yo The Scottish Naturalist. 



The Shallot (kind of Onion), is named after the Philistine city 

 Askalon, Greek } A<rx£kav i well-known to every Scripture-reader — 

 through French esclialote. 



Apple of Sodom (Solauum Sodomeum), fruit said to be " fair to 

 look upon " but full of rottenness, found near the Dead Sea. This 

 name is given more often to a larger gall of attractive aspect from 

 the same region. 



Ribsion Pippin, from Ribston in Yorkshire, where the first tree 

 of this variety was grown in England. 



Guelder-rose, from Gueldres, French spelling of the Dutch pro- 

 vince of Gelderland. 



The Sheen or Fothringham Plum, because cultivated by the 

 statesman Sir Wm. Temple at Sheen near Richmond, about 1700. 



The Quince is named after Cydonia in Crete, but the name has 

 undergone many changes before reaching us, beginning with the 

 Greek xv&u*lo$ ^rjXia, it has passed through Latin, Italian, and French 

 until it has assumed the name Quince (Trench : Study of Words). 



2nd. From places where plants abound : — 

 The House-leek, grown on roofs of houses. 



Aconite (Monkshood) Greek iv axovai;, i.e., on sharp, steep rocks. 

 Origan, wild marjoram, literally mountain-pride, from Greek op ; y 



mountain ; and ydvo;, beauty. 

 Heather, literally inhabitant of the heath. 

 Wall-flower, from preference for old walls. 

 Midden-mylies {Chenopodium viride), as growing on dunghills. 

 Carmylie Clover {Prunella vulgaris), called also Self-heal and 

 Heal-all, from its supposed medicinal virtues ; abundant 

 at Carmylie, near Arbroath, and wherever the land is 

 poor. This a purely local (Forfarshire) name, and con- 

 veys the popular opinion of the poverty of the Carmylie 

 land. 



IV. The fourth head is Native Names, or names that have been 

 given to plants either (1) by the early inhabitants of Britain, or (2) 

 in the countries whence the plants have come, and which they 

 have carried with them to their new homes. 



(1). Early British Names — most of our tree-names : — 



Aspen, Birch, Elm, Fir, Hazel, Honeysuckle, Oak, <xx. 



The Thorn is in Anglo-Saxon literally the Piercer (Sanskrit root, 

 tar, to tear.) 



The Apple, both in nature and in name is almost identical all 

 over the North of Europe. The Dutch, Swedes, and Germans 

 give it practically the same name as ourselves, and the Russians- 



