OF BRITISH PLANTS. 137 



LOBGRASS. from lob, or lop, to loll or hang about, as in 

 loblolly, etc., so called from its hanging panicles, 



Bromus mollis, L. 



LOCKEN, or LUCKEN GOWAN, or GowLON, a closed goole 

 or goldin, a term applied, according to Lightfoot and Jamie- 

 son, to the globe flower, called for the same reason, viz., its 

 connivent petals, the cabbage daisy, 



Trollius europseus, L. 



LOGGERHEADS, from the resemblance of its knobbed in- 

 volucres to a weapon so called, consisting of a ball of iron 

 at the end of a stick, the knapweed, the Clobbewed of 

 old MSS., Centaurea nigra, L. 



LONDON PRIDE, a name given in the first place to a 

 speckled Sweet William, from its being a plant of which 

 London might be proud, and similar to that of the Moun- 

 tain Pride, the Pride of India, and the Pride of Barbadoes, 

 (see Parkinson's Parad. p. 320,) but of late years transferred 

 to a saxifrage, which is commonly supposed to be so called, 

 because it is one of the few flowers that will grow in the 

 dingy lanes of a town. See Seeman's Journal, vol. i. It is 

 understood, however, upon apparently good authority, that 

 of Mr. R. Heward in the Gardener's Chronicle, to have 

 been given to this latter plant in reference to the person 

 who introduced it into cultivation, Mr. London, of the firm 

 of London and Wise, the celebrated Royal Gardeners of the 

 early part of the last century. Saxifraga umbrosa, L. 



LONDON ROCKET, called rocket from its leaves resembling 

 those of an eruca, and London from its springing up abun- 

 dantly in 1667 among the ruins left by the Great Fire, 



Sisymbrium Irio, L. 



LONG PURPLES, of Shakspeare's Hamlet, (iv. 7,) sup- 

 posed to be the purple-flowered orchis, 0. mascula, L. 



LOOSESTRIFE, a translation of the Lat. lysimachia, as 

 though the plant were called so from its stopping strife, 

 Gr, Xucrt and fj-a^rj. Pliny tells us (b. xxv. c. 35) that 



