Baptista Porta[1] Gallinacei pedis similitudinem capnon habere [252] tradit, ideoque eius succum oculis claritatem facere, et alvum solvere autumat, sed qua parte non addit. Caucalis quoque Graecis, et Latinis nominatur herba, quam inter oleracea Theophrastus, Plinius[2] inter herbas vulgares, et in cibis usitatas meminere. Gaza in Theophrasto pedem Gallinaceum convertit, quo nomine Romani, ut Ruellius[3] scribit, appellant, quod extremum folium in Galli, aut Gallinae pedem conformetur. Ait item apud Dioscoridem tum eodem nomine, tum etiam pedem pulli ob eandem similitudinem vocari: sed id mihi nondum lectum est, scio tamen, hunc inter {thlaspios} <thlaspeos> nomenclaturas pedis Gallinacei meminisse, et Sylvaticus[4] portulacam, Macro pedem pulli nuncupari asserit.

Giambattista Della Porta reports that fumitory has a resemblance to a gallinaceous foot, and thus its juice causes an eyes’ brightness, and he affirms that it loosens the bowels, but he does not add by what part of the plant. By Greeks and Latins is also mentioned the Caucalis herb - e.g. small bur-parsley - which Theophrastus mentioned among vegetables, Pliny among common herbs often used in foods. Theodorus Gaza, in his translation of Theophrastus, translates it as chicken's foot, the name by which Romans call it, as Jean Ruel writes, because the uppermost leaf is shaped like a foot of rooster or hen. He also says that in Dioscorides is called sometimes by the same name - caucalis - and sometimes also chick-foot because of the same similarity: but I have not yet read this, but I know that Ruel among the nomenclature of Thlaspi mentioned the chicken's foot, and Matteo Silvatico asserts that common purslane is called chick-foot by Floridus Macer.

Ornithopodion similiter a Gallinae pede denominatum videri cuipiam possit, quoniam Ὄρνις, et ὄρνιθις[5] Graecis Gallina est. Attamen hîc ὄρνιθις in genere sumitur, atque herba ita vocatur a similitudine parvae aviculae[6]. Denique advertendum est apud Suetonium[7] quosdam Gallipedem inepte pro {Callipede} <Callippide> legere.

Likewise ornithopodion - Ornithopus sativus? i.e. serradella - may appear to someone to have taken its name from hen’s foot, since for Greeks órnis and órnithis is the hen. But in this case órnithis is used in a general meaning and the herb is so called from its similarity to a small birdie. Finally we must remember that in Suetonius some people erroneously read Gallipedes for Callippides.

Cunila Gallinacea non alia herba est, quam quae Origanum Heracleoticum Graecis vocatur, teste Plinio[8]. Ruellius sic dictam putat, quod eam Gallinae pascantur. Meminit eius plantae Plautus[9] his verbis.

In Ponto absinthium fit, et cunila Gallinacea.

Cunila gallinacea - Satureja hortensis summer savory - is a herb which is not different from that called by Greeks oregano of Heraclea - Origanum vulgare ssp. viridulum Nyman - as Pliny testifies. Jean Ruel thinks it is so named because hens feed on it. Plautus mentions this plant by these words:

In Pontus grows the wormwood, and the cunila gallinacea.

Cur vero cunilam Gallinaceam vocent, a nemine adhuc traditum reperio. Ego ab effectu ita forte appellari existimem, videlicet quia insigniter venerem stimulat. Puto hoc origanum eisdem fere facultatibus praeditum, quibus cunila simpliciter dicta, quae satureia, seu thymbra alias nominatur. Unde satureiae nonnulli a satyris nomen impositum volunt, quod ut hi salacissimi, libidinosique passim a poëtis {depinguatur} <depingantur>, ita et haec herba homines ad {satyriasim} <satyriasem> impelleret, ut eleganter his verbis demonstrat Martialis[10].

Improba nec prosunt iam satureia tibi.

