Feb. 2, 1871] NAT 
balmed. Thus the Cenxtaury is the plant with which the 
Centaur Chiron healed the wound received from th: 
poisoned arrow of Hercules. The beautiul and rare wild 
Peony recalls Pzeon, the physician-god of Homer, who 
healed the bellowing Ares when smarting from the spear 
of Diomed. The ¥z70’s Rose, or tall white lily, preserves 
a story curiously transformed in later times from the 
Pagan to the Roman Catholic Mythology. The Zycac/e- 
mustard (Erysimum cheiranthoides) is the “ Theriacum,’ 
invented as an antidote by the Emperor Nero’s physician. 
and reappearing long afterwards as an ingredient in the 
Orvietan, or Venice Treacle. Medieval tales and legends 
in abundance find illustration fromthe same source. The 
Carline Thistle is the herb which miraculously healed a 
pestilence that attacked the army of Karl the Great. The 
sea-loving Samphire is corrupted from Saint Pierre, the 
fisherman Apostle. The /Vower-de-Lice, or Iris, was the 
device of Louis VII. The /7/éert commemorates the 
horticultural skill of king Phillibert. The Herb Roderi 
cures a disease named after Duke Robert of Normandy, 
The Margarette, or Daisy, owes its name to St. Margaret 
of Cortona, known to the readers of Mrs. Jameson. 
More than one curious superstition is embalmed in 
well-known names. The Ce/andine is an altered form of 
the Greek “ Chelidon,” a swallow, because with its yellow 
juice the swallows were supposed to restore sight to their 
blinded young ones. The Hawk-weed records a like 
belief respecting the Hawk. The /vmztory (fume-terre) 
was thought to be produced without seed by vapours rising 
from the earth. 
Many names, as Wound-wort, Tetter-wort, Pile-wort, 
Nipple-wort, have survived the ancient faith in their 
medical efficacy. And here comes in the strange prin- 
ciple of nomenclature, known as the “ Doctrine of Signa- 
tures.” Where the external appearance of a plant resem- 
bled any disease, or any part of the human body liable to 
a disease, such resemblance was taken as an indication of 
its especial healing virtue. The spotted leaves of the 
Lung-wort must be a specific, it was thought, for tuber- 
cular disease of the lungs ; the scaly pappus of Scadbious 
for cutaneous eruptions; the hard stony seeds of the 
Gromwell for stone in the bladder ; the throat-like corolla 
of the Zhroat-wort, or Canterbury bell, for sore throats ; 
the knotty tubers of Scrophularia for scrophulous glands. 
The pretty Zoad-flax of our walls and hedges owes its 
nameto a strange mistake. Believed in early times to be 
acure for a complaint known as “ Buboes,” it received 
the Latin name of “ Bubonium.” A confusion between 
Bubo and “ Bufo,” Latin for a Toad, gave birth to its 
present name ; and stories were not long wanting that 
sick or wounded Toads had been seen to eat of it and to 
recover health, 
. Similar distortions occur in names not medically ex- 
pressive. Afrio¢, connected ordinarily with the adjective 
“Apricus,” sunny, is a corruption through the Spanish 
and Italian of ‘ Praecoqua,” early ; having been looked 
upon as an early peach. Sweet William is transformed 
from “ Azillet,” a little eye ; Pz is shortened from the 
Low German “ Pinksten,” Whitsuntide, a name due to 
the season of its blossoming. Gd/z/fower comes throuzh 
Giroflée from “ Caryophyllus,” a clove. Carvwaz on is fiom 
“Coronation,” its flowers being used in chaplets. A/ari- 
gold is Marsh-gold ; Cows/ip is “ Hose-flap,” applied 


URE 
teaching. 
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263 

originally to the large flannelly leaf of the Mullein; 
Dame's Violet from “ Damascene” Violet ; the blunder 
being kept up, as is often the case, in the Latin “ Hesperis 
matronalis.” //¢é is the same word with Fujube; Haw- 
thora is “ Hedge-thorn ;” London Pride is named not 
from the smoky metropolis in which it thrives, but froma 
Mr, London, who introduced it. Swzaf-dragon is “ Snout- 
dragon.” Daffodil, more properly Dafjadowndilly, is a 
combination of “Sapharoun” or “ Saffron-lily” with 
“Asphodelus,” the old English “ Affodilly.” With the 
taste for alliteration often shown in popular names, the 
Sapharoun-lily, blending with Affodilly, became by a 
mutual compromise Daffadowndilly, whence Daffodilly 
and Daffodil. Peach (Persicus), Damson (Damascenus), 
Shalot (Ascalonicus), and Sfizach (Hispanicus), retain in 
their names dim memories of the lands of their birth, 
But the most curious instance of blundering is the Ferw- 
salem Artichoke. Itisa sun-flower, not an artichoke ; but 
its tubers resemble the artichoke in flavour. From its 
[talian name “ Girasole,” turn-to-the-sun, came “ Jeru- 
salem ;” and by a further quibble the soup which is 
made from it is called ‘“ Palestine soup.” 
Of the miscellaneous names many are equally interest- 
ing. The Ladurnun, closing its petals at night like a 
tired labourer ; the Campion, which crowned the cham- 
pion of the tournament ; the Zady’s Bedstraw, recalling 
the days when mattresses were not, and when this fra- 
grant Galium was used for ladies’ couches ; the Wearts- 
ease, with its many amorous synonyms; the Shamrock, 
concerning whose botanical identity no two Irishmen can 
agree ; the Lavender, or Washerwoman, scenting freshly 
washed linen ; the Ozzer, from the oozy beds in which it 
grows, are a few out of countless specimens. The philo- 
logist may delight to trace the root of Aff/e from the 
Zend and Sanscrit “ Ap” to the Latin “ Pa” in “ Padus,” 
“Po” in “Pomum” and “Poto.” Those familiar with 
Hans Andersen will read with fresh enjoyment the tale of 
the “Wild Swan,” when they learn that the Wefé/es, 
which the Princess had to weave into shirts, are derived 
from the verb “ne,” to spin or sew. On the other hand, 
some pretty time-honoured traditions are ruthlessly swept 
away. The WVarcissus is referred, not to the enamoured 
Grecian youth, but to the Sanscrit “Nark” or Hell; 
and the protesting lover of the classics is reminded “ that 
Proserpine was gathering Narcissi long before Narcissus 
was born.” The /oa-glove, is not, as we had loved to 
think, like the Zyrod/-flower and Pixie-stool, the “ Folks’ ” 
or Fairies’ “ Glove”; but the Foxes’ Glew, or Tintinna- 
bulum, with its ring of bells, hung on an arched support. 
Worst of all, the charming story of the Forget-me-not, 
current in every European language, is a later legend 
framed to meet a name already extant. For the original 
use of the name, its first curious transference of allusion, 
its final attachment to a river-side flower, and the nar- 
rative of the drowning lover, which readily grew up to 
adorn it, we must refer our readers to Dr. Prior’s book, 
They willbe surprised to find a treatise on Botany poetical, 
and a Dictionary light reading. They will learn how 
much a technical subject may be enlivened by varied ac- 
complishments in him who treats it ; they will see that in 
the Science of Botany, as in every other Science, the 
widest culture brings about the most telling and effective 
W. TUCKWELL 
