 
 
 IBEEIS UMBELLATA, L. Candy-tuft. 
 
 AMAEA, L. Sciatica Cress. 
 
 ILEX AQOTFOLTOM, L. Holly. Holm. Hulst. Hulver. Christmas. 
 IMPATIENS NOLI ME TANGEEE, L. Touch-me-not. Balsamine. 
 
 Q,uick-iu-Hand. 
 
 IMPEEATOEIA OSTETJTHITJM, L. Master-wort. 
 INTTLA CONYZA, DC. Ploughman's Spikenard. Fleawort. 
 
 ,, DYSENTEEICA, L. Fleabane Mullet. 
 
 ,, HELEMUM, L. Elecampane. Elf-dock. Horse-hele. 
 Scab-wort. 
 
 ,, CEITHMOIDES, L. Golden Samphire. 
 
 ,, PTJLICAEIA, L. Fleabane. Herb Christopher. 
 IEIS PSEFDACOEUS, L. Sword Flag. Yellow Flag. 
 
 ,, FLORENTINA, L. Orrice-root. Flower-de-Luce. 
 
 ,, FCETIDISSIMA, L. Stinking Gladdon. Gladwyn. Roastbeef. 
 
 ISATIS TINCTOEIA, L. Woad. 
 
 ISOETES LACTTSTEIS, L. Quill-wort. 
 
 JASIONE MONTANA, L. Sheep's-bit Scabious. 
 JASMINUM OFFICINALE, L. Jessamine. 
 
 18
 
 274 SYSTEMATIC NAMES 
 
 JUGLANS EEGIA, L. Walnut. French-nut. 
 JTJNCUS, L. Rush. Seaves. 
 
 EFFITSUS, L. Candle Rush. Pin Rush. 
 
 SQUAEEosus, L. Goose-corn. Moss Rush. 
 
 JUNIPEBTJS COMMTJNIS, L. Juniper. 
 
 ,, SABINA, L. Savine. 
 
 LACTTTCA SATIVA, L. Lettuce. 
 
 VIEOSA, L. Sleepwort. 
 LAGUETJS OVATUS, L. Hare's tail. 
 LAMINAEIA SACCHAEINA, Lam. Honeyware. Sea Belt. 
 
 ,, DIGITATA, Ag. Tangle. 
 LAMTOM AMPLEXICAULE, L. Henbit. 
 
 PITEPTJEEUM, L. Red Dead-nettle. 
 
 ALBUM, L. White Dead-nettle. Deaf-, or Blind-nettle. 
 White Archangel. 
 
 ,, GALEOBDOLON, Crz. Yellow Archangel. Weasel-snout. 
 
 Yellow Dead-nettle. 
 LAPSANA. COMMTTNIS, L. Nipple-wort. 
 LATHBJEA SQTJAMAEIA, L. Toothwort. Clown's Lungwort. 
 LATHTEUS NISSOLIA, L. Grass Vetch. 
 
 ,, APHACA, L. Yellow Yetchling. 
 
 ,, MACEOREHIZUS, Wim. Heath Pea. 
 
 ,, PEATENSIS, L. Tare-everlasting. Yetchling. 
 
 ,, STLTESTEIS, L. Everlasting Pea. 
 
 ODOEATTJS, L. Sweet Pea. 
 
 LATTEUS NOBILTS, L. Sweet Bay. Roman Laurel. Lorer. 
 LAVATEEA AEBOEEA, L. Yelvet-leaf. Tree Mallow. 
 LATANDULA SPICA, L. Lavender. 
 
 STOECHAS, L. Cassidony. Stick-a-dove. French Lavender. 
 LECANOEA TAETAEEA, Ach. Cudbear. 
 LECIDEA GEOGEAPHICA, Hk. Map Lichen. 
 LEDTJM PALUSTEE, L. Marsh Cistus. 
 LEMNA, L. Frog-foot. Duck's meat. 
 LEONTODON TAEAXACTTM, L. See TAEAXACTJM OFFICINALE, W. 
 LEONTTEUS CAEDIACA, L. Motherwort. 
 LEPIDITJM: CAMPESTEE, RB. Mithridate Pepperwort. Cow-cress. 
 
 ,, EUDEBALE, L. Bowyer's Mustard.
 
 OF BRITISH PLANTS. 275 
 
 LEPIDIUM LATIFOLITTM, L. Penny Cress. Dittany. Dittander. 
 
 Pepper-wort. 
 
 SATIYUM, L. Town Cress. Garden Cress. 
 LEUCOITJM .^simm, L. Snowflake. 
 LIGTTSTICITM: scoTicuM, L. Lovage. 
 LIGUSTETTM vuLGAEE, L. Privet. Primprint. 
 LILIUM CANDIDTTM, L. White Lily. Juno's "Rose. 
 LIMNANTHEMTJM NYMPHJEOiDEs, Link. Fringed Buckbean. Marsh 
 
 flower. 
 
 LlMOSELLA AQTJATICA, L. Mudwort. 
 
 LINAEIA VTTLGAEIS, Mnch. Toadflax. Flaxweed. 
 
 CYMBALARIA, Mill. Mother-of-thousands. Penny- wort. 
 SPUEIA, S. Fluellin. 
 LINOSYEIS TPLGAEIS, Cas. Goldilocks. 
 LINTJM usiTATissiMtrM, L. Flax. Line. Linseed. 
 
 ,, CATHABTICTJM, L. Fairy-flax. Mill-mountain. 
 LISTEBA OVATA, KB. Twayblade. Bifoil. 
 LTTHOSPERMTJM OPFICINALE, L. Gromwell. Pearl-plant. Lich- 
 
 wale. 
 
