and used in the Gulf of Bothnia for concocting a fish
sauce.

The name signifies "giving light to a horse," being conferred
because of a supposed power to cure equine blindness; or it may
mean "shining underneath," in allusion to the silvery underside of
the leaf.

The old-fashioned Cathartic Buckthorn of our hedges and woods
has spinous thorny branchlets, from which its name, _Rhamnus_,
is thought to be derived, because the shrub is set with thorns like
as the ram. At one time this Buckthorn was a botanical puzzle,
even to Royalty, as the following lines assure us:--

"Hicum, peridicum; all clothed in green;
The King could not tell it, no more could the Queen;
So they sent to consult wise men from the East.
Who said it had horns, though it was not a beast."

BURNET SAXIFRAGE (_see_ Pimpernel).

BUTTERCUP.

The most common Buttercup of our fields (_Ranunculus bulbosis_)
needs no detailed description. It belongs to the order termed
_Ranunculaceoe_, so-called from the Latin _rana_, a frog,
because the several varieties of this genus grow in moist places
where frogs abound. Under the general name of Buttercups
are included the creeping Ranunculus, of moist meadows; the
_Ranunculus acris_, Hunger Weed, or Meadow Crowfoot, so named
from the shape of the leaf (each of these two being also
called King Cup), and the _Ranunculus bulbosus_ mentioned
above. "King-Cob" signifies a resemblance between the unexpanded
flowerbud and [72] a stud of gold, such as a king would
wear; so likewise the folded calyx is named Goldcup, Goldknob
and Cuckoobud. The term Buttercup has become conferred through
a mistaken notion that this flower gives butter a yellow
colour through the cows feeding on it (which is not the case),
or, perhaps, from the polished, oily surface of the petals.
The designation really signifies "button cop," or _bouton d'or_;
"the batchelor's button"; this terminal syllable, _cup_, being
corrupted from the old English word "cop," a head. It really means
"button head." The Buttercup generally is known in Wiltshire and
the adjoining counties as Crazy, or Crazies, being reckoned by
some as an insane plant calculated to produce madness; or as a
corruption of Christseye (which was the medieval name of the
Marigold).

A burning acridity of taste is the common characteristic of the
several varieties of the Buttercup. In its fresh state the ordinary
field Buttercup is so acrimonious that by mere