OF BRITISH PLANTS. 75 



for fattening poultry; a statement which requires con- 

 firmation, as there is no other English or foreign writer 

 who mentions any such use of the Goosefoots, or the 

 orpine. 



Chenopodium Bonus Henricus and Atriplex patula, L. 



FEABE, FAPE, FABE, THAPE, THEABE, DE-, FAE-, FEA-, 

 or FEAP-BERRY, different forms of an East Anglian very 

 obscure name of the gooseberry. An interchange of an 

 initial _/ and ih is not uncommon. We find it, for instance, 

 in the verb fly, Go. pliuhan, O.H.G. fliohan, G. fliehen ; 

 and in thatches, a dialectic pronunciation of watches, i.e. 

 foches or vetches, to be heard in some parts of Somerset. 

 The name seems to have attached itself to the gooseberry 

 through one of those blunders that have arisen from bad 

 pictures. The melon, G. pfebe, L. pepo, is so figured in 

 Tabernsemontanus (vol. ii. p. 184), as to look exactly like 

 a gooseberry, and headed Pfebe, and from this, or an 

 equally bad picture, the name may have been adopted. 

 Loudon (in Arbor. Brit. ii. p. 972), considers it to be meant 

 for fever-berry, a very improbable explanation. Wright 

 would derive it from A. S. fiefe-porn. The use of the 

 term seems to be confined at present to the eastern counties, 

 where the green unripe fruit is called Thape, as in a word 

 well known to Norfolk schoolboys, Thape-pie. 



Ribes Grossularia, L. 



FEATHER-FEW, FEDDER-FEW, or FEATHER-FULLY, in Pr. 

 Pm. FEDER-FOY, the feverfew, from confusion of name 

 with the feather-foil, Pyrethrum Parthenium, L. 



FEATHER-FOIL, feathery leaf, from feather zudfoil, L. 

 folium, a name descriptive of its finely divided leaves, 



Hottonia palustris, L. 



FEATHER-GRASS, from its feathery awn, 



Stipa pennata, L. 



FELWORT, the gentian, a name that looks like an anoma- 

 lous compound of L.fel, gall, and wort, but apparently is 



