April 1, 1870.] 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



93 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



Derivation of Foxglove (54). — Many thanks to 

 Mrs. Watney for her new derivation of "Foxglove." 

 It is a decidedly good idea, and though I scarcely 

 think it is the right one, we shall certainly have to 

 include it amongst possible derivations in our 

 "English Plant-Names." I hardly think that the 

 name of a German botanist, whose scientific works 

 were written in Latin, would have been adopted as 

 an English vernacular plant-name between two and 

 three hundred years ago. Besides, Mrs. Watney 

 says that the name digitalis was suggested to Euchs 

 by the German name of the plant, " Fingeihut." 

 Just so; then "Fiugerhut " was the name for it 

 before Fuchs's time. " Fiugerhut " means " a 

 Ihimble," and this brings us again very near to 

 " Witches' Thimble," a name that connects it at 

 once, if not with the fairies, at any rate with super- 

 natural beings. I have a good friend who is wading 

 through a very old edition ofFuchsfor me, in which 

 are marginal references written in cramped English 

 characters by some botanist a couple of hundred 

 years ago, to see if any light may be thrown on the 

 meanings of old names. Possibly he may find some- 

 thing in connection with this very name. In the 

 meanwhile we are much obliged to all correspond- 

 ents who suggest a new and probable explanation 

 of old and obscure names. — Robert Holland. 



Woodruff (pp. G9, 70).— There is another argu- 

 ment in favour of the name of this plant being 

 derived from " Wood-reeve," namely its similarity 

 to " Hariii'e," or " Herift'e," a very common local 

 name of Galium aparine, a plant not only allied to 

 the Woodruff botanically, but bavin? its leaves 

 arranged in the same fashion. "Heriffe"is supposed 

 to be derived from A-.S. "haga," a hedge, and 

 "reafa,"a tax-gatherer. This last word is, no doubt, 

 connected with " gerefa"; and " hag-gerefa" would, 

 I suppose, mean "master of the hedge." This is 

 an excellent description of the Goose-grass, which, 

 by means of its hooks, climbs over and through the 

 hedge till it overtops it. — Robert Holland. 



Hoddy-doddy. — Inlast month's Gossip (March), 

 page 70, doubts are expressed as to the original 

 meaning of these words. It may not be generally 

 known that the precise words, hodman-dod, by 

 which the illustrious Bacon designated shell-snails, 

 were used in Essex, and probably in Suffolk, and may 

 be to this day for aught 1 know to the contrary ; 

 in fact I, as a native of the former county, never 

 knew a shell-snail by any other name than hodman- 

 dod. And well do I remember, on first coming to 

 London (now fifty years since), the amusement, not 

 to say amazement, I caused by calling the shell- 

 snails hodman-dods.— JW/>/j Holland, S, Cobourg 

 Street, Huston Square. 



[In Norfolk, suails are called " dodmans," which 

 is clearly a corruption of the above. — Ed. #.-67.] 



Peickmadam (p. 70). — This name is a corruption 

 of the French Trique-madame. Dr. Prior includes 

 under this name Sedum acre, S. album, and S. re- 

 jlexum ; and says, "for triacque a madamc, an 

 anthelmintic medicine, among the principal ingre- 

 dients of which were stonecrops." It seems, how- 

 ever, more especially to be applied to S. album in 

 most modern French works, that species being 

 called Trique-madame, and the yellow-flowered spe- 

 cies Trique-madame jaune. "Prickmadam" does 

 not appear in Turner; but Gerarde applies it to 



S. album, S. rcjlexum, and others of similar habit, 

 and says, "of the Frenchmen, Tricq/te-madame ; of 

 the English, Prickmadam." M. le Hericher, in his 

 " Essai sur la Flore populaire de Normandie," 

 speaks of S. rejle.rum as Tripe-madame, or Trique- 

 madame ; and says that S. album is called, " dans le 

 milieu de la France, Trique-madame, nom apln'O- 

 disiaque." These Sedums are the only plants, so far 

 as I know, to which the name is given ; but I do 

 not remember that any one of them " floureth 

 thrise every yeare." — James Britten. 



Woodruff (p. 69). — The large amount of corre- 

 spondence elicited upon this subject evinces a wide- 

 spread interest that emboldens me to trouble you 

 further, because I feel sure that anything which 

 tends to the final settlement of a doubtful case will 

 certainly prove acceptable. A full comparison of 

 different authorities shows that the different forms 

 of Woodrow and Woodruff may both be mutually 

 convertible, thus giving one meaning to both words, 

 which must then necessarily be the correct meaning. 

 It works thus : Wood-s»v?6^ is defined as Asperula 

 odorata, and Asperula odorata is further defined as 

 " Woodrow, or Woodruff" ; but the origin of both 

 words is alike in Anglo-Saxon ; viz., wudu-rofe ; so 

 that^any divergence of meaning must have arisen 

 since the old Anglo-Saxon first became consoli- 

 dated into English. It appears to me that the 

 terminal "rofe" may be a mutation of row, quoted 

 by Dr. Bosworth, p. 188, as " sweet " ; row and ruff 

 would thus appear as equivalents for the Latin 

 odorata. Other names, however applicable to the 

 structure of this plant, do not suit the etymology ; 

 the Anglo-Saxon rof, "famous, brave," is not exact, 

 but suggests a parallel with the German " meister." 

 I think it must fail, because " reeve " would be the 

 right word ; " rowel " will not suit, for it is not 

 Anglo-Saxon, but a comparatively modern introduc- 

 tion from the Norman-French rouelle, a "little 

 wheel." Ruff, again, as an article of dress, is of too 

 modern date for an Anglo-Saxon word ; finally, 

 " rough," as equivalent to asper, does not suit, for 

 the Anglo-Saxon word for "rough" is ruh. Let 

 us cling to wood-sweet as the original name. — 

 A. H. Gent. 



Dobbin and Pegasus (p. 54). — I always pity 

 that poor beast Pegasus when I see him far away 

 from his favourite haunts, and the spirited creature 

 must not only be gallant in the highest degree, but 

 also ill in body and mind to put up with the partial 

 attachment he sometimes receives. As for Dobbin, 

 he declares that he would rather not be troubled 

 any more by one who publicly disowns him, and he 

 adds that when realities and fancies are thrown 

 together merely for effect, few can tell which is 

 which. Further, Dobbin wishes it to be understood 

 that he does not interfere with individuals, but only 

 with the statements they make ; and, though never 

 intentionally discourteous to _ either sex, is ever 

 mindful of the purpose for which he peruses his fa- 

 vourite journal. The information Mrs. Watney 

 gives about grafting can hardly be the result of her 

 own experience, and though not in itself incorrect, 

 it is nevertheless misleading, inasmuch as it is 

 almost apart from the real question. Indeed, Mr. 

 Holland's words have been a good deal perverted. 

 He meant that it is more difficult to increase plants 

 by grafting than by seeds, and that such a process, 

 being comparatively troublesome, is never resorted 

 to when the provision Nature makes for reproducing 

 a species is to be had in plenty. Surely the fertile 

 " imagination " of Mrs. Watney cannot lead her so 



