'He well may come with baits and trolls', (11)
we do not know whether _trolls_ has something to do with pike-fishing,
or merely means the reel on the rod. In that sense it lacks
authority(?), moreover it is a homophone, used by our poet in
'And trolls and pixies unbeknown'. (18)
Finally, there are a good many English country names for common plants,
for example, Esau's-hands, Rabbits'-meat, Bee's balsams, Pepper-gourds,
Brandy-flowers, Flannel-weed, and Shepherd's rose; and some of these are
excellent, and we very much wish that more of our good English
plant-names could be distinctively attached.
We will not open the discussion here, except to say that the casual
employment of local names is of no service because so many of these
names are common to so many different plants. Our author's
#Rabbits'-meat#, for instance, is applied to _Anthriscus
sylvestris_, _Heracleum Spondylium_, _Oxalis Acetosella_ and _Lamium
purpureum_; all of which may be suitable rabbits' food. But each
one of these plants has also a very wide choice of other names: thus
_Anthriscus sylvestris_, besides being _Rabbits-meat_ may be familiarly
introduced as Dill, Keck, Ha-ho, or Bun, and by some score of other
names showing it to be disputed for by the ass, cow, dog, pig and even
by the devil himself to make his oatmeal.
_Heracleum Spondylium_, alias Old Rot or Lumper-scrump, provides
provender for cow, pig, swine, and hog, and also material for Bear's
breeches.
_Oxalis Acetosella_ is even richer in pet-names. After Rabbits'-meat,
sheep-sorrel, cuckoo-spice, we find Hallelujah! Lady's cakes, and God
Almighty's bread-and-cheese. These are selected from fifty names.
_Lamium purpureum_ is not so polyonymous. With Tormentil, Archangel,
and various forms of Dead-nettle, we find only Badman's Posies and
Rabbits'-meat.
The worst perplexity is that well-known names, which one would think
were securely appropriated, are often common property. Our authority for
the above details--the _Dictionary of English Plant-names_, by James
Britten and Robert Holland--tells us that _Orchis mascula_, the 'male
orchis', is also called Cowslip, Crowsfoot, Ragwort, and Cuckoo-flower.
This plant, however, seems to have suggested to the rustic mind the most
varied fancies, similitudes of all kinds from 'Aaron's beard' to
'kettle-pad'.
* * * * *
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