The _Viola tricolor_ is often known as "three
faces in a hood," and the _Aconitum napellus_ as "Venus's chariot drawn
by two doves." The _Stellaria holostea_ is "lady's white petticoat," and
the _Scandix pecten_ is "old wife's darning-needles." One of the names
of the Campion is plum-pudding, and "spittle of the stars" has been
applied to the _Nostoc commune_. Without giving further instances of
these odd plant names, we would conclude by quoting the following
extract from the preface of Mr. Earle's charming little volume on
"English Plant Names," a remark which, indeed, most equally applies to
other sections of our subject beyond that of the present chapter:--"The
fascination of plant names has its foundation in two instincts, love of
Nature, and curiosity about Language. Plant names are often of the
highest antiquity, and more or less common to the whole stream of
related nations. Could we penetrate to the original suggestive idea that
called forth the name, it would bring valuable information about the
first openings of the human mind towards Nature; and the merest dream of
such a discovery invests with a strange charm the words that could tell,
if we could understand, so much of the forgotten infancy of the human
race.
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