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THE ST. JOHN’S WORT 
which is the old name for lords and ladies, and the 
cuckoo-flower — both indicative of spring. There are the 
good King Henry, and the goose-grass, and the queen of 
the meadow, and many others; while the common name 
of chickweed has succeeded that of hen’s inheritance; and 
we now call wood-sorrel the plant which, in other times, 
was termed cuckoo ’s-meat, or wood-sower. 
The names of many plants are connected with pious 
remembrances; and some of them, doubtless, were related 
to superstition. Yet, since the Saviour condescended, in 
His instructions, to ally the various objects of nature with 
sacred thought, and has bid us gather subjects of pious 
contemplation from birds, and trees, and fields, and 
flowers, surely these names can be objectionable only when 
implying the worship of saints. We might ask, with Mrs. 
Sigourney, 
“ We boast of clearer light ; yet say. 
Hath science, in her lofty pride. 
For every legend swept away. 
Some better, holier truth supplied ? 
What hath she to the wanderer given 
To help him on his road to heaven?” 
The pretty grass brought from the East Indies, and fami- 
liarly called Job’s tears, from its crystal-looking fruit, 
once, perhaps, reminded the pious man of the sufferings 
of the patriarch, and silently preached a lesson of patience 
and sympathy. 
Then we have, too, the star of Bethlehem, and the 
cross-flower, as the little milk-wort was called, because it 
blossoms about Easter; the star of Jerusalem, which was 
the old name of the common yellow goat’s-beard — a flower 
something resembling the dandelion, and the holy oak, of 
which the modern hollyhock is a corruption. 
Many of our meadow flowers were dedicated to the 
saints. The pretty daisy was called herb Margaret, be- 
cause dedicated to the saint of that name; the samphire 
is a corruption of “ herbe de St. Pierre;” and the common 
yellow ragwort, with its gay starry flowers, bore the name 
of St. James’s wort. Then, there is Our Lady’s slipper, 
the little yellow pea-shaped trefoil, which grows on pas- 
