OF BRITISH PLANTS. Ill 



But besides these there are others which by the older 

 herbalists are called $" Christophori herba, and Kristoffels- 

 kraut; such as Spiraea ulmaria, L. Gnaphalium ger- 

 manicum, Hud. Betonica officinalis, L. Vicia Cracca and 

 sepium L. 



HERB GERARD, Du. Geraerts cruyt, called so, says 

 Forster in Nat. Phen. p. 101, from St. Gerard, who used 

 to be invoked against the gout, 



^Egopodium Podagraria, L. 



HERB OP GRACE, rue, from this word rue having also 

 the meaning of " repentance," which is needful to obtain 

 God's grace, a frequent subject of puns in the old dramatists. 

 See quotations in London's Arboretum, vol. i. p. 485. 



Ruta graveolens, L. 



HERB IMPIOUS, from the younger flowers overtopping 



the older ones, like undutiful children rising over the heads 



of their parents ; " ob id irnpiam appellavere, quoniam liberi 



super parentem excellant." Plin. Nat. Hist, (l.xxiv. 113). 



Gnaphalium germanicum, Huds. 



HERB IVY, or HERB IVE, or -EvE, a name given to 

 several different plants with deeply divided leaves, a cor- 

 ruption of the Abiga of Pliny. Beckrnann, in his Lexicon 

 Botanicum, explains it thus : " Iva, Ruellius ib'iga ; hinc 

 duabus abjectis literis i et g, iba, et tandem wa manavit in 

 vulgi nomenclationem." The name has been given by 

 the herbalists to Ajuga Iva, Coronopus Ruellii, 



and Plantago Coronopus, L. 



HERB OF LIFE, in Erasmus' Praise of Folly, some 

 mythical plant that cannot be identified. 



HERB MARGARET, the daisy, see MARGUERITE. 



Bellis perennis, L. 



HERB PARIS, incorrectly so spelt with a capital P, being 

 its Lat. name Herba paris, Herb of a pair, of a betrothed 

 couple, in reference to its four leaves being set upon the 



