HOUND'S TONGUE. 



Cynoylossiim offic'male. Nat. Ord., 

 Boraginacece. 



\\.HY this plant especially should 

 be called the hound's tongue 

 is not immediately clear, 

 though we are told by old 

 authorities that it derives 

 its name from the shape of 

 its leaves. These, possibly, 

 are about as similar or dis- 

 similar to the tongue of a 

 dog as the foliage of some 

 half-dozen other plants that 

 at once occur to one's mind. 

 It is, however, altogether 

 too late in the day to raise 

 objections on that score, for 

 the plant is the hound's 

 tongue not only in England, 

 but in the vernacular of all Europe. In France, for 

 example, it is the Langue de chien, in Germany the 

 Hnndszunge. The generic name, Cynoglossiim, Greek in 

 its origin, carries the same significance. One old author, 

 Coles, in his " art of simpling," breaks away, we see, 

 from the general theory that the plant derives its 

 curious title from the shape and texture of the leaf, and 

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