The Common English Names Of Plants (1873) (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: was blamed with wrong and slandered and doomed to the death, and to be burnt in that place, to the which she was led, and as the fire began to burn about her she made her prayers to our Lord, that al wisely as she was not guilty of that sin, that He would help her and make it known to all men, of His merciful grace. And when she had thus said, she entered into the fire, and anon was the fire quenched and out, and the brands that were then burning became red rosaries, and the brands that were not kindled became white rosaries full of roses. And these were the first rosaries and roses, both white and red, that ever any man saw, and thus was the maiden saved by the grace of God." There is another plant to which a legend attaches, which has a more local interest. The Dwarf Elder is not uncommon in our Bath flora, but is most abundant at Slaughterford, near Chip- penham, a place where there was once a great victory gained over the Danes. The plant is called Danewort, and is an evil-smelling and noxious plant, and the legend tells us that it derived its evil qualities of all kinds from the Danes, on whose graves it grew so luxuriantly. There are three of our commonest and prettiest flowers that I must not pass over, because their names, which seem at first so easy of explanation, have really a totally different meaning to the one that lies on the surface. I mean Snowdrop, Primrose, and. Pink. " Snowdrop " is not a drop of frozen snow, or an icicle, but it is the white drop, the word "drop" being the old English word for the pendants which the ladies wore either as earrings or brooches. "Primrose"' is not the "first rose" of the year. No one could ever have likened it to a rose. It is a corruption of the French and Italian words, meaning the first spring flower, and only in modern ...