180 POPULAR NAMES 



in ea peristerse, hoc est columbae, versentur." So also 

 the Medical MS., Sloane 1571, 1. 699: 



And gyt sayth mayster Macrobius, 

 Gyf yt be cast in a duffe hows, 

 Alle the duffys ther abowte 

 Schulle gedyr theder on a rowte. 



Verbena officinalis, L. 



PIGEON'S PEA, Fr. pois-plgeon, Ervuni Ervilia, L. 

 PIG-NUT, from its tubers being a favourite food of pigs, 

 and resembling nuts in size and flavour, 



Bunium flexuosum, With. 



PIG-WEED, from its being supposed to be fatal to swine, 

 see SOWBANE, Chenopodium rubrum, L. 



PIGGESNIE, or, as in MS. Harl. 7334, PIGGESNEYGHE, a 

 word that occurs in a line of Chaucer, applied to a lady, 

 and associated with the primrose, 



11 A primerole, a piggesnie" C. T. 3268. 

 And in the ancient song, My suete swetyng, in Ritson's 

 collection (vol. ii. p. 21) : 



" And love my pretty pygmy e?' 



The commentators on Chaucer explain it, amusingly 

 enough, as a "pig's eye." It seems to mean a "Whit- 

 suntide pink," from L.G. Pingsten, G. PJingst, and eye, 

 Fr. oeillet, L. ocellus, the name of these flowers from the 

 circular marking of their corolla. Pingst is shortened 

 from Gr. 7rezm;o<rr?7, meaning the fiftieth day after Easter, 

 and Pinksten-eye has been corrupted into Piggesnie. 



Dianthus Caryophyllus, L. 



PILE-WORT, L. pila, a ball, in allusion to the small tubers 

 on the roots, and its supposed efficacy, on the doctrine of 

 signatures, as a remedial agent, 



Ranunculus Ficaria, L. 



PILL-CORN, or PILD-CORN, that is, peel-corn, from its 

 grain separating from the chaff, Avena nuda, L. 



