The southern sentinel. (Winnfield, La.) 1883-1910, 1884-10-17
The Names OF Plants.

We often wonder whv this or that
plant should have the name it bears.
There are several reasons for it. some,
as the fuchsia. dahlia and magnol n,
We're first found and brought TO Eng
land by three celebrated botanists whose
names were Fuchs, ! ahl and Magnol.
In fact. We y many of the plants in our
green houses are named for their dis
cove ers; others from The supposed vir-
tue they possessed in former times for
heal NO diseases. We have in our
hedges the wnund-wort. liver wort. self
heal clary and many others. Clary
used TO be called clear-eye, though IN
what way it was used to gain the name,
it is quite difficult to underst nd.
In Roman (atholic countries many
flowers We're named after the Virgin
\ ary and the sa nts, such as Basil
thyme and. st. Johns Wort, the mar :
gold, and rosemary A pa ticular kind
of grass or fodder received the name of
saint Foin. or holy hay!
The fox glove cal to mind The DAYS
when PEG lie believed in fairies AMI
ewes dancing by moonlight. for fox
glove is bit n corruption of folk 's-g Owe;
!" title Folks" being one of the names
given to the fairies.
Carrot means red root; hawthorn is
called so from Dutch word meaning
he'd re- thorn, and is most suitable, as tn S
tree is so often used for hedges. The
bla k torn evidently gets is name from
its black and thorny bark; the straw
be ~, from once tt ny thr aided ea
straws for sale, and the gooseberry is
called so from an old Saxon word which
means ..hairy."
Some names are corruptions of words.
as daisy from days eye, and very no
ii cable one is the Jerusalem Artichoke.
OF course it would seem that this vege-
ia lie must come from the East to have
su h a name, but the fact is, that II
comes from outh America and has
never been, as iar as known, near Jeru-
sal m! 1t is simply the corruption of an
Ital an word, Girasole," which means
sun-turning. and it was given to this
plant because t is one of the sun flower
tribe, which are 'pposed always to
turn round with the sun.
Some plants, again, keep up old
fashioned ideas, which in these more
enl ghten,d days we laugh at. Who
would now believe that hawks brought
their young the leaves of certain
plant, becau-e the uice would improve
their eyesight; land yet the name re
| mains hawkweed. a well-known ant
handsome little yellow flower often seer
| in the fields in summer.
Another corruption is found in the
dandelion; the tooth of the lion we
should say if we made an Engl sh worc
of it. The long leaves are mu, b cut
and supposed to resemble the teet OF
the king of beasts! One OF the names
| for the ciematis is travellers JOY anC
| it was ven, it is said. from the fac
that growing near habitations It gave :
thrill OF Joy to the very trave er. who
felt on see ng it, that his journey was
nearly ended.
The little plant called lavender is sale
| to have obtained is name from tht
Latin verb lavare, to wash. Lavandul;
is the Latin name for the flower. A
first we can see no con &c ion between
wash NO and sweet-smelling plant 81
wei known to us all; but when ",
know that it was formerly in great uss
among washer women. and that wha
we now call laundry was once call
ed ''laventory,n we see a once thu
reason for alling the plant ".avendar,
which certa My is as good a name al
any given in this short paper upon the
names of plants.-N. Y. Observer.