254 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 54 



part of this line, comprising palm, olive, and bay, one would not dare 

 either affirm or deny that these three had been botanically con- 

 nected in the author's mind by their drupaceous fruits. 



Repeatedly does he bring together two types in every way 

 dissimilar for the sole reason that their names are practically the 

 same ; this of course in condescension to those who, in looking for a 

 given plant under a certain name may find that and its homonyms 

 all in one place. Thus at the end of the buttercups does he locate 

 the herb called Coronopus ( = Plantago Coronopus) . It would be 

 irrational to require of Tragus that he should have referred this to 

 the genus Plantago. The floral structure which connects them 

 could never have been seen until after the invention of hand lenses at 

 least. The leaves of this Coronopus are cut into narrow and remote 

 pinnated segments and beset with bristly hairs ; on the whole as far 

 from plantain leaves in form as imaginable. The form of these 

 leaves had procured for the plant the name coronopus, Greek for 

 crowfoot, and that very anciently. Ranunculus had also for a 

 second Latin name Pescorvi, the exact equivalent of the Greek 

 coronopus and English crowfoot. Because they had the same name 

 our author placed side by side these different plants. He did the 

 like with the labiate that was usually called Hedera terrestris, that 

 is, ground ivy, locating it next the true ivy, Hedera Helix, as well 

 aware as any one ever was that there is no consanguinity between 

 them ; but this disposal of it would suit the convenience of those 

 untaught in better classification. 



Nomenclature. No special attention is given to nomenclature 

 by this author. He follows the usages of antiquity and of his own 

 period, yet in ways of his own by which it comes to pass that he 

 illustrates those usages uncommonly well. We have already 

 observed that such family names as Umbelliferae, Cichoriaceae, 

 Carduaceae, Legumina for the leguminous plants, and Malvae, for 

 the malvaceous had been in familiar use time out of mind. Tragus 

 essays the addition of a few new terms of that kind to comprehend 

 other groups of genera ; but these have not been successful ; and the 

 cause of their failure will readily be seen. He proposed the name 

 Serpentariae 1 for that group of trailing, twining, and climbing herbs 

 referred to above as embracing Convolvulus, Humulus, Clematis, and 

 others; both the outlining and the naming of it being made, cu- 

 riously enough, just at a time when taxonomists even Tragus him- 

 self foremost among them began to depend less upon the texture 



1 Stirp. Comm. t p. 798. 