 AEVENSE, L. Bastard Alkanet. 
 LITTOEELLA LACTJSTEis, L. Shoreweed. 
 LoLirm PEEENNE, L. Eay-grass. 
 
 TEMTTLENTTJM, L. Darnel. Ivray. Kay. Neele. 
 LONICEEA CAPEIFOMUM, L. Caprifoly. Honeysuckle. Lily among 
 
 thorns. 
 
 PEEICLYMEXTJM, L. "Woodbine. 
 XYLOSTETJM, L. Fly Honeysuckle. 
 
 LOTOS COENICTTLATUS, L. Bird's-foot Trefoil. Butter-jags. Crow- 
 toes. 
 LUNAEIA BIENNIS, L. Honesty. Money-flower. Satin-flower. 
 
 Bolbonac. 
 
 LTTPINTJS, L. Lupine. 
 LUZULA SYLVATICA, B. Woodrush. 
 
 ,, CAMPESTEIS, B. Cuckoo-grass. 
 LYCHNIS GITHAGO, Lam. Corn-cockle. Gith. Corn Campion. 
 
 Corn Pink. 
 
 FLOS CTJCTTLI, L. Ragged Eobin. Cuckoo-flower, 01 
 -Gilliflower. Meadow Pink. Meadow Campion.
 
 276 SYSTEMATIC NAMES 
 
 LYCHNIS VISCAEIA, L. Catch-fly. 
 
 CHALCEDONICA, L. Bristol Flower. Cross of Jerusalem. 
 Flower of Constantinople. 
 
 ,, COBONAEIA, L. Eose Campion. 
 
 LYCOPEEDON, L. Fist-ball. Puck-fist. Fuss-ball. Puff-ball. 
 LYCOPODITJM CLAVATUM, L. "Wolfs claw. Club-moss. 
 
 ,, ALPINUM, L. Heath Cypress. 
 
 ,, SELAGO, L. Fir-moss. 
 LYCOPSIS AEVENSIS, L. Wild Bugloss. 
 LYCOPUS ETJEOP.EUS, L. Gipsy-wort. Water Horehound. 
 LYSIMACHIA YULGAEIS, L. Loosestrife. 
 
 ,, NEMOBUM, L. Yellow Pimpernell. 
 
 ,, " NUMMTJLAEIA, L. Herb Twopence. Moneywort. Two- 
 penny-grass. 
 LYTHEUM HYSSOPIFOLIUM, L. Grass Poley. 
 
 SALICAEIA, L. Purple Loosestrife. 
 
 MAIAKTHEMUM BIFOLIUIT, DC. One-blade. 
 MALVA BOTUNDIFOLIA, L. Dwarf Mallow. 
 
 ,, SYLVESTEIS, L. Mallow. Round Dock. Maule. Hock- 
 herb. 
 
 ,, MOSCHATA, L. Musk Mallow. 
 MABCHANTIA POLYMOEPHA, L. Liverwort. 
 MABEUBIUM: YTJLGAEE, L. Horehound. 
 MATEICAEIA CHAMOMILLA, L. Dog's Chamomile. Maithe. Mather. 
 
 Maudlin. Mayweed. 
 
 MATTHIOLA INCANA, RB. Stock-Gilliflower. July flower. Stock. 
 MECOKOPSIS CAMBEICA, V. Welsh Poppy. 
 
 MEDICAGO SATIVA, L. Lucern. Medick. Snail Clover. Sain- 
 foin. Holy hay, 
 
 ,, rtrpuLnrA, L. Nonsuch. Shamrock. Black-seed. 
 
 ,, MACTJXATA, Willd. Heart Clover. 
 MELAMPYETTM PEATENSE, L. Cow-wheat. 
 
 SYLVATICUM, L. Horse-flower. 
 MELILOTTJS OFFICINALIS, L. Melilot. Hart's Clover. King's 
 
 Clover. Plaister Clover. 
 MELISSA OFFICIJTALIS, L. Balm. 
 MELITTIS MELISSOPHYLLTJM, L. Bastard Balm.
 
 OF BRITISH PLANTS. 277 
 
 MENTHA SYLVESTEIS, L. Horse Mint. Brook-, or "Water-Mint. 
 
 VTRIDIS, L. Spear Mint. Garden Mint. 
 
 ,, PIPEEITA, L. Pepper Mint. 
 
 ,, CITEATA, Ehr. Bergamot Mint. 
 
 PTJLEGITJM, L. Pennyroyal. Pudding-grass. 
 
 ,, SATIVA, L. Garden Mint. 
 
 MENYANTHES TRIPOXIATA, L. Buckbean. Bogbean. Marsh Trefoil. 
 MENZIESIA POLTFOLIA, Sm. St. Daboec's Heath. Irish Heath. 
 MF.TinTTRTAT.Ta pEEENNis, L. Dog's Mercury. 
 
 ,, ANNTJA, L. French Mercury. 
 MEETJLITJS LACEYMANS, Wulf. Dry-rot. 
 MESPILTJS GEBMANICA, L. Medlar. 
 
 METTM ATHAMAXTICUM, Jac. Baldmoney. Mew. Bearwort. 
 Spikenel. 
 
 MlLITJM EFFTJSTJM, L. Millet. 
 
 MONAEDA FTSTTTLOSA, L. Bergamot. 
 
 MONOTEOPA HIPOPITTS, L. Yellow Bird's-nest. Pine-sap. 
 MONTIA FONTANA, L. "Water-Blinks, or -Chickweed. Blinking 
 Chickweed. 
 
 MOECHELIA ESCTJIENTA, P. Morel. 
 
 MOETJS NIGEA, W. Mulberry. 
 
