142 MAY 



which is still in use in Devonshire. 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 umbrosa). 



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 improvement 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 ;* 

 but later writers applied the name to the wallflower 



1 Girofle, gilofre, or gilliflower a corruption of caryophyUum, 

 A clove. 



