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271
The Folk-lore of Plants
·
T. F. Thiselton-Dyer
145
Many
plant
names
have
animal
prefixes,
these
indeed
forming
a
very
extensive
list.
But
in
some
instances,
"the
name
of
an
animal
prefixed
has
a
totally
different
signification,
denoting
size,
coarseness,
and
frequently
worthlessness
or
spuriousness."
Thus
the
horse-parsley
was
so
called
from
its
coarseness
as
compared
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.
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