But why they call it cunila gallinacea I do not find recorded by anyone up to now. I should think perhaps it is so named from its effect, that is, since it stimulates markedly the sexual appetite. For I think that this kind of oregano is endowed with almost the same attributes as the simply called cunila, which otherwise is called summer savory or thymbra. Hence some claim that to the satureia - summer savory - has been given the name from satyrs since, like these creatures are everywhere depicted by poets as the most salacious and libidinous, so this herb drives humans to satyriasis, as Martial elegantly shows by these words:

Neither the licentious satureia does you good any longer.

Dodonaeus duo[11] elatines genera describit, depingitque. Unum, quod a quibusdam morsus Gallinae nuncupatur, et a Germanis Hunerbisz, a Belgis Hoenderbeet, hoc est, Gallinae morsus. Alterum quod ab eisdem Germanis Hunerserb, a Belgis Hoenderserve appelletur, hoc est, Gallinae h{a}ereditas. Prior elatine multis cauliculis fruticat, hirsutis, auriculae muris modo: foliis subrotundis, asperis, et hirsutis, saepius parum incisis: caetera alsinae non multum dissimilis: flores purpureos, et caeruleos edit: deinde parva capitula, in quibus semen includitur. Hanc Fuchsius nomine Alsines mediae depinxit. Morsum Gallinae folio hederulae vocat Lobelius. Altera similes priori cauliculos profert, sed longiora folia, {augustiora} <angustiora>, toto ambitu crenata: flores caeruleos, semen in binis folliculis iunctis, radicem fibratam. Utraque locis umbrosis, incultis, secus vias, et in agrorum marginibus frequens. Maio mense, et Iunio florent.

Rembert Dodoens describes and depicts two kinds of elatine. One by some is called hen-bite and Hunerbisz by Germans, Hoenderbeet by Belgians, that is, hen-bite. The other kind would still be called Hunerserb by Germans, Hoenderserve by Belgians, that is, hen’s inheritance. The first elatine sprouts with many small stems, hairy, and shaped like a mouse’s auricle: with roundish leaves, rough, and hairy, mostly not much serrated; the other one is not much different from alsine: it produces purple and sky-blue flowers and then small heads in which the seed is enclosed. Leonhart Fuchs described the latter under the name of alsine media. Mathias de L’Obel calls it hen-bite with the leaf of small ivy. The other variety produces little stems similar to the former, but longer and narrower leaves indented all around: the flowers are sky-blue, the seed lies in twin involucres and joined together, the root is fibrous. Both are frequent in shady, uncultivated places, along the roads and on the edges of fields. They flower in May and June months.

Hippiam recentiorum quidam vocant herbam vulgatissimam, quam Andreas Matthiolus pro alsine depinxit. Haec quoque vulgo morsus Gallinae dicitur, et Gallis morgeline, quod Gallinis, et aviculis grata sit, eaeque caveis inclusae, et cibum fastidientes herba ista recreentur, ut helxine etiam, qua Plinius[12] Gallinaceos, {scribit}, <scribit> annuum fastidium purgare; unde non inepte quispiam dubitet, errore aliquo factum esse, ut vel t{h}ypographus, vel Plinius helxine pro alsine scripserint. Germanis dicitur {vogelkraut} <Vogelkraut>, id est, herba avium. Italis centone, Pizzagallina, grassagalline, Pavarina, quod iunioribus Anseribus, quos Pavaros vocant, gratum sit pabulum.

Some more recent authors call hippia a very common herb which Pierandrea Mattioli described as alsine. This also is vulgarly called hen-bite, and morgeline by French, because is appreciated by hens and little birds, and when the hens are shut up in pens and refusing food they would be restored by this herb, as well as by helxine - perhaps Parietaria officinalis, pellitory of the wall - and Pliny writes that thanks to it chickens remove the annual dislike for food, hence someone rightly might doubt that because of some error did happen that either the printer or Pliny wrote helxine for alsine. It is called Vogelkraut by Germans, that is, bird-herb. For Italians it is centone - or centonchio, pizzagallina, grassagalline, pavarina - Stellaria media, because it would be a pleasing food for younger geese, whom they call pavari - today paperi.

