with smallage or celery, and the
horse-mushroom from its size in distinction to a species more commonly
eaten. The particular uses to which certain plants have been applied
have originated their names: the horse-bean, from being grown as a food
for horses; and the horse-chestnut, because used in Turkey for horses
that are broken or touched in the wind. Parkinson, too, adds how,
"horse-chestnuts are given in the East, and so through all Turkey, unto
horses to cure them of the cough, shortness of wind, and such other
diseases." The germander is known as horse-chere, from its growing after
horse-droppings; and the horse-bane, because supposed in Sweden to cause
a kind of palsy in horses--an effect which has been ascribed by Linnaeus
not so much to the noxious qualities of the plant itself, as to an
insect (_Curculio paraplecticus_) that breeds in its stem.

The dog has suggested sundry plant names, this prefix frequently
suggesting the idea of worthlessness, as in the case of the dog-violet,
which lacks the sweet fragrance of the true violet, and the dog-parsley,
which, whilst resembling the true plant of this name, is poisonous and
worthless. In like manner there is the dog-elder, dog's-mercury,
dog's-chamomile, and the dog-rose, each a spurious form of a plant quite
distinct; while on the other hand we have the dog's-tooth grass, from
the sharp-pointed shoots of its underground stem, and the dog-grass
(_Triticum caninu_), because given to dogs as an aperient.

The cat has come in for its due share of plant names, as for instance
the sun-spurge, which has been nicknamed cat's-milk, from its milky
juice oozing in drops, as milk from the small teats of a cat; and the
blossoms of the talix, designated cats-and-kittens, or kittings,
probably in allusion to their soft, fur-like appearance. Further names
are, cat's-faces (_Viola tricolor_), cat's-eyes (_Veronica chamcaedrys_),
cat's-tail, the catkin of the hazel or willow, and cat's-ear
(_Hypochaeris maculata_).

The bear is another common prefix. Thus there is the bear's-foot, from
its digital leaf, the bear-berry, or bear's-bilberry, from its fruit
being a favourite food of bears, and the bear's-garlick. There is the
bear's-breech, from its roughness, a name transferred by some mistake
from the Acanthus to the cow-parsnip, and the bear's-wort, which it has
been suggested "is rather to be derived from its use in uterine
complaints than from the animal."

Among names in wh