192 POPULAR NAMES 



QUILL-WORT, from its resemblance to a bunch of quills, 



Isoetes lacustris, L. 



QUINCE, in Chaucer (R.R. 1. 1375) come, of which quince 

 seems to be the plural, Fr. coing, It. and Span, cotogna, 

 L. cydonium, called in Greek f^rjKa KvScovia, from Cydon, a 

 place in Crete, Pyrus Cydonia, L. 



QUITCH-GRASS, or TWITCH, with an interchange of the 

 initial consonant of frequent occurrence, owing partly, 

 perhaps, to the early copyists writing the letters c and t 

 exactly alike, but also from a dialectic tendency in some 

 districts to pronounce tw as qu, and qu as tw, (see Atkin- 

 son's Clev. Dial, in v. Twill) the couch-grass, A.S. cwice, 

 from civic, vivacious, Sw. kivikka. See COUCH. 



Triticurn repens, L. 



RABONE, Sp. rabano, L. raphanus, the radish, 



Raphanus sativus, L. 



RADISH, It. radice, root, L. radix, a plant valued for its 

 root, Raphanus sativus, L. 



HORSE-, a larger and stronger radish, 



Cochlearia Armoracia, L. 



RAGGED ROBIN, Fr. Robinet dechird. The word Robin 

 may have reference to a popular farce of Robin and 

 Marion, that used to be acted in country places at Pente- 

 cost (see Ducange in v. Robinetus), and it is probable that 

 from characters in this piece the keepers' followers in the 

 New Forest were called Ragged Robins. The Ragged refers 

 to its finely laciniated petals, and seems to have suggested 

 the Robin from familiar association. 



Lychnis Flos Cuculi, L. 



RAGWORT, G. ragwurz, a term of indecent meaning ex- 

 pressive of supposed aphrodisiac virtues, and originally 

 assigned to plants of the Orchis tribe, as it is in Germany 

 to the present day, and as we find it in all our own early 

 herbals. With the same implied meaning the pommes 