 MTTSCAEI EACEMOSTJM, M. Grape Hyacinth. 
 
 MYOSOTIS PALTJSTEIS, With. Forget-me-not. Mouse-ear Scorpion- 
 
 MYOSTJETJS MINIMUS, L. Mousetail. Blood-strange. 
 
 MYEICA GALE, L. "Dutch Myrtle. Gale. Bog Myrtle. Sweet 
 
 Willow. Candleberry. 
 MYEIOPHYLLTJM, L. Water Milfoil. 
 MYERKIS ODORATA, Scop. Sweet Chervil. Sweet Cicely. 
 MYETTJS COMMTJNTS, L. Myrtle. 
 
 NAECISSTJS PSETJDONAECISSTJS, L. Daffodil. Lent-lily. Crow- 
 bells. Affadyl. 
 
 ,, BIFLOETJS, Curt. Primrose Peerless. 
 JoffQuiLLA, L. Jonquil. 
 NAEDTJS STEICTA, L. Matgrass. Wirebent. 
 NAETHECITJM OSSIFRAGTJM, Huds. Bog or Marsh Asphodel. Lan- 
 cashire Asphodel.
 
 278 SYSTEMATIC NAMES 
 
 NASTUETIUM OFFICTNALE, L. Water-cress. 
 
 NEOTTIA NIDUS AVIS, L. Bird's nest. 
 
 NEPETA GLECHOMA, Benth. Ground Ivy. Alehoof. Cat's foot. 
 
 Hove. Gill. Haymaids. Tunhoof. 
 ,, CATAEIA, L. Cat Mint. Nep. 
 
 NEBINE SAENIENSIS, W. Guernsey Lily. 
 
 NIGELLA DAMASCENA, L. Devil-in-a-bush. Catharine's flower. 
 Love-in-a-mist. Bishop's wort. Fennel-flower. Kiss 
 me twice. 
 
 NUPHAE LUTEUM, Sm. Yellow Water-lily. Brandy -bottle. Can- 
 dock. 
 
 NYMPH-EA ALBA, L. White Water-lily. 
 
 OCYMUM BASILICTTM, L. Sweet Basil. 
 <ENANTHE FISTULOSA, L. Water Dropwort. 
 
 CEOCATA, L. Water Hemlock. Dead-tongue. 
 
 ,, PHELLANDEITO, Lam. Horse-bane. 
 (ENOTHEBA BIENNIS, L. Evening Primrose. 
 OMPHALODES VEENA, Mn. Venus' Navel-wort. 
 ONOBEYCHIS SATIVA, L. Sainfoin. French-grass. Cock's comb. 
 ONONIS AEVENSIS, L. Rest-harrow. Ground Furze. Stay-plough. 
 ONOPOEDON ACANTHITTM, L. Scotch Thistle. Cotton Thistle. 
 
 Silver Thistle. 
 
 OPHIOGLOSSTTM VULGATUM, L. Adder's tongue. 
 OPHEYS APIFEEA, Huds. Bee Orchis. 
 
 ,, AEANIFEEA, Huds. Spider Orchis. 
 
 ,, FUCIFEEA, Sm. Drone Orchis. 
 
 ,, MTTSCIFEEA, Huds. Fly Orchis. 
 OECHIS MOEIO, L. Goose and Goslings. Gandergosses. 
 
 ,, MILITAEIS, L. Soldier Orchis. 
 
 MASCULA, L. Long purples. Stander-wort. 
 
 ,, MACULATA, L. Dead-man' s-fingers. Hand Orchis. 
 
 ,, HIECINA, Scop. Lizard Orchis. 
 
 ,, LAXIFOLIA, L. Salep. 
 OEIGANTJM VULGAEE, L. Marjoram. Organy. 
 OENITHOGALUM PYEENAICUM, L. French Sparrow-grass. 
 
 UMBELLATUM, L. Star of Bethlehem. Eleven- o'clock- 
 lady.
 
 OF BRITISH PLANTS. 279 
 
 OBNTTHOPTTS PEBPTJSILLTTS, L. Bird's foot. 
 
 OBOBANCHE MAJOR, L. Broomrape. 
 
 OBOBTJS, see VICIA. 
 
 OSMUNDA BEGALIS, L. Osmund-royal. Flowering-fern. Herb 
 
 Christopher. 
 OXALIS ACETOSELLA, L. Wood Sorrel. Hallelujah. Gowk-meat. 
 
 Cuckoo's bread. Cuckoo Sorrel. "Wood Sower. 
 
 Stub-wort. Stab-wort. 
 OXYBIA RENIFORMIS, Sm. Mountain Sorrel. 
 
 CORALLINA, L. Peony. Marmaritin. Chesses. 
 MOTiTAJsr, L. Moutan. 
 
 PALMELLA CBTTENTA, Agh. Gory Dew. 
 
 PANICUM CBTJS GALLI, L. Cock's-spur-grass. 
 
 PAPATEB EHOSAS, L. Corn or Eed Poppy. Corn Eose. Cop 
 Eose. Eed-weed. Canker Eose. Headache. Head- 
 warke. Joan Silver-pin. Cheese-bouls. 
 SOMNIFERUM, L. White Poppy. Cheesebowls. Mawseed. 
 
 PABIETABIA OFFICINALIS, L. Pellitory-of-the-wall. Lichwort. 
 
 PABIS QAUDBIPOLIA, L. Herb Trulove. One-berry. Herb Paris. 
 Four-leaved- grass. Leopard's bane. 
 
 PABNASSIA PALTJSTBIS, L. Grass of Parnassus. 
 
 PASTINACA SATIVA, L. Parsnip. 
 
