THE WOOD SAN ICLE— continued. 
protandrous, Kerner speaks of them as protogynous, and another observer has 
described them as male. 
The plant is very tolerant of shade and is by no means particular as to soil. 
It occurs in woods on clay or sand, and under Beech-trees on chalk it often consti- 
tutes the dominant feature of the ground-vegetation. In these almost sunless 
situations the flowers are chiefly visited by small flies and beetles ; but, crowded 
together as they are, it is quite possible for the long styles of one flower to bring 
their stigmas into contact with the anthers of another flower. These prominent 
reflexed styles persist into the fruit stage, when the recurved hooks on the 
fruit form a bur which is obviously adapted to the transport of the fruit by 
passing animals. 
The name Sanicula seems to have been first used by Brunfels and is usually 
explained as derived directly from the Latin sanare, to heal. Dr. Prior, however, 
follows Adelung’s “ Worterbuch ” (1775) in insisting that this is contrary to the 
principles of etymology and in suggesting that it is an open question whether 
the name be of Latin or of German origin. 
“The great abundance of the plant in the middle and north of Europe would incline us rather," he writes, “to the latter 
as the likeliest, and it may be a corruption of Saint Nicholas , called in German Nickel , . . Sanicula does not occur in 
classical Latin writers, and there is no such word as sanis or sanicus from which it could have been formed. But in favour 
of the derivation from San Nicola or Sanct Nickel is . . . the legend of his having interceded with God in favour of two 
children, whom an innkeeper had murdered and pickled in a pork tub, and obtained their restoration to life and health • . . 
A plant named after this saint, and dedicated to him, might very reasonably be expected to ‘make whole and sound all 
wounds and hurts both inward and outward,’ as Lyte and other herbalists tell us of the sanicle. The Latin name, as in so 
many other cases, would be the nearest approach that could be made to the German.” 
The modern German name of the plant appears as Sanickel , the French being 
the same as the English. Whatever the derivation, however, the name was, as 
Dr. Prior points out, generally understood in mediaeval times as meaning 
“curative,” and suggested many proverbial sayings, such as the French 
“ Qui a la bugle et la sanicle 
Fait aux chirurgions la nicle.” 
“He who has bugle and sanicle makes a joke of the surgeons.” 
