from a bush of finely divided involucre, and
has therefore been called Devil in the bush.
Scabiosa succisa is Devil's bit; Morsus diaboli,
so called, says the Ortus Sanitatis, on the
authority of Oribasius, "because with this root
the devil practised such power that the mother
of God, out of compassion, took from the devil
the means to do so with it any more; and in the
great vexation that he had that the power was
gone from him, he bit it off, so that it grows no
more to this day." Later authors explain it as
though the root would cure all diseases, and
that the devil, out of his inveterate malice,
grudges mankind such a valuable medicine, and
bites it off.

Not merely have the Devil, Venus, and the
Virgin supplied names to plants, but angels and
saints have connected themselves with botanical
pursuits. Archangel is a name given to one
umbelliferous and three labiate plants. An
angel is said to have revealed the virtues of the
plants in a dream. The umbelliferous plant, it
has been supposed, has been named Angelica
Archangelica, from its being in blossom on the
8th of May, old style, the Archangel St. Michael's
day. Flowering on the fête day of such a powerful
angel, the plant was supposed to be
particularly useful as a preservative of men and
women from evil spirits and witches, and of
cattle from elfshot.

Three plants are called Herb Bennett, Herba
benedicta, Blessed herb, avens, hemlock, and
valerian. Valerian is a preservative against all
poisons. Serpents fly from the leaves of
hemlock, because they chill to death. Avens (Geum
urbanum) is a plant so blessed that if a man
carries the root about him no venomous beast
can harm him; indeed, when it is growing in a
garden no venomous beast will approach within
scent of it; and, according to the author of the
Ortus, "where the root is in a house, the devil
can do nothing, and flies from it, wherefore it is
blessed above all other herbs." Viola tricolor,
having three colours on one flower, is called
Herb Trinity. The Daisy, as Herb Margaret, is
dedicated to "Margaret that was so meek and
mild;" probably from its blossoming about her
day, the twenty-second of February. The
cowslip is dedicated to St. Peter, as Herb Peter of
the old herbals, from some resemblance which it
has to his emblem—a bunch of keys. Nigella
damascena, whose persistent styles spread out
like the spokes of a wheel, is named Katharine's
flower, after St. Katharine, who suffered martyrdom
on a wheel. Bunium flexuosum is St.
Anthony's nut—a pig-nut—because he is the
patron of pigs; and Senecio Jacobæa is St.
James's wort, the saint of horses and colts,
being used in veterinary practice. Most of these
saintly names were, however, given to the plants
because their day of flowering is connected with
the feast day of the saint. Hence Hypericum
quadrangulare is the St. Peter's wort of the
modern floras, from its flowering on the twenty-
ninth of June; Hypericum perforatum is St.
John's wort, being gathered to scare away
demons on St. John's eve; Barbarea vulgaris,
growing in the winter, is St. Barbara's cress, her
day being the fourth of December, old style;
and Centaurea solstitialis derives its specific
Latin, and its popular name, St. Barnaby's
thistle, from its flourishing on the longest day,
the eleventh of June, old style, which is now
the twenty-second. As Anthony was the patron
of pigs, and James of horses, St. Peter was
the patron of fishermen, and hence Crithmum
maritimum, which grows on sea-cliffs, was
dedicated to this saint, and called in Italian San
Pietro; in French Saint Pierre; and in English
Samphire.

The common snowdrops are called Fair maids
of February. This name also, like the Saints'
names, arises from an ecclesiastical coincidence.
Their white flowers blossom about the second
of February, when maidens, dressed in white,
walked in procession at the Feast of the Purification.
The name snowdrop, means a snowy drop,
and not a drop of snow. There is a plant which
has been recently called the snow-flake
(Leucojum æstevum), to distinguish it from the
snowdrop (Galanthus nivalis). Mrs. Barbauld
describes the snowy drop by saying,

    As if Flora's breath by some transforming power,
    Had changed an icicle into a flower.

The term drop does not, however, refer to icicles,
but to the pendants or drops worn by ladies of
the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in their
earrings and brooches, and often painted in
Dutch and Italian portraits.

Tragopogon pratensis is called Go-to-bed-at-
noon, because it closes early, and Joseph's
flower, in allusion to his history. The legends
differing respecting the tree on which Judas
hanged himself, Cercis is called Judas-tree,
and yet a fungus resembling a human ear is
called Jew's ear, because it grows on the elder,
the other tree mentioned in the legends. Coix
lacryma was formerly called Juno's tears, but it
is now called Job's tears; and the vervain
(Verbena officinalis) is named Juno's tears,
although it has nothing about it resembling a tear;
vervain is also called Mercury's moist blood.
Houseleek (Sempervivum tectorum) is named
Jupiter's beard, in French Joubarb, and in
Latin Jovis barba, from its resemblance to the
sculptured beard of Jupiter. Campanula
urticifolia is called Mercury's violet. A poisonous
weed is called Mercury (M. perennis), either
because it operates quickly, or from its having
been discovered by the god. By some blunder
an insignificant weed, Circæa Lutetiana, is
indicated as enchanter's nightshade, instead of
Atropa mandragora, or mandrake. The
mandrake was called nightshade from being classed
with the solana and enchanter's, after the enchantress
Circe, who bewitched the companions of
Ulysses with it. The only modern personage
whose name occurs along with the names of gods
and saints in botanical nomenclature, is Charlemagne.