1812 POPULAR NAMES 



because it is a great remedy for the toads. When a spider 

 stings a toad, and the toad is becoming vanquished, and 

 the spider stings it thickly and frequently, and the toad 

 >cannot avenge itself, it bursts asunder. But if such a 

 burst toad is near this pla$t, it chews it, and becomes 

 sound again. But if it happens that the wounded toad 

 cannot get to the plant, another toad fetches it, and gives 

 it to the wounded one." A case is recorded in Topsell's 

 Natural History, p. 729, as having been actually witnessed 

 by the Duke of Bedford and his attendants, at a place called 

 Owbourn, (a mis-spelling perhaps of Woburn,) and often- 

 times related by himself. The error has arisen from the 

 confusion of bubo with bufo. The toad-flax has acquired 

 its name from a similar blunder. Aster Tripolium, L. 



SHAVE-GKASS, from being " used by fletchers and comb- 

 makers to polish their work therewith," ^says W. Coles, 

 Du. schaaf-stroo, from schaaf, a plane, and stroo, straw, 



Equisetum hyemale, L. 



SHBEP'S-BANE, from its character of baning sheep (see 

 Ger. p. 528), the whiterot, Hydrocotyle vulgaris, L. 



SHEEP'S-BIT, or SHEEP'S-BIT-SCABIOUS, so called to dis- 

 tinguish it from the Devil's-bit-scabious, 



Jasione montana, L. 



SHEEP'S PARSLEY, in Suffolk, 



Chserophyllum temulum, L. 



SHEEP'S SORREL, Rumex Acetosella, L. 



SHELLEY GRASS, or, as Threlkeld spells it, SKALLY 

 GRASS, a word the origin of which is obscure, perhaps the 

 Sc. skellie, which means " charlock," extended to weeds in 

 general, the couch-grass, Triticum repens, L. 



SHEPHERD'S CRESS, Teesdalia nudicaulis, RB. 



SHEPHERD'S NEEDLE, Scandix Pecten, L. 



SHEPHERD'S PURSE, Capsella Bursa, DC. 



SHEPHERD'S ROD, or STAFF, L. virga pastoris, 



Dipsacus pilosus, L. 



