166 POPULAR NAMES 



NIPPLE-WORT, Fr. herbe aux mamelles, from its use in 

 cases of sore nipple, Lapsana cominunis, L. 



NIT-GRASS, from its little nit-like flowers, a translation 

 of its L. specific name, lendigerum, 



Gastridium lendigerum, L. 



NONE-SO-PRETTY, or NANCY-PRETTY, the London pride, or 

 Pratling parnel, terms that seem to allude to the heroine of 

 some popular farce, song, or tale, Saxifraga umbrosa, L. 



NONSUCH, " a name conferred upon it from its supposed 

 superiority as fodder." Smith in Eng. Bot. 



Medicago lupulina, L. 



in Gerarde and Parkinson applied to the scarlet lychnis, 



Lychnis chalcedonica, L. 



NOON-FLOWER, or NOON-TIDE, from its closing at mid- 

 day, and marking the hour of noon, 



Tragopogon pratensis, L. 



NOOPS, i.e. knops, A.S. cncep, a button, a name of the 

 cloudberry used on the Eastern Border, 



Rubus Chamsemorus, L. 



NOSEBLEED, the yarrow, from its having been put into 

 the nose, as we learn from Gerarde, to cause bleeding and 

 to cure the megrim, and also from its being used as a 

 means of testing a lover's fidelity. Forby in his East 

 Anglia (p. 424) tells us that in that part of England a girl 

 will tickle the inside of the nostril with a leaf of this plant, 

 saying, 



" Yarroway, yarroway, bear a white blow; 



If my love love me, my nose will bleed now." 

 Parkinson (Th. Bot. p. 695) says that "it is called of 

 some Nose-bleede from making the nose bleede, if it be 

 put into it, but assuredly it will stay the bleeding of it." 

 This application of the yarrow, and all the superstitions con- 

 nected with it, have arisen, as in so many other instances, 

 from the medieval herbalists having been misled by a 

 name, and taken one plant for another. Isidore (c. ix.) in 



