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common daisy, you find beneath the flower a collection of small 

 leaves overlapping one another ; these are called bracts, and the 

 chicken in the hen-and-chicken daisy are nothing but the bracts 

 taking for the time the form of flowers. If the plant is placed in 

 ungenial soil or is otherwise neglected, the chickens disappear, and 

 become again bracts. 



With respect to plants named from other animals they are very 

 numerous, and in some instances they are puzzles. Many are veiy 

 simple, being derived from the resemblance or fancied resemblance 

 to parts of animals, as the Colt's-foot, the Adder's-tongue, the 

 Hound's-tongue, the Hart's-tougue, the Bear's-ear or Auricula, the 

 Hare's-ear, the Ox-eye. Cow-slip and Ox-slip no doubt also come 

 from cow and ox, but the meaning is not so clear. We are helped 

 in the interpretation of a gi'eat many others named from animals 

 in a very unexpected way. The same process of giving rough and 

 ready names to plants that our ancestors had recourse to is now 

 being carried on in our colonies. The North American and 

 Canadian, the Australian and the Cape floras are full of curious 

 English names, given to plants before they get their scientific 

 arrangement, and among these are a great number named after 

 diff"erent animals. Why they are so named I can best teU you in 

 the words of Professor Seeman — " How many vernacular names 

 are formed," he says, " is illustrated when a people exchange one 

 country for another. The immigrant arrives at his new home full 

 of high expectation ; he not only hopes to have left behind all the 

 discomforts of his native land, but also trusts to meet again objects 

 which from childhood have been dear to him. Eveiy thing is 

 examined ; the stones, the plants, the animals, the trees under 

 the shade of which he used to sit, the fruits which in his boyish 

 days he gathered, are sought for. At last they are found, but lo ! 

 on closer examination they turn out to be similar but not identicaL 

 He is disappointed and his disappointment is for ever recorded in 

 euch names as bear the prefixes of ' hogs,' ' devils,' ' dogs,' and 

 others, indicative of inferiority or contempt." (Seeman, Journal 

 of Botany, Nov., 1869). T believe this is the true account of such 

 names as Horse-chesnut, Horse-bean, Horse-radish, Horse-mint, 

 Horse-parsley, Dog-i'ose, Dog-violet, Cow-wheat, Cow-parsnip, Hog- 



