SCOTCH NAMES OF NATIVE WILD FLOWERS. 93 



is not edible in its wild state. I should suppose that the 

 French introduced the cultivated variety, and that their name 

 for this came to be applied to the more common wild plants. It 

 was also called sanape, from the Danish word senep, a name very 

 near the scientific term sinapis. But its most common name is 

 scaldricks, skelloch, or skellie, from an Erse word sgeallagach. 

 Still another name — it rejoiced in the appellation of shirt, from 

 the verb share or sheer, to cut, to separate, to root up — each 

 farmer being bound to eradicate the weed or pay the guilde fine. 



Corn-cockle (Agrostemma Gitliago) was called popple, or 

 papple, a Celtic word possibly meaning the same as cockle, 

 chockle, or choke, from its being so plentiful sometimes as to 

 choke the corn or wheat. 



Ononis arvensis has for its common English name rest-harrow, 

 from the nature of its roots, so long and tough as to be too much 

 for the primitive harrows of long ago and the oxen that drew 

 them. The modern instrument has banished it completely from 

 cultivated land. Trie Scotch name of the plant — sitfasts — is 

 merely a paraphrase of the English name — once seated in a field, 

 it holds fast to its seat. 



Ordinary Herbs. 



Catch-rogue is the Scotch name for cleavers, or Galium Aparine, 

 and both English and Scotch names mean the same thing. The 

 plant is a rogue for catching and cleaving or sticking to the dress 

 of anyone who brushes against it. 



Chickenweed is the English chickweed (SteUaria media) — good 

 food for chicks and little birds in general. It was a plant of some 

 importance in olden times; long believed to be a cure for con- 

 sumption. Some old-fashioned people still use it for chest 

 diseases in the form of poultices. 



Day-nettles are dead-nettles (Lamiuni) — day being a corruption 

 of dead. The term included the hemp-nettles (Galcopsis) as well. 

 Dead-nettles are dead as regards the sting. 



Docken is the plural form of dock (Rumex), a pure Saxon word. 



The word gowan is peculiarly Scotch. It is a pretty name, 

 and it represents a very pretty little plant, the daisy {Bellis 

 perennis), a Marguerite — a very gem or pearl among flowers. 

 The commonly given derivation of the name is the obsolete 



