Part 17 (2/2)

The bear is another common prefix. Thus there is the bear's-foot, from its digital leaf, the bear-berry, or bear's-bilberry, from its fruit being a favourite food of bears, and the bear's-garlick. There is the bear's-breech, from its roughness, a name transferred by some mistake from the Acanthus to the cow-parsnip, and the bear's-wort, which it has been suggested ”is rather to be derived from its use in uterine complaints than from the animal.”

Among names in which the word cow figures may be mentioned the cow-bane, water-hemlock, from its supposed baneful effects upon cows, because, writes Withering, ”early in the spring, when it grows in the water, cows often eat it, and are killed by it.” c.o.c.kayne would derive cowslip from _cu_, cow, and _slyppe_, lip, and cow-wheat is so nicknamed from its seed resembling wheat, but being worthless as food for man. The flowers of the _Arum maculatum_ are ”bulls and cows;” and in Yorks.h.i.+re the fruit of _Crataegus oxyacantha_ is bull-horns;--an old name for the horse-leek being bullock's-eye.

Many curious names have resulted from the prefix pig, as in Suss.e.x, where the bird's-foot trefoil is known as pig's-pett.i.toes; and in Devons.h.i.+re the fruit of the dog-rose is pig's-noses. A Northamptons.h.i.+re term for goose-gra.s.s (_Galium aparine_) is pig-tail, and the pig-nut (_Brunium flexuosum_) derived this name from its tubers being a favourite food of pigs, and resembling nuts in size and flavour. The common cyclamen is sow-head, and a popular name for the _Sonchus oleraceus_ is sow-thistle. Among further names also a.s.sociated with the sow may be included the sow-fennel, sow-gra.s.s, and sow-foot, while the sow-bane (_Chenopodium rubrum_), is so termed from being, as Parkinson tells us, ”found certain to kill swine.”

Among further animal prefixes may be noticed the wolfs-bane (_Aconitum napellus_), wolf's-claws (_Lycopodium clavatum_), wolf's-milk (_Euphorbia helioscopia_), and wolfs-thistle (_Carlina acaulis_). The mouse has given us numerous names, such as mouse-ear (_Hieracium pilosella_), mouse-gra.s.s (_Aira caryophyllea_), mouse-ear scorpion-gra.s.s (_Myosotis pal.u.s.tris_), mouse-tail (_Myosurus minimus_), and mouse-pea.

The term rat-tail has been applied to several plants having a tail-like inflorescence, such as the _Plantago lanceolata_ (ribwort plantain).

The term toad as a prefix, like that of dog, frequently means spurious, as in the toad-flax, a plant which, before it comes into flower, bears a tolerably close resemblance to a plant of the true flax. The frog, again, supplies names, such as frog's-lettuce, frog's-foot, frog-gra.s.s, and frog-cheese; while hedgehog gives us such names as hedgehog-parsley and hedgehog-gra.s.s.

Connected with the dragon we have the name dragon applied to the snake-weed (_Polygonum bistorta_), and dragon's-blood is one of the popular names of the Herb-Robert. The water-dragon is a nickname of the _Caltha pal.u.s.tris_, and dragon's-mouth of the _Digitalis purpurea_.

Once more, there is scorpion-gra.s.s and scorpion-wort, both of which refer to various species of Myosotis; snakes and vipers also adding to the list. Thus there is viper's-bugloss, and snake-weed. In Gloucesters.h.i.+re the fruit of the _Arum maculatum_ is snake's-victuals, and snake's-head is a common name for thefritillary. There is the snake-skin willow and snake's-girdles;--snake's-tongue being a name given to the bane-wort (_Ranunculus flammula_).

Names in which the devil figures have been noticed elsewhere, as also those in which the words fairy and witch enter. As the authors, too, of the ”Dictionary of Plant Names” have pointed out, a great number of names may be called dedicatory, and embody the names of many of the saints, and even of the Deity. The latter, however, are very few in number, owing perhaps to a sense of reverence, and ”G.o.d Almighty's bread and cheese,” ”G.o.d's eye,” ”G.o.d's grace,” ”G.o.d's meat,” ”Our Lord's, or Our Saviour's flannel,” ”Christ's hair,” ”Christ's herb,” ”Christ's ladder,” ”Christ's thorn,” ”Holy Ghost,” and ”Herb-Trinity,” make up almost the whole list. On the other hand, the Virgin Mary has suggested numerous names, some of which we have noticed in the chapter on sacred plants. Certain of the saints, again, have perpetuated their names in our plant nomenclature, instances of which are scattered throughout the present volume.

Some plants, such as flea-bane and wolf's-bane, refer to the reputed property of the plant to keep off or injure the animal named,[5] and there is a long list of plants which derived their names from their real or imaginary medicinal virtues, many of which ill.u.s.trate the old doctrine of signatures.

