Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 11, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 April 1892 — Numes Of Piants. [ARTICLE]

Numes Of Piants.

The number of countries which have contributed their quota to the nomenclature of English plants Is legion. Beginning with France wo have the dent do lion—lion’s tooth—whence we, derive our dandelion. The flower-de-luce, again, which Mr. Dyer thinks was a name applied to the iris, comes to us through the French Hour do Louis—tradition assorting that tills plant was worn us a device by King Louis VII. of France. Buckwheat is derived from tho Dutch word bockweit., and adder’s tongue from a word in the same language, adde stong. In like manner the name tulip Is traceable to the word thonlyban in the Persian languagesignifying a turban. So, too, our English word lilac Is nothing more than an anglicized form of anotherword in the Persian tongue, namely, II lag. A large number of plants owe their names to those by whom they were first discovered and Introduced into other climes. The fuchsia stands Indebted for Its name to Leonard Fuchs, an eminent German botanist, and the dahlia was s#, named in honor of a Swedish botanist named Dahl. A long list of plant names might bo formed which bear what might l>e termed animal and bird prefixes—as, for example, horse beans, horse chestnuts, dog violets and dog roses; cats’ faces, a name applied to the plant known to botanical students as the viola tricolor; cat’s eyes, veronica chamsodrys; cats’ tails and catkins. The goose grass is known to the country people in Northamptonshire as pig tail, and in Yorkshire a name given to the fruit of the orata*gus oxyacantha is bull horns. Many plant names have been suggested by the feathered race, particularly goose tongue, cuckoo buds (mentioned by Shakspeare), cuckoo flowers, stork’s bill and crane’s bill. One of the popular names of the arum is “parson in the pulpit,” and a Devonshire term for the sweet scabriosis is “mournful widow.” The campion is not infrequently called “plum pudding,” and in the neighborhood of Torquay it is not unusual to hear Hr cones spoken of as “oysters. ”