THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 141 



the Thulictrum is fittingly dubbed "maid-of-the-mist" and my 

 own children call the little creeping crowfoot, Ranunculus 

 cymbalaria, "ghi plant" meaning melted butter, a name whicfi 

 they themselves adapted from the tale of little black Sambo. 



The Westerners, as a rule, prefer to divide the genus 

 Clematis into three parts. We call the small white-flowered 

 varieties, "wild or white clematis," "traveller's joy or "pipe 

 stem." The upright herbs of the Viorna type are known vari- 

 ously as "leather flower," "vase-vine," "headache weed," or 

 (in fruit)," lion's beard" or "old man's whiskers." The vines 

 with large purple-sepalled flowers are called "bell-rue" or 

 "purple virgin's bower," sometimes "western virgin's bower." 



ADDITIONAL NOTES ON PLANT NAMES 



^T^ HE further one delves into the subject of vernacular 

 "'• names, the more he is impressed with the uncertainty that 

 underlies much of the subject. One would think that if the 

 derivation of a plant name is known at all, there ought to be 

 something definite about it, but this is far from the case. 

 Two or three derivations are often met with, any one of which 

 would meet the requirements by itself, but coming several 

 together they ofl^er a fine exercise in careful discrimination. 

 Something of this nature is connected with the name of "knout 

 berry" applied to Rubus chamaemorns. Professor J. C. Nel- 

 son writes that the recognized derivation is from Canute or 

 Cnut and really means "Canute-berry" after an early English 

 king. It has also been suggested that the name was derived 

 from a whip of the same name, popular in Russia, which was 

 constructed of leather thongs into which bits of iron were 

 twisted to make it more efficacious. The first derivation is 

 regarded as having the weight of authority but one wonders 