Birds, again, like animals, have suggested various names, and among some of the best-known ones may be mentioned the goose-foot, goose-gra.s.s, goose-tongue. Shakespeare speaks of cuckoo-buds, and there is cuckoo's-head, cuckoo-flower, and cuckoo-fruit, besides the stork's-bill and crane's-bill. Bees are not without their contingent of names; a popular name of the _Delphinium grandiflorum_ being the bee-larkspur, ”from the resemblance of the petals, which are studded with yellow hairs, to the humble-bee whose head is buried in the recesses of the flower.” There is the bee-flower (_Ophrys apifera_), because the, ”lip is in form and colour so like a bee, that any one unacquainted therewith would take it for a living bee sucking of the flower.”

In addition to the various cla.s.ses of names already mentioned, there are a rich and very varied a.s.sortment found in most counties throughout the country, many of which have originated in the most amusing and eccentric way. Thus ”b.u.t.ter and eggs” and ”eggs and bacon” are applied to several plants, from the two shades of yellow in the flower, and b.u.t.ter-churn to the _Nuphar luteum_, from the shape of the fruit. A popular term for _Nepeta glechoma_ is ”hen and chickens,” and ”c.o.c.ks and hens” for the _Plantago lanceolata_. A Gloucesters.h.i.+re nickname for the _Plantago media_ is fire-leaves, and the hearts'-ease has been honoured with all sorts of romantic names, such as ”kiss me behind the garden gate;” and ”none so pretty” is one of the popular names of the saxifrage. Among the names of the Arum may be noticed ”parson in the pulpit,” ”cows and calves,” ”lords and ladies,” and ”wake-robin.” The potato has a variety of names, such as leather-jackets, blue-eyes, and red-eyes.

A pretty name in Devons.h.i.+re for the _Veronica chamcaedrys_ is angel's-eyes:--

”Around her hat a wreath was twined Of blossoms, blue as southern skies; I asked their name, and she replied, We call them angel's-eyes.”[6]

In the northern counties the poplar, on account of its bitter bark, was termed the bitter-weed.[7]

”Oak, ash, and elm-tree, The laird can hang for a' the three; But fir, saugh, and bitter-weed, The laird may flyte, but make naething be'et.”

According to the compilers of ”English Plant Names,” ”this name is a.s.signed to no particular species of poplar, nor have we met with it elsewhere.” The common Solomon's seal (_Polygonatum multiflorum_) has been nicknamed ”David's harp,”[8] and, ”appears to have arisen from the exact similarity of the outline of the bended stalk, with its pendent bill-like blossoms, to the drawings of monkish times in which King David is represented as seated before an instrument shaped like the half of a pointed arch, from which are suspended metal bells, which he strikes with two hammers.”

In the neighbourhood of Torquay, fir-cones are designated oysters, and in Suss.e.x the Arabis is called ”snow-on-the-mountain,” and ”snow-in-summer.” A Devons.h.i.+re name for the sweet scabriosis is the mournful-widow, and in some places the red valerian (_Centranthus ruber_) is known as scarlet-lightning. A common name for _Achillaea ptarmica_ is sneezewort, and the _Petasites vulgaris_ has been designated ”son before the father.” The general name for _Drosera rotundifolia_ is sun-dew, and in Gloucesters.h.i.+re the _Primula auricula_ is the tanner's-ap.r.o.n. The _Viola tricolor_ is often known as ”three faces in a hood,” and the _Aconitum napellus_ as ”Venus's chariot drawn by two doves.” The _Stellaria holostea_ is ”lady's white petticoat,” and the _Scandix pecten_ is ”old wife's darning-needles.” One of the names of the Campion is plum-pudding, and ”spittle of the stars” has been applied to the _Nostoc commune_. Without giving further instances of these odd plant names, we would conclude by quoting the following extract from the preface of Mr. Earle's charming little volume on ”English Plant Names,” a remark which, indeed, most equally applies to other sections of our subject beyond that of the present chapter:--”The fascination of plant names has its foundation in two instincts, love of Nature, and curiosity about Language. Plant names are often of the highest antiquity, and more or less common to the whole stream of related nations. Could we penetrate to the original suggestive idea that called forth the name, it would bring valuable information about the first openings of the human mind towards Nature; and the merest dream of such a discovery invests with a strange charm the words that could tell, if we could understand, so much of the forgotten infancy of the human race.”

Footnotes:

1. ”Dictionary of English Plant Names,” by J. Britten and Robert Holland. 1886.

2. ”English Plant Names,” Introduction, p. xiii.

3. See Folkard's ”Legends,” p. 309; Friend's ”Flowers and Flowerlore,”

ii. 401-5.

4. See ”Flower-lore,” p. 74.

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