404 Popular Plant Names. 



II. — Popular Plant Names. By Mr Samuel Arnott. 



We may begin by taking the common burdock, whose sticky 

 burs have given so much amusement to many youthful genera- 

 tions in past and present times. It is best known in the south of 

 Scotland simply as the bur, but elsewhere it has other names. 

 Thus it is the cockle or cuckle buttons of Devon; while else- 

 where the burs are called variously bachelor's buttons, sticky 

 buttons, and billy-buttons, said to be so-called because boys 

 stick them down their coats to personate waiters. Thistle is also 

 a name in some parts, not of Scotland, as we may suppose, but of 

 England. 



Another wild plant, plantago lanceolata, the ribwort plan- 

 tain, often called "fighters," or "fechters," from the flower 

 heads being used in mock fights, by striking them against each 

 other, secures for itself the names of " hardhead " and " soldier." 

 Another name applied to it is said to be lamb's tongue, a term 

 also applied to a garden stachys. 



The wild iris (iris pseudacorus) is frequently known in our 

 district as segg, an evident corruption of sedge, and the same 

 plant is said to bear the name of levvers, also applied to a grass 

 which is found on some marshy grounds. Other names for this 

 yellow iris are flag-flower, corn-flag (properly belonging to the 

 gladiolous), water lily, dragon flower, and dagger flower. The 

 names of gladdon, gladder, and gladwyn have also been given to 

 one of the irises, correctly to I. foetidissima, which does not, so 

 far as I remember, occur in our counties. 



When we come to the name of bachelor's buttons, familiar 

 to many, we are upon very uncertain ground. As already men- 

 tioned, this name has been applied to the burs of the burdock, 

 but quite a discussion has been raised as to what is the true 

 bachelor's button. In my early days I have heard it applied to 

 the flowers of the double form of ranunculus aconitifolius, known 

 best, perhaps, throughout the kingdom as " Fair Maids of 

 France," from the fact of the plant having been introduced from 

 that country. The true bachelor's button is, however, I believe, 

 the double form of ranunculus acris, the common buttercup or 

 crowfoot, but it has been rather indiscriminately applied 

 to the flowers of other double-flowered ranunculuses. 

 The single ranunculus acris, which is generally called 



