46 



THE AMERICAN BOTANISTo 



It is to be regretted that we have no true rooted 

 Enghsh name for the dandehon. Our modern name has 

 been corrupted, with characteristic Enghsh freedom, from 

 the French, dent de lion, not referring to the more impor- 

 tant blossom but to the sharp irregular margin of the 

 leaves. Why did not our reverend ancestors name itjewell 

 of the pasture or medowegold ? We are an English people ; 

 let us have true English names for our flowets, so far as 

 we can. • 



As coats of arms to men is the word ''wort" to 

 flowers. Wort in the older times signified an herb or plant 

 and our forefathers incorporated it with some fancied re- 

 semblence or reputed virtue to form a discriptive name. 

 Witness, awlwort, whose root is awl shaped ; toothwort, 

 whose seed resemble teeth; w^oundwort, with reputed 

 healing virtue ; madwort, powerful in alloying rage and 

 afflictions of the mind ; sneezewort, lungwort, saltwort, 

 and liverwort. 



In the early English time Jack and Jill or Gill were 

 familiar and common names used in place of lad and lassie. 

 Gill has since disappeared from modern English, always 

 excepting nursery rhj^mes, but is yet alive in quaint Gill- 

 over-the-ground. Sometimes we call it alehoof a word 

 equally quaint and smacking of the home brewed and 

 brown draught of merry England. 



The white settler's contempt for the Indian in general 

 prejudiced him against remembering these names for 

 native flowers. Pipsissewa, poke and puccoon seem to be 

 all that w^ere adopted. How much more appropriate it 

 would be to call native flowers by native names. Poke 

 was corrupted from pocan by the whites who being prac- 

 tical people, probably considered one syllable sufficient for 

 such mushroom growth. 



Many names are self-explanatory, such as duckmeat, 

 a pond weed eated by water fowl, and crowfoot, discrip- 

 tive of the much divided leaf. Shadberry is a plain New 

 England name given the bush because it blooms at the 

 season when shad ascend the streams to spawn ; blood- 



