148 FAMILIAR WILD FLOWERS. 



disease, and the second from its star-like foliage and flowers ; 

 but ordinarily its names are more or less like that hy 

 which we have described it. We find wood -ro well, wood- 

 roofe, wood-reeve, and several others of like character. 



In Anglo-Saxon it is woodderowffe. Wood-rowell 

 refers to the rings of leaves that suggest in their 

 form and arrangement the rowel of a spur, while our 

 ordinary word woodruff would appear to find a resem- 

 blance in the foliage to the mediseval ruff, of which 

 the portraits of Queen Elizabeth always give so 

 noteworthy an illustration. These derivations, inte- 

 resting as they are, are probably af ter- thoughts ; for 

 the plant had its Anglo-Saxon name bestowed upon it 

 long before ruffs were worn or the word rowel, from the 

 French rouelle, a little wheel, was in use. Dr. Bosworth 

 gives row as the Anglo-Saxon for sweet, and there can be 

 but little doubt that the literal meaning of the word is 

 the woods weet. 



