DOGWOOD, originally dagwood, as dags or skewers made from 

 it were used in roasting meat, from an old Celtic word dag 

 related to dagger. It was adapted for this purpose because the 

 hard wood did not burn easily nor give taste to the meat. But 

 Murray says the name was given because the berries, unfit for 

 human food, were fit only for dogs. 



FESCUE GRASS, hditxn festuca, a straw. A straw or stick used 

 chiefly to point out letters to children learning to read. 



GENTi.\N, from an Illyrian king, Gentius, defeated by the 

 Romans about 160 B.C., who was said to have discovered the 

 tonic properties of the plant. 



GERANIUM, Greek geranos, a crane, from the fruit like a 

 crane's head and bill, so also called crane's bill. When L'Heritier 

 de Brutelle divided the Linnean genus he put the cultivated 

 geranium into the genus Pelargonium, Greek pelargos, a stork, 

 and for the plant sometimes called stork's bill he made the 

 genus Erodiiim, Greek erodios, a heron. 



GiLL-ovER-THE-GROUXD or ground ivy, Nepeta Hederacea, 

 the first part of the name from Old English Gillian, feminine of 

 Julian. Gill came to mean a sweetheart or a flirt. Spelled Jill 

 we have it in the nursery rhyme. Jack and Jill. 



GINSENG, a Chinese word jin-tsang, likeness of a man. The 

 forked root was supposed to resemble a man's body. The 

 Chinese believe it to have extraordinary powers of curing 

 exhaustion of body and mind. 



GOOSEBERRY, a Corruption of the German krausberre, or 

 crisp berry. But Murray says "The grounds on which plants of 

 fruits have received names associating them with animals are 

 so commonly inexplicable that the want of appropriateness in 

 the meaning affords no ground for assuming that the word is 

 an etymological corruption, e.g. of the German krausberre." 



HACKBERRY, a variant of hagberry, Anglo-Sa.xon haga, a 

 fence or coppice. 



HAWKWEED, Hieracium species, so called from an anc'.ent 

 belief that birds of prey used the juices of the plants to 

 strengthen their vision. 



HE.AL-ALL or SELF-HEAL, Prunella vulgaris, was supposed to 

 be of value in healing wounds. It was also called carpenters' 

 weed and used especially for treating cuts made by carpenters' 

 tools. 



