126 



WILD FLOWERS. 



and the Spanish and Portuguese miosota, and myo- 

 sota ; as the downy, ovate leaves really bear a re- 

 semblance to the ears of those animals. Most of the 

 Welsh names have a signification agreeing with the 

 habit of calling either this plant or the speedwell, 

 eyebright ; which we suspect to have been originally 

 applied to this plant rather than to that which at 

 present so called, namely, the Euphrasia, as the term 

 probably referred to the appearance of the plant, to 

 that bright, upward-turned flower which so distinctly 

 recalls to us some clear, honest, blue eye, rather than 

 to the property of healing diseases of the eye, from 

 which the Euphrasia is named. Thus the Welsh 



Golwg Grist, signifies 

 Sight of Christ; Llygaid 

 Grist, Christ's eye ; Gloy- 

 wlys, bright, or clear herb ; 

 Goleiddrem, light, and 

 sight, or aspect ; and Ef- 

 fros (effro), awakening. 

 But the appellation of 

 Dorfagl (Tor, a mantle, 

 and fagl, a flame), is per- 

 plexing, as it does not ap- 

 pear applicable to a blue 

 flower, however bright. A 

 similar remark may, also, 

 be made with regard to one 

 of the names of another 

 blue flower, perfagl (per, 

 istris. sweet) the periwinkle. 

 Most abundantly grows the forget-me-not beside 



