Feb. 1, 1869.] 



HARDWI-CKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



27 



Couch- or Cooch-grass ; all evidently having the 

 same derivation, but an obscure one. In the Norfolk 

 " Quicks," and the Warwickshire " Quicken-grass" 

 we have a clue. No plant is so retentive of vitality 

 as this Triticum repens ; the smallest piece left in 

 the ground will grow. All these names are but 

 forms of the A.-S. cwic, living, a word with which 

 we are familiar as occurring in the Apostles' Creed 

 in the English Prayer-book, where " the quick " are 

 referred to in opposition to " the dead." The words 

 " quicks " and " quickset " are applied to living 

 hawthorn hedges as distinguished from dead-wood 

 fences ; civic-beam, the living tree, was, according to 

 Dr. Prior, the A.-S. for the Aspen {Populustremula), 

 on account of its ever-moving leaves ; and Quick- 

 in-hand was an old name for the Touch-me-not {lm- 

 patiens Noli-me-tangere), from the suddenness with 

 which its seeds discharge themselves when handled. 



The Kentish name for the Early Purple Orchis 

 {Orchis mascula) is " Skeat-legs ;" this is also, but 

 less generally, applied to other orchids. The A.-S. 

 word scat, or sceat, meant any description of wrap- 

 ping, or swathing, clothing, such as a sheet, which 

 is from the same word ; sceata meant a woman's 

 skirt, or the lower napping part of a sail, and scad, a 

 loose sheath. The appropriateness of the name 

 Skeat-legs to most of our orchids, but especially to 

 0. mascula, will at once be readily recognized ; 

 describing the stem, or " leg," partially enveloped 

 in a sheathing leaf. This is an excellent example 

 of the way in which a name, apparently meaningless, 

 may be shown to have really arisen in a natural 

 peculiarity of the plant to which it applies. I am 

 indebted to Dr. EitzGerald, of Folkestone, for its 

 explanation. 



Many north-country names are derived from 

 Swedish and Danish sources. The black heads of 

 the Ribwort Plantain {Plantago lanceolata) are, in 

 the northern counties, called kemps. We find the 

 origin of this in the Danish Icampe, A.-S. cempa, a 

 warrior. Children often play with the flower-stalks, 

 each endeavouring to knock the head off the other's 

 mimic weapon ; and this game is still known in 

 Sweden, where the stalks are called kampar (Prior). 

 The same game is very popular with the Cheshire 

 children, who term it " playing at conquerors ; " 

 the heads themselves they call "fighting cocks." 

 Pushes {Junci) are called sivs and seaves, from the 

 Da. siv, Sw. saf, a rush. The name Roan, Ran, 

 Royne, or Rowan-tree, by which Pyrus aucuparia is 

 known in Scotland and the northern counties, 

 comes from Da. ronn, Sw. runn, which is traceable 

 to the " 0. Norse runa, a charm, from its being 

 supposed to have power to avert the evil eye " 

 (Prior). Vaccinium Myrtillus is, in Cumberland and 

 Yorkshire, known as Blue-berry, in Scotland Blae- 

 berry, from Sw. bloa-bar, or Da. bollebar, a dark 

 berry ; its more ordinary name, Bilberry, is probably 

 from the same source. 



Space will not allow us to do more than glance at 

 the names derived from the Welsh ; these do not 

 occupy a prominent position in our lists, and may 

 therefore be dismissed with a short reference. 

 Grig, the Shropshire and Cheshire name for the 

 Ling {Call una vulgaris), is the Welsh grwg, which 

 is so pronounced; Gromwell {Lithospermum) is in 

 Welsh grwmmil, a contraction of grawm-yr-haul, 

 "grains of the sun," the bright shining seeds of 

 L. officinale and other species having probably given 

 rise to the name. Dr. Prior, however, favours a 

 different derivation. 



From the German and Dutch we obtain several 

 of our commonest plant-names. Buckwheat {Poly- 

 gonum Fagopyrum), for instance, is from Du. boekweit, 

 G. buchwaitzen, beechwheat, " from the resemblance 

 of its triangular seeds to beechnuts, a name adopted 

 with its culture, from the Dutch" (Prior). The 

 Figworts {Scrophularia aquatica and S. nodosa) take 

 their name, Brown-wort, from G. braunwurz, pro- 

 bably in reference to their dark foliage and brown 

 stems and flowers. Dr. Prior thinks it more pro- 

 bable that it is from the plants " growing so abun- 

 dantly about the brunnen, or public fountains of 

 German towns and village;" but the former deriva- 

 tion seems to me the more likely, especially as 

 neither species is peculiar to these localities. In 

 Devonshire the name Brunnet is applied to one or 

 both species : this is probably a corruption of brown- 

 wort, or possibly an abbreviation of brown-nettle ; 

 the word Burnet is not very different from this, and 

 that is applied to a brown-stemmed plant {Poterium 

 Sanguisorba). 



Names of French origin are yet more frequent. 

 The Dandelion {Leontodon Taraxacum) gives us a 

 familiar example; it is in French dent-de-lion, lion's 

 tooth, although the reason for the name is not satis- 

 factorily known. At Glasgow the Gooseberry 

 {Ribes Grossularia) is called groset ; in other parts 

 of Scotland, grosert, grose, and groser : the Black 

 Currant {R. nigrum) is gazles in Sussex ; and in 

 Kent the same name is applied to the White Cur- 

 rant. We find the origin of all these words in the 

 Fr. groseille. In the Ayscough MSS., as quoted in 

 Notes and Queries (Series IV. i. 532), we read that 

 the Raspberry {Rubus Idaus) is called framboise by 

 the country people in Dorset ; and the S. George's 

 Mushroom {Jgaricus Georgii) is known aschamperon 

 to the people about Abingdon. Mushroom itself, by 

 the way, is but an anglicised form of Fr. mousseron, 

 formerly mouscheron. " One of the most conspicuous 

 of the genus {Agaricus), the A. muscarius, is used 

 for the destruction of flies, mousches; 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 " 

 (Prior). Tutsan {Hypericum Androscemum) is from 

 Fr. toute saiue, a name by which it has been known 



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