54 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 



protest that he is not an ItaHan. But, be that as it may; I 

 am through. And, as for the blue dandehon, 

 "'De niO/'tiiis, nil nisi honum." 



Perhaps I haven't discovered the blue dandelion, after 

 all. But, if not, I feel very much like the little boy from the 

 New York slums, who was out in the country for the first 

 time, on a school picnic, and spied a blue-bird. 



"Oh, see the beautiful boid," he exclaimed 



His teacher corrected him, saying: "You mustn't say 

 'boid'. That isn't a 'boid', it's a 'bird'." 



"Well," replied the little fellow sadly, "anyhow, it looks 

 like a boid." 



PLANT NAMES AND THEIR MEANINGS -XIX 



ERICACEAE-II. 



By WiLLARD N. CivUTE 



"NT EXT to the true wintergreens may come the false win- 

 "^ ^ tergreens of the genus Pyrola, though to judge from 

 the number of vernacular names embodying the idea of ever- 

 green foliage which they possess we might be warranted in 

 assuming that these are the true wintergreens and the others 

 the false. Although the plants are often called "winter green" 

 the group, as a whole, is as often known as "shin-leaf". The 

 name probably has nothing to do with shins, though the dic- 

 tionary suggests the use of the leaves as shinplasters, but 

 should really be "shine-leaf" from the glossy foliage of some 

 species. In addition to "shin-leaf", Pyrola elliptica is known 

 as "wild lily-of-the-valley", the white flowers faintly sug- 

 gesting our familiar plant. Pyrola secunda is the one-sided 

 wintergreen", and P. asarifolia the "liver-leaf wintergreen" 



