A OL068ARY OF DEVONSHIBB PLANT NAMBS. 9 &C. The children say that if you gather the Bird'&^yey the feathery tribe will come and pick your eyes out, as a punishment for your crime. EiBSOiL The name is spelt and pronounced in a variety of ways. We have basam, bassam, basom, beesom, bisom, bizzom^ &c (Gf, the ParsS harnain,) The technical names of the plant are confusing to the beginner ; but Mr. Britten gives, p. 26 : (1) Sarothamnus tfcopartus, Wimm. From its use in making brooms or besoms. * As yellow as a basom/ is a common South Devon expression." In Mr. Marshall's list of Devonshire words, printed by £ng. Dialect Society, and reprinted in Trann. Devon. Assoc. viL we have (2) Spartium scoparium, *'the Broom plant, hence a name of the sweeping-broom of the housewifa" Mr. Pengelly's notes and quotations (Trans, vii 440) are full and interesting, and should be referred to in this connexion. (3) CcUluna vulgaris, Salis. This is largely employed in the manufacture of besoms in various parts of the country. Mr. Pengelly applies the name to Erica (Tetraiixi)^ but probably means the plant iirst mentioned. (Britten, p. 26.) BiTNT, Stachys Betonica, Benth. A mere corruption of Betony, but very common in Devon and elsewhere. For the history of the word see Britten, p. 40; Prior, p. 20; Hare's Essays in Phildogyj i. 9 ; Earle's Plant Names, p. 68. BizzoM. See Bissom. Black Fio. The preserved Plum generally known as French plum or prune (Sussex *' Pruant "). The names of fruits are very vaguely applied, and one iinds it very difficult to understand what kind of nut or fig is intended when they are spoken of in different places, unless he can actually see the article to which a given name is apfdied. Blackheads, Spikes of Typha latifolia, L. {Cf. Flowers and their Teachingsj p. 107, and infra, s.vv. Spirb, Whitehead; Britten, p. 47.) • Black Soap, (1) Scabiosa ai^ensis, L. I have found this name only in one locality — ^at Ipplepen, a village not far from Kewton Abbot* In Sussex and in Somerset the plant is called ^' Blacka- moor's Beauty," which will help to account for the first part of the name, but whether the second part (Soap) came from Soaj>-wort (Saponaria), or is a corruption of Scabious, I cannot with my present limited information say. Perhaps further research may lead to an explanation of the anomalous designation. (2) CetUaurea niyra, L., or Knapweed. These two flowers are frequently found together, and are very similar in the appearance of their leaves and seed-vessek.
- Since writing this I have found the name in regular use in other parts of
South Devon.— (H. F.)
