such as the swine’s-snout (Lentodon taraxacum), and calf’s-snout, or, as it is more commonly termed, snapdragon (Antirrhinum majus).  The gaping corollas of various blossoms have suggested such names as dog’s-mouth, rabbit’s-mouth, and lion’s-snap, and plants with peculiarly-shaped leaves have given rise to names like these—­mouse-ear (Stachys Zanaia), cat’s-ears, and bear’s-ears.  Numerous names have been suggested by their fancied resemblance to the feet, hoofs, and tails of animals and birds; as, for instance, colt’s-foot, crow-foot, bird’s-foot trefoil, horse-shoe vetch, bull-foot, and the vervain, nicknamed frog’s-foot.  Then there is the larkspur, also termed lark’s-claw, and lark’s-heel, the lamb’s-toe being so called from its downy heads of flowers, and the horse-hoof from the shape of the leaf.  Among various similar names may be noticed the crane’s-bill and stork’s-bill, from their long beak-like seed-vessels, and the valerian, popularly designated capon’s-tail, from its spreading flowers.

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.

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).