90 POPULAR NAMES 



GERMANDER CHICKWEED, the male Chamsedrys of the 

 herbalists, Veronica agrestis, L. 



GlLL, GiLL-GO-BY-GROUND, GlLL-CREEP-BY-THE-GROUND, 



GILL-RUN-BITH-GROUND, the ground-ivy, from its name 

 Gill, that was given to it from its being used in ferment- 

 ing beer, Fr. guiller, a word still retained in the eastern 

 counties, getting mixed up with another meaning of Gill, 

 that of a young woman, a girl ; the go-by-ground, etc. 

 referring to the creeping habit of the plant. See HAY- 

 MAIDS. Nepeta Glechoma, Benth. 



GILLIFLOWER, formerly spelt gyllofer and gilofre, with 

 the o long, from Fr. girofl^e, It. garofalo, in Douglas's 

 Virgil jereftouris, words formed from M. Lat. garoffolum, 

 gariqfilum, or, as in Albert Magn. (1. vi. c. 22), gariojilus, 

 corrupted from L. caryophyllum, a clove, Gr. tcapvotyvXkov, 

 and referring to the spicy odour of the flower, which seems 

 to have been used in flavouring wines to replace the more 

 costly clove of India. The name was originally given in 

 Italy to plants of the Pink tribe, especially the carnation, 

 but has in England been transferred of late years to several 

 cruciferous plants. That of Chaucer and Spenser and 

 Shakspeare was, as in Italy, Dianthus Caryophyllus, L. 

 that of later writers and gardeners, 



Matthiola and Cheiranthus, L. 



Much of the confusion in the names of plants has arisen 

 from the vague use of the French terms Giro/lee, Oeillet, 

 and Violette, which were, all three of them, applied to 

 flowers of the Pink tribe, but subsequently extended, and 

 finally restricted in English to very different plants. 

 Giroflee has become Gilliflower, and passed over to the 

 Cruciferse, Oeillet been restricted to the Sweet Williams, 

 and Violette been appropriated to one of the numerous 

 claimants of its name, the genus to which the pansy 

 belongs. 



CLOVE-, Dianthus Caryophyllus, L. 



