84 POPULAR NAMES 



name of " Soveigne vous de moy," was in the fourteenth 

 century woven into collars, and worn by knights, and that 

 one of these was the subject of a famous joust fought 

 in 1465 between the two most accomplished knights of 

 England and France. What the flower was, that was so 

 called, it would be only possible to ascertain by inspection 

 of one of these collars. The German name Ehrenprds, 

 prize of honour, which has always been given to the speed- 

 well, almost proves that this was the one. There is cer- 

 tainly no ground for assuming that it was the same as our 

 present " Forget-me-not." The story of this latter, in 

 connexion with the two lovers, will be found in Mills's 

 work, vol. i. p. 314, and it now bears a name correspond- 

 ing to our own in nearly every European language : as Fr. 

 Ne m'oubliez pas, G. Vergiss mein nicht, Da. Kicerminde, 

 Sw. Forgdt mig icke, etc., and is worked into numberless 

 rings and other ornaments. Myosotis palustris, L. 



FOUR-LEAVED GRASS, a plant with four leaves only, the 

 Herb Trulove, Paris quadrifolia, L. 



FOXGLOVE, a name that is so inappropriate to the plant, 

 that many explanations of it have been attempted, by 

 which it might appear to mean something different from 

 the glove of a fox. Its Norwegian names, Rev-bielde, fox- 

 bell, and Reveleika, fox music, are the only foreign ones 

 that allude to that animal ; and they explain our own, as 

 having been in the first place foxes-glew, or music, A.S. 

 gliew, in reference to a favourite instrument of earlier times, 

 a ring of bells hung on an arched support, a tintinna- 

 bulum, which this plant, with its hanging bell-shaped 

 flowers, so exactly represents. Its present Latin name, 

 Digitalis, was given to it by Fuchs with the remark that 

 up to that time, 1542, there was none for it in Greek or 

 Latin. D. purpurea, L. 



FOX-TAIL-GRASS, from the shape of the spike, 



Alopecurus pratensis, L. 



