SHEPHERD'S NEEDLE 247 



saying, ascribed various healing virtues to it ; but at 

 present, as no one believes in it either as meat or medicine, 

 it blossoms undisturbed. 



In mediaeval days many plants were dedicated to the 

 Virgin Mary, so one is not at all surprised to find that one 

 old name for this little plant is Our Lady's Comb. To those 

 who held such an ascription superstitious the name of Venus 

 was held preferable, and thus our plant is also Venus' Comb. 

 Other people, caring little for such high-sounding dedications, 

 were content to call the plant the shepherd's needle. This 

 alteration of the name from Our Lady to Venus is probably 

 sometimes a reaction from media;valism. In some cases this 

 feeling would appear to be carried much further. Thus we 

 have noticed that some of the children in the New Forest 

 call the Lungwort Joseph and Mary, while others call it 

 donkey's-ears, and it seems at least possible that the Puritans 

 gave such "vulgar" names as the latter to show contempt 

 for the religious names bestowed by the monks. The plant 

 has a multiplicity of names, but if we bear in mind that 

 some folk thought its fruit like a comb and others like a 

 needle, that some had a pleasure in church association, some 

 in classic mythology, and some in the affairs of daily life, 

 and that the Latin for a court is pecten and for a needle is 

 acus,we shall have little difficulty in ringing the changes, and 

 realising how this modest little plant can be Pecten Veneris, 

 Acula, Acus Veneris^ Acus fastoris. Shepherd's Needle, 

 Lady's Comb, Venus' Comb, Beggar's Needle, or Crow- 

 needle. Even this list does not exhaust the names that have 

 been bestowed upon the plant. In referring to the broom 

 we pointed out that, while some plants have many names 

 by which they seemed to be equally well known, the broom 



