Place for the nobility! A notice to the following effect was sent for insertion to the St. James's High-Flyer, the court and fashionable organ of that period. "DEATH.

a pleasant postscript to an interesting letter, married Miss Mabel Serocold to Mr. John Hartshorne. Among the blushing maids attendant on the younger bride, the High-Flyer distinguished the Señora Torre-Diaz, whose devoted interest in her lovely friend, no less than he. own incomparable beauty, attracted deserved attention. The bride's magnificent necklace of

"On the sixteenth instant, near Tyburn, aged twenty-five, in consequence of a sudden fall, to the great grief of a large circle of friends, the Lord Viscount Lob, son of the Right Honour-pearls and emeralds was a present from Sir James able the Earl of Hawkweed, K.G.T., &c."

It is true that the fashionable organ declined to publish the above (though drawn up by no less an authority than the deceased himself, on the day preceding his anticipated demise), and it is well it did so, as on that very night his lordship, who had been some time ailing, fortunately broke a blood-vessel, whereby his decease was, by medical authority, adjourned for three weeks. During that interval, a copy of the above announcement was submitted to the Earl of Hawkweed himself, and acted so strongly upon the well-known sensibility of that excellent nobleman, that his influence was exerted in the sick man's favour, and obtained permission for him to visit the plantations of America. Mercy so unexpected, and, let us add, so unmerited, wrought for this unhappy man what the fear of death could not. He survived, indeed, but for a few months, but these were months of penitence, and that true sorrow "not to be repented of." Considering that old Mr. Humpage positively refused to part with his friend Arthur, and that, though interfering little in domestic affairs, he was regarded, more than ever, as absolute master, Polly-my-Lamb had to put up, as best she might, with the society of the young artist. In order, however, to relieve her as much as possible, kind Aunt Serocold contrived an attractive little studio in a remote corner of the mansion, to which it was confidently hoped Arthur would often retire. And so he did, and also painted six more portraits; but as these proved to be all studies of the same young person, in different attitudes, and as no strange model visited the house, it is to be presumed that Miss Serocold's principal object failed.

Polhill, the eminent magistrate. The police arrangements, rendered necessary by the immense assemblage, were under the immediate direction of Mr. Henry Armour, chief officer.

PLANT SIGNATURES.

"THOUGH Sin and Sathan have plunged mankind into an Ocean of Infirmities, yet the mercy of God, which is over all his workes, maketh Grasse to grow upon the Mountaines, and Herbes for the use of men, and have not only stamped upon them a distinct forme, but also given them particular Signatures, whereby a man may read, even in legible characters, the use of them." Such is the ancient doctrine of Plant Signatures, as stated by William Coles in the twenty-seventh chapter of his Art of Simpling. Many plants still bear the names given to them in accordance with this doctrine. Not merely the superstitions and passions, but the pious delusions and migrations, of our forefathers are to be found recorded in the popular names of plants. An illustration of the doctrine of Signatures occurs in the following passage, which has been translated from P. Lauremberg's Apparatus Plantarum : "The seed of garlic is black; it obscures the eyes with blackness and darkness. This is to be understood of healthy eyes. But those which are dull through vicious humidity, from these garlic drives this viciousness away. The tunic of garlic is ruddy; it expels blood. It has a hollow stalk, and it helps affections of the windpipe."

The shape of the corolla has, according to the doctrine of Signatures, given to Aristolochia One evening, as the party (little Mr. Hartshorne clematitis the name of birthwort. Tormentilla happened to be present) were sitting together officinalis is called bloodroot, the red colour of after tea, papa, who seldom spoke, suddenly raised its root having suggested its styptic character. his white head, and taking a hand of each of his Pimpinella saxifraga, Alchemilla arvensis, and two nearest neighbours, put them softly together. the genus saxifraga, plants which split rocks by "My children, my good children, make me growing in their cracks, have been named breakhappy." stones, and as lithontriptic plants administered There was again a day of excitement in Jermyn-in cases of calculus. Brunella, now spelt Prunella street. All Saint James's appeared to be out vulgaris, is called brownwort, having brownish on that pleasant morning in May that witnessed leaves and purple-blue flowers, and being therethe nuptials of the charming and wealthy heiress fore supposed to cure a kind of quinsy, called of Basil Humpage, Esquire, and Arthur Hagger-in German die braune, and hookheal, having a dorn, of Stumpfelgrbölzgrad, Western Transyl-corolla somewhat like a bill, and being applied vania. The St. James's High-Flyer devoted a to bill, or hook wounds. Verbascum thapsus, special paragraph to a description of the having a leaf resembling a dewlap, was used to ceremony, in which the Very Reverend Doctor Cozey, Dean of St. James's, without the slightest assistance (as in these degenerate days), first united the above parties, and subsequently, like

