200 Local Plant Names. 



I have already referred to the Petty Whin, but I should like 

 to say that the words Furze and Gorse are hardly ever heard in 

 our locality, Whin being practically universal. In other parts we 

 may hear Furze or Gorse frequently used, and these have some 

 interesting variations. Thus Gorse becomes Gorst in Shropshire, 

 Goss in Kent, and Goose in the Xorth of England. Furze 

 becomes Vuzz in Devon, while a curious name for the shrub in 

 Sussex is Hawth. 



I wonder if any member has heard any name but the Peri- 

 winkle associated with the Vinca which we see in many gardens 

 and in some woods and hedgerows, although not common in a 

 wild state. In some places it is called Cockles, and in others 

 Blue Bells and Blue Buttons. 



A common word for the fruit of the Mallow, and one which 

 I have heard used for the plant as well, is "Cheeses," derived 

 from the form of the flat, circular seeds, which many children 

 pull and eat with that disregard for the higher pleasures of the 

 palate natural to youth, which will eat the sourest gooseberry 

 with the keenest of pleasure. 



I find that the name of the Jacob's Ladder is not much used 

 for the Polemonium, but I have heard that of Valerian, which is 

 an abbreviation really of Greek Valerian, used for this Pole- 

 monium, which is probably an escape from gardens and which I 

 have plucked at some roadsides. 



The Mimulus is the Frog's Mouth, and the Honesty, or 

 Lunaria, is best known as the former, although a usual word for 

 it in some parts of Scotland is " Money-in-both Pockets," derived 

 from the seeds being enclosed in the seed vessel with a membrane 

 between the two halves. This is also a Devonshire popular 

 name, and two others are Money Plant and Silks and Satins, the 

 latter being highly suggestive of the silvery membrane of the 

 seed vessels, when stripped of its outer integument. 



Our local name for the Blackberry or Bramble, which is a 

 corruption of the latter, and called "Brummels," being pro- 

 nounced as I have written it, is in universal use here, but a 

 curious name for the fruits in one part of England is Bumblekites. 



Grozets, for Gooseberries, is far from being out-of-date yet, 

 although fast falling into oblivion, but a more curious name still 

 is that of Deberries, applied in an old Devonshire poem; while 

 a Sussex one for the same fruits is Goosgogs. 



