BULLETIN 
OF THE 
TORREY BOTANICAL CLUB 
Vol. Xll.l New York, Jnne, 1885/ [No. 6 
Some Notes on Generic Names. 
By W. R. Gerard. 
Aquilegia. — "We 
• . . , is derived from aquila, an ' eagle/ because of the fancied 
hkeness of the flower to that bird. . . . However, to be a little 
critical, though aquiU might do very well tor ' eagle/ the egia would 
puzzle the etymological genius of Cicero himself. There is, however, 
a good Latin word, agiiilegtis, meaning 'collecting water'; and Pliny 
tells us that well-sinkers were called by the Romans aqidlcgcs — /. ^., 
water collectors'; and who has not noticed the water-collecting 
habit of the curly leaves of the columbine, when they are covered 
with silver drops after a shower of spring? Would it not be more 
respectful to the intelligence of the giver of the name to believe that 
It was intended in this sense ? ... I do not claim to have made 
any new discovery about the word Aquilegia^ my surprise is that any 
one knowing Latin could ever have given it any other meaning tlian 
that which I have given; but, on looking into different books, I find 
that all but one, which explain the name at all, explain why the 
plant is 'very like an eagle,' even including the lexicon of that ad- 
niirable scholar, Littre, under ancoUe, the modern French form of 
Aquilegia. The Penny Cyclopedia alone of books I have consulted 
explains Aquilegia as 'water-gatherer.'" Rev. C. Wolley Dod, in 
Gardeners' Chronicle^ June 9th, 1883, pp. 719, 7^0. 
In addition to the etymology proposed by Mr. Dod, and to the one 
universally given in botanical works, there is still another, which 
would derive the word from Aquileia, or Aquilegia, a Roman city on 
the confines of Italy, in the vicinity of which the columbine grows in 
great abundance. 
In order to obtain the true meaning of any word it is necessary 
to first ascertain its earliest recorded form. This, in the case of the 
one under consideration, is aquilea, and is found in the works of 
Albertus Magnus (13th century). This old author, in speaking of 
the form that the flower assumes in different plants, says: **Aut 
enuii pra3tendit obscuram quandam convenientiam cum avis figura, 
^icut flos oleris qui vocatur aquilea, eo quod quatuor aquilas flos ejus 
figiirare videtur;" and, further along: " aliquid autem simile hujus 
habet flos urtice mortu^ et vioLne, nisi quod alas avis non ita exprimit 
sicut aquilear (Parva Naturalia, p. 381.) From this it appears that 
Albertus regarded the Latin name of the columbine as due to an ob- 
scure resemblance of its petals to the luings of an eagle— and not of its 
spurs to. the talons of that bird, as explained by some, or to the beak, 
as suggested by others. He probably had never seen the plant, but 
