Till-: AM I. HI CAN BOTANIST 61 



nicant. ( )lhcr names for the plant arc "lion's snap", and 

 "iiMii's-" "tiller's-" "doj^f's-" "load's-" "calf's-" "rabbit's-" 

 and "tlraj^'on's-" nuaith". "Iiunn\- rabbits" and "bull dogs" 

 are but other names of similar reference. 



A tine little [)lant w ith flowers sugjLji'esting the head of an 

 animal is C/irlonc (jlabra, commonly known as "turtle-head" 

 but also called "snake-head", "cod-head", "fish-mouth" and 

 "tui"lk'l)lo(in.". The name of "slu'II flower" is (|uite as aj)- 

 propriate but tin's term is usually applied to an allied garden 

 plant. An old name for our sj)ecies is "balmony" a corrup- 

 tion of "I)a!d mon\" derixed in turn from baldcuioin which is 

 of obscure origin. The term> "bitter weed" and "salt-rheum 

 weetl" allude to real medicinal virtues. 



The genus Scrophularia, from which the family takes its 

 name is represented on both sides of the Atlantic by plants so 

 nearly identical in ap[)earance that for a long time our i)lant 

 was regartled as a variety of the other. The European plant. 

 Scroplutlaria nodosa, is the one to which all the common names 

 reall) belong, though our plant {S. marilandica) shares them. 

 The leaves have certain medicinal virtues as the common name 

 "heal-all" intlicates and it is jjrobable that the use of the plant 

 in the cure of certain hg-shaped tumors gave to the genus its 

 best-known common name and to ihc famih- the appellation in 

 the vernacular by which it is uni\ersally recognized. The 

 name "scrofula-plant", like the generic term, alludes to the re- 

 putation of the plant in the cure of other ills and "pile-wort" 

 is of the same nature. "Carpenter's square", is a misapplica- 

 tion of a name that seems b\' rights to belong to one of the 

 mints {Prunella). 



Another meml)er of the Scrophlariaceae of b'uropean ex- 

 traction, has the distinction of possessing more than sixtv com- 

 mon names, which is probably the record in this respect. The 



