DOG'S TOOTH VIOLET. 2'jO 



of the plague at Trent in the year 1577, writes of 

 this plant under the name of Paeudohermodactylus. 



Gesner, a physician of the same age, who has 

 been styled the German Pliny, wrote also on this 

 plant) which he called IJcrmodactylus. lie also 

 died of the plague in 1565. Clusius, whom wc 

 have already noticed in other parts of this work, 

 appears to have been the first who gave it the 

 name of Dental i. It was afterwards called Dens 

 Caninus, Dog's Tooth Violet, from the appearance 

 of the root, which is white, and shaped like a 

 tooth ; and this idea has governed the name in all 

 European languages, as the Germans call it Hunds- 

 zahn, the Swedes and Danes Hundetand, the 

 French Le Dent de CJiien, the Italians Dente di 

 Cane, the Spaniards Diente de Pcrro, the Portu- 

 guese Dente de Cao, the Russians Kondik. 



Parkinson considered it to be a species of Or- 

 chides, and that the Tulip was the Satyrium Ery- 

 thronium of Dioscorides ; yet he writes of it in a 

 separate chapter, and observes, that the root of 

 the Dens Caninus M is held to be of more efficacy 

 for certain effects than any of the Orchides and 

 Satyrions." 



The Dog's Tooth Violet grows naturally in the 

 woody mountains of the south of France, Switzer- 

 land, Germany, Italy, and Siberia. This species 

 of Erythronium sends up but one leaf until it is 



