Fiue hundred pointes of good husbandrie
That ys called felde lylye, y wys,
Hys levys be lyke to _sapharoun_,
Men know yt therby many one.'
--MS. Sloane, 1571.
"With the taste for alliteration that is shown in popular names, the
_Sapharoun-lily_, upon blending with _affodilly_, became, by a sort
of mutual compromise, _daffadowndilly_, whence our _daffodilly_ and
_daffodil_."--Dr. R. A. Prior, Popular Names of British Plants. "Strew
me the ground with daffadowndillies."--Spenser, Shep. Cal. 140.
[E240] "Eglantine," a word of doubtful origin. Chaucer writes it
_eglatere_ and _eglentere_. Fr. _aiglantier_, Prov. _aiglentina_ = wild
rose. Diez derives it from Lat. _aculeus_ = a prickle, through the adj.
_aculentus_.
[E241] Feverfew (_Pyrethrum parthenium_), a genus of Composite
plants, common in our gardens, and deriving its name from having long
been employed as a popular remedy in ague and other fevers, and as an
emmenagogue. It appears to possess stimulant and tonic properties. It
is a perennial plant, and may attain a height of one or two feet. Its
leaves are flat and broad, its flowers small. It is nearly allied to
Camomile. The variety grown in gardens is well known under the name of
"golden feather."
[E242] "Flower armor," evidently the _Floramor_, Fr. _fleur d'amour_,
from a misconception of its Latin name _Amaranthus_, as though a
compound of _Amor_, love, and _anthus_, a flower.
[E243] "Flower de luce," the _flos deliciarum_ of the Middle Ages.
Ducange, quoting from the history of the Harcourts, says:--"Thomas,
Dux Exoniæ habet comitatum de Harcourt ... per homagium ac reddendum
_florem deliciarum_ apud Castrum de Rouen," etc. (A.D. 1423).
Another derivation is as follows:--"Louis VII. dit le Jeune, prit le
premier des _fleurs de lis_, par allusion à son nom de Loys (comme
on l'écrivait alors). On a dit dans ce temps-là _Fleur de Loys_,
puis _Fleur de Louis_, enfin, _Fleur de Lis_." (Grandmaison, Dict.
Heraldique.) The flower that he chose seems to have been a _white_ one,
for Chaucer says:
"His nekke was white as is the flour de lis."
In E. K.'s Glossary to Spenser's Shep. Cal. April, we read "_Flower
delice_, that which they use to misterme _Flowre deluce_ being in the
Latine called _Flos delitiarum_."
[E244] According to Lyte the Flower Gentle is identical with the
Floramor (see above). Various species of _Amaranthus_, including the
Flower amor (43. 10), and what we now call _Celosia cristata_, or
Cockscomb, were included under this name. Parkinson (Paradisus, p. 370)
says: "We have foure or five sorts of Flower-gentle to trimme up this
our Garden withall."--Note by Mr. J. Britten, F.L.S.
[E245] "Gilliflower, formerly spelt _gyllofer_ and _gilofre_ with the
_o_ long, from Fr. _giroflée_, ltal. _garofalo_, in Douglas's Virgil
_jereflouris_, words formed from M. Lat. _garoffolum, gariofilum_, or,
as in Albert Magn. (lib. vi. cap. 22), _gariofilus_, corrupted from
Lat. _caryophyllum_ = a clove, and referring to the spicy odour of the
flower, which seems to have been used in flavouring wines to replace
the more costly clove of India. The name was originally given in India
to plants of the Pink tribe, especially the carnation, but has in
England been transferred of late years to several Cruciferous plants.
That of Chaucer, Spenser, and Shakspere was, as in Italy, _Dianthus
caryophyllus_, Linn., that of later writers and gardeners _Matthiola_
and _Cheiranthus_, Linn. Much of the confusion in the names of plants
has arisen from the vague use of the French terms _Giroflée, Oeillet_,
and _Violette_, which were, all three of them, applied to flowers of
the Pink tribe, but subsequently extended, and finally restricted in
English to very different plants. _Giroflée_ has become _Gilliflower_,
and passed over to the _Cruciferæ, Oeillet_ has been restricted to
the _Sweet Williams_, and _Violette_ has been appropriated to one
of the numerous claimants of its name, the genus to which the pansy
belongs."--Dr. R. A. Prior.
