!68 



HA RD WICKE'S SCIENCE- G OSSIF. 



indeed that were the theory true, the wheat plant 

 would have been extirpated ; but upon the contrary, 

 he neither heard complaints made by the farmers of 

 the prevalence of mildew there, nor did he ever hear 

 them suggest any connection between it and the 

 barberry. 



It is worthy of note, loo, that few districts have 

 suffered more severely from mildew this year than the 

 fen country between Cambridge and Lynn, where 

 the barberry is almost an unknown plant. 



These experiments were carried on by me perfectly 

 impartially, as I have no interest either one way or 

 the other in the controversy. Certainly my experi- 

 ments are distinctly against the theory that the 

 barberry fungus is a state of the wheat mildew ; and 

 I must, in common with the majority of my British 

 mycological colleagues, decline to accept the 

 hetercecism of Puccinia graniiiiis as not proved. 



BOTANICAL ETYMOLOGY. 



THE other day I came across a work written five- 

 and-thirty years ago by one Talbot, containing 

 etymological truths and speculations, both interesting 

 and instructive. Amongst others were several 

 respecting botanical names, and I have extracted the 

 following as being worthy of note. 



Ash tree, — usual derivation /Esc, A.-S