cure the pneumonia of bullocks, under the appellation of bullock's lungwort. Burstwort (Herniaria glabra) was supposed to be efficacious in ruptures. Clary (Salvia sclarea) has been

transformed into clear-eye, Godes-eie, seebright, coronopus) spread on the ground star fashion. Oculus Christi, and eye-salves made of it. The The guelder rose (Viburnam opulus) is, from heavenly blue of the flower of the Germander its round balls of white flowers, called the snowspeedwell has won for it the Welsh appellation ball tree. Velvet leaf (Lavatera arborea) and of the Eye of Christ. Scrophularia and Ra-velvet dock (Verbascum thapsus) have soft nunculus ficaria are both called figwort, having leaves; and velvet flower (Amaranthus caudatus) been used to cure a disease called ficus. Garlic, has crimson velvety tassels. Ranunculus, or from the Anglo-Saxon words gar a spear, and little frog, is the name given to the plant vullaec a plant, is, from its acute tapering leaves, garly called buttercup, because some of the marked out as the war plant of the warriors and species of it grow in marshes where frogs poets of the north. Campanula latifolia has abound; it is called crowfoot, because the leaf an open throat-like appearance, on account of resembles the foot of a crow and buttercup which it was believed to cure diseases of the Dr. Prior deems a popular corruption of the throat, and called haskwort, being good for hask, name gold cop, or bouton d'or. Hence the huskiness, harrishnes, or roughnes of the name king cup, cob or knob, from the resemthrote." Honewort (Trinia glaberrina) was blance of the unexpanded flower-bud, and of its said to cure the hone, a hard swelling in the double variety, to a stud of gold such as kings cheek. Houndstongue (Cynoglossum officinale), wore. named from the shape and softness of its leaf, The most successful of Dr. Prior's elucidations "will," saith William Coles, "tye the tongues of the names of British plants is, perhaps, his of hounds, so that they shall not bark at you, if explanation of the term henbane. The learned it be laid under the bottom of your feet, as name is Hyoscyamus niger, or black hog's bean. Miraldus writeth." The leaf of kidneywort This plant is, in old vocabularies, called Sym(Umbilicus pendulinus) is somewhat like a phoniaca, as having a symphonia, or ring of bells. kidney and the thallus of Marchandia poly- In mediaval pictures of King David, the symmorpha resembling a liver, the plant is named phonia may be seen represented, consisting of a liverwort. Pulmonaria officinalis is lungwort, number of bells hung upon a curved staff above its spotted leaves pointing it out as a remedy for each other, and to be struck by a hammer. These diseased lungs. Vitruvius saith that "if the Asse bells were called yevering bells, or in Scotch be oppressed with melancholy he eats of this yethering or beating bells. The Anglo-Saxon Herbe, Asplenium, or miltwaste, and eases him- translation of Symphoniaca is hengebelle, hanging self of the swelling of the spleen." The leaf of the bell. Henbell of course became henbane when Ceterach, a species of Asplenium, has a lobular the original meaning of this very descriptive leaf like a milt. Comarum palustre, having name was forgotten, and the importance of purple flowers, is purple-wort. Tutsan (Hyperi- naming the poisonous qualities of the plant was cum androsæmum) was used to stop bleeding, strongly felt. The name hingebelle is very because the juice of its ripe capsule is of a characteristic of the plant. The popular name, claret colour, and most probably comes from the the moon daisy, is far superior to the learned French tout sang, or toute saignée. Prunella name, the white gold flower (Chrysanthemum has a corolla, the profile of which is like a bill-leucanthemum). Iris pseudacorus, having a swordhook, and therefore it was called carpenter's-shaped leaf and a banner-like flower, is well herb, and supposed to cure the wounds of edgetools.

