YORKSHIRE NAMES. [THE following words and traditions were collected near Wakefield, in the East Riding. Yorkshire dialect has been so well worked that the list contains comparatively little that is new, although the confirmation of previous investigation is always useful. Our readers will add to their kindness if they will mention the year in which the names they may send were collected. ---Eds.) Cardamine pratensis Antirrhinum majus Rumex (any) Narcissus Pseudo-narcissus Orchis mascula Fumaria pallidiflora Linaria vulgaris Southern-wood White garden Saxifrage Sweet-William Early white phlox Geum urbanum Stellaria Holostea There are many sayings in reference to the wild flowers such as : I. "If bud's-eye be open nar rain 'ill fall." 2. "Caurtin' 'ill cease when t'garse is out o' flower." 3. "Fox-gloves kill all other plants." 4. If an apple tree has flowers and fruit on at the same time, tis a sign of misfortune to the owner. 5. The juice of the sun spurge will cure warts. 6. On finding a plant of Shepherd's Purse open a seed-vessel; if the seed is yellow you will be rich, if green you will be poor. 7. Poppies will give you a headache if you gather them. 8. A bunch of rosemary thrown into a grave will make the spirit rest. 9. If a stranger plants parsley in the garden, great trouble will befall the owner. 10. If Rose-mary flourishes in a garden, the wife will be master; if it dies, the master will? II. "Dead-men-fingers be bad plants; you mun niver pull 'em." 12. If a child gather "Black-man-flowers," Black man will him off in the night. carry 13. 14. "If t'oäk blaws afore t'esh, "Then we' reän we'll get a splash. "If t'esh blaws afore t'oäk, "Then de-pend we'll heve a soäk." "Many berries make a hard winter." 15. Take a dead "Hard-head" blossom and put it under your pillow. In the morning, if it has sprouted afresh, you will marry your lover; if it has not sprouted you will never marry, or marry some unknown person. ["Bird-nests" for the wild carrot dates back to the time of Gerard, who says: "The whole tuft [of flowers] is drawn togither when the seede is ripe, resembling a birdes' nest, whereupon it hath been named by some bird's nest. "Coddle apple" (which we have from Lincolnshire and Northamptonshire) was suggested by the smell of the flowers and young shoots of the Willowherb. "Fiddle" [or "Fiddle-wood"] was so-called because children strip the angular stems of their leaves, and produce a squeaking sound by drawing one across the other. "Granny-hood is new to us for the Columbine, though Monk's-hood has many similar names; is there any confusion here? "Tongue-bleed" is so named because children draw the rough leaves of Cleavers across their tongue, and so draw blood. The name "Tom-thumb" is given to a very similar plant, Lathyrus pratensis, in Sussex and Berks.] † Mr. Swainson has "Fire-flirt," from the continual motion of its tail, which it constantly jerks up and down. I. "If a boy "pulls" a robin's nest he will break his leg." 2. "'Tis lucky to have a swallow's nest on the house." MAMMAL, FISH AND INSECT NAMES. I. Newt Tad-pole Blue-bottle fly Freshwater mussel Lady-bird Hedgehog Larva of Tiger Moth Flea Mole Rat Kitten 55 "If t'cats leäket "T' weather 'ill breäk." 2. If a horse rolls it is a sign of rain. 3. If the cattle graze in groups, it is a sign of a thunderstorm. 4. It is unlucky to hear a dog howl. 5. Turn your money for luck when you see your first lamb of the season. 6. Spiders in the house denote rain. 7. It is lucky to see a spider in the house in the morning; but unlucky to see it in the evening. 8. If you swallow a tad-pole it will never die, but go on growing in your inside. 9. It is unluckly for a rabbit to cross your path. 10. It is unlucky for a crow to fly over the house. I have seen many people in the West Riding of Yorkshire who suppose themselves suffering from animals that had got into them-one with an eft that had crept into his ear and caused him to be deaf; one with a fummit, another with a frog, in their stomachs. Most of these animals were supposed to have effected an entry when too small to attract observation, and then to have grown, until they became too large to be affected by medicine. W. M. E. FOWLER. * The names indicated by a prefixed asterisk are those which do not appear in our most complete catalogues of popular nomenclature-the Rev. C. Swainson's "Folklore and Provincial Names of British Birds," and Messrs. Britten and Holland's "Dictionary of English Plant-names," two works which we have adopted as our standard of reference. † Leäke-play. A HIGH wind, one day last July, blew down a Thrush's nest from a fine old elm tree. Three young birds were found on the lawn; two were killed by the fall, but the one in the picture looked quite unhurt, so it was brought into the house and fed. Next morning it was put in a cage and hung at an open window. The parent birds soon heard the lonely prisoner's cry and came to feed it; they looked BOOKS FOR NATURE LOVERS. 