 PEDICTTLABIS SYLVATICA, L. Lousewort. Eed Eattle. 
 
 PEPLIS POBTULA, L. "Water Purslane. 
 
 PETBOSELINUM SATIVTJM, L. Parsley. 
 
 8EGETTJM, L. Com HoUC-WOrt. 
 
 PETJCEDANUM OFFICINALE, L. Brimstone-wort. Sulphur-wort. 
 Hog's Fennel. Harstrong. Spreusidany. Cammock. 
 
 ,, PALUSTRE, Mn. Milk Parsley. 
 PHALABIS CANABIENSIS, L. Bird-seed. Canary-grass. 
 PHALLUS IMPUDICUS, L. Stinkhorn. 
 PHASCUM, L. Earth Moss. 
 PHASEOLTJS VITLGABIS, L. French Bean. Kidney Bean. 
 
 ,, MDLTIFLOBUS, W. Scarlet runner. 
 PHILADELPHTTS COBONARIA, L. Syringa. 
 PHLETTM PBATENSE, L. Timothy-grass. 
 PHLOMIS FBTTTICOSA, L. Jerusalem Sage.
 
 280 SYSTEMATIC NAMES 
 
 PHYSALIS ALKEZENGI, L. "Winter Cherry. 
 PILULAEIA GLOBULIFEEA, L. Pill-wort. Pepper-grass. 
 PIMPINELLA SAXIFEAGA, L. Burnet Saxifrage. Pimpinell. 
 
 ANISITM:, L. Anise. 
 PINGUICULA vuLGAEis, L. Butterwort. Rot-grass. Yorkshire 
 
 Sanicle. Bog Yiolet. 
 PINUS STLVESTEIS, L. Scotch Fir. Riga Pine. 
 
 ,, ABIES, L. Spruce Fir. 
 
 PICEA, L. Silver Fir. 
 PISUM SATITTIM:, "W. Pea. 
 
 MAEITIMUM, L. Sea Pea. 
 PLANTAGO LANCEOLATA, L. Ribwort Plantain. Kemps. Cocks. 
 
 ,, MEDIA, L. Lamb's tongue. 
 
 ,, COEONOPUS, L. Star of the Earth. Hart's horn. 
 
 ,, MAJOE, L. Plantain. Way -bread. 
 PLATANTTS, L. Plane. Platane. 
 POA FLUITANS, Scop. Flote-grass. 
 
 POLEMONIUM c^EULETHf, L. Jacob's ladder, llakebate. Greek 
 Valerian. 
 
 POLTCAEPON TETEAPHYLLUM, L. Allseed. 
 
 POLYGAIA VTJLGABIS, L. Rogation flower. Gang flower. Pro- 
 cession, flower. Milk- wort. Cross flower. 
 POLYGONATTTM MTTLTiFLOEUM, All. Solomon's seal. Lady's seal. 
 POLYGONTJM AYiCTJLAEE, L. Knotgrass. Ninety-knot. Swine's 
 grass. Sparrow-tongue. Bird's tongue. Pink- weed. 
 Centinode. 
 
 FAGOPYEUM, L. Buckwheat. Brank. 
 ,, CONVOLVULUS, L. Black Bindweed. 
 ,, BISTOETA, L. Bistort. Snake-weed. Twice -writhen. 
 
 Adder-wort. Red-legs. Osterick. 
 
 ,, PEESICAEIA, L. Persicaria. Peach-wort. Red-shanks. 
 ,, HYDEOPTPEE, L. Arsmart. Culrage. Ciderage. "Water 
 
 Pepper. Lake-weed. Red-knees. 
 
 POLYPODIUM VULGAEE, L. Common Polypody. Wall-fern. Oak- 
 fern. 
 
 ,, PHEGOPTEEIS, L. Beech-fern. 
 ,, DEYOPTEEIS, L. Oak-fern. 
 POLYPOEUS IGNIAEIUS, L. Amadou. Touch-wood.
 
 OF BRITISH PLANTS. 281 
 
 POPULTJS ALBA, L. Abele. White Poplar. 
 
 TBEMTTLA, L. Aspen. 
 
 ,, NIGBA, L. Black Poplar. 
 
 var. FASTIGIATA, Dsf. Lombardy Poplar. 
 
 POEPBTTRA LACINIATA, Ag. Laver. 
 POETULACA OLEEACEA, L. Purslane. 
 
 POTAMOGETON, L. Pond-weed. 
 
 ,, DENSTTS, L. Frog's Lettuce. 
 
 NATANS, L. Tench- weed. 
 
 POTEXTILLA BEPTANS, L. Cinquefoil. Five-leaf. Five-finger- 
 grass. 
 
 TOEMENTILLA, L. Tormentil. Blood-root. Septfoil. 
 
 FBAGABIASTETTM, Ehr. Barren Strawberry. 
 
 ANSEEINA, L. Silver-weed. Goose Tansey. Goose-grass. 
 
 ,, CoMAEor, L. Purple-wort. 
 
 POTEEITJM SAXGUISOEBA, L. Burnet. Pimpinell. Salad Burnet. 
 PEENANTHES MUEALIS, L. Wall Lettuce. 
 PEIMFLA VEEIS, L. a. Primrose. Petty Mullein. Primerole. 
 
 ,, b. Cowslip. Herb Peter. Paigle. Palsy- wort. 
 
 ,, ,, c. Oxlip. Polyanthus. 
 
 ,, ATTEICULA, L. Bear's ears. Mountain Cowslip. 
 
