60 
r 
with a crest'), the Greek name for the crested lark, transferred to 
Fumaria bullosa^ L. {Corydalis- cava^ Schweigg.), from a fancied re- 
semblance of its flower to the crest of that bird. Hence also one of 
the Ger. names for the same plant, lerchenhebn, 
Alyssum. — "Gr. a^ privative, \vaaa ^rage;' supposed bj the 
ancients to allay anger/' (Wood.) ** Gr. akv06oj^ *to be mad,' from 
its being supposed to cure mental maladies." (Eaton.) "Greek 
name of a plant reputed to check the hiccups, as the etymology [^, 
privative, and lu^oa] denotes." (Gray.) At least two plants were 
anciently called aXvaaov, That of Dioscorides has been identified 
as Farsetia dypeata, R. Br., and that of Galen as Marrubium Alys- 
sum, L. The plant mentioned by Galen is said by him to have been 
so called from its being good for the bite of a mad dog, and the same 
ViNCETOXICUM. 
Ma 
officinale 
m 
which this name was originally applied, was once held in some re- 
pute m Germany as an antidote to poison, and was known to materia 
medica as Contrayerva Germanorum. Hence the popular and Lat. 
names: Eng. tame- poison, Fr. dompte-venin, Ger. wider^ 
'Vtncefoxicum {homvincere 2in6. foxicum). 
Lythrum.— From Gr. Xvdpov^ 'clotted blood;' not, as usually 
stated,_in all botanical works, from the color of the flowers, but from 
the original species {Lythrum Salicaria, L.) having, on account of 
his astringency, been used to arrest hemorrhages. 
Use of Spines in Cactuses.— Our brethren across the water, 
assumingthat thorns are simply for protection in a military sense, 
are exercising themselves in their serials over the spiny leaves of the 
holly. When young and vigorous, /. e., in early life, the teeth are 
very spiny; when the tree is aged and the branches then a distance 
above the surface of the ground, losing vigor, the spines are weak or 
absent. Sir John Lubbock and others, following the r-~' c^-^i^-' 
purposes 
When 
withm the reach of animals, spines are borne, when high up where 
animals cannot reach, spines are unnecessary. Numbers of species 
ot plants have mucronate points to the leafy serrature, which are 
wanting in maturer years. It is at any rate difficult to 'imagine why 
a sharp point should be made especially for protection, and points 
less sharp for no protective use at all. 
I have often reflected on the fact referred to by Dr. Newberry, 
that our thorniest plants are in much greater proportion in places 
where animal life is scarce, and the immense police force sustained 
by the great vegetable community absolutely thrown away. Cactuses 
and other thorny things I have seen covered with thorns and spines 
on deserts where the hot air seemed to be bounding up and 
down like the surging ocean, and where not even a lizard could 
nave dared to show its face. Thorns cannot be, so I have thought, 
for protection where the climate gives all the protection desired. I 
am not one who doubts that nature has a purpose in every move she 
makes, but the main purposes I think we seldom reach, and that we 
