9G 
r 
medicine,' because it was employed to heal wounds; and also cotnalpatli, 
' spleen-medicine,' in reference to a medical use. A regional name 
of pinipiniche was also used for this same plant. Other instances are 
explained where a classificatory name, and one indicating the use or 
properties of the plant existed. Hernandez has recorded 3,000 
names of plants, of vvhich 250 are in the Tarascan language. The 
remainder are Mexican, and, as a great many of these were originally 
found in the Mexican domain proper, where the Nahuatl language 
prevailed, the author concludes that the Mexicans in their marauding 
expeditions had observed and named them, and had also studied 
them m the gardens which they maintained for alien plants on the 
central plateau. Our author says that they availed themselves of 
comparisons between exotics and their indigenous plants, and "then, 
taking a plant with a known name as a type, and using the same 
name with a qualifying and expressive termination, appHed it to 
another that was analogous or similar." 
In glossology the Nahuans had reached a very considerable 
elaboration of descriptive and classificatory terms. Thus, in general, 
their termmology for plant-forms included the following: quauhuitl, 
tree, xihidtl* '\^tx\' zxi6. quaquauhtzin,' ^YiXMh: Copalquauhuitl, 
the copal-tree,' was a tree-like terebinth; copalxihuitl, 'copal-herb,' 
was an herbaceous labiate; micaquauhuitl,ihQ 'corpse-tree,' was an ar- 
borescent Convolvulad; and micaxihiiitl, 'herb of the dead,' 2iLobelia.\ 
Tic vf^^s used as a suffix signifying the 'form of,' like the Greek eiSo?; 
as c/itc/iiafi/ic, 'like chian;' and this particle was constantly used in 
plant-names to indicate affinity or resemblance. The nature of the 
mediuni in which the plant grew was also considered in its nomencla- 
ture; thus ai/, 'water,' was represented by the prefix a before the 
rest of the plant's name. If the stem of the plant was serpentine and 
nexible, a special term was employed, while the prostrate and recum- 
bent positions were expressly recognized. The writer cites many 
examples of the application of these terms, and enters into an analy- 
sis ot the expressive Mexican names for plants, one of which is in 
part a specific description, viz. : tepelioilacapitzxochitl, or, translated, 
an ornamental plant which grows in mountainous places, tall, and 
knotty and slim.J The author continues in an interesting enumera- 
tion ot the Indian terms for other characters of the stem, as its 
siirtace length, thickness, coloration, composition, form, and dura- 
Dimy,all displaying a surprising minuteness of descriptive termi- 
Ihe Mexicans used fournames for leaves: 7naill, atlapalli, amat- 
lapalli and tzhuatl. The first of these terms arose from an interesting 
Xthuitl IS a generic term for herb, and quilitl for an edible one. To the 
above termniology sliould be added the words so frequently found in Aztec plant- 
names: xochitl, 'flower,' ■xocotl, sour 'fruit,' and tzapotl, sweet 'fruit' (whence Sp. 
sapote and the name of the order Sapotacea;.)— Ed. 
\ Lobelia acuminata; called also viicaxocJiitl, ' flower of the dead,' from its use 
in restoring epileptics to consciousness.— Ed. ' , 
; this interpretation by the Spanish writer is very erroneous. The word 
means, hterally, 'mountain flute-flower.'— Ed. 
