Trientalis americana; the star grass, Ilypoxis; star of Bethle- 

 hem, Ornithogalum umbellatiim ; starwort or common chickweed, 

 Stellaria {stella, a star) ; and the asters {aster, a star) also called 

 starwort. 



Other plants are named for animals, sometimes because of 

 some fancied resemblance, or because eaten by the animal, but 

 in many cases the reason for the name is lost in the distant past. 

 All of our domestic animals have plants bearing their names. 

 Catnip (nip from an old Dutch word 7iippen, to sip, in English 

 becoming a drink of some intoxicant), cowbane, cow wheat, 

 dogbane, dog berry, horse tail, horse radish, colt's foot, lamb's 

 quarters (possibly because the plant was eaten with lamb), 

 sheep sorrel, pigweed, hog peanut, and others. Names of wild 

 animals are also used; — bear berry, buffalo berry, buffalo grass, 

 deer berry, foxglove, monkey flower, moosewood, squirrel corn, 

 wolf's bane, and others. Birds' names appear in crowfoot, goose- 

 foot, partridge berry, pigeon berry, duckweed and hawkweed. 

 Other animal names are found in frog bit, frog spit (for floating 

 masses of filamentous green algae), toad flax, eel grass, pickerel 

 weed, snake root, turtle head. 



In the early days when it was taken for granted that the 

 earth and everything in it was created solely for the use of man, 

 if a plant was not useful for food, fiber or beauty, its virtues 

 were considered probably to be for the cure of disease. 



Excellent herbs had our fathers of old — 

 Excellent herbs to ease their pain — 

 Alexanders and Marigold, 

 Eyebright, Orris and Elecampane. 



Anything green that grew out of the mould 

 Was an excellent herb to our fathers of old. 



Otir Fathers of Old, Rudyard Kipling 



So we have plants bearing the names of the parts of the body 

 they were supposed to help; blood root, boneset, heart's ease, 

 kidneywort, liverwort, lungwort, spleenwort. 



Of course there are many names for which we cannot find 

 the meanings, "Many of our plant names were hoary with age 

 before upstart technical names were invented. In the course of 

 time, inattentive ears and careless tongues have obscured the 



