62 DERIVATIONS OF THE LATIN NAMES OF PLANTS. 



" Adoxa loves the greenwood shade ; 

 There, wavering through the verdant glade, 

 Her scented seed she strews." 



The flowers have a musky smell in the evening, or early in the morning, while 

 moist with dew ; and hence, by some called Musk Crowfoot. 



Mgopodium. — From a«|, «<voj, a Goat, and woc^v, a little foot : the leaves 

 being cleft sometimes like a Goat's-foot, whence Goat- weed would be a preferable 

 name to Gout-weed. 



Mgopodium podagraria. — The root is pungently aromatic, with some acrimony, 

 but it is not at all employed in medicine ; nor has it any title to its name Gout- 

 weed, though the Germans formerly used it to assuage the pain both of the gout 

 and piles. Linnjeus says it is eaten in Sweden, boiled for greens, when tender 

 in the spring. The same author also informs us that Cows, Sheep, and Goats 

 eat it, that Horses are not fond of it, and that Swine refuse it. 



JEthusa. — From xtOvo-o-u, to make warm, as does the pungency of the plant. 



JEthusa cgnapium, Common Fool's-parsley, Lesser Hemlock. — The whole 

 plant is poisonous, and when eaten is said to cause vomiting, delirium, numbness 

 of the extremities, and often death. We are'informed, in Mr. Loudon's Gar- 

 dener's Magazine, Vol. II., p. 337, that a boy six years old, who had taken some 

 of the plant for Parsley, at four o'clock, began immediately to utter cries of 

 anguish, complained of cramps in the stomach, assumed a livid hue, and died at 

 midnight. Another child, though the contents of his stomach were ejected, went 

 out of his senses, but by great care ultimately recovered. Two ladies of Castle 

 Donnington, in Leicestershire, partook of a salad into which some Fool's-parsley 

 had been put for Common Parsley ; they suffered considerably, but ultimately 

 recovered. We cannot, as Dr. Withering observes, be too particular in dis- 

 criminating these deleterious herbs, especially as they are frequently found 

 growing intermixed with culinary vegetables. This plant has been sometimes 

 mistaken for Common Parsley, but it may be readily distinguished by its leaves, 

 which are of a much darker green, more flat, and more finely divided. It also 

 wants the peculiar smell of the Common Parsley. If the Curled-leaved Parsley 

 only was cultivated in gardens, no such mistakes could happen. Fool's-parsley 

 may be distinguished from Hemlock (Conium maculatunx) in the stem not being 

 spotted, in its having but little smell, and by its more humble growth. Cows, 

 Horses, Sheep, Goats, and Swine, are said to eat it. It is reported to be 

 poisonous to Geese. 



Agrimonia. — From ctyeos, a field, and /xsvw, to inhabit ; its usual station being 

 in fields. Hooker says the name is corrupted from Argemone, given by the 

 Greeks to a plant supposed to cure the cataract in the eye, called ace y^/xa ; but the 

 former derivation seems to be the most correct. 