[E246] "Holiokes," in Huloet's Dict. Holy Hoke. Wedgwood (Etym. Dict.)
derives it from A.S. _hoc_, Welsh _hocys_ = a mallow, and says that it
obtained the title of _Holy_ from its being brought from the Holy Land,
where it is indigenous.
[E247] "Indian Eie." This was probably a _Dianthus_ of some kind
(French _œillet_), the same perhaps which is now grown in our gardens
as Indian or Chinese Pink.
[E248] _Laus tibi_, "a narcissus with white flowers. It groweth
plenteously in my Lorde's garden in Syon and it is called of divers
White Laus tibi."--Turner's Herball, pt. ii. b. 2. "It is very
difficult to ascertain what plant was meant by this name, which is
also mentioned by Turner in his 'Names of Herbes' (1548), and in his
'Libellus' (1538), where there is a long disquisition concerning it. It
may be _Narcissus poeticus_, L., as Mr. B. D. Jackson supposes in his
reprint of the 'Libellus' or possibly _N. biflorus_, L."--Note by Mr.
J. Britten, F.L.S.
[E249] "Lillium cum vallium," the "Lily of the Valley," in Lyte
_Lyllie Conuall_, and also termed _May Blossoms, May Lyllies_, and
_Lyryconfancy_.
[E250] "Nigella Romana." The _Nigella Damascena_, Linn., a favourite
old-fashioned garden annual, still to be met with in gardens under the
names of "Love-in-a-mist," or "Devil-in-a-bush."
[E251] "Pansy," or Paunce, Fr. _pensée_, thought. According to Dr.
Johnson the name is derived from Lat. _panacea_, but there is no
evidence of the plant ever having been so called, or having been
regarded as a panacea. It has received more popular names perhaps
than any other plant, both in our own and in foreign languages. The
following are some of the quaint titles given to it: "Cull me to you,"
or "Cuddle me to you," "Love and Idle," "Live in Idleness," "Love in
Idleness" (originally "Love in idle," _i.e._ in vain); "Love in idle
Pances," "Tittle my fancy," "Kiss me, ere I rise," "Jump up and kiss
me," "Kiss me at the garden gate," "Pink of my John," "Herb Trinity,"
and "Three faces under one hood," from the three colours combined in
one flower. It was also called "Hearts-ease," and "Flame flower" (M.
Lat. _Viola flammea_).
_Heartsease_, a term meaning "_a cordial_," as in Sir W. Scott's
Antiquary, ch. xi., "Buy a dram to be eilding and claise, and a supper
and _hearts-ease_ into the bargain," given to certain plants supposed
to be cardiac: at present [applied] to the _pansy_ alone, but by Lyte,
Bulleyn, and W. Turner, to the _Wallflower_ equally.--Dr. R. A. Prior's
Popular Names of British Plants, which see for an account of the origin
of the name.
[E252] "Sops-in-Wine," the Clove Gilliflower, _Dianthus caryophyllus_,
L., so called from the flowers being used to flavour wine or ale. Cf.
Chaucer's Rime of Sir Thopas, B. 1950:
"Ther springen herbes grete and smale,
The lycorys and cetewale,
And many a clowe gilofre,
And notemuge to putte in ale,
Whether it be moyste or stale."
"Bring Coronations and _Sops in wine_ worne of Paramoures."
---Spenser, Shep. Cal. April.
"Garlands of Roses and _Sopps in Wine_."--Ibid. May. E. K., in his
Glossary, says: "_Sops in Wine_, a flowre in colour much like a
_coronation_ (carnation), but differing in smel and quantitye."
[E253] "Sweete Williams,"from Fr. _œillet_, Lat. _ocellus_, a
little eye, corrupted to _Willy_, and thence to _William_, "in
reference, perhaps, to a popular ballad, 'Fair Margaret and Sweet
William,' [printed in Ritson's Early Songs and Ballads, ed. Hazlitt,
1877] a name assigned by W. Bulleyn (f. 48) to the Wallflower, but by
later herbalists and modern gardeners, as here, to a species of pink,
_Dianthus barbatus_, Linn. According to an article in the Quarterly
Review (No. 227), it formerly bore the name of 'Sweet Saint William';
but the writer gives no reference, and probably had no authority for
saying so."--Dr. R. A. Prior, pp. 228 and 250.
