16 



is in everything but the spelling nothing but the French Ognon, 

 a bulb, being the bulb par excellence; the French name being 

 however derived from the Latin unio, or singleness, ou account 

 of the peculiarity of the onion always being a single bulb, and not 

 throwing off offsets, as most other bulbs do. 



Let us turn to a pleasanter plant. You remember Shakespeare's 

 lines — 



' Yet marked I where the bolt of Cupid fell, 



It fell upon a little western flower, 



Before milk white, now purple with love's wound, 



And maidens call it love-in-idleness.' 



M.N.D., Act 2, Scene 2. 



Love-in-idleuess is the Pansy or Heart's-ease, and it is worth 

 •while to stop with it, because I believe there is no British plant 

 that has so many names ; it was evidently at all times a great 

 favourite. I will read you some of the names. Love in idle, i.e., 

 in vain, Tickle my fancy. Kiss me ere I rise, Jump up and kiss me, 

 Kiss me at the garden gate, Pink of my John, Herb Trinity, Three 

 faces under a hood. Flame-flower, and many other. Pansy is 

 simply the French pensee. It is, however, an old English name. 

 " There's Pansies, that's for thoughts," said Ophelia. 



I will now take you to some more prosaic plants. "Oats" is the 

 same word as eat, and takes us to the time when oats were the 

 great staple of our fathers' food. " Wheat " is the ivJiite grained plant, 

 in contrast to rye and black oats. " Barley " is the beer plant, being 

 probably at all times the chief use to which barley has been put, 

 while " Clover " comes to us through one or two northern languages 

 from the Latin clava, a club, and still is the clubs of our packs of 

 cards. We have the figui-e of the clover on our cards, the French 

 have the name too, trejle. 



The noble Foxglove has nothing to do with foxes, but is the 

 glove of the folks or fairies, and bears a name with a similar 

 meaning in almost all languages ; in Scotland, however, it bears the 

 more gloomy names of " bloody fingers," and " dead man's bells." 

 This, and the little fairy flax which you will find on your downs 

 round Bath, are the only plants that I know that record the once 

 popular fairies. In some places, however, the beautiful little red 



