THE PLANT WOKLD 235 



later known in English as royal stander-grass, dead men's fingers, 

 dead men's thumbs, and long purples, the last mentioned by Shake- 

 speare in Hamlet, as being woven into Ophelia's garland : 



" There with fantastic garlands did she come 

 Of crow-flowers, nettles, daisies and long-purples." 



In "Robinson's Garden," Rev. Mr. Ellacomb alludes to these spe- 

 cies of orchids as dead men's thumbs. " The rootes of these floures," 

 writes Dodoens and Lyte, " are like a pair of hands, each parted into 

 four or five small rootes like fingers." 



Fee identified the Satyrion of the ancients with OrcJds Morio of 

 Linnaeus, and this species is closely allied with our American purple- 

 fringed orchids, such as Habenaria grandifiora, and more especially 

 Habenm'ia psycodes, the smaller flowered species. 



The classification of plants by Dodoens seems to have been on the 

 hit and miss order. His orchids are placed in juxtaposition with saf- 

 fron, hyssop, thyme and garden savory, as well as species of lilies. He 

 also associates the roses and violets ; yet in several groups he recog- 

 nized natural affinity and designated the species by binomial names, 

 gi\dng also all the appellations used by writers before him. 



The most ancient literature relating to plant names is not found 

 outside of the larger botanical libraries in our great cities ; and even 

 here it is seldom that English translations are to be found. Here is, in- 

 deed, a field for the philanthropist to endow the various State colleges 

 with a fund for the translation and reprinting of rare and valuable 

 works, so that they may be accessible to all nature students. Henry 

 Lyte gave as his reason for translating Dodoens' work, "Bonum quo 

 commune, eo melius et praestantius," that is to say, the more common a 

 good thing is, the better. 



Much is written on the origin of blue-bells, Canterbury and Coven- 

 try-bells, the latter being named from the two churches whose bells the 

 flowers were supposed to resemble in shape. The harebells of New 

 England are closely allied to the bluebells of old England. Dodoens 

 says, " The floures grow at the top of the stalks of a faire purple colour, 

 fashioned like a bell or cymball, with a small white clapper in the 

 middle ; they open after sunne-rising and close toward sunne-set, and 

 when they be closed, they have five plaits, like to the Coventry Mari- 

 anus Violets." 



The love of the marvelous prevailing in the early periods of civiliza- 

 tion probably proved a barrier against the rapid progress of the study 

 of botany. Evidences of the influences of this age may be found in such 

 works as "The Art of Divinations," "Prognostics from the Changes in 

 the Moon " and the "Interpretation of Dreams," all of which are filled 

 with what seem absurdities to the modern intelligence. Even civiliza- 