 ,, FAEINOSA, L. Bird's eye. 
 PBTOELLA VUIGAEIS, L. Hook-heal. Self-heal. Carpenter's 
 
 herb. Sickle- wort. 
 PBTINTJS COMMTJNIS, Huds. v. spinosa, Sloe. Blackthorn. Skeg. 
 
 v. insititia, Bullace. Damson. Plum. 
 
 AVIUM, L. Gean. Mazzards. Merry. 
 
 ,, AEMENTACA, L. Apricot. 
 
 ,, PABUS, L. Bird Cherry. Heg-, or Hack-berry. 
 LATJEOCEEASUS, L. Laurel. Cherry Laurel. 
 LITSITANICA, L. Portugal Laurel. 
 
 PSAMMA AEENAETA, P.B. Maram. Halm. Matweed. Stare. 
 PTERIS AQTJILINA, L. Brake. Bracken. 
 
 PTTLMONAEIA OFFICINALIS, L. Lungwort. Bugloss Cowslip. Jeru- 
 salem Cowslip. 
 
 PTRETHBTTM PAETHENIUM, L. Feverfew. Bertram. Mayweed. 
 Maithes.
 
 282 SYSTEMATIC NAMES 
 
 PYBOLA, L. Wintergreen. 
 
 ,, SECWDA, L. Yevering Bells. 
 PYBUS commas, L. Pear. Choke Pear. 
 
 MALTJS, L. Apple. Crab. Codlin. Wharre. 
 
 ABIA, Sin. White Beam. 
 
 ,, TOBMINALIS, Sm. Sorb. Wild Service. Swallow 
 Pear. 
 
 ,, ATJCTJPABTA, G. Rowan. Mountain Ash. 
 
 ,, DOMESTICA, Sm. Service. Chequer-tree. 
 
 QUEBCUS ROBTJB, L. Oak. 
 
 ILEX, L. Holm Oak. Evergreen Oak. 
 
 CEEEIS, L. Turkey Oak. 
 
 ,, var. Luccombe Oak. 
 
 RADIOLA MILLEGBAITA, L. All-seed. Flax-seed. 
 RANTTNCTJLTJS ACONITIFOLTOS, L. Fair Maids of France. 
 
 ,, AftUATicirs, L. Water Crowfoot. 
 
 BT71BOSUS, L. St. Anthony's Eape, or Turnip. 
 
 ,, LINGUA, L. Spear- wort. 
 
 FLAMMTJLA, L. Bane-wort. 
 
 ,, FICABIA, L. Pile- wort. Lesser Celandine. 
 
 SCELEBATTJ8, L. Celery-leaved Crowfoot. 
 
 ,, ATJBICOMTJS, L. Goldilocks. 
 
 ,, ACBIS, L. Crowfoot. Buttercup. Gold-cup. Gold- 
 knoppes. King's-cup. Crazy. 
 
 ,, ABVENSIS, L. Hunger- weed. 
 
 RAPHANFS RAPHANISTBUM, L. Jointed Charlock. Hunch. Ra- 
 bone. 
 
 ,, SATIVTTS, L. Radish. 
 RESEDA LTJTEA, L. Base Rocket. 
 
 LOTEOLA, L. Weld. Yellow-weed. Dyer's Rocket. 
 
 ODOBATA, L. Mignonette. 
 
 RHAMNUS CATHABTICTJS, L. Buckthorn. Hart's-thorn. Rhine- 
 berries. Rain-berry thorn. 
 
 ,, FBANGITLA, L. Black Alder. Berry Alder. Butcher's 
 Prick-wood. 
 
 ALATEBNTTS, L. Barren Privet.
 
 OF BRITISH PLANTS. 283 
 
 RHETTM, L. Rhubarb. 
 
 RHINANTHTTS CBISTA GALLI, L. Yellow Rattle. Penny-grass. 
 
 Rattle-box. 
 
 RHODOMENIA PALMATA, B.V. Dulse. 
 RIBES GBOSSULABIA, L. Gooseberry. Thape. Feabe. 
 
 ,, BUBBTTM, L. Currant. Garnet-berry. Raisin- tree. 
 
 NIGEUM, L. Black Currant. Squinancy berry. Gazles. 
 ROBINIA PSETJDACACTA, L. Acacia. 
 
 ROCCELLA TINCTOBIA, L. Archal. Orchil. Litmus. Cork. 
 ROSA PIMPINELLPFOLIA, L. Burnet Rose. 
 
 BUBIGINOSA, L. Sweet-briar. Eglantine. 
 
 CANINA, L. Dog Rose. Hip Rose. 
 ROTTBOELLIA iNCTTBVATA, L. Hard-grass. 
 RTTBIA TINCTOEUM, "W. Madder. Warence. 
 RTTBTTS c&sius, L. Dewberry. Theve-thorn. 
 
 ,, ID^FS, L. Raspberry. Framboise. Hindberry. 
 
 ,, FKTTTICOSUS, L. Bramble. Blackberry. Bumble-kite. 
 L^ Scald-berry. 
 
 ,, CHAM^MOETTS, L. Cloud-berry. Noops. 
 
 ,, SAXATILIS, L. Knot-berry. 
 RUMEX, L. Dock. 
 
 SANGUTNEUS, L. Blood-wort. Bloody Dock. 
 
 PTTICHEE, L. Fiddle Dock. 
 
 ,, ACEXOSA, L. Sorrel. Sharp Dock. Green-sauce. 
 
 ACETOSELLA, L. Sheep Sorrel. 
 
 ,, OBTTTSIFOLHTS, L. Butter Dock. 
 
 ,, PATIENTIA, L. Monk's Rhubarb. 
 RUPPIA MAEITIMA, L. Sea-grass. Tassel-grass. 
 RTJSCUS ACULEATUS, L. Butcher's broom. Box Holly. Knee 
 Holly. Pettigrew. 
 