66

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 logger

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 guid-heads," but few persons know that a loggerhead ing themselves by means of the heavenly bodies, was a weapon with an iron head fastened to a as they had probably done on the great steppes stick or long handle, the ancestor of the lifeof Asia. They would otherwise have adopted a preserver, with which our forefathers settled Latin name for it." The star hyacinth (Scilla their quarrels, and which we have deemed it bifolia), and starwort (Aster tripolium), and star safer to use metaphorically than practically. of Bethlehem (Ornithogalum), have stellate Typha latifolia is called reed-mace, being the flowers; and starfruit (Actinocarpus damaso-reed-like plant seen in the hand of Jesus, as a nium) has star-like seed pods. Starthistle mace or sceptre, in the familiar statues and Ecce (Centaurea solstitialis) has star-like spines, and Homo pictures. The ark of the testimony is the leaves of the star of the earth (Plantago called a wych; or, as by Sir John Mandeville, a

whutch. These hutches were made of elm or hazel-wood, and hence the names wych elm, or wych hazel (Ulmus montana). The use of these wyches appears in some lines in an old manuscript:

His hall rofe was full of bacon flytches, The chambre charged was with wyches Full of eggs, butter, and chese. Coffins, even, were called wyches. Capsella bursa pastoris has several names, such as pickpurse, clappedepouch, and poor man's parmacetty. It is called pickpurse because its capsules are like little purses, and for the same peculiarity it got the strange name of clappedepouch. In the middle ages lepers were allowed to stand begging at the wayside with a bell and a clapper, or rattle-pouch. Fallersleben, as quoted by Dr. Prior, says of them, "Separated from all the world, without house or home, the lepers were obliged to dwell in a solitary wretched hut by the roadside; their clothing so scanty that they often had nothing to wear but a hat and a cloak and a begging wallet. They would call the attention of the passers-by with a bell, or a clapper, and receive their alms in a cup or a basin at the end of a long pole. The bell was usually of brass. The clapper is described as an instrument made of two or three boards, by rattling which they excited people to relieve them." As the plant hangs out pouches by the roadside, it came to be called rattlepouch, or clappedepouch. There is still broader humour in the name poor man's parmacetty. Whale's sperm, sperma ceti, is a celebrated remedy for bruises, but the sovereignest remedy for the bruises of a poor man is a little purse, the parma cetty of a liberal donation.

lady's smock, from resemblance, is called spinks or bog-spinks, because it blossoms at Pinkster or Pentecost. Anthoxanthum odoratum is called vernal or spring grass, because it flowers at the germinating, springing, or sprouting time. Sun spurge (Euphorbia helioscopia) turns its flowers to the sun, which the sunflower does not. Sun dew (Drosera) probably means "ever-dewy." Gentiana pneumonanthe, from the shape of its flowers and their season of opening, is called autumn bells. A plant does not distinguish itself by flowering at midsummer; but the plants which grow, flower, or fruit, in mid-winter, are sure of notice, hence winter green (Pyrola), winter weed [(Veronica hederifolia), winter aconite (Eranthis hyemalis), winter cress (Barbarea præcox), and winter cherry (Physalis alkekengi). Sedum tectorum is ayegreen; Helleborus niger, having a rose-like flower, and blossoming in winter, is called the Christmas rose.

