106 
F. G. LLOYD-WILD PLANTS! 
The origins of the various names or nicknames are very curious. 
In many cases they preserve the memory of supposed virtues, which 
might otherwise have sunk into oblivion, as in palsy-wort, heal- 
all, wound-wort, scurvy-grass, mad-wort, bruise-wort, whitlow- 
grass, gout-weed, and sleep-wort. In some they were derived 
from a fancied resemblance in some part of the plant, as in horse¬ 
tail, hound’s-tongue, pheasant’s-eye, colt’s-foot, lark-spur, stork’s- 
bill, goose-foot, mouse-ear, and shepherd’s-purse. Other names were 
given from purposes or manufactures for which the plants have 
been used, such as bed-straw, dyer’s-woad, broom, birch, mat-weed, 
glass-wort, salt-wort, soap-wort, and spindle-tree. Some few origi¬ 
nated from the approximate time of their coming up, blooming, or 
being gathered, such as pasque-flower, blooming about Easter; 
daisy or marguerite, supposed to bloom first on St. Margaret’s day, 
Eebruary 22nd; St. John’s wort, being gathered about St. John’s 
day, June 24th ; the Lent lily blooming during Lent; the Michael¬ 
mas daisy blooming about Michaelmas; and the cowslip or herb 
Peter blooming about St. Peter’s day, June 29th; the Germans 
call it Schlussel bliimen, or the flower of the keys, which looks as 
if there it was connected with St. Peter. Some appear to be from 
properties possessed by some part of the plants, as in sneezewort, 
bindweed, nosebleed, catchweed, and poor man’s weatherglass. 
Then we have plants named from supposed baneful effects to certain 
members of the animal kingdom, amongst them henbane, fleabane, 
wolfsbane, foxbane, leopardsbane, and flybane. Again, the con¬ 
trary, from their being a favourite article of diet; thus we have 
duckmeat, pignut, tenchweed, sheep-sorrel, hare’s-lettuce, pigeon’s- 
meat, and goose-grass. A few are named after heathen deities or 
heroes, as Daphne, Narcissus, Glauceum, and Centaurea. A great 
many take part of their names from the position or places where 
they grow, as wallflower, brookweed, sundew, windflower, marsh¬ 
mallow, heath, and lily-of-the-valley. Some sound as if they had 
been named by children in their play, such as lords and ladies, butter 
and eggs, codlins and cream or apple-pie plant, old man’s nightcap, 
go-to-bed-at-noon, goldilocks, and blow-ball. 
Polio wing the natural system generally adopted by botanists, I 
take to night the plants comprised under the class Dicotyledones, 
so called from their seeds being composed of two (or more) lobes. 
Ranunculacece. —The Crowfoot tribe takes the name Ranuncu- 
laceae from the Latin rana, a frog, through most of the species 
growing in damp places such as these amphibians frequent. As a 
rule, their leaves are much divided and their flowers showy ; many 
possess acrid and poisonous properties, monkshood or aconite and 
hellebore being familiar examples. Amongst the best known is 
the clematis, a common but very beautiful hedge-climber, growing 
freely wherever chalk enters largely into the composition of the 
soil; it is easily distinguished by its greenish-white, sweet-scented 
blooms in summer, and its lovely tufts of feathered seed-vessels 
later in the year. Prom it florists have grown those gorgeous 
flowers with their large purple, mauve, and white blooms which 