 ,, EACEMOSTJS, L. Alexandrian Laurel. 
 RFTA GEATEOLENS, L. Rue. Herb of Grace. 
 
 SAGINA PEOCTJMBENS, L. Pearl-wort. 
 SAGITTAEIA SAGITTIFOLIA, L. Arrow-head, 
 SALICOENIA HEEBACEA, L. Glass-wort. Frog-grass. Sea Grape. 
 Salt-wort. Marsh Samphire. Crab-grass.
 
 284 SYSTEMATIC NAMES 
 
 SALIX, Willow. 
 
 FEAGIIJS, L. Crack "Willow. 
 
 ALBA, L. "White "Willow. 
 
 ,, VIMINALIS, L. Osier. Withy. 
 
 ,, CAPBEA, L. Sallow. Palm. 
 
 ,, HEBBACEA, L. Dwarf Willow. 
 
 ,, BABYLONICA, L. Weeping Willow. 
 SAISOLA KALI, L. Sowd-wort. Prickly Glass-wort. 
 SALVIA OFFICINALIS, L. Sage. 
 
 ,, PBATENSIS, L. Meadow Clary. 
 
 ,, VEBBENACA, L. Wild Clary. 
 
 SCLAEEA, L. Clary. Sebright. Clear-eye. 
 SAMBUCUS EBTJLTJS, L. Dwarf Elder. Dane-wort. Wall-wort. 
 
 NIGBA, L. Elder. Bore-tree. 
 
 SAMOLTIS YALEBAWDI, L. Brook-weed. Water Pimpernel. 
 SANGTJISOEBA OFFICINAIJS, L. Great Burnet. Burnet Blood- 
 wort. 
 
 SANIOTLA. EUBOP^A, L. Sanicle. Self-heal. 
 SAPONABIA OFFICTNALIS, L. Soap-wort. Fuller's herb. Bruise- 
 wort. 
 
 SABGASSTJM YTTLGABE, Ag. Gulf-weed. 
 SABOTHAMNTTS SCOPAEIUS, Wim. Broom. 
 SATTJEEJA HOETENSIS, L. Savoury. 
 SAXIFBAGA, L. Saxifrage. Thirlstane. Stonebreak. 
 
 ,, TETDACTTLITES, L. Nail-wort. Whitlow-grass. 
 
 ,, tiMBEOSA, L. London Pride. St. Patrick's-cabbage. 
 Pratling Parnel. None-so-pretty. Nancy-pretty. 
 SCABIOSA, L. Scabious. 
 
 ,, SUCCISA, L. Devil's-bit. Forebitten More. Blue- 
 caps. 
 
 COLTJMBAEIA, L. Small Scabious. 
 
 ,, AEVENSIS, L. Blue-caps. 
 
 SCANDIX PECTEN, L. Venus' comb. Shepherd's needle. Devil's 
 darning-needles. Lady's comb. Crow-, or Crake- 
 needles. 
 SCILLA VEBNA, Huds. Star Hyacinth. 
 
 NUTANS, Sm. BluebeU. Harebell. Squill. Crowleeks. 
 Culverkeys.
 
 OF BRITISH PLANTS. 285 
 
 SCIEPTTS C.ESPITOSTTS, L. Deer' s hair. 
 ,, XACUSTEIS, L. Bulrush. 
 
 SCLEBANTHUS ANNTJUS, L. Knawel. 
 SCOLOPENDBIITM VTJLGAEE, Gait. Hart's tongUC. 
 
 SCOEZONERA EDTJLis, Mn. Viper-grass. 
 
 SCEOPHTTLARIA NOBosA, L. Kernel-wort. Bull-wort. Brown- 
 wort. 
 ,, AOJTATICA, L. Bishop's leaves. 
 
 SCTJTELLAEIA GALERICULATA, L. Skull-Cap. 
 
 MINOB, D. Hedge Hyssop. 
 
 SCYPHOPHORUS PYXIDATUS, Hk. Cup Lichen. Cup Moss. 
 SECALE CEEEALE, L. Rye. 
 SEDUM E.HODIOLA, DC. Rose-root. 
 
 ,, TELEPHIFM, L. Orpine. Livelong. Liblong. Mid- 
 summer-men. 
 
 ,, AiBtrjt, L. Worm-grass. 
 
 ACEE, L. Wall Pepper. Bird's bread. Jack-of-the- 
 buttery. Pricket. Pepper-crop. 
 
 ,, EEFLEXTJM, L. Stonor. Trip-madam. 
 SEMPEEVIVUM TECTOETJM, L. Houseleek. Jupiter's beard. Jou- 
 
 barb. Ayegreen. 
 
 SENEBIEEA COEONOPTJS, Poir. Swine Cress. Wart Cress. 
 SENECTO YUIGAEIS, L. Groundsel. Simsdn. 
 
 ,, JACOB^A, L. Ragwort. Seggrum. Stagger- wort. 
 Staver-wort. 
 
 ,, SAEACENICUS, L. Saracen's Consound. 
 SEEEAXTJIA TINCTOEIA, L. Saw-wort. 
 SESLEEIA C^EULEA, Scop. Moor-grass. 
 SHEEAEDIA AEVENSIS, L. Field Madder. Spur-wort. 
 SIBBALDIA PEOCUMBENS, L. Scotch Cinquefoil. 
 SIBTHOEPIA ETJEOP^A, L. Cornish Money-wort. Penny-wort. 
 SILATTS PEATENSIS, B. Meadow Saxifrage. 
 SILENE ACATJLIS, L. Moss Campion. Cushion Pink. 
 
