bee sucking of the flower."

In addition to the various classes of names already mentioned, there are
a rich and very varied assortment found in most counties throughout the
country, many of which have originated in the most amusing and eccentric
way. Thus "butter and eggs" and "eggs and bacon" are applied to several
plants, from the two shades of yellow in the flower, and butter-churn to
the _Nuphar luteum_, from the shape of the fruit. A popular term for
_Nepeta glechoma_ is "hen and chickens," and "cocks and hens" for the
_Plantago lanceolata_. A Gloucestershire nickname for the _Plantago
media_ is fire-leaves, and the hearts'-ease has been honoured with all
sorts of romantic names, such as "kiss me behind the garden gate;" and
"none so pretty" is one of the popular names of the saxifrage. Among the
names of the Arum may be noticed "parson in the pulpit," "cows and
calves," "lords and ladies," and "wake-robin." The potato has a variety
of names, such as leather-jackets, blue-eyes, and red-eyes.

A pretty name in Devonshire for the _Veronica chamcaedrys_ is
angel's-eyes:--

"Around her hat a wreath was twined
Of blossoms, blue as southern skies;
I asked their name, and she replied,
We call them angel's-eyes."[6]

In the northern counties the poplar, on account of its bitter bark, was
termed the bitter-weed.[7]

"Oak, ash, and elm-tree,
The laird can hang for a' the three;
But fir, saugh, and bitter-weed,
The laird may flyte, but make naething be'et."

According to the compilers of "English Plant Names," "this name is
assigned to no particular species of poplar, nor have we met with it
elsewhere." The common Solomon's seal (_Polygonatum multiflorum_) has
been nicknamed "David's harp,"[8] and, "appears to have arisen from the
exact similarity of the outline of the bended stalk, with its pendent
bill-like blossoms, to the drawings of monkish times in which King David
is represented as seated before an instrument shaped like the half of a
pointed arch, from which are suspended metal bells, which he strikes
with two hammers."

In the neighbourhood of Torquay, fir-cones are designated oysters, and
in Sussex the Arabis is called "snow-on-the-mountain," and
"snow-in-summer." A Devonshire name for the sweet scabriosis is the
mournful-widow, and in some places the red valerian (_Centranthus
ruber_) is known as scarlet-lightning. A common name for _Achillaea
ptarmica_ is sneezewort, and the _Petasites