1869.J BOTANY AND ZOOLOGY. 91 



and seaves, from the Da. siv, Sw. saf, a rush. The name Roan, 

 Ran, Royne, or Rowan-tree, by which Pyrus aucuparla is known 

 in Scotland and the northern counties, comes from Da ronn, Sw. 

 runn, which is traceable to the " 0. Norse runa, a charm, from its 

 being supposed to have power to avert the evil eye" (Prior). 

 Vaccinium 3Iyrt'dlus is, in Cumberland and Yorkshire, known as 

 Blue-berry, in Scotland Blackberry, from Sw. hJoa-hcer, or Da. 

 hbllebar, a dark berry; its more ordinary name, Bilberry, is 

 probably from the same source. 



From the German and Dutch we obtain several of our common- 

 est plant-names. Buckwheat (^Polygonum Fdgojjyruiii) , for 

 instance, is from Da. hoekweit, G. biichwaitzen, beechwheat, ''from 

 the resemblance of its triangular seeds to beachnuts, a name 

 adopted with its culture, from the Dutch " (Prior). The Fig- 

 worts (^Scrophularia aquatica and S. nodosa) take their name, 

 Brown-wort, from G. braunwurz. probably in reference to their 

 dark foliage and brown stems and flowers. Dr. Prior thinks it 

 more probable that it is from the plants "growing so abundantly 

 about the brunnen, or public fountains of German towns and 

 village;" but the former derivation seems to me the more likely 

 especially as neither species is peculiar to these localities. In 

 Devonshire the name Brunnet is applied to one or both species • 

 this is probably a corruption of brownwort, or po:-^sibly an abbre- 

 viation of brown-nettle ; the word Burnet is not very different 

 from this, and that is applied to a brown-stemmed plant (Poterium 

 Sanguisorba) , 



Names of French origin are yet more frequent. The Dandelion 

 (Leontodon Taraxacum) gives us a familiar example; it is in 

 French dent-de-lion, lion's tooth, although the reason for the name 

 is not satisfactorily known. At Glasgow the Gooseberry {Ribes 

 Crrossidaria) is called groset ; in other parts of Scotland, grosert, 

 grose and groser : the Black Currant (E. nigrum) is gazles in 

 Sussex; and in Kent the same name is applied to the White Cur- 

 rant. We find the origin of all these words in the Fr. groseille. 

 In the Ayscough MSS., as quoted in Notes and Queries (Series 

 IV. i. 532), we read that the Raspberry (Riibiis Idoius) is called 

 framboise by the country people in Dorset ; and the St. George's 

 Mushroom {Agarims Georgil) is known as champeron to the 

 people about Abingdon. Mushroom itself, by the way, is but an 

 anglicised form of Fr. mousseron, formerly mouscheron. " One of 

 the most conspicuous of the genus (Agaricns), the A. miiscarius, 