 INFLATA, L. Ben. Bladder Campion. Knap-bottle. 
 Spatling Poppy. 
 
 ,, MAEITIMA, L. Witches' thimble. 
 SINAPIS, L. See BEASSICA. 
 SISON AMOMUM, L. Stone Parsley. Hone-wort.
 
 286 SYSTEMATIC NAMES 
 
 SISYMBETUM OFFICINALE, Scop. Hedge Mustard. Bank Cress. 
 
 Crambling Rocket. 
 ,, IEIO, L. London Rocket. 
 SOPHIA, L. Flixweed. 
 SIUM LATIFOLIUM, L. Water Parsnip. 
 
 ,, SISAETJM, L. Skirret. 
 
 SMYENIITM OLTJS ATEUM, L. Alexanders. Horse Parsley. Stan- 
 march. 
 SOLANTTM DULCAMAEA, L. Bittersweet. Woody Nightshade. 
 
 Blue Bindweed. Felon-wort. 
 ,, NIGEUM, L. Petty Morel. 
 
 1UBEEOSTTM, L. Potato. 
 
 LYCOPEESICUM, L. Gold apples. Love apple. Tomato. 
 
 MELONGENA, W. Egg-plant. Bringal. 
 SOLIDAGO VIEGA ATOEA, L. Golden-rod. 
 SONCHTJS OLEEACEUS, L. Sow Thistle. Hare's Lettuce. 
 SPAEGANHJM EAMOSUM, L. Bur Reed. Bede Sedge. 
 SPAETTNA STEICTA, Sm. Cord-grass. Spart-, or Spurt-grass. 
 SPEEGULA AEVENSIS, L. Spurry. Franke. Tarr. 
 SPEEGTJLAEIA ETJBEA, Pers. Sand Spurry. 
 SPHAGNUM, L. Bog Moss. 
 
 SPIE2EA TJLMAEIA, L. Meadow-sweet. Mead-wort. Queen of 
 the mead. Bride- wort. 
 
 FTLIPENDTJIA, L. Drop-wort. 
 SPIEANTHES ATJTUMNALIS, Rich. Lady's tresses. 
 STACHTS BETONICA, Benth. Betony. 
 
 ,, GEEMANICA, L. Wound-wort. 
 
 ,, STLVATICA, L. Red Archangel. Hedge Dead-nettle. 
 
 PALTJSTEIS, L. Clown's Allheal. 
 STAPHTLEA PINNATA, L. Bladder-nut. 
 STATICE LIMONITJM, L. Sea Lavender. 
 
 ,, AEMEEIA, Sm. See AEMEEIA. 
 STELLAEIA MEDIA, L. Chick weed. 
 
 HOLOSTEA, L. All-bone. Stitch-wort. 
 STICTA PTJLMONAEIA, Hk. Tree Lungwort. 
 SXIPA PENNATA, L. Feather-grass. 
 STEATIOTES ALOIDES, L. Water-soldier. Knight's wort. 
 
 SUBULAEIA AQT7A1ICA, L. Awl-WOrt.
 
 OF BRITISH PLANTS. 287 
 
 SYMPHOEIA EACEMOSA, Ph. Snow-berry bush. 
 SYMPHYTTJM OFFICINALE, L. Comfrey. Knit-back. 
 SYBINGA VTOGAEIS, L. Lilac. Pipe-tree. Syring. 
 
 TAMAEIX GALLICA, L. Tamarisk. 
 
 TAMTJS COMMTTNIS, L. Black Bryony. Lady's seal. 
 
 TANACETTTM VTJLGABE, L. Tansy. 
 
 TAEAXACUM OFFICINALE, "W. Dandelion. Priest's crown. Swine's 
 
 snout. Pissabed. Blow-ball. 
 TAXUS BACCATA, L. Tew. Palm. 
 TEESDALIA NTJDICATJLIS, RB. Shepherd's Cress. 
 TEPCBIUM SCOEODONIA, L. Wood Sage. "Wood Germander. Hind- 
 heal. 
 
 ,, SCOEDIUM, L. "Water Germander. 
 CHAM.EDEYS, L. Germander. Horsechire. 
 ,, BOTETS, L. Oak of Jerusalem. 
 THALICTETTM FLAVTJM, L. Meadow Rue. Fen Rue. 
 THESITJM LTNOPHYLLTTM, L. Bastard Toadflax. 
 THLASPI AETENSE, L. Penny Cress. Mithridate Mustard. 
 THYMTJS SEEPYLLTTM, L. Thyme. Hill Thyme. Pell-a-mountain. 
 
 Mother of Thyme. 
 ,, VTJLGAEIS, L. Garden Thyme. 
 
 TILIA ETJEOP^IA, L. Lime-tree. Linden. Teil-tree. Bast-tree. 
 TOFIELDIA PALTJSTEIS, Huds. Scottish Asphodel. 
 TOEDYLIOI MAXIMTTM, L. Hart-wort. 
 
 TEAGOPOGOK PEATENSE, L. Goat's beard. Go-to-bed-at-noon. 
 Noon-flower. Noontide. Buck's beard. Joseph's 
 flower. 
 ,, POEEIFOLIUM, L. Salsify. Star of Jerusalem. Nap- 
 
 at-noon. 
 
 TEAPA NATANS, L. Saligot. 
 TEEMEILA Nosxoc, L. Fallen Stars. Nostoc. Will of the 
 
 Wisp. 
 
 AEBOEEA, Sm. Fairy butter. 
 TEICHOMANES EADICANS, Sw. Bristle-fern. 
 TETENTALIS EUEOP^A, L. Winter-green Chickweed. 
 TEIFOLIUM: AEVENSE, L. Haresfoot Clover. 
 
