SOME NAMES OF PLANTS 



217 



pure Anglo-Saxon, many of them coming down to 

 us almost unaltered in sound. Among this roll of 

 honour are the bread-grains, Wheat, Barley, Oats, 

 and Rye, also Flax and Hemp, Hazel, Heath, Bracken 

 and Bramble, Oak, Ash, Yew, Beech and Holly, 

 Daisy, Daffodil, Ivy, Mullein and Teazel, Nettle, 

 Dock, Thistle, Rush, Sedge, Yarrow, Hemlock, and 

 Groundsel. Some plants take their name from the 

 time of year when they are in bloom, as May, Lent 

 Lily, Christmas Rose, and Michaelmas Daisy. 



I am afraid we must allow that our ancestors 

 were happier than we are in inventing names for 

 garden varieties of flowers ; for when I look in 

 nurserymen's plant-lists and find such a name as 

 " Glare of the Garden " for a beautiful and desirable 

 plant, I cannot help feeling how painfully such a 

 name contrasts with the more pleasantly descriptive 

 and often pretty ones, such as Parkinson quotes 

 in his chapter on Carnations : Faire Maid of Kent, 

 the Daintie, the Lustie Gallant, the Pale Pageant, 

 the Dainty Lady. The last-named Carnation (then 

 Gilliflower) we still grow, but have corrupted the 

 name into the Painted Lady. It is a pretty kind 

 that should be more grown, with fringed petals 

 that are rosy-scarlet on the face and white at the 

 back. It is not perhaps easy to get, and probably 

 not much in favour in nurseries because " the grass 

 has no neck " ; that is to say, the shoots, instead of 

 spreading outwards with long joints at the base 



