98 OUR ROCK-GARDEN 



of herbs to the bodies as well as the souls of their 

 flocks. The patient learned the monkish name and 

 adopted it. The French names J are equally readily 

 accounted for, as they are evident survivals from 

 the days of the Normans and Plantagenets. A 

 medicinal value was at one time ascribed to the 

 columbine, as indeed to almost everything else, 

 but this reputation, which was considerable, has 

 not borne the test of experience. 



The increased attention paid in schools to nature- 

 knowledge in these latter days should presently bear 

 fruit. We were rather startled awhile ago when a 

 country child brought us what she called columbine, 

 but which was really red-berried bryony. Perhaps 

 she was aware that the climbing stems of the hop 

 are popularly called bine, and, recognising that the 

 bryony too was a climber, she concluded that it was 

 the column-bine. Children go very largely by sound, 

 and the result is not always a success. 2 The need 



1 Thus the dandelion is really the dent-de-lion, though why 

 it should be called the lion's-tooth is not very apparent. In 

 heraldry, no matter what colour the lion introduced in the 

 arms may be, the teeth and claws should be of gold ; hence 

 some see in the golden heads of the dandelion, with their 

 jagged florets, a sufficient justification of the name. Others 

 tell us that the form of the leaf resembles the sharply pointed 

 and curving teeth of the lion. Its older generic name, 

 Leontodon, is derived from the Greek words for lion and 

 tooth, and the plant bears a very similar name in most of the 

 European languages. 



2 As, for instance, in a village class taking up nature-study, 



