92 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [March 



is used for the destruction of flies, mousches ; and this seems to 

 be the real source of the word, which by a singular caprice of 

 language, has been transferred from this poisonous species to mean, 

 in the popular acceptation of it, the wholesome kinds exclusively' 

 (Prior.) Tutsan (Hi/pericum Androscemum) is from Fr. toiite 

 saine, a name by which it has been known since the time of 

 Gerarde, who gives this explanation of it. In Buckinghamshire 

 a corrupted form of this is still in use in the words Tipsen-leaves 

 and Touch-and-heal ; in Hampshire it is Touchen-leaves. In the 

 second of these we have an example of the tautology so frequently 

 found in English names where foreign words have been translated 

 and then both original and translation have been combined. The 

 '' Touch-and " is the same as Touchen, and is evidently a corrup- 

 tion of toute saine ; the " heal " is a translation of toute saine. It 

 has been converted into Touch-anc?-heal to make sense of it ; and 

 the word is now, perhaps, supposed to indicate the rapidity with 

 which the healing properties of the plant take effect. 



From Latin names, the transition to another class, in a measure 

 connected with them, and introduced by the same agency, is an 

 easy one ; I refer to what I may term religious plants, such as 

 have been in some manner associated with, and have taken their 

 titles from, the pious observances of former times. The Church 

 taught by the eye as well as by the ear ; and by natural objects 

 sought to recall not only, as we shall presently see, her more sol- 

 emn seasors, but the saints whose festivals she kept. The 

 coincidence, for example, of the flowering of a plant with the feast 

 of a saint led to a connection between the two, and eventually, in 

 many cases the name of the latter was bestowed upon the flower. 

 A natural feeling of reverence seems to have prevented at any rate 

 in England, the dedication of plants to either person of the Blessed 

 Trinity ; and the few exceptions to this rule with which I am 

 acquainted, are associated with our Lord in His human nature 

 exclusively. The Blessed Virgin, however, who held a foremost 

 place among the saints, is commemorated, under the title of ' Our 

 Lady,' by which she was formerly more generally known in Eng- 

 land, in the Lady's Bedstraw or Bedestraw (Galium verum)^ 

 Lady's Smock (Cardamine pratensls), Lady's Finger (Anthi/llis 

 vidneraria), Lady's Tresses (Spiranthes autumnalis), Lady's 

 Comb (Scandix pecteii), Lady's Mantle, (AlcJiemilla vulgaris')^ 

 and very many more. During Puritan times it became the 

 custom to substitute the name of Venus for that of the Blessed 



