68 NAMES GIVEN OF OLD TO PLANTS. 



finger-cases presented by its flowers : but I am not one 

 of those wlio cavil or jeer at the common, or " vulgar 

 names," as we are in the habit of denominating the un- 

 scientific appellations of plants ; for we must remember, 

 that the culling of herbs and simples, and compounding 

 preparations from them, to relieve the sufferings of na- 

 ture, were the first rudiments of all our knowledge, the 

 most grateful exertion of human talent, and, after food 

 and clothing, the most necessary objects of life. In 

 ages of simplicity, when every man was the usual dis- 

 penser of good or bad, benefit or injury, to his house- 

 hold 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 application ; when dis- 

 tinctive characters, had they been given, would have 

 been little attended to ; and hence, the numbers found 

 favorable to the cure of particular complaints, the ail- 

 ments 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 de- 

 spised, " old, vulgar names." What pleasure it must 

 have afforded the poor sufferer in body or in limb, 

 what confidence he must ha^e felt for relief, when he 

 knew that the good neighbor who came to bathe his 

 wounds, or assuage his inward torments, brought with 

 him such things as " all-heal, break-stone, bruise-wort, 

 gout-weed, fever-few" (fugio), and twenty other such 

 comfortable mitigators of his afflictions; why, their 

 very names would almost charm away the sense of pain ! 

 The modern recipe contains no such terms of comfort- 

 able assurance : its meanings are all dark to the suf- 

 ferer; its influence unknown. And then the good her- 

 balist of old professed to have plants which Were " all- 

 good :" they could assuage anger by their " loosestrife ;" 

 they had " honesty, truelove, and heartsease." The cay- 

 ennes, the soys, the ketchups, and extratropical condi- 



