68 
NAMES GIVEN OF OLD TO PLANTS. 
finger-cases presented by its flowers : but I am not one 
of those who cavil or jeer at the common, or “ vulgar 
names,” as we are in the habit of denominating the un- 
scientific appellations of plants ; for we must remember, 
that the culling of herbs and simples, and compounding 
preparations from them, to relieve the sufferings of na- 
ture, were the first rudiments of all our knowledge, the 
most grateful exertion of human talent, and, after food 
and clothing, the most necessary objects of life. In 
ages of simplicity, when every man was the usual dis- 
penser of good or bad, benefit or injury, to his house- 
hold or his cattle — ere the veterinary art was known, or 
the drugs of other regions introduced, necessity looked 
up to the products of our own clime, and the real or 
fanciful virtues of them were called to the trial, and 
manifests the reasonableness of bestowing upon plants 
and herbs such names as might immediately indicate 
their several uses, or fitness for application ; when dis- 
tinctive characters, had they been given, would have 
been little attended to ; and hence, the numbers found 
favorable to the cure of particular complaints, the ail- 
ments of domestic creatures, or deemed injurious to 
them. Modern science may wrap up the meaning of 
its epithets in Greek and Latin terms; but in very 
many cases they are the mere translations of these de- 
spised, “ old, vulgar names.” What pleasure it must 
have afforded the poor sufferer in body or in limb, — 
what confidence he must have felt for relief, when he 
knew that the good neighbor who came to bathe his 
wounds, or assuage his inward torments, brought with 
him such things as “ all-heal, break-stone, bruise-vrort, 
gout-weed, fever-few” (fugio), and twenty other such 
comfortable mitigators of his afflictions ; why, their 
very names would almost charm away the sense of pain ! 
The modern recipe contains no such terms of comfort- 
able assurance : its meanings are all dark to the suf- 
ferer ; its influence unknown. And then the good her- 
balist of old professed to have plants which were “ all- 
good :” they could assuage anger by their “ loosestrife;” 
they had “ honesty, truelove, and heartsease.” The cay- 
ennes, the soys, the ketchups, and extratropical condi- 
