138 POPULAR NAMES 



the name was given to it after a certain king Lysimachus ; 

 but, nevertheless, in deference to a popular notion, he adds 

 that, if it be laid on the yoke of oxen, when they are 

 quarrelling, it will quiet them. Lysimachia vulgaris, L. 



LOOSESTRIFE, PURPLE-, Lythrum Salicaria, L. 



LORDS AND LADIES, from children so calling the spadix 

 of the Wake Robin, as they find it to be purple or white ; a 

 name of recent introduction, to replace certain older, and 

 generally very indecent ones ; Arum maculatum, L. 



LORER, Fr. laurier, the bay tree, in Chaucer and Gower's 

 works, Laurus nobilis, L. 



LOUSE-BERRY TREE, from its fruit having once been used 

 to destroy lice in children's heads : " The powder kills nits, 

 and is good for scurfy heads." Diet, of Husbandry, under 

 " Spindle tree ;" and Loudon, (Arb. Brit. ii. 406) ; 



Evonymus europseus, L. 



LOUSE-BUR, from its burs, or seed-pods, clinging like 

 lice to the clothes, Xanthium strumarium, L. 



LOUSE-WORT, "because," says Gerarde, p. 913, "itfilleth 

 sheep and other cattle, that feed in meadows where this 

 groweth, full of lice," Pedicularis, L. 



LOVAGE, in Pr.Pm. and in Holland's translation of Pliny, 

 spelt Love-ache, as though it were love-parsley, Fr. levescke, 

 corruptions of Lat. levisticum, whence also, through the 

 same mistake, G. liebstockel, and A.S. lufestice and lube- 

 stice, Levisticum officinale, Ko. 



LOVE, the virgin's bower: "The gentlewomen call it 

 Love," says Parkinson, (Th. Bot. p. 384), from its habit of 

 embracing, perhaps, Clematis Vitalba, L. 



LOVE-APPLES, L. poma amoris, Fr. pommes d? amour, from 

 It. pomi del Mori, Moors' apples, this fruit having been in- 

 troduced as mala cetkiopica, Solanum Lycopersicum, L. 



LOVE-IN-A-MIST, or -IN-A-PUZZLE, from its flower being 

 enveloped in a dense entanglement of finely divided bracts, 



Nigella damascena, L. 



