THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 9 



majesty had quite a large acquaintance with our garden 

 subjects, judging by the number of plants coupled with his 

 name, the most prominent among them being the devil's 

 apple or mandrake, a poisonous hardy perennial herb, 

 rarely grown, and having curiously shaped roots. The 

 devil's candlestick or catmint {Nepeta Glechoma) is a 

 hardy herbaceous trailing perennial, suitable for borders, 

 edgings, rockies, or baskets. Devil's fig {Argemone Mexi- 

 cann), I'inown also as the Mexican poppy, thistle oil plant, 

 infernal fig, yellow thistle and prickly poppy, is a ver^^ 

 pretty hardy annual bearing large pale yellow flowers, 

 somewhat like poppies, as some of its names imply. The 

 devil's garter {Convolvulus sepium) is the common garden 

 bindweed. It is sometimes recommended for quickly cov- 

 ering trellises, old tree stumps, &c., but for myself I prefer 

 to do without it rather than run the risk of this weed get- 

 ting out of bounds. Among other names we have devil's 

 wood, {Osmanthus Americanus) ; devil's bean, {Capparis 

 cynophallophora) ; devil's bit, {Scabiosa succisa) ; devil's 

 herb, {Plumbago scandens) ; devil's milk, {Euphorbia 

 helioscopia) ; and devil's trumpet, {Datura Stramonium) , 



Counti-yman's treacle sounds peculiar, a name given 

 to Ruta graveolens, the common rue, used for medicinal 

 purposes. Viola tricolor, heartsease, or pansy is also 

 named three-faces-under-a-hood, kiss me, kiss-me-at-the- 

 garden-gate, kiss-me-ere-I-rise, and jump-up-and-kiss-me. 

 How a dwarf-growing plant like the pans\^ came b^^ the 

 latter name is a puzzle. 



Lady's fingers and foxgloves everyone is acquainted 

 with, but I fail to see what there is in Digitalis purpurea 

 to suggest dead men's bells. Jatropa gossypifolia, a 

 stove flo^vering plant, has the suggestive name of belly- 

 ache bush, and is also called the physic nut. Pulmonaria 

 officinalis, a useful little rockery plant having prettily mar- 

 bled foliage, has a number of peculiar names, of which per- 

 haps the beggar's basket is the most curious. Other 

 namesfor it are the sea bugloss, Jerusalem cowslip, bedlam 

 cov^slip, and the Virgin Mary's honeysuckle. Colchicum 



