132 FAMILIAR WILD FLOWERS. 



or, more rarely, white. The stamens are eight in number, 

 their yellow anthers being very visible on a closer ex- 

 amination of the flower, and the style is cleft into three 

 parts. The seeds are blackish and three-angled. 



The generic name Polygonum is compounded of two 

 Greek words signifying many joints, and the name is 

 certainly a very appropriate one, while the specific title 

 aviculare is from the Latin aviculns, which is, in turn a 

 diminutive of avis, a bird. Great numbers of our 

 smaller birds feed on its seeds, and give a full appro- 

 priateness to its title. It is in some old herbals 

 and in provincial parlance called bird's-tongue, or sparrow- 

 tongue, but these names arose from the shape of its little 

 pointed leaves; and it is curious that one of its modern 

 Italian names is similar in meaning to the second of 

 the two we have named. Pink-weed is another old name 

 for the plant that evidently arises from the long lines 

 of delicately-tinted flower-clusters, and ninety-knot no 

 less clearly refers to its numerous joints. 



