OF BRITISH PLANTS. 243 



generatim Violas appellasse, cujuscunque etiam forent 

 generis." Even to the present day we retain it in the 

 popular names of several plants of very different orders. 

 Used absolutely, it means the genus Viola, L. 



VIOLET, CORN-, Campanula hybrida, L. 



DAMASK-, or DAME'S-, 



Hesperis matronalis, L. 



DOG-, Viola canina, L. 



,, MARCH-, Viola odorata, L. 



TOOTH-, Dentaria bulbifera, L. 



,, WATER-, Hottonia palustris, L. 



VIPER'S BUGLOSS, a bugloss which, from its seed being 

 like the head of that reptile, was supposed, on the doctrine 

 of signatures, to cure its bite. Thus Matthioli (1. iv. c. 69) : 

 " In Echio, herba contra viperarum morsus celeberrima, 

 natura semen viperinis capitibus simile procreavit." 



Echium vulgare, L. 



VIPER-GRASS, L. mperaria, because, according to Monar- 

 dus, a physician of Seville quoted in Parkinson's Th. Bot. 

 (p. 410), " a Moore, a bondslave, did helpe those that were 

 bitten of that venomous beast, the viper, which they of 

 Catalonia called Escuerso, with the juice of this herbe, 

 which both took away the poison, and healed the bitten 

 place very quickly, when Treakle [Theriaca] and other 

 things would do no good." Its Italian and officinal Latin 

 name, scorzonera, is derived from It. scorzone, a venemous 

 serpent, popularized into a word that would seem to mean 

 " black rind," scorza nera. Scorzonera edulis, Mn. 



VIRGIN'S BOWER, a shrub so named by Gerarde, a& 

 fitting to be a bower for maidens, and with allusion, 

 perhaps, to Queen Elizabeth, but not, as we might be 

 tempted to imagine, to the Virgin Mary in a riposo, or 

 resting scene on the way to Egypt, the frequent subject 

 of pictures, Clematis Vitalba, L. 



