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GARDENERS' CHRONICLE 



known derivation, is said by the same author to come 

 from two Greek words which mean "the food that causes 

 death." The genus is well known to be poisonous. Aqui- 

 legia is derived from Aquila, the eagle, in allusion to the 

 spurs which suggest the talons of a bird of prey. Aconi- 

 tum is reported to be derived from the Greek Akoniton, 

 meaning without dust, because the plants grow in rocky 

 places, while Hydrastis is assumed to come from the 

 Greek word for water, though the translation does not go 

 imchallenged. 



The other genera of tlie Raiiiniciilaccac are somewhat 

 more easily interpreted. Actaca is the ancient name for 

 the elder whose leaves the plants of this genus are said 

 to resemble. Cumicifuga is from the Latin cimcx, a 

 bug, and fugare to drive away, accounting for the common 

 name of bugbane. .Zanthorhisa is the descriptive Greek 

 for yellow root, and NigcUa is the diminutive of nigcr, 

 meaning black. Coptis means to cut, in allusion to the 

 divided leaves. Caltha, according to Wood, is from the 

 Greek for goblet, the flowers being like golden cups. 

 Gray says it was the ancient Latin name for the common 

 marigold which, however, does not necessarily invali- 

 date the original derivation. Myosurus is, in Latin as it 

 is in English, mousetail, being so called because the car- 

 pels are attached to a long slender axis. Troutvetteria is 

 named for E. R. von Trautvetter. Gray says "an able 

 Russian botanist" but Wood says "German" and the 

 name looks it. Hepatica refers to the liver in the original 

 Greek because of its leaves which are supposed to be 

 shaped like the liver, and ErantJiis, or the winter aconite, 

 means spring flower. Isopyruui is the ancient name for 

 some species of fumitory. 



The number of vernacular names bestowed upon a 

 given species depends in part upon its abundance, in part 

 upon its conspicuousness, and in part upon its usefulness. 

 Some may have as many as twenty common names and 

 others lack a single one. It is interesting to note that the 

 best known common names are nearly always generic : 

 that is, they are applied to a number of species, instead of 

 one, with, or without, qualifying adjectives. This is the 

 case with Ranunculus where buttercup and crowfoot are 

 common designations even when the flowers show no 

 hint of butter color and the roundish and often undivided 

 leaves could scarcely be likened to a crow's foot. Sucli 

 adjectives as ditch, water, mountain, tall, dwarf, early, 

 and the like are self-explanatory as in the case of the 

 specific names ; in fact, they are very frequently literal 

 translations of such names. 



The names of obscure derivation are the ones of most 

 interest. Take, for instance, the word "knops" in such 

 terms as golden knops applied to several species of Ranun- 

 culus. This is archaic English for a flower-head and in 

 all probability goes back to the Teutonic knopf or its 

 equivalent, meaning a head, bud, or button. Spearwort, a 

 generic term for several small species of Ranunculus , is 

 derived from an Anglo-Saxon word meaning a spire or 

 shoot just as we still say a "spear" of grass. In all prob- 

 ability the spears used' in combat were similar though 

 larger spears. 



The three common species of Ranunculus, R. acris, R. 

 bulbosus. and R. rcpcns, naturally have the greatest num- 

 ber of common natnes. They might also be said to be 

 joint owners of a number of names referring to their 

 color, as yellow gowan, horse gold, gold balls, gold cups, 

 gold weed, butter rose, butter cress, butter daisy, butter 

 flower in addition to buttercup. Several of these terms 

 may be applied with equal propriety to other species of 

 the genus. The word gowan is now used in Scotland to 

 indicate the daisy, but it once meant any kind of a flower 

 or bud. When F.urns wrote of "gowans fine," he doubt- 

 less meant wildflowers in general, r.uttcr daisy is a 



different rendering of yellow gowan. The word rose is 

 another term that once had a less restricted meaning 

 than we allow it at present, as witness rock rose, Christ- 

 mas rose, rose moss and rose of Jericho. Butter rose is 

 simply a butter colored flower. In horse gold, the word 

 horse implies coarse, common, or spurious. It is often 

 thus employed in flower names, as horse-mint, and horse- 

 radish. 



The names blister flower, blister wort, blister plant and 

 biting crowfoot are applied to several species noted for 

 their acrid and biting juice, especially R. sceleratus, R. 

 bulbosus and R. acris. The name of St. Anthony's tur- 

 nip, applied to R. bulbosus, probably has the same sug- 

 gestion. The Inflbous base of the stem is not unlike a 

 turnip in shape, and St. Anthony is the saint above all 

 others for which hot and blistering things might prop- 

 erly be named. This species is also called St. Anthony's 

 rape. Ranunculus sceleratus is called water celery and 

 celery leaved crowfoot, but in reference to its leaves and 

 not as a translation of the specific name. The worthless 

 |)roperties of this species have earned for it the name 

 of cursed crowfoot, but it is apparently not the only 

 species ctirsed for R. arz'cnsis bears the names of hell 

 weed and devil's claws. To this species also belong 

 starve acre and hunger weed. The plant is said to re- 

 ceive the last two appellations because when it is present 

 in the field the crop will be short and the owner brought 

 to want. Devil's claws quite likely refers to the way 

 the plant lays hold on the field rather than to any par- 

 ticular thought of the devil. R. repens is called ram's 

 claws though no ram we have ever seen had claws. Pos- 

 sibly the name is derived from the Icelandic ranir, mean- 

 ing strong, in allusion to the way the species grasps the 

 soil. Sitfast is another name applied to this plant whose 

 hold on the soil makes it especially applicable. 



Ranunculus ficaria is called figwort from the fig-like 

 shape of its roots. It also bears the name of lesser cel- 

 andine, the true celandine being a yellow-flowered plant 

 of the poppy family. Another of its names, crain, is un- 

 meaning enough until we discover that crain or cran is an 

 ancient name for marsh, hence cranberry and perhaps 

 crane, a storklike bird. Ranunculus trichophylluj, owing 

 to its much divided leaves is known as water milfoil. The 

 true milfoil is usually regarded as belonging to the yarrow 

 genus (Achillea) . Double forms of R. acris are some- 

 times known as bachelors' buttons, as are many other 

 buttonlike flowers. Finally, cuckoo-buds applied to some 

 species of Rainniciilu.\' finds authority in .Shakespeare 

 where 



"Cuckoo buds of yellow hue 

 Do paint the meadow with delight.'' 

 — Rr/'rnduct'd by ficntiis.vioii front The .hin-rican Bolanisl. 



THE GLORY OF A NATION. 



The true glory of a nation is an intelligent, honest, in- 

 dustrious people. The civilization of a people depends 

 on their individual character, and a constitution which 

 is not an outgrowth of this character is not worth the 

 parchment on which it is written. You look in vain in 

 the past for a single instance where the people have pre- 

 served their liberties after their individual character 

 was lost. — E. P. Whipple. 



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