CHAPTER XXI
PLANT NAMES AND NAMES OF ANIMALS
A few of the dialect plant-names have been noticed in previous chapters in connexion with superstitious beliefs, medical lore, &c., but there are a great many more, equally well worth considering. What one feels about them—and herein lies their chief attraction—is that they reflect the popular mind, and are not the result of mere peeping and botanizing. The rustic sees in the flower something which calls up in his mind a familiar object—a dish of eggs and bacon, the parson in the pulpit, a hen and chickens; or something which reminds him of a Bible story he has known from his childhood; or something akin to human nature, which draws forth a responsive recognition.
We naturally expect to find in the different dialects different names for one and the same flower, but it is strange to find up and down the country one and the same name attached to different flowers. An Oxford lady once pointed out to me some plants of the double garden daisy, which she called Bachelor’s Buttons. I declared this was a misnomer, for the Bachelor’s Buttons I had grown up with in Herefordshire were some kind of double ranunculus. Subsequent research, however, supported both sides of the argument, and showed further, that at least twenty more plants also bore the name of Bachelor’s Button in different parts of the country. Even a common name like Honeysuckle is not restricted to the fragrant climber Lonicera Peryclymenum with which we of the standard speech always associate it. The following plants may all be called Honeysuckle: 1. The purple clover, Trifolium pratense. 2. The white clover, T. repens. 3. The bird’s-foot trefoil, Lotus corniculatus. 4. The dwarf cornel, Cornus suecica. 5. The great bindweed, Convolvulus sepium. 6. The white dead-nettle, Lamium album. 7. The lousewort, Pedicularis sylvatica. 8. The blossoms of the willow.
Plants associated with Biblical Names
The following are some of the names of plants associated with Biblical subjects: Aunt Mary’s Tree (Cor.) is the common holly; Virgin Mary (Lakel. Cor.), Virgin Mary’s Honeysuckle (Chs. Shr.), Virgin Mary’s Milkdrops (Mon. Wil.), Lady’s Milk-sile (Chs.), are names of the lungwort Pulmonaria officinalis, referring to the legend that during the flight into Egypt some of the Blessed Virgin’s milk fell on its leaves, as she nursed the infant Jesus. The same legend is also told to account for like spots on the leaves of the Blessed Thistle (War.), Our Lady’s Thistle, Carduus Marianus. Another legend says that the Virgin Mary, when thirsty, met with a cow, and after using the broad leaf of the thistle as a drinking-cup, willed that the species should ever after be called by her name, and bear the stains of the milk on its leaves. The lungwort is also called Mary’s Tears (Dor.), and the spots are traced to the tears shed by her at the Crucifixion. Legend tells that once the Virgin Mary plucked up a root of the crab’s claw, Polygonum Persicaria, and then threw it away, saying ‘that’s useless’, hence Useless (Sc.) has been its name ever since, and the blotches on its leaves are the marks of her fingers.
Plants associated with the Bible and with the Christian Seasons
Gethsemane (Chs.), the early purple orchis, Orchis mascula, is said to have been growing at the foot of the Cross, and to have received drops of blood on its leaves, the marks of which it has never lost. The same legend is attached also to the Calvary Clover, Medicago echinus, the leaves of which are marked with dull red, irregular blotches exactly like real blood-stains. The plant is much prized as a pot-plant, both for the sake of its leaves and for its curious seed-vessels, one of which was given to me a few weeks ago. It looks like a little prickly ball, and when thoroughly dry it can be unwound, spiral fashion, in two coils, an outer prickly one, and an inner smooth one which encases the twelve seeds. The ends can then be hooked one into the other, to form a miniature Crown of Thorns. The seeds, I was told, must be planted on Ash Wednesday, though probably an older version of the tradition would give Good Friday as the fitting date, but I have never heard of the superstition before. In parts of Cheshire Christ’s Thorn, Crataegus Pyracantha, is the accredited plant from which the Saviour’s Crown of Thorns was made. In parts of Yorkshire Christ’s Thorn is a name of the common holly, with its scarlet berries typical of His blood. The fame of having been cut to make the Crown of Thorns was given in Kent to the Jews’ Myrtle, the butcher’s broom, Ruscus aculeatus. The Eye of Christ (Wal.) is the germander speedwell, Veronica Chamaedrys, also known as Angels’ Eyes (Dev.).
The name Aaron’s Beard is applied to several plants; so is Aaron’s Rod, the latter name being perhaps most commonly given to the mullein, Verbascum Thapsus, because of its long, straight stem. The mullein also goes by the name of Adam’s Flannel (Yks. Chs. Lin. Nhp. War.), so called from the soft, flannel-like appearance of the leaves. The Solomon’s Seal, Polygonatum multiflorum, is named David’s Harp, from the resemblance of the long curved flower-stalk with its pendent blossoms to the harp as it is portrayed in old pictures, where David is represented playing on an instrument shaped like half a pointed arch, hung with metal bells, which he strikes with two hammers. The Drops of Abel’s Blood (Dur.) are unopened flower-buds of the red fuchsia; Jacob’s Ladder is a name shared by various plants, garden-plants, and wild; Joseph’s Flower (Sus.) is the goat’s beard, Tragopogon pratensis, probably a reminiscence of pictures of Joseph as an old man with a long beard; Joseph’s Walking-stick (Hmp.) is another name for one of the Jacob’s Ladder flowers, Polemonium caeruleum; Lazarus Bell (Dev.) is the fritillary, Fritillaria Meleagris, Saint Peter’s Herb (Yks.) is the cowslip, the flower-head suggesting a bunch of keys; Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Lin.) is a name of the garden comfrey, Symphytum officinale, as well as of other plants having flowers of different shades of colour on the same stem; several plants bear the name of Adam and Eve; Cain and Abel (Wil.) is the columbine, Aquilegia vulgaris, and other flowers in other localities; Mary and Joseph (Lin.) is the name of a garden variety of the forget-me-not; the common Virginian stock, on account of its numerous small flowers, is called the Children of Israel (Wil. Dev.); a kind of dark blue campanula is known in Sussex as the Twelve Apostles; the Rose of Sharon (Lan. Chs. Lin. War. Suf. Dor.) is the large-flowered St. John’s wort, Hypericum calycinum; the name of Good-Friday Flower (Dor.), given to the tuberous moschatel, Adoxa Moschatellina, is supposed to be due to the four-cleft corolla of the topmost flower, which suggested the Cross, and not to refer merely to the date of flowering, as is the case with the Good-Friday Grass (Sur.), the field woodrush, Luzula campestris; the Alleluia Plant (Dor.) is the wood-sorrel, Oxalis acetosella, so called because it blossoms between Easter and Whitsuntide, when in the Catholic Liturgy psalms ending with ‘Alleluia’ were sung in the churches. It is a very old name, cp. ‘Allelujah, wood-sorrel, Oxys,’ Coles, 1679, and one which occurs in other European languages. The name Epiphany (Cor.) for the hell-weed, Cuscuta Epithymum, is formed by popular etymology out of the French epithin, ‘the weed Dodder, especially that kind thereof, which grows twining about the branches of Time,’ Cotgrave. In the same way anemone has been corrupted sometimes into Enemy, and a single plant of phlox has been termed a Flock.