MAY 115 



modern synonyms for the same climber ; but Parkin- 

 son, no mean authority, spoke of red clover as honey- 

 suckle. Canon Ellaconibe, in the first edition of Plant 

 Lore of Shakespeare, interpreted woodbine, which doth 

 ' the sweet honeysuckle gently entwist,' as bittersweet 

 or deadly nightshade ; but, doubtless for good reason, 

 he changed it in the second, explaining that honeysuckle 

 was the flower and woodbine the tendril. I have heard 

 it maintained that eglantine was a name for honey- 

 suckle, but this is to forget its etymology the aiglante 

 or prickly one the sweetbriar. There is another 

 flower which has two names so equal in merit that one 

 hesitates which to use London pride or none-so- 

 pretty (Saxifraga utnbrosa). 



Fair-maids-of-France is a title all too sweet for the 

 double buttercup, to which usage assigns it a plant 

 not worth cultivating, save for its poetic name ; but its 

 white counterpart bachelor's buttons is well called, 

 according to Gerarde, 'from their similitude to the 

 jagged cloathe buttons, antiently worn in this kingdom.' 

 Sometimes, but rarely, the more recent name for a 

 flower is the more poetical. Cowslip is a distinct im- 

 provement upon ' paigle,' the old English name, though 

 it is well not to inquire too closely into the etymology 

 of cowslip as given in Skeat's dictionary. 



Much has been written on the question of what is 

 the true gilliflower. No doubt Chaucer, Spenser, and 

 Shakespeare meant thereby the clove carnation ; l but 



1 Girofie, gilofre, or gilliflower a corruption of caryophyllum, a 

 clove. 



