Thursday 21 August 2014

Girl Annual, Number 3


I have a copy of The Third Girl Annual. It's undated but has a handwritten message inside the front cover dated 1954. There's a lovely Country Names piece written by Kenneth Sparrow that looks at flowers and the origins of their names. It has beautiful illustrations by Harry A Pettit. Of Dandelions it says this:

"The common Dandelion in bud is sometimes called 'swines snout' because the bud has a turned up end like a pig's snout. The name Dandelion probably refers to the jagged leaves. The divisions of the leaf are rather tooth-like. The French word for tooth is 'dent'. The flower of the Dandelion is yellow and rather like the mane of a lion. From all this we have the word dent-de-lion... lions tooth; and dent-de-lion slurred quickly becomes Dandelion."

I find that rum helps to slur your words - works a treat.

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