[E254] "Sweete Johns." Apparently a variety of Sweet William. See
Parkinson's "Paradisus," pp. 319, 321, for descriptions and figures:
"The chiefe differences betweene them are, that [Sweet Williams] have
broader, and darker greene leaues, somewhat brownish, especially
towards the points, and that the flowers stand thicker and closer,
and more in number together, in the head or tuft."--Note by Mr. J.
Britten,, F.L.S.
[E255] "Star of Jerusalem." This is usually _Tragopogon pratensis_,
L., as in Gerard, p. 736, but some other plant is likely to be meant
here.--Note by Mr. J. Britten, F.L.S.
[E256] "Tuft gilleflowers." Probably some low-growing _Dianthus_,
such as that figured as "Matted Pinkes" by Parkinson (Paradisus, p.
315).--Note by Mr. J. Britten, F.L.S.
[E257] "Veluet flowers," according to Dr. Prior, the
"love-lies-bleeding," _Amaranthus caudatus_, Linn., from its crimson
velvety tassels; according to Lyte, the same as the Flower Gentle, or
Floramor, Fr. _passevelours, A. tricolor_, Linn.
[E258] "Eyebright." "Divers Authours write that goldfinches, linnets,
and some other Birds make use of this Herb for the repairing of their
own and their young ones sight."--Coles, "Adam in Eden," 1657, p. 46.
It is the "Euphrasy" of Milton, P. L. xi. 414. A similar story is told
of the Hawk-weed. See Pliny (lib. xx. c. 7).
[E259] "Fumetorie," Fr. _fume terre_, Lat. _fumus terræ_, earth-smoke,
it being believed to be produced without seed from vapours arising
from the earth, as stated by Platearius: "Dicitur _fumus terræ_, quod
generatur a quadam fumositate grossâ, a terrâ resolutâ, et circa
superficiem terræ adherente." Pliny (lib. xxv. c. 13) says that it
takes its name from causing the eyes to water when applied to them, as
smoke does;
"Take youre laxatives
Of lauriol, centaure, and _fumytere_."
--Chaucer, Nonnes Prestes Tale, 143.
See Burton's Anat. of Melancholy, pp. 432-3 and 438, ed. 1845.
[E260] "Woodrofe," spelt according to an old distich thus:
"Double U, double O, double D, E,
R, O, double U, double F, E."
It derives its name originally from the Fr. _roue_ = a wheel, dimin.
_rouelle_, the leaves being set on the stems so as to resemble the
large _rowels_ of ancient spurs.
[E261] "Archangel." This is _Archangelica officinalis_, the stalks of
which "were formerly blanched and eaten as Celeri.... The gardeners
near London, who have ditches of water running through their gardens,
propagate great quantities of this plant, for which they have a
great demand from the confectioners, who make a sweetmeat with the
tender stalks of it cut in May."--Martyn's ed. of Miller's Gardener's
Dictionary. It is still sometimes grown in gardens for use in the
above-mentioned manner. According to Cogan (Haven of Health, p. 71), it
will cure the bite of a mad dog.
[E262] According to Cogan "Cummin" was extensively used for washing
the face, it having the effect, if not used too often, of making the
complexion clear; if used to excess, it caused paleness. He continues,
"In Matthiolus (lib. 3, cap. 60) I reade a practise to be wrought with
_Cummine_ seedes, and (as I thinke) hath been vsed in time past of
Monkes and Friers. They that counterfait holinesse and leannesse of
bodie, doe often vse Cummine seedes in their meates, and be perfumed
therewith."--Haven of Health, p. 47.
[E263] "Detanie." Dittany (_Origanum onites_, Linn.) was commonly
cultivated in gardens at this period. Gerard, p. 795, says it is "a hot
and sharpe hearbe," and speaks of it as biting the tongue.
[E264] Gromell, Grummel, or Gray myle, as Turner says it should be
written, from _granum solis_ and _milium solis_ together. "That is al
one," says the Grete Herbal, "_granum solis_ and _milium solis_." The
common _gromwell_ or gray millet, _Lithospermum officinale_, Linn.,
was formerly esteemed as a remedy for the stone and other diseases.
In a treatise on the virtues of plants, written in the 15th century,