76 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 



resemblance. Thomas Nuttall gave the specific name onobry- 

 chris to our plant from its resemblance to the European species. 

 In all probability the name "Sampson snakeroot" applied to 

 Psoralea pedunculata is derived from "sainfoin", "Bob's root" 

 and "congo-root" applied to this species are unintelligible to 

 the writer. Psoralea floribunda and P. tenuifolia are known 

 as "scurvy-pea". This name has nothing to do with scurvy, 

 however, but refers to the white-hoary covering of the young 

 plants and should properly be written "scurfy pea!" 



To all the species in the genus Dcsuiodiiun the names of 

 "bush trefoil", "tick trefoil", "beggar-lice" and "beggar's 

 ticks" are applied. Anyone who has stumbled into a thicket 

 of these plants in autumn will recognize the appropriateness 

 of the designations. In addition Dcsmodium Canadensis is 

 called "sain foin". Desmodiiim MicJiau.vii is known as "dol- 

 lar leaf", for what reason we know not, and "hive vine" 

 wliich we suspect refers to its nectar-yielding properties. 

 Another "hive-vine" is Cornilla varia a plant better known as 

 "coronilla" or "crown vetch". These latter names refer either 

 to tlie use of the flower as garlands, or more probably to the 

 crown-like head of flowers. The plant is also called "axseed" 

 and "axwort" for no reason that we can discover. 



The striking racemes of blue and white flowers should 

 have secured for Liipinus perennis a better vernacular name 

 than that of "wild pea" and thus relieved us from cal- 

 ling the plant "lupine". The most descriptive but little used 

 name is "sundial" possibly in allusion to the round pinnate 

 leaves whose leaflets spread out in a circle like the conven- 

 tional sundial though Wood says the reference is to the leaves 

 which follow the sun all day. "Quaker bonnets" and "old 

 maids bonnets" are probably book names imposed for the 

 fancied resemblance of the keel of the flower to the head- 



