applied to the stich-wort in Wales. A species of ground moss is also
styled in Germany the "devil's claws;" one of the orchid tribe is
"Satan's hand;" the lady's fingers is "devil's claws," and the plantain
is "devil's head." Similarly the house-leek has been designated the
"devil's beard," and a Norfolk name for the stinkhorn is "devil's horn."
Of further plants related to his Satanic majesty is the clematis, termed
"devil's thread," the toad-flax is his ribbon, the indigo his dye, while
the scandix forms his darning-needles. The tritoma, with its brilliant
red blossom, is familiar in most localities as the "devil's poker," and
the ground ivy has been nicknamed the "devil's candlestick," the
mandrake supplying his candle. The puff-balls of the lycoperdon form the
devil's snuff-box, and in Ireland the nettle is his apron, and the
convolvulus his garter; while at Iserlohn, in Germany,[7] "the mothers,
to deter their children eating the mulberries, sing to them that the
devil requires them for the purpose of blacking his boots." The _Arum
maculatum_ is "devil's ladies and gentlemen," and the _Ranunculus
arvensis_ is the "devil on both sides." The vegetable kingdom also has
been equally mindful of his majesty's food, the spurge having long been
named "devil's milk" and the briony the "devil's cherry." A species of
fungus, known with us as "witches' butter," is called in Sweden "devil's
butter," while one of the popular names for the mandrake is "devil's
food." The hare-parsley supplies him with oatmeal, and the stichwort is
termed in the West of England "devil's corn." Among further plants
associated with his Satanic majesty may be enumerated the garden fennel,
or love-in-a-mist, to which the name of "devil-in-a-bush" has been
applied, while the fruit of the deadly nightshade is commonly designated
"devil's berries." Then there is the "devil's tree," and the "devil's
dung" is one of the nicknames of the assafoetida. The hawk-weed, like
the scabious, was termed "devil's bit," because the root looks as if it
had been bitten off. According to an old legend, "the root was once