BANE, an Old English word meaning destruction and applied 

 to any supposedly poisonous plant, as baneberry, bugbane, 

 cowbane, henbane, fleabane, etc. 



BEARBERRY, because the bears are fond of the fruit. The 

 generic name Arctostaphylos is a translation of the common 

 name into Greek. 



BEECH, Norse and Old German boke, boke, Old English boc, 

 the name of the tree in these languages. Our word book comes 

 from these words as in ancient Saxony and Germany runes 

 were written on thin slabs of beech wood and these made the 

 earliest books in those lands. 



BEDSTRAW, Galium veruni was long known as Our Lady's 

 Bedstraw. This and other species were dried and used to fill 

 mattresses. A legend arose that the hay in the manger of Bethle- 

 hem turned into this plant with its mass of dainty flowers. 



BONESET, Eupatorium perfoliatum, received its name because 

 it was used as a remedy for malaria or break-bone fever. It is 

 also called thoroughwort because the stem apparently goes 

 through the perfoliate leaves. 



BONEWORT, a name given to a number of plants because of 

 supposed bone-healing properties. Among these plants are the 

 ox-eye daisy, golden-rod (the Latin Solidago means to join or 

 make whole), centaury, and the royal osmunda. 



BUCKBEAN, Menyanthes trifoliata, probably a corruption of 

 bogbean. 



BUCKEYE, Aesculus species, because the dark brown seed 

 resembles a deer's eye. Also called horsechestnut, probably 

 because of the coarse nuts unfit for food, — the word horse is 

 frequently used in this sense as in horseradish, but Webster 

 says the nuts are said formerly to have been ground and fed to 

 horses, while Murray quotes Gerard's Herbal, "for the people 

 of the east countries do with the fruits thereof cure their horses 

 of the cough . . . and such diseases." 



buckwheat, from the Old English, boc, the beech tree, the 

 triangular seeds resembling miniature beech nuts. 



BUGBANE, Cimicifuga, Old English bugge, a hobgoblin and 

 bane, to destroy. A charm made from the plant was used to 

 drive away hobgoblins. 



buttercup. Ranunculus , also called butterflower and golden 

 cups, the cuckoobud of Shakespeare. In earlier writings always 



