The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1908-02-05
TITLES OUT Of TONE
Incongruous Names an Observer
In a Museum Noted.
BIRDS OF ANOTHER COLOR.

The Purple Finch, For Instance, Is Not
Purple, but Wine Colored, and the
Great Blue Heron Is Gray-Flowers
With Fantastic Designations.
"The purple frch," read the man,
as he stood before a glass case OF
birds in a science museum. He sQuint-
ed at the bird and then remarked
scornfully. "But the bird is not pur-
pie; it is wine color In the next case
he encountered the label "Great Blue
Heron" at the feet Of an extremely
long legged creature who was not blue
at ell, 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
It be called green. a familiar looking
water bird bore the name "black
duck" although it was brown with its
wings tipped tawny shade. In
the next case there we're three birds
whose names the visitor read with dis
approval. One was the snowflake"
small bird Of decided broWnisn
hue. Another was the purple grac-
kle," brown bird with only the mer-
est suggestion Of purple. And lastly
there was the "redstart," t." which was
not red at all. but an undeniable
orange and black. When he read the
next label. Rose Breasted Grosbeck,
and observed that only the throat or
the bird was rose color, while its
breast was gray. the visitor hurried to
find the curator to tell him how wrong
" and absurdly birds were named.
The curator laughed "My dear fel-
iow," be protested, you have hap
pened on about the only birds in the
museum that are incorrectly named.
AS 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 the scarlet tana-
ger, the bluebird. the catbird, the yel-
low bird. the woodpecker. the phoebe,
the red winged blackbird, the bobo-
link, etc.? If you'll examine the wild
flowers you'll find much more incon-
eruous names For instance, there's
the oxeye daisy-and. by the way, the
oxeye daisy is the common white
detailed daisy with the yellow center,
and not the yellow daisy with the
brown center, as is generally supposed.
Now, cannot conceive how that little
flower appears like the eye Of an OK.
The black eyed Susan, commonly
known as the yellow daisy, is better
named, but It is certainly extremely
fantastic. 1t is a crying shame that
certain little sweet pale lavender
flower which grows profusely should
bear the hideous name of one fowered
cancer root because its root vaguely
resembles a cancer. But the name
sticks.
"Then there is the lady's slipper. Can
you imagine Iady's slipper fashioned
like that? 1t is pouchy and clumsy,
and it's name is no compliment to the
fair sex. Another far fetched name IS
Solomon's seal. You know the flower
is tiny greenish or creamy white at
fair and is very unattractive in ap-
pearance. something like wintergreen
blossoms. Well it gets it's name from
its root. which bears 4 round scar LETT
by the broken off old stalk which is
so unlike tie impression Of seal that
! it makes one wonder bow any one
could possibly have seen the likeness.
The false Solomo1'S seal. by the way,
is dISgra cefully named. 1t is far pref
| tier than the real Solomon'S seal and
should have i pretty name Of its own.
':Now, the name dogtooth vio.et is
another bad one In the (irst place the
flower does not 1T all resemble / tooth
Of any sort. and in the second place II
| IS nothing at all like :, violet. The
wild geranium is :, fragile flower, Law
ender in color. something on the hepat-
lea type, only considerably larger, so
you can see how much likeness it has
to the sturdy garden geranium.
you've seen that crimson flower
which at distance looks like wild
rose and whose leaves are much like
grape leaves and whose stems are very
sticky? Well, its name is purple flow
ering raspberry, while its color is an
unmistakable crimson.
'The blue yervain is tall weed, with
tiny, homely flowers, which grows IN
waste places beside the road. and II
is purple, not blue. The iron Weec
has a queer Latin name which means
Mr.. Vernon, belonging to New York,
and is named after an early Engllsc
botanist Of New York state.
Glow do you suppose those PINK
fragrant blossoms along the roads
which are near cousins to the garder
phlox got the name Of bouncing Bets
It seems incongruous and fippant fo'
this delicately tinted flower. On the
other hand, who do you suppose gave
the name cowslips to the snail flowers
Of the meadow? It is certainly an ap
propriate one, but wonder who con
ceived the pretty name."-New 1orE