Many plants have been named after their uses. Balsamitis vulgaris being much used in flavouring ale with an aromatic bitter taste, is called costmary and alecost; costos being the Greek name of an unknown aromatic plant. Glechoma hederacea is called alehoof and gill, gill creepby-the-ground, the ground ivy. Hefe is the Dutch and German word for yeast, and this plant was much used in fermenting beer. Certain plants, on account of their esculent and medicinal qualities, were called all-good. The ambrose of the older botanists seems to have been, according to Dr. Prior, Chenopodium botrys. The Sanscrit amvita, the Greek ambrosia, and the Hebrew chayim, or tree of life, all have reference to the idea of an immortalising fruit, the wine from the juice of which the Assyrian kings are represented quaffing by their sculptors. Apple means the juice, or water fruit. The ash is supposed to have derived its name from the word axe, this wood having been preferred for spear and axe-handles. In Anglo-Saxon, bere stands both for barleycorn and the liquor made of it. Barren wort was supposed to be possessed of sterilising powers. Calamintha Acinos, having a smell fit for a king's house, was called basil thyme. Bearberry and beargarlic, are favourite food for bears. Beech is the wood upon which the Sanscrit bôkô or bôkôs, letters, writings, or books, were carved or engraved. Belladonna was used by the Italian ladies as a beautifier. Birch, or birk, is the tree of rind or bark of which boats, barques, or barges were built, as they still are in the present day in the far north. Box is the wood of which turners made boxes or pyxes. The daisy being supposed to be good for bruises, The periodical phenomena of plants have sug- is called bruisewort. Burdock is the leaf into gested the popular names of some of them. Thus which butter, in French beurre, was wrapped. Tragopogon pratensis is called sleep at noon, and Burnet-bloodwort has a power of stanching go to bed at noon; and Anagallis arvensis is poor blood. Butchers' broom was made into the man's weather glass, from its closing its flowers besoms with which they swept their blocks, before rain. The sudden growth in the night of according to some authorities; but Dr. Prior says Tremella nostoc has caused it to be named not only because it was used as prickmouse, Italian ponfallen stars and witch's butter, but will-o'-the-gitopo, to keep mice and bats from meat. wisp. Cardamine pratensis, besides being called Skewers being made of Rhamnus frangula, it

A considerable number of English popular names of plants are mere translations and corruptions of Greek and Latin names. Aron becomes, by this process, arum, or Aaron; akakia, acacia; akoniton (without a struggle), aconite; asphodelos, affadyl or daffodil; agremoné, agremony: alba spina, albespyne, or white thorn; and alyssum, Alison. Some of these corruptions or translations are absurdly curious. From some blunder or other the name of a plant called by Dioscorides holosteon, wholebone, has been applied to a very tender plant; Bot-theriacque (Sedum acre) has become Buttery Jack; Per vincula, bound about, done into English, is periwinkle (Vinca major and minor); Bipennella is pimpernel; Asparagus is sparrow grass; Flos stæchados is stickadove; Cinquefoil is sinkfield; Senecio is Simson; Myrtillus is whortleberry; and Bismalva is wymote.

spica) is a name derived from lavare, to wash,
the plant being used to scent newly-washed linen.
The lime, linden, or lime-tree, derives its name
from the inner bark, or bast, being used for
cordage; lyne is the name used in the Robin
Hood ballads, where it rhymes with thine:

Now tell me thy name, good fellow, said he,
Under the leaves of lyne.

