PLANT NAMES 51 



medicine, was said to have used this plant as a cure. 

 The Centaurs were half men, half horses, and Ovid 

 tells us that another plant, called Centaurea, after 

 this Chiron, cured a wound in the foot. Gary a, the 

 Hickory, was the Greek name for the Walnut. It 

 is said to have been called after a Princess who was 

 changed by Bacchus into a Walnut tree. Cypripe- 

 dium, or Lady's vSlipper, contains the word Kupris, 

 which was the Greek name of Venus, goddess of 

 love, from whom the island of Cyprus was named 

 because it was one of the chief seats of her worship. 

 The lip of the flowers of this tribe of orchids, is 

 really like a slipper. Daphne was the daughter of a 

 river god loved by Apollo. To escape him she 

 changed into a Laurel. Drus was the Greek word 

 for an Oak, and so the nymphs of the woods were 

 called Dryads. The leaves of the little plant 

 Dryas octopetala resemble those of an Oak, and so 

 Linnaeus, in a playful mood, made it the badge of 

 Virgil's Dryades, after the manner of the Scottish 

 clans, and gave it its name. Heraclemn, the Cow 

 Parsnip, was consecrated to Heracles (Latin Her- 

 cules), the mythical Greek hero. Hyacinth, in the 

 Greek fable, was a Prince who was loved by Apollo, 

 the sun, and Zephyr, the west wind. He preferred 

 Apollo, so Zephyr killed him with a quoit. His 

 blood became a flower, and it was fancied that the 

 petals were inscribed with his name. Helenium is 

 called after the lovely Helen, cause of the Trojan 

 War. Inula is said to be a corruption of Helenium. 

 Narcissus was a youth who saw his face mirrored in 



