Names in which the devil figures have been noticed elsewhere, as also
those in which the words fairy and witch enter. As the authors, too, of
the "Dictionary of Plant Names" have pointed out, a great number of
names may be called dedicatory, and embody the names of many of the
saints, and even of the Deity. The latter, however, are very few in
number, owing perhaps to a sense of reverence, and "God Almighty's bread
and cheese," "God's eye," "God's grace," "God's meat," "Our Lord's, or
Our Saviour's flannel," "Christ's hair," "Christ's herb," "Christ's
ladder," "Christ's thorn," "Holy Ghost," and "Herb-Trinity," make up
almost the whole list. On the other hand, the Virgin Mary has suggested
numerous names, some of which we have noticed in the chapter on sacred
plants. Certain of the saints, again, have perpetuated their names in
our plant nomenclature, instances of which are scattered throughout the
present volume.

Some plants, such as flea-bane and wolf's-bane, refer to the reputed
property of the plant to keep off or injure the animal named,[5] and
there is a long list of plants which derived their names from their real
or imaginary medicinal virtues, many of which illustrate the old
doctrine of signatures.

Birds, again, like animals, have suggested various names, and among some
of the best-known ones may be mentioned the goose-foot, goose-grass,
goose-tongue. Shakespeare speaks of cuckoo-buds, and there is
cuckoo's-head, cuckoo-flower, and cuckoo-fruit, besides the stork's-bill
and crane's-bill. Bees are not without their contingent of names; a
popular name of the _Delphinium grandiflorum_ being the bee-larkspur,
"from the resemblance of the petals, which are studded with yellow
hairs, to the humble-bee whose head is buried in the recesses of
the flower." There is the bee-flower (_Ophrys apifera_), because the,