1 66 May Ranunculus Aquatilis. 



refers to what would be disagreeable if we went out of 

 our way to try it, namely, its acrid taste ; but what have 

 we to do with its taste, I wonder ? Just in the same way 

 I have no doubt that the sweetest of pictures would 

 be extremely disagreeable if we were to eat it. And 

 ranunculus comes from rana, a frog or toad, a strange 

 connection of ideas in this instance, for what has a but- 

 tercup particularly to do with frogs ? It may be more 

 appropriate in the case of the Ranunculus aquatilis, 

 because that plant is born in the water like a frog, 

 and passes its infancy there ; after which- it comes up 

 to breathe and flower in the upper air, as frogs come 

 to air themselves in their maturity. A plant may, how- 

 ever, be still more unfortunate than to have its name 

 associated with frogs, or even toads, for there is one 

 very pretty little pinkish flower, common, from April 

 to June, in damp meadows and woods, which takes its 

 name from a minute animal celebrated by the poet 

 Burns, who discovered it on a lady's bonnet at church, 

 when he ought to have been thinking of something else. 

 Few plants are prettier than the common pedicularis, 

 with its delicate wax-like flowers and deeply-cut leaves ; 

 and it is a robust plant, too, with a strong perennial 

 root. But what a misfortune to be called lousewort, and 

 that precisely for the plant's utility and efficacy against 

 lice ! As men afflicted with very disagreeable names 

 often take care to change them (and they do right), so 

 would the plants, if they were conscious of such ill- 

 luck. Begging the reader's pardon for introducing the 

 hackneyed quotation from Shakspeare about the rose 



