6 PLANT NAMES 



districts such as Ireland, Wales, and Cornwall. 

 Most names are of Anglo-Saxon origin. And even 

 of these many were adapted from the Latin, generally 

 by the monks, who were in those times the only 

 people who had any scholarship or any smattering 

 of botanical knowledge. Plantain, for instance, 

 is the anglicized form of Plantago, and Daffodil of 

 Asphodelus. Some were translations, as Loose- 

 strife from Lysimachia. 



But a great many of our Anglo-Saxon popular 

 names are of Teutonic stock. Such are all ending 

 in " lick " or " lock " (from which Leek), meaning 

 a plant, as Charlock and Garlic. (The " gar " in 

 this last word meant a spear or sharp point. It is 

 alhed to the verb " to gore.") 



In the North of England names sometimes come 

 from Norse and Danish sources, and roughly indicate 

 the limits of their settlements, just as do " by " and 

 *' thwaite," as terminations of town and village 

 names. Rowan is such a name. It is connected 

 with rune, a charm, and was so called because it was 

 supposed to avert the evil eye. A good many names 

 of common plants are also derived from the Dutch 

 or Old High German — Buckwheat, e.g., where buck 

 is beech, the seeds being considered to be like beech- 

 mast. Then a vast number of names come to us 

 directly from the French, ultimately from Greek and 

 Latin. Dandelion is Dent de lion (the Hon's tooth). 

 Mushroom is from the French Mousseron, which 

 came from the Latin muscus (from which also moss), 

 a moorland, referring to its habitat. 



