88 FAMILIAR WILD FLOWERS. 



renders it a difficult family for the novice to deal with. 

 The seed-leaves of the present plant are very long on their 

 h'rst appearance above ground. 



The generic name, Scandix, is derived from the Greek 

 word for some plant of this order, but we cannot now 

 determine which particular plant was intended by those 

 who first bestowed the name. According to Dodonoeus, 

 writing in 1578, " Scandix eaten is good and wholesome, 

 and in times past hath beene a common herbe amongst the 

 Greekes, but of small estimation and value, and taken but 

 onely for a wild wurt or herbe. Aristophanes in times 

 past, by occasion of this herbe, taunted Euripides, saying 

 that his mother was not a seller of wurtes or good potherbes, 

 but onely of Scandix, as Plinie writeth." Pecten is the 

 Latin word for a comb, and many of the old writers call the 

 plant Pecten Veneris, or the Comb of Venus. It is also 

 called Beggars needle and Crow needle, the long beaks, 

 " muche like to smal packe needelles," evidently suggesting 

 these names. 



