SCOTCH NAMES OF NATIVE WILD FLOWERS. 99 



warriors. The boys of the present generation fight mimic duels 

 with these carl boddies, and they name the heads from this 

 circumstance " sodgers." Soldier is comparatively a modern word, 

 but the game of "sodgers" is a very old one. Carl boddies, i.e., 

 men of war, means the same as " sodgers," and it was the term 

 applied to these vegetable champions long before Tommy Atkins 

 was born. 



Carlin heather, or lady's-heather, is bell-heather {Erica). Carlin 

 is the feminine of carl, and means originally a woman. But carlin 

 in later times came to mean an old woman, and carlin spurs, or 

 the spurs of an old woman, is Genista anglica, the needle-gorse, 

 which has small sharp prickles. The spur of a woman must be 

 the tongue — the sharpest part of the fair sex, I am told. 



Dead-men's bells are fox-gloves (Digitalis purpurea), and the 

 name refers to its poisonous properties. 



Deil's snuff-box — but stop, should the deil be classed among 

 men or among beasts? I have searched in vain for reliable 

 information to guide me on this point; but I have been able to 

 find next to nothing of any real value. Our kirk-session refuses 

 to regard him from a natural history point of view. Deil's snuff- 

 box is the puff-ball (Lycoperdo?i) — fit "sneeshin" for such an 

 antiquated, wizened, "reek-reisted " snout. But what delicacy can 

 you expect to find in olfactory nerves so long sulphurated as his 

 have been. 



Deil's spoons is the water-plantain (Alisma Plantago). The old 

 proverb says, " He needs a lang spoon wha sups kail wi' the deil," 

 and the east-country people extend it to include the men of the 

 kingdom of Fife — they being considered veritable sons of Belial, 

 and like to their father in so far as valour in the art of subduing 

 the contents of a kail-pot is concerned. The large leaves of the 

 Alisma are spoon-shaped and particularly long in the stalk, and 

 the plant has got its Scotch name from the above proverb. 



Names from Shape, Position, and Use. 



Bobbins is the water-lily (Nymphcea alba). Bobbin means a 

 bundle, and the name is given from the appearance of the 

 ripe seed-vessels. The ordinary name of the water-lily, however, 

 is cambie leaf. Cam or cam/nis, so common an element in place- 



