94 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [March 



(Hordciwi maritimum, in Canada to H. jubatum) ; and Dog's- 

 tail {Gynosurus crisfatu."^ , The Horse-tails (^Eqaiset(x) ^ flower- 

 less plants, have their long slender branches growing in whorls up 

 the barren stem; the name is particularly appropriate to E. 

 maximum. The gaping corolla of the Snapdragon (^Antirrhinum 

 majtis) has suggested, not only that appellation, but the allied 

 ones, Rabbit's-mouth, Lion's-snap, and Dog's-mouth. The 

 Hound's-tongue Fern (ScoJnpendrium vulgare) took its name from 

 the shape of the fronds ; the narrow slender spike of Opliioglossum 

 vulgatum accounts for its name, Adder's tongue. The long 

 projecting nectary of many species of Delphinium suggested the 

 name Lark's-spur, or Lark's-claw, a name which is applied in 

 Buckinghamshire to the Toadflax (^Linaria vulgaris), from a 

 similar peculiarity in its blossoms. The soft heads of Trifolinm 

 arvense render Hare's-foot appropriate ; those of the Kidney 

 Vetch (^Anthyllis vulneraria) are called Lamb-toes ; Dactylis 

 glomerata is Cock's Toot, from the shape of the panicle (Prior). 



Any one who will take the trouble to look through a list of 

 English plant-name; will not fail to observe that many of them 

 have the name of some animal entering into their composition, 

 used in a different sense from those which we have been consider- 

 ing. Formerly I alluded to the meaning which "horse" has in 

 composition — i. e., large, or course, as in horse-chestnut, horse- 

 blobs, horse-gowans, and many more. " Dog," as an aflix, usually 

 conveys worthlessness : thus we have Dog-Violet, a sctntlcss 

 species, Dog's-grass (^Triticum repens), a useless species of a genus 

 which contains wheat (^T.s itivum) ; Dog's Camomile (^Matricaria 

 Chamomilla) ; etc. This is not always its meaning ; the 

 Dog-wood (Cornus sanguinea) means dagge-wood, dagge being 

 the old Euglish equivalent for a dagger, and the wood having 

 been used for skewers (Prior). Dog Rose (^Rusa canind) may 

 mean, par excellence, Prick-flower, a very appropriate name for it • 

 but cultivated roses are equally prickly, so that is probably implies 

 a worthless rose. " Ox," " bull," or " cow," differ somewhat from 

 "horse," in composition : they imply something large but not of 

 necessity coarse. Bulrush (^Scirpus lacustris) is thought by Dr. 

 Prior to have been originally ^oo/-rush, " from its growth in pools 

 of water, and not, like the other rushes, in mire ;" but Mr. Hol- 

 land considers that the name simply denotes a large rush. ' Toad' 

 means false or spurious: Toadflax, for example, means, as I have 

 before endeavoured to show, a false flax, from its .superficial 



