No. 3.] BOTANY AND ZOOLOGY. 233 



" piggesnie " really means Whitsuntide Pink, and comes from 

 the German words Fingsten, or Pjingst, derived from a Greek 

 word for fiftieth, meaniug the fiftieth day after Easter, and eye 

 from the French oeilht, a Pink. The word Fingsten^ therefore, 

 has reference to the time of its blooming, and eye to the circular 

 markings io the flower, and thus F'uikstenei/e has passed into 

 Figgesnie. 



The Viold tricolor, or Pansy, is an instanc3 of numerous and 

 various names being applied to the same plant. The above name 

 comes from the French word pensee. Because it has three colors 

 in the same flower it is cjilled " Three faces under a hood," and 

 also " Herb Trinity; " and from its coloring, '' Flame Flower." 

 It is also called " Heart's-ease," but this name properly belongs 

 to the AVallflower, which was formerly called girojiee, or Clove 

 Flower, because cloves were in former times considered good for 

 diseases of the heart. Of amatory names, the Pansy has prob- 

 ably more than any other plant; we name a few of them : "Kiss 

 Me ere I Rise," "Kiss Me at the Garden Gate," "Jump up 

 and Kiss Me," "Cuddle Me to You," "Tittle my Fancy," 

 "Pink of my John," "Love in Idle," or "in Vain," "Love 

 in Idleness," and many others. 



The old herbalists were 2;reat believers in the doctrine of si";- 

 natures ; by which they meant that some particular character or 

 habit of the plant indicated its medical use. Thus the spotted 

 leaves of the Pulmonaria indicated that it was a remedy for pul- 

 monary con)plaints; the tubers of the roots of Serophularia, 

 being hard and knotty, must be good for glandular affections, 

 and because the Saxifrage i^rows in the clefts of the rocks it 

 must be good for stone in the bladder. They even ascribed dif- 

 ferent qualities to various parts of the same plants. An old 

 author says : " The seed of garlic is black ; it darkens the eyes 

 with blackness and obscurity. This is to be understood of 

 healtliy eyes. But those which are dull through vicious humi- 

 dity, from those garlic drives it away. The skin of garlic is red ; 

 it expels blood. It has a hollow stem, and therefore helps affec- 

 tions of the windpipe." 



Some common names are the embodiment of some poetic 

 thought of our forefathers, as the Daisy, Belle's-perennis, which 

 comes from the Anglo-Saxon dccges-eage, or the old English Dai- 

 esey-ghe, meaning the eye of day, because its flowers are only 



