78 • Rhodora [April 



we find a reference to a quite nire genus of fresh water, Thorea; it is 

 doubtful if the phmt the author had in mind really belongs to this 

 genus; but the reference is not without interest in another way. The 

 genus is noted, p. 760, as follows: — "Thoree, Thorea, Bory. (Allu- 

 sion au (lieu Thor des Scandinaves, qu'on repres^ntait velu, corame 

 les rameaux de cette plante.)" Such curious derivations of botanical 

 names are not unknown, but a reference to the original description by 

 Bory de St. Vincent, Annales du Museum, Vol. XII, p. 126, 1808, 

 shows a dedication to the discoverer. Dr. Thore, of the town of Dax, 

 an excellent botanist, author of a local flora, etc. Now nothing is 

 more common than neglecting to look up the original description of a 

 plant you are discussing, but what a powerful imagination the Abb6 

 Provancher must have had; or did he have some trusted but untrust- 

 worthy friend, with no respect for the cloth? 



Another case of quite a different character, where an originally 

 romantic name is reduced to most ordinary prose, can be found in 

 connection with the genus Pandorina. All algologists know the 

 Sylloge Algarum of De Toni; a compilation in systematic order of 

 the descriptions of all recognized species of algae, with references and 

 synonyms. It is a book that no working algologist can be without, 

 and indeed, it is a most useful index; the plan is excellent, but there 

 are so many inaccuracies, that one sometimes is reminded of the 

 remark of the ancient Roman about the women; "there is no living 

 without them, nor with them." 



The work is in Latin, and the derivation of Pandorina is given, 

 "pas, totus, dora, vestis detracta." The original description is not 

 easy to find, being in the Encyclopedic INIethodique, published in 

 various series with all sorts of titles and subtitles; it is in the Histoire 

 Naturelle de Zoophytes, vol. II, p. 600, 1824, and translated, reads, 

 "Genus of microscopic organisms, type of the singular family of 

 Pandorinae, in the order of the Gymnopodinae. The living mole- 

 cules of which are composed the beings that we here include, are 

 contained in a common envelope, within which they dwell, either 

 independent of each other, or else in motile groups, still in the inte- 

 rior of the common envelope. This common envelope reveals, by its 

 transparency, the strange mysteries of an organization where each 

 individuality persists; that is to say, where the molecule seems to 

 exercise a life of its own, while at the same time it co-operates in the 

 general life. But as, when the box of Pandora opened to spread over 



