30 Notes on Plants 
great annual festivals, the Verbenalia, was named after it. In 
later times it was regarded as a powerful charm against witch- 
craft and sorcery, and as a cure for the plague and many other 
diseases. Volumes have been written as to its virtues. In 
Germany, and in many parts of France, it was gathered. with 
many unintelligible cabalistic ejaculations, during certain phases 
of the moon, and was believed to work miracles of a very sur- 
prising kind. In Greek and in Latin literature it is mentioned 
constantly as used, on various occasions, by priests, ambassa- 
dors, sorcerers, and heralds. The plant however, like a great 
many more, is a sad impostor. In itself it has no efficacy or 
medical value whatever. 
999. Cut-leaved Germander (T. botrys).—The discovery in 
the neighbourhood of Croydon of this rare and peculiarly 
Surrey species was communicated to the club at the meeting 
on December 1gth, 1877. This summer the plant has been 
very abundant in the field where it was first found in 1875. 
There has been, apparently, no crop except grass in the field 
this season, and the weeds have not therefore been cleaned 
off it. The plants have this year been more numerous, but 
smaller in size, than in 1875. 
Of the family, Plantaginacee we have four out of the six 
known species, all of which are common. One of these, the 
Common Ribwort Plaintain (P. Lanceolata), is the plant which 
produces the long flower stalks which children are so fond of 
playing with, fighting them one against another. The origin 
of this game is, fortunately, recorded for us in one of the local 
names of the plant. In the northern counties the flower stalks 
of this species go by the name of ‘‘ Kemps,” a word believed 
to be derived from the Danish ‘“‘kcemp,” a warrior, and as the 
same game is still commonly played by children in Sweden, 
where flower stalks are called ‘‘kampar,’”’ there can be no 
reasonable doubt that it is of considerable antiquity, and was 
learnt from the Danes, being, in fact, a relic of their invasions, 
which were not uncommon before the Norman conquest. 
Another very remarkable survival of an ancient word is 
found in the name of, 1185,--The Common Sallow (Salix Caprea). 
This plant belongs to a group in which the sexes are distinct, 
there being male trees and female trees. It is very common in 
our neighbourhood, and the male tree, which in spring has 
yellow flowers, which come out before the leaves, is commonly 
called a ‘*Palm.” The word Sallow is said to be the same as 
the Greek ‘‘elix,” and the Latin ‘‘salix;”’ and a corresponding 
word is found in a considerable number of the languages in the 
Aryan group. In all of them it implies a shrub or tree which 
is fit for withes, from which are made hurdles or wattles. Now 
this word seems to take us back into the far past, to the early 
