250 POPULAR NAMES 



Ages, and used in medicine and cookery, and one that the 

 bilberry much resembles in outward appearance, the m 

 being replaced with w as in many other instances : e.g. in 

 wick from Lat. myxa, Vaccinium Myrtillus, L. 



WICH or WITCH ELM, see WYCH. 



WlCKEN-TREE, S66 QUICKEN. 



WILDING, the crab apple, contrasted with the sweeting 

 or cultivated sweet apple ; as in Spenser (F. Q. iii. vii. 17) : 

 " Oft from the forest wildings did he bring." 



Pyrus Malus, L. 



WILL-OF-THE-WISP, from its sudden and mysterious 

 growth by night, as if dropped by some phantom, 



Tremella Nostoc, L. 



WILLIAM, from Fr. oeillet, a little eye, corrupted to 

 Willie, and thence to William, L. ocellus. 



SWEET-, from its scent, and partly, perhaps, in allu- 

 sion to the hero of a popular ballad, " Fair Margaret and 

 Sweet William," if this was really in existence above 300 

 years ago. According to an article in the Quarterly 

 Review (No. 227), it formerly bore the name of " Sweet 

 Saint William;" but the writer gives no reference, and 

 probably had no authority for saying so. Bulleyn assigns 

 the name to the wallflower. Dianthus barbatus, L. 



WILD, the Ragged Robin, 



Lychnis flos cuculi, L. 



WILLOW, a word that seems to express a pliancy, a wil- 

 lingness of disposition that well accords with the character 

 of this tree, whose branches have from time immemorial 

 been used for wicker-work, A.S. wilig, L.G. wilge, 



Salix, L. 



CRACK-, S. fragilis, L. 



GOATS'-, S. caprea, L. 



SWEET-, Myrica Gale, L. 



WEEPING-, S. babylonica, L. 



WHITE-, S. alba, L. 



