36 



fennel, &c. They simply imply inferiority, not that they are 

 (though they may be in some cases) the food of the animals whose 

 names they bear. 



We have very few plants named after men ; I mean after the 

 male sex. We have Boy's Love, and Lad's Love, which, curiously 

 enough, is also called Old Man ; we have Old Man's Beard, and 

 Bachelor's Buttons ; and from men's names we have Herb Robert, 

 Sweet William, Herb Good HaiTy, and one other, which you will 

 scarcely recognize as a man's name — Cudbear. This is a lichen, 

 growing in the north of England, and much used in the preparation 

 of purple dyes ; and there is full proof that it was so named from 

 Mr. Cuthbert Gordon, who first discovered its uses as a dye. 



But with the female sex it is different. The ladies, as is only 

 right and proper, have had many a pi'ctty flower named after them. 

 Not to mention such names as Virgin's Bower, and plants named 

 after Venus, of which the origin is doubtful and disputed, we have 

 the pretty " Maiden Hair Fern," the jjrettiest of all British ferns. We 

 have another fern which, not content with the maiden's fan* hair, 

 claims to be the full and perfect lady, and calls herself the Lady 

 Fern. We have also " Maiden Hair Grass," " Maid's Hair," the 

 curious orchid called " Lady's Tresses," and we have the " Ladies' 

 Fingers." We are very rich, too, in the articles of the lady's 

 toilet. We have the " Lady's Nightcap" (in the beautiful large 

 white convolvulus of our hedges), the " Lady's Comb," the "Lady's 

 Looking-Glass," the "Lady's Laces," the "Lady's Gartei's," the 

 " Lady's Glove," the " Lady's Mantle," the " Ladies' Smock," all 

 silver white, the " Lady's Slipper," the " Lady's Signet," the 

 " Lady's Thimble," and, to make her quite comfortable, the " Lady's 

 Cushion," on which we will leave her. 



And having finished " the ladies," I must bring my paper to a 

 conclusion, as I am warned to do by the length to which it has 

 reached. I had, indeed, noted many other plant-names that had 

 something of interest in their history or etymology, but even to 

 go through them in the briefest and most cursory manner would 

 take up too much of our time ; and indeed to gallop throiigh them 

 would be very little satisfaction either to you or me ; and to go 

 into them fully would only weary you in a subject on which I 



