NAMES GIVEN OF OLD TO PLANTS. 91 



who cavil or jeer at the common, or " vulgar names/' 

 as we are in the habit of denominating the unscien 

 tific appellations of plants; for we must remember, 

 that the culling of herbs and simples, and com- 

 pounding preparations from them, to relieve the 

 sufferings of nature, were the first rudiments of all 

 our knowledge, the most grateful exertion of hu- 

 man talent, and, after food and clothing, the most 

 necessary objects of life. In ages of simplicity, 

 when every man was the usual dispenser of good 

 or bad; benefit or injury, to his household or his 

 cattle ere the veterinary art was known, or the 

 drugs of other regions introduced, necessity looked 

 up to the products of our own clime, and the real 

 or fanciful virtues of them were called to the trial, 

 and manifests the reasonableness of bestowing upon 

 plants and herbs such names as might immediately 

 indicate their several uses, or fitness for applica- 

 tion ; when distinctive characters, had they been 

 given, would have been little attended to; and 

 hence, the numbers found favourable to the cure 

 of particular complaints, the ailments of domestic 

 creatures, or deemed injurious to them. Modern 

 science may wrap up the meaning of its epithets 

 in Greek and Latin terms ; but in very many cases 

 they are the mere translations of these despised, 

 (S old, vulgar names." What pleasure it must 

 have afforded the poor sufferer in body or in 

 limb, what confidence he must have felt for relief, 

 when he knew that the good neighbour who came 