was called butchers' prickwood. Myrica gale, yielding from its fruits a wax of which candles are made, is called candleberry. Juncus acutus, the pith of which is used for rushlights, is named candlerush. Childing cudweed and childing pink, are parturient plants. Clown's all-heal (Stachys palustris) cures wounds; and clown's lungwort (Lathræa squamaria) is used in pulmonary diseases. Knit-back (Symphytum officinale), from the Latin confirma comfrey, is sup- Ling comes from the Anglo-Saxon lig, fire or posed to be strengthening. Of cord-grass (Spar- fuel. Viburnum lantana, whose branches tie tina stricta) ropes are made. Corn-hone-wort bundles, is called lithytree. Madder, a red dye cures the hone, or boil in the cheek. Tussilago plant (Rubra tinctorum), is a word of a singular farfara is called coughwort. Salicornia her- derivation. Mad is the old word for a worm. bacea is called crabgrass, because it is said the The red dye formerly called vermilion was crabs eat it. Cress (Lepidium) is a word which obtained from an insect said to be a worm, or in Mr. Wedgewood derives from the French, French, a ver, hence as a red dye was called vercrisser, to grind the teeth, the name coming milion in English, a plant yielding a red dye from the crunching sound in eating them. was called after the old word for a worm, madder. Triticum caninum is called dog-grass, being the The maple is called the maser-tree, from masers grass eaten by dogs. Duckweed (Lemna minor) or bowls being made of it. Meadow sweet is eaten by ducks. Atropa belladonna, being (Spiræa ulmaria) ought to be called meadwort, or administered as a sleeping draught, is called meadflower, the flowers mixed with the wine of trance, or dwale berry. Genista tinctoria is honey giving it the flavour of the Greek wines. called dyer's green, being the herb which tinges Milk vetch (Astragalus), it was believed, ingreen, the celebrated Lincoln green of the Robin creased the milk of the cows which fed on it. Hood ballads. Reseda luteola, used to dye Thalaspi arvense was called Mithradate mustard, woollen stuffs yellow, was called dyers' rocket. this plant having been an ingredient in the Earthnut (Bunium flexuosum) is an esculent theriaca, or treacle, invented by Mithradates, tuber. Elder means kindler, being used to blow King of Pontus, as an antidote to all poisons. up a fire. Eringo was said by the herbalists to Vipers, and venomous reptiles, forming part of be a specific against eryngion, or hickup. The the seventy-two ingredients composing it, tales bitter sweet being used in curing whitlows, or were popular in the middle ages of sorcerers felons, is called felonwort. Feverfew is supposed eating poisons. More is an old name for an to be a febrefuge. Fir, the most inflammable of eatable root such as a parsnip, carrot, or skirret. woods, is the fire-tree. Saponaria officinalis, Mushroom (Agaricus), in French moucheron, or taking the stains out of cloth, is called fullers' mousseron, means fly poison, Agaricus muscarius herb. Lycopus Europæus is called gipsy-wort, having been used to destroy flies. By one of "because," says Lyte, "the rogues and runa- those changes not uncommon in the history of gates which call themselves Egyptians do colour words, the name of a poisonous species has come themselves black with this herbe." Grass, from to mean all this group of plants, and the wholethe Sanscrit gras, to devour, means the herb some kinds exclusively. Mustard comes from which yields the grain, and which is eaten. the Spanish mastuerzo, a nose-twister, from the Veronica officinale, having the repute of curing sneezing and wry faces it causes. Whitlow a king of grind or leprosy, is called groundheale. grass being supposed to cure aguail, was called Carex paniculata, a large sedge, having been nailgrass. Nettle and needle are the same word, used in matting footstools, the plant has been the plant supplying the thread, and one of the called hassocks. The hazel staff was the symbol products being a net. Down to the seventeenth of the authority of the master who "holds in century, nettle thread was used in Scotland, and hand a hazel staff," and the hazel rod of the still later in Friesland, until it was superseded diviner's mystery; hæs being Anglo-Saxon for a by flax and hemp. Nightshade, from the Anglobehest, and the verb hælsian, signifying to fore- Saxon nihtscada, means a soother or anodyne. tel. As the word fir with fire, heath seems to Oak egg, aye and eye, are one word, fundabe related to heat. Every Highlander knows mentally. The acorn is the egg of the oak, there the warmth of the heather. Honeysuckle is a is a resemblance between an eye and an egg; an name now given in books to the Lonicera, but eyeland stands in the sea like an eye, and an egg, Culpeper, Parkinson, and other herbalists, the having neither beginning nor ending, is the inhabitants of the western counties of England, symbol of aye. Oat is the grain eaten. Osier and Scottish children, apply it to the meadow grows where water oozes. Setterwort, or oxheel clover, from the flowers of which children suck (Helleborus fœtidus), is used by farmers in making sweetness like honey. However dissimilar the setons in the dewlap of cattle. Pea or pease is trees may be, Dr. Prior is of opinion that ivy the thing brayed in a mortar, in Greek, pison. and yew were, in reality, originally one word. Peach or pesh is the Persian apple. Tussilago Fucus nodosus, or knobtang, is called kelpware, petasitis, "a sovereign medicine against the from its supplying kelp. Lavender (Lavandula | plague and pestilent fever," is called pestilence