PLANT NAMES

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIV, 10 January 1931, Page 4

PLANT NAMES

Many plants owe their names to the animal world. Thus wo find catmint, “the mint with which,” to'quote an Elizabethan herbalist, “cats are very much delighted, for the smell of it is so pleasant to them that they rub.themselves upon it and wallow and tumble upon it and also feed on the branches very greedily.” Cat’s-car is a composite and owes its name to the bracts on the stem, or, as some sav to the marks on the leaves. Cat’s-eye is the pretty little germander Speedwell, and cat’s-tail is the great Reed-mace. The dog is represented by dog-daisy, dog-gennel, dogrose and dog’s-mercury. The big, downy [eaves which cover so much waste ground in the spring of the year evidently sug gested to some fanciful mind the hoof of a horse, hence the title, “colt’s-foot.” lliat unassuming little plant, the goosefoot, was similarly christened. In the spring-time woods wo find the bear sfoot—the green hellebore. One glance at the clustered of the bird’s-foot trefoil will show how that little plant gained its name.. Lastly, we have the crow-foot —another name for buttercup. The cow, too, has several namesakes: Cow-berry, cow-parsnip, cow-wheat and cowslip. The ox has ox-tongue, ox-lip and ox-eye. The sheep has sheep’s-bit and sheep’s-sorrel. Then there is pignut and sow-thistle, coat’s-beard and “fat-hen” —another name for “goosefoot.” Nor arc the domestic animals alone represented. The hare gives us hare’s foot-clover, hare’s-ear and hare sparsley, if not harebell, and the fox, foxglove, although this derivation has been questioned. To the frog we owe frog’s-lcttuce, frogbit and frog-orchis; to the toad, toadflax. Then there is Archangel, which the irreverent call “weasel-snout.” In the reptile line, we have lizard orchis, viper’s buglos (a supposed remedy for snake bite) and snake’s head, another name for the fritillaria. Among the buttercups, we find tho mouse-tail, and the chickwced, hawkweeds and forget-me-nots all supply a mouse-ear. Craino’s-bill, larkspur and pheasant-eye point to analogies between flowers and birds. Tho cuckoo is specially favoured. Tho wood-sorrel is often known as cuckoo-bread or “cuckoospice,” tho hawthorn is "cuckoo’s-brcad-and cheese,” tho lady’s-smock is “cuckoo’s shoes and stockings,” tho monk’s-hood, “cuckoo-caps,” and tho cardamino “cuckoo-pint.”—(“Nursory-man and Seedsman.”)