LADY'S MANTLE. 159 



leontopodium, Anglicised into lionVpaw, and thence 

 modified into bear's-foot. The radiating character of the 

 lower leaves, suggested to others the idea of a star, 

 and procured it the name of stellaria; but this was an 

 unfortunate name, as it had already been bestowed on 

 some three or four other plants. 



Tragus seems to have been the original bestower of 

 the generic name on the Lady's mantle, a name that was 

 confirmed by its re-adoption by Linnasus. As probably 

 Tragus is but an empty name to the great majority of 

 our readers, we may perhaps indulge in a brief biographical 

 parenthesis. The so-called Tragus was a German botanist, 

 his real name being Jerome Boch. In accordance with a 

 fashion prevalent amongst the learned in the middle ages, 

 his name, equivalent in English to goat, was Latinised 

 into Tragus, a word of the same signification. Tragus 

 is best known by his History of Plants, published in 

 German in the year 1532, and in a Latin edition in 

 1552. 



The generic title, of the plant, Alchemilla, like our 

 English word alchemy, is derived from the Aiubic 

 word alkemelych, and was bestowed owing to the wonder- 

 working powers of the plant according to some old writers, 

 though others thought and taught, or at least taught, that 

 the alchemical virtues lay in the subtle influence the foliage 

 imparted to the dewdrops that lay in its furrowed leaves. 

 These dewdrops entered into many a mystic potion. 



Horses and sheep ai*e fond of the Lady's mantle, 

 and it has therefore been suggested that it might be 

 profitably used as a fodder-plant ; but there is, of course, 

 a wide distinction between observing animals browsing up- 

 on a plant on the mountain-sides, and deliberately setting 