 PBATENSE, L. Meadow Clover. Honeysuckle.
 
 288 SYSTEMATIC NAMES 
 
 TBIFOLITJM HYBBiDiTM, L. Alsike. 
 
 ,, FBAGIFEBTJM, L. Strawberry Clover. 
 
 ,, INCABNATUM, L. Crimson Clover. 
 
 ,, AGBABIUM, L. Hop Clover. 
 
 ,, BEPENS, L. Dutch Clover. 
 TBIGLOCHIN PALTJSTEE, L. Arrow-grass. 
 TBIGONELLA OBNITHOPODIOIDES, DC. Bird's foot. 
 TEINIA GLABEEEIMA, L. Hone-wort. 
 TEITICUM BEPENS, L. Couch. Quitch grass. 
 
 ,, CANLNUM, Huds. Dog grass. 
 
 ,, SPELTA, L. Spelt. Starch corn. 
 TEOLLIUS ETTEOP^US, L. Globe flower. Troll flower. Locken 
 
 Gowan. 
 
 TBOP^OLUM MAJTJS, L. Sturtion. 
 TTTBEE CIBABIUM, Sib. Earth-ball. Truffle. 
 TFLIPA, L. Tulip. Turk's cap. 
 
 TUSSLLAGO PETA SITES, L. Butterbur Coltsfoot. Pestilence 
 weed. 
 
 FAEFAEA, L. Coltsfoot. Asses foot. Bull's foot. Pole- 
 
 foot. Cough-wort. Horse-hoof. 
 
 TYPHA. LATIFOIJA, L. Reed-mace. Bull-segg. Dunse-down. 
 Water torch. Marsh beetle. Club Eush. 
 
 ULEX ETOOP-EUS, L. Furze. Thorn Broom. 
 ULMUS CAMPESTEIS, Sm. Elm-tree. 
 
 ,, MONTANA, Sm. "Wych Elm. "Wych Hazel. 
 ULVA IATISSIMA, Grev. Laver. 
 UMBILICUS, DC. See COTYLEDON. 
 UBEDO CABLES, L. Smut. 
 UBTICA DIOICA, L. Nettle. 
 
 ,, TJEENS, L. Sting Nettle. 
 
 PILULIFEBA, L. Roman Nettle. 
 UTBICULAEIA VTJLGAEIS, L. Bladder- wort. Hooded Milfoil. 
 
 MYBTILLTJS, L. Bilberry. "Whortle-berry. Hurtle- 
 berry. Wim-berry. Black-worts. 
 ULIGLNOSUM, L. Blea-berry.
 
 OF BRITISH PLANTS. 289 
 
 VACCINTTM VITIS ID.EA, L. Cow-berry. 
 
 ,, OXYCOCCOS, L. Gran-berry. Bog-berry. Bog- wort. 
 
 Fen-berry. Marsh-worts. 
 VALERIANA OFFICINALIS, L. Valerian. Setwal. Capon's tail. 
 
 Cut-heal. Herb Bennett. 
 VALERIANELLA OLITORIA, Poll. Lamb's Lettuce. Corn salad. White 
 
 potherb. 
 
 VERBASCTJH THAPSTJS, L. Mullein. Hagtaper. Torch. Hig- 
 taper. Hare's beard. Jupiter's staff. Bullock's 
 Lungwort. Velvet Dock. 
 ,, BLATTARIA, L. Moth Mullein. 
 VERBENA OFFICTNALIS, L. Vervain. Simpler's joy. Holy herb. 
 
 Juno's tears. Pigeon's grass. 
 VERONICA OFFICINALIS, L. Ground-heele. 
 ,, SERPYLLIFOLIA, L. Paul's Betony. 
 ,, BECCABIJNGA, L. Brooklime. "Water Pimpernel. 
 ,, CHAM^DRYS, L. Speedwell. Blue Bird's-eye. 
 ,, AGRESTIS, L. Germander Chick weed. 
 HEDERIFOLIA, L. Morgeline. "Winter-weed. 
 VIBIJRNTTM LANTANA, L. "Wayfaring-tree. "Whitten-tree. Lithy- 
 
 tree. Mealy-tree. 
 OPULUS, L. Guelder Eose. Water Elder. Rose Elder. 
 
 Snow-ball. 
 
 TINTJS, L. Laurestinus. 
 VICIA SATIVA, L. Vetch. Fitch. 
 FABA, L. Horse Bean. 
 
 ,, OROBTTS, DC. Bitter Vetch. Kipper nut. Cormeille. 
 ,, LATHYROIDES, L. Strangle-tare. 
 ,, HIRSTTTA, K. Tine-tare. 
 VINCA MAJOR, L. Periwinkle. 
 VIOLA ODORATA, L. Sweet Violet. March Violet. 
 ,, CANINA, L. Dog Violet. 
 
 ,, TRICOLOR, L. Pansy. Heartsease. Herb Trinity. Three 
 faces under a hood. Fancy. Flamy. Kiss me. 
 Love in idle. 
 
 VISCTTM ALBTTM, L. Mistletoe. 
 VITIS VINIFEBA, W. Vine. 
 
 19
 
 290 SYSTEMATIC NAMES OF BRITISH PLANTS. 
 
 XANTHTOM SXEUMAEITTM, L. Bur-weed. Burdock Clot-weed. 
 Ditch-bur. Louse-bur. 
 
 ZANNICHELLIA PALTTSTBIS, L. Horned Pond-weed. 
 ZOSTERA MAEINA, L. Grass-wrack. 
 
 THE END.
 
 July, 1870. 
 
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