froglets

it's an observation that's often made: when one has spent most of one's adult years in a "foreign" country, one does some things for the first time in a non-english-language environment. i gave birth, for instance, here in holland, and could not for the life of me tell my mother how the delivery had progressed: i simply did not know the english words.
and when i immersed myself briefly, years ago, in the pleasures of gardening, the classes i took and the nurseries i visited enriched my dutch horticultural vocabulary enormously - but don't ask me what these yellow* blossoms are called in english.
maybe there is no english translation, just the latin:"ranunculus" which my webster's annotes, "lit. small frogs". now why would that be?
*theme thursday