Coeur d'Alene evening press. (Coeur d'Alene, Idaho) 1907-1929, 1907-12-17
TITLES OUT OF TONE
inCOngruOus Names an Observer
In a Museum Noted.
BIRDS OF ANOTHER COLOR.

Purple, but Wine coIored, and the
Great Blue Heron ls oray-FIowsrs
With Fantastic Designations.
''rhe purple fnch." read the man.
e. he stood before glass case OF
birds in a science museum. He squint.
"a az the bird and then remarked
scornfuiiy. "But the bird Is not pur-
pie; II Is wine color" In the next case
be encountered the label "Great Blue
Heron" at the feet Of an extremely
long legged creature who was not blue
at all. but decided gray. The neigh
Dor OF the blue heron was the "green
heron" a bird almost brown. with the
tiniest fecks OF green on IT, Only by
q big stretch Of the Imagination could
II be called green. A familiar looking
water bird bore the name "black
duck" although II was brown with its
wings tipped a tawny shade. In
the next case there were three birds
whose names the visitor read with dis
approval One was the Snowflake"
a small bird Of decided brownish
hue. Another was the purple grac-
kie," brown bird with only the mer-
est suggestion OF purple. And lastly
there was the "redstart." which was
not red at all. but an undeniable
orange and black. When he read the
next label. Rose Breasted Grosbecl.r
and observed that only the throat Of
the bird was rose color. while it,
breast was gray. the visitor hurried to
hnd the curator to tell him how wrong
" and absurdly birds were named.
The curator laughed. "My dear fel-
low" he protested. you have hap
pened ON about the only birds in the
museum that are incorrectly named.
An a matter OF fact, the birds found In
this part Of the country are very well
named indeed and you have picked
out only the exceptions What could
be better named than tho scarlet tana-
ser, the bluehird. the catbird. the yell
low bird, the woodpecker. the phoebe,
the red winged blackbird. the bobo-
link etc.f II you'll examine the Wild
AoweFs you'n fnd much more lncon-
gruous names. For instance. there's
the oxeye daisy--and, by the way, the
o1eye daisy Is the common white
petalled daisy with the yellow center.
and not the yellow daisy with the
brown center. as IN generally supposed
Now, cannot conceive how that little
lower appears like the eye OF an OK.
The black eyed Susan. commonly
known as the yellow daisy. Is better
named. but Il II certainly extremely
fantastic. II h a crying shame that
a certain little sweet pale lavender
flower which grows profusely should
bear the hideous name Of one lowered
cancer root because Its root vaguely
resembles cancer. But the name
sticks.
Then There Is the lady's slipper. Can
you imagine a lady'a slipper fashioned
Ike thatf II 10 pouchy and clumsy.
and its name 10 no compliment to the
fair sex. Another far fetched name IA
e0lomon's seal. You know the flower
IL q tiny greenish or creamy white af-
fair and Is very unattractiva in ap-
pearanca, something like winteFRreen
blossoms. Well. II gets lts name from
it, root which bears round scar left
By the broken on old stalk which IL
% unlike the impression Of a seal that
Il makes one wonder how any one
could possibly have seen the likeness
Tho false Solomon's seal, by the way,
IA disgracefully named. II Is far pref.
tier than the real Solomon's seal and
should have pretty name Of lts own.
Nov, the name dogteoth violet IL
another bad one. In the flrst place the
flower does not at all resemble a tooth
o. any sort. and In the second place Il
Il nothing at all like n violet The
Wild geranlum Il a fragile flower. Law.
snder IN color, something ON the hopat
tca type, only considerably larger, so
you can see how much likeness Il has
70 the sturdy garden geranium.
you've seen that crimson flower
which at a distance looks like a wild
rose and whose leaves are much like
craps leaves and whose stems are very
stickyG Well. IFS name IS purple fiow.
ering raspberry. while les color Il an
unmistakable crimson.
The blue yervaln Is tall weed. with
tiny, homely flowers. which grows IN
waste places beside the road. and Il
h purple. not blue. The iron weed
has q queer Latin name which means
Mr.. Vernon. belonging to New York
and n named after en- early English
botanist OF New York state.
How do you suppose those pink. |
fragrant blossoms along the roads |
whlrh are near cousins 10 the garden |
phlox got the name Of bouncing BetsP |
Il seems lncongruOus and flppant for |
this delicately tinted flower. ON the |
other hand. who do you suppose gave
the name cowslips to the small towers |
Of the Meadow II IL certainly an APP /
propriate one. but wonder who con, |
ceived the pretty name."-New York |
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