6S The Scottish Naturalist. 



plum had been rubbed off, and his gardener, not knowing 



its name, called it, when the fruit became ripe, greengage, in 



honour of the family. 



Cudbear (Lichen tartareus), a Lanarkshire name, is said by 



Jamieson to be a corruption of Cuthbert (Dr. Cuthbert 



Gordon^, who first employed it for dyeing purposes. In 



Banff it is called cup-moss. Additions to this list will readily 



occur to all lovers of plants, some of whom have had the 



naming of new varieties, and have thus done honour to their 



friends, if their modesty prevented them from so immortalizing 



their own names. 



II. The second head embraces those plants named from myths 



and religious associations. This is a large class also, and owes 



most of its names to the primitive beliefs current, " when wild in 



woods the noble savage ran," or in the days of happy faith, which 



we, in our boasted time of enlightenment, call the " Dark Ages." 



The names may be arranged in two sub-divisions : — 



i st. Those given previous to the introduction of Christianity, 

 such as — 



Centaury (Greek, *svT«y/»«v), named after a Centaur, Chiron, who 

 first revealed its properties. 



The House-leek is sometimes called Jove's Beard, after the god 

 Jupiter. 



Mint (Greek, pivH ', Latin, mentha), so called from the fable of 

 Menthe, a daughter of Cocytus, changed by Prosperpine into this 

 plant out of jealousy. 



Peony (Greek, va^U), from rWv, who was reputed physician to 

 the gods, this plant having been used in Greek medicine. 



Royal Osmunda Fern, named after a Saxon princess, who was 

 left defenceless on an island, and fabulously changed into this fern. 

 An orchis (Satyrium olbidium) is called in Sweden Frigg-jargas, 

 from Freya (hence our Friday), love-goddess of the Scandinavian 

 mythology, love-potions having been brewed from this plant. The 

 Maiden-hair Fern was named Frejnhas, after her. 

 2nd. Those names given during Christian times : — 

 It has been well said that "just as when the breath of the new 

 creed blew over the fields, the old and familiar names of plants 

 died down. Apollo's Narcissus, Aphrodite's lilies, Njord's glove, 

 or Freya's fern, grew up again as the Flowers of May, Our Lady's 

 Hand, or the Virgin's Hair." — (Keary.) 



Aaron's Beard, a Roxburgh name for Hypericum Calyciuum, 

 from its bundles of hair-like stamens. 



