The Plant World 



A MONTHLY JOURNAL OF POPULAR BOTANY 



OFFICIAL ORGAN OF THE WILD FLOWER PRESERVATION SOCIETY 



OF AMERICA. 



VoL V. DECEMBER, 1903. No. 1'^. 



ORIGIN OF PLANT NAMES, 



By Grace Niles. 



IV. THE CROWFOOTS, BELL-FLOWER AND OTHER PLANTS. 



(concluded from NOVEMBER ISSUE.) 



THE bugbane (Chnicifuga racemosa), a member of the Crowfoot 

 family, derives its generic name from its supposed efficacy 

 against insect pests, cimex signifying a bug, and fugo to drive 

 away. Ranunculus, the scientific name of the buttercup, originated with 

 Pliny, and means literally " a little frog," and hence a frog's foot, re- 

 ferring to the shape of the leaves. It was thus used originally as a desig- 

 nation for the aquatic species alone. The larkspur, a genus related to 

 the columbine, was known in Greek as Belphinium, and in Latin Con- 

 solida, so that Linnaeus perpetuated both names in the binomial Del- 

 phiJiium Consolida, dedicated to Delphin, a figure in classical literature, 

 this coming in turn from dolphin, a kind of fish or the white whale. 

 The field larkspurs of this country introduced from Europe belong 

 largely to this species. 



Of the "larke's spurres" Dodoens wrote, "Their leaves be all 

 jagged and fringed like southernwood, while one of the leaves of the 

 floure is long and hollow, and behind it is a crooked spuiTed tayle, of a 

 very blew colour like anto violets, and kings confound it as Wild's 

 Larke's-spurre, or Larke's-claw." It is said to have been used against 



