PROCEEDINGS—PERTHSHIRE SOCIETY OF NATURAL SCIENCE. 
XV 
to know. It is true that such a knowledge does not strictly form a 
part of botanical science; but, at the same time, it is one that has at 
least some connection with botany, and which should not be neglected 
by local botanists. Moreover, if information on the subject is to be 
acquired, it is probable that no time should be lost, since the common 
or local names of plants are, from various causes, becoming obsolete, 
and being rapidly forgotten. For one thing, many of the plants 
which have, or had, common names—I mean in Perthshire—were 
used for their real or supposed medicinal or other qualities, but their 
places have now been taken by the more efficacious and certain drugs 
supplied by the shops. Thus they have in many places fallen into 
disuse, and their names and virtues are passing from remembrance, 
and in another generation, or less, will probably be quite forgotten. 
Though it is, perhaps, more especially the work of local botanists 
to rescue these old names from utter oblivion, others than botanists 
may take part in the work. In the case of these latter it is impera¬ 
tive that a morsel of the plant to which the name is applied should 
be secured, in order that its proper scientific appellation should be 
certainly known. In writing down the common name, the usual 
spelling should be employed, and no attempt made to correct the 
orthography. It is also important that any uses to which the plant 
has been put should be ascertained and recorded, as these will, in 
many cases, throw light upon the origin of the name. In former 
times, what was called the “ doctrine of signatures ” was considered 
to be of great importance in the cure of diseases. If the leaf or other 
part of a plant resembled, however vaguely, some portion of the 
body, it was supposed—according to the doctrine of signatures-—to 
have qualities specially adapted for the cure of diseases of that part. 
Thus we have Lung-wort, Liver-wort, Spleen-wort, &c. Or it may 
be that the colour of the plant resembles the colour of some disease, 
and hence it was imagined to be a cure for it. For example, the 
Barberry, having yellow flowers and yellow inner bark, was used for 
the Jaundice; and Herb Robert (Geranium Robertianum), which 
has not only reddish flowers, but whose stem and leaves often be¬ 
come red, has been used in Perthshire as a cure for Erysipelas, and 
as that disease is vulgarly called Rose, the plant is called the Rose 
Herb. On the other hand, some names are corruptions of older 
names. The not uncommon, but only naturalised, plant, Matricaria 
Parthenium , is commonly called Feather-folly, which seems to be 
a corruption of Fever-few, a name derived from its reputed qualities 
as a febrifuge, Feather (suggested, doubtless, by the shape of the 
leaf) replacing “Fever.” Part of the name has come recently into 
general use in connection with the yellow-leafed variety of the plant 
commonly cultivated in gardens, and known as “Golden Feather.” 
Another corruption from an old name is “ Shillagy,” for the Colt’s 
Foot, Tussilago , an intermediate corruption being “ Dishallagy.” 
Another example may be found in the name of the handsomest of 
our indigenous plants, the Fox-glove. This has no connection—as 
the name would imply—with Foxes, for the word “Fox” is really a 
corruption of Folks—that is, the “Good Folks” or “Fairies.” A 
local name for the plant is “Witches’ Thimbles.” 
