transformed into clear-eye, Godes-eie, seebright,
Oculus Christi, and eye-salves made of it. The
heavenly blue of the flower of the Germander
speedwell has won for it the Welsh appellation
of the Eye of Christ. Scrophularia and
Ranunculus ficaria are both called figwort, having
been used to cure a disease called ficus. Garlic,
from the Anglo-Saxon words gar a spear, and
laec a plant, is, from its acute tapering leaves,
marked out as the war plant of the warriors and
poets of the north. Campanula latifolia has
an open throat-like appearance, on account of
which it was believed to cure diseases of the
throat, and called haskwort, being good for hask,
huskiness, "harrishnes, or roughnes of the
throte." Honewort (Trinia glaberrina) was
said to cure the hone, a hard swelling in the
cheek. Houndstongue (Cynoglossum officinale),
named from the shape and softness of its leaf,
"will," saith William Coles, "tye the tongues
of hounds, so that they shall not bark at you, if
it be laid under the bottom of your feet, as
Miraldus writeth." The leaf of kidneywort
(Umbilicus pendulinus) is somewhat like a
kidney: and the thallus of Marchandia
polymorpha resembling a liver, the plant is named
liverwort. Pulmonaria officinalis is lungwort,
its spotted leaves pointing it out as a remedy for
diseased lungs. Vitruvius saith that "if the Asse
be oppressed with melancholy he eats of this
Herbe, Asplenium, or miltwaste, and eases himself
of the swelling of the spleen." The leaf of the
Ceterach, a species of Asplenium, has a lobular
leaf like a milt. Comarum palustre, having
purple flowers, is purple-wort. Tutsan (Hypericum
androsæmum) was used to stop bleeding,
because the juice of its ripe capsule is of a
claret colour, and most probably comes from the
French tout sang, or toute saignée. Prunella
has a corolla, the profile of which is like a bill-
hook, and therefore it was called carpenter's-
herb, and supposed to cure the wounds of edge-
tools.

The student of the popular names of plants
can scarcely fail to remark how few of them are
descriptive, while he is charmed by the vividly
descriptive character of some of them. Abele, a
name of the poplar, signifies the whitish tree.
The word star is applied to some plants on
account of the forms of their leaves, spines,
flowers, or fruits. The word star, from stârâs,
stars in Sanscrit, whence the English verb to
steer, is, as Dr. Prior remarks, "an interesting
proof that our ancestors, when they settled in
this country, brought with them the art of guiding
themselves by means of the heavenly bodies,
as they had probably done on the great steppes
of Asia. They would otherwise have adopted a
Latin name for it." The star hyacinth (Scilla
bifolia), and starwort (Aster tripolium), and star
of Bethlehem (Ornithogalum), have stellate
flowers; and starfruit (Actinocarpus damasonium)
has star-like seed pods. Starthistle
(Centaurea solstitialis) has star-like spines, and
the leaves of the star of the earth (Plantago
coronopus) spread on the ground star fashion.
The guelder rose (Viburnam opulus) is, from
its round balls of white flowers, called the
snowball tree. Velvet leaf (Lavatera arborea) and
velvet dock (Verbascum thapsus) have soft
leaves; and velvet flower ( Amaranthus caudatus)
has crimson velvety tassels. Ranunculus, or
little frog, is the name given to the plant
vulgarly called buttercup, because some of the
species of it grow in marshes where frogs
abound; it is called crowfoot, because the leaf
resembles the foot of a crow: and buttercup
Dr. Prior deems a popular corruption of the
name gold cop, or bouton d'or. Hence the
name king cup, cob or knob, from the resemblance
of the unexpanded flower-bud, and of its
double variety, to a stud of gold such as kings
wore.

The most successful of Dr. Prior's elucidations
of the names of British plants is, perhaps, his
explanation of the term henbane. The learned
name is Hyoscyamus niger, or black hog's bean.
This plant is, in old vocabularies, called
Symphoniaca, as having a symphonia, or ring of bells.
In mediæval pictures of King David, the symphonia
may be seen represented, consisting of a
number of bells hung upon a curved staff above
each other, and to be struck by a hammer. These
bells were called yevering bells, or in Scotch
yethering or beating bells. The Anglo-Saxon
translation of Symphoniaca is hengebelle, hanging
bell. Henbell of course became henbane when
the original meaning of this very descriptive
name was forgotten, and the importance of
naming the poisonous qualities of the plant was
strongly felt. The name hingebelle is very
characteristic of the plant. The popular name,
the moon daisy, is far superior to the learned
name, the white gold flower (Chrysanthemum
leucanthemum). Iris pseudacorus, having a sword-
shaped leaf and a banner-like flower, is well
called sword-flag. Polygonum hydropiper, having
red angular joints, is called red knees; and P.
Bistorta is, from its red stalks, named red legs.
Tremella nostoc, the green gelatinous slime often
found among grass in summer, is called witch's
butter and fallen stars, on account of its mysterious
and sudden appearance, as the growth of a
night on grass-plats and gravel-walks.

The symphonia is not the only ancient instrument
recalled to notice by the popular names of
plants. Centaurea nigra is, on account of its
knobbed involucre, called ironhead and loggerhead.
Most folks have heard talk of "coming to loggerheads,"
but few persons know that a loggerhead
was a weapon with an iron head fastened to a
stick or long handle, the ancestor of the life-
preserver, with which our forefathers settled
their quarrels, and which we have deemed it
safer to use metaphorically than practically.
Typha latifolia is called reed-mace, being the
reed-like plant seen in the hand of Jesus, as a
mace or sceptre, in the familiar statues and Ecce
Homo pictures. The ark of the testimony is
called a wych; or, as by Sir John Mandeville, a