Anagallis[13] Matthiolo etiam grassagallina dicitur, sed quem ob id Dalechampius reprehendat, qui id nominis soli alsinae convenire putat. Ruellius tamen et ipse pariter Gallus anagallidem Gallice morgelinam, sive Gallinae morsum nuncupat, ubi etiam hallucinari eos scribit, qui mouronem vulgo ductum, aut papaverinam [passerinam?[14]] florem {candidam} <candidum> ferentem, huic anagallidum connubio retulerunt, (diviserat autem in marem, et faeminam, {hunc} <illum> flore puniceo, {illam} <hanc> caeruleo[15]) illius virilis, faemineique sexus devortium facientes.

Pimpernel or chickweed - Anagallis arvensis, Common pimpernel (USA), Poor man’s weatherglass (UK) - is also called grassagallina by Mattioli, but Jacques Daléchamps could reprove him because of this, since he thinks this name is suitable for alsine alone. However Jean Ruel, who is a Frenchman as well, calls the pimpernel morgeline in French, or hen-bite, when he also writes that are in error those who attached to this marriage of pimpernels what has been commonly translated as mouron or papaverina – passerina? - which bears a snow-white flower (for he had divided them into male and female, the former with a bright red flower, the latter with a blue one) making its separation into a masculine and feminine sex.

Ornithogalum a lacteo Gallinarum colore, ut vult idem Ruellius[16], nomen accepisse videtur, quod flores intus lacteo colore niteant, nisi quis sentiat, inquit Dalechampius, ab ovi candidi figura, quam radix prae se fert, dictum: nam avicularum ova imitatur, intus albissima. Arbitratur autem eiusmodi candorem in alis Gallinarum renitere: quod sane non intelligo, quoniam plurimae atrae sunt totae, multae alterius coloris, in quibus profecto nihil candoris reperias: si vero de candidis loquitur, cur in alis potius, quam in aliis partibus candor ille magis reniteat. Videndum an a candore albuminis ovi cocti, praesertim cum id lac Gallinae a quibusdam peritis putetur, Anaxagorae, Alcmaeoni Crotoniati, ut Aristoteles citat[17], atque magno Hippocrati: etsi eiusmodi alioquin opinionem ceu erroneam antea[18] refellerim ex Aristotele dum ait: Animalibus viviparis cibus, qui lac vocatur, in mammis parentis paratus est. Sed contra quam homines putant et Alcmaeon Crotoniates ait. Non enim albumen ovi lac est, sed vitellus. Hic enim pullis pro cibo est: illi albumen pro cibo esse existimant propter coloris affinitatem.

The ornithogalum - star-of-Bethlehem - seems to have received its name from the milky color of hens, as Jean Ruel himself is thinking, because the flowers shine inside with a milky white color, unless one feels, says Daléchamps, that it is so called from the shape of a white egg which its root is showing: for it imitates birdies’ eggs and is very white inside. For - Ruel? - thinks that such a shining whiteness gleams in the wings of hens: to say the truth I cannot understand this since most of them are entirely black, many of another color, in which surely you would find no whiteness: but if he speaks of white ones, one cannot understand why that whiteness should gleam rather in wings more than in other parts. We must take into consideration whether it gets its name from the whiteness of the albumen of a cooked egg, especially since this is considered to be the hen’s milk by some experts, in Anaxagoras, Alcmaeon of Croton, as Aristotle quotes, and in the great Hippocrates: although I have previously confuted as erroneous an opinion of this sort, quoting from Aristotle when he says: The food, which is called milk, by viviparous animals is prepared in the breasts of the parent. But contrary to what men think and Alcmaeon of Croton says. For the albumen is not the milk of the egg, but milk is the yolk. For this acts as a food for chicks: those learned men think the albumen acts as a food because of similarity in color.