57 shy at first when they saw near the cage three smiling faces, but love soon conquered all fear and a worm was placed by them in the little one's open beak. After his repast, Dicky settled his feathers and had a nap, while one of the parents found another worm and rested on the branch of a tree opposite the cage till the little one awoke and chirped, which it did about every half hour. Each day the bright little captive grew stronger and handsomer, and after a ten days' stay with us, the cage with the door open was left on the floor. Dicky's parents, no doubt, found this out and called him away, which was just what its friends wished should happen. A young Thrush sometimes seen near the house was thought to be the little nurseling, but soon its pinions were spread and all traces of it were lost. The writer sat close to the cage to take the prisoner's portrait and was much interested in what she witnessed. Tower House, Cotham, Bristol. P. A. FRY. BOOKS FOR NATURE LOVERS. I would be hard to find a more charming little volume, both externally and internally, than Days and Hours in a Garden, by E. V. B. (Elliot Stock), of which the seventh edition has just reached us. Although the authoress gives only her initials on the title page, many Selbornians will at once recognise in them the well-known signature of the Hon. Mrs. R. C. Boyle, one of the earliest and most enthusiastic supporters of the Selborne Society. Many of us, no doubt, are familiar with this delightful, daintily-dressed, beautifullyillustrated little book; but to those who do not yet know it, whether they are lovers of gardens or not, let us heartily recommend it as probably the most beautiful and loving description of a garden ever written. It has the unusual quality of making the trees and flowers spoken of seem to us as if they were real individuals, not merely "fine specimens." By the aid of the exquisite vignettes, we get to know this garden better than we know many gardens we have often visited; we know all its treasures, and delight in them as if they were our own; we know, too, all the living creatures which make it their pleasant home, and wish them well. And so it is with that mingling of joy and sorrow, that comes from hearing in the same letter news of the good and evil fate of old friends, that former readers of "Days and Hours" read in a preface dated February, 1890:-" As to the living frequenters of the garden, whose presence there for the most part enhances our enjoyment of it, the tomtits and the nuthatches are as busy with the cocoa-nuts which hang for their use all winter from the rose-arches, as the mice and the sparrows are with the crocuses; the white pigeons still circle in the air and settle upon the gables, or preen their feathers in the sunshine amongst the yellow stonecrop at the base of the old grey pillar in the parterr; the swallows return year by year to their nests within the porch; but the faithful, satin-coated collie lies still for ever under the turf by the ivied wall, and the earth lies heavy on his noble head. Already the snowdrops are giving way before impatient hepaticas and primroses, the bare elms are thickening with purple, and we begin to count the gentian buds. Everywhere Nature repairs herself in ceaseless round. Only in our human hives some vacant spots there may be where the grass will not grow green again.' It seems thankless to point out any blemishes in so delightful a volume; but the "Rhadamanthine" reviewer must express his regret that there are still many misprints in the scientific names of plants. We are not pedants in this matter. In a book like that under notice we much prefer English names, if they may be had. We rather like the quaint spelling “parterr,” and the revived Spenserian form |