only for its medicinal qualities, but also
in supplying the table with a substitute for other vegetables, such as
asparagus.

A plant termed in this country Gang Flower is the same as Rogation Flower,
recalling the perambulation of parishes on one of those days. There is a
vast fund of interesting matter in these old names of wild flowers (mixed
up, of course, with much that is trifling); and I cordially agree with your
correspondent, that it is well worth a steady effort to rescue the
fast-fading traditions relating to them. It must be confessed, however,
that the obstacles in the way of tracing the original meaning and supposed
virtues, will in many instances be found very great, arising principally
from the fanciful translations and corruptions which our ancestors made of
the old names. Take, for instance, the following:

Loose Strife or Herb Willow, from _Lysimachia_, the original being
undoubtedly a man's name, Lysimachus.

Ale-hoof (_Hedera terrestris_). Anglo-Saxon _Al behofian_. "Herba [Greek:
panchrestos], ad multos usus efficacissima."

Herb Ambrose has a Greek origin, [Greek: ambrotos], and is not indebted to
the saint of that name.

Comfrey or Cumfrey. "Herba vulnera _conferruminans_;" good for joining the
edges of a wound.

Calathian Violets. Simply cupped violets, from [Greek: kalathos].

Brank Ursin (_Acanthus_). "It. brancha, unguis ursinus."

Blood Strange; properly, _String_. To stanch.

Bertram. A corruption of [Greek: purethron] (_Pyrethrum_).

Spreusidany, Hair-strong, Sulphur Wort. Corrupted from _Peucedanum_.

Pell-a-mountain, Wild Thyme. From _Serpyllum montanum_.

Faceless. From _Phaseolus_, dim. of _Phaselus_; so called from its shallop
shape.

Stick-a-dove, French Lavender. From [Greek: stoichas, stoichados],
_Stoechas_; so called from the regularity of the petals.

Such instances might be multiplied to almost any extent.

There is, doubtless, a good deal of scattered information respecting old
English wild flowers to be met with, not only in books, but also among our
rural population, stored up by village sages. Contributions of this
description would surely be welcome in "N. & Q."

H. C. K.

---- Rectory, Hereford.

Herbs of all kinds were, some two hundred years ago, esteemed of much value
as medicine; for in a curious, and I believe rather scarce, pharmacopoeia
by Wm. Salmon, date 1693, I find some 414 pages devoted to their uses. This
pharmacopoeia, or _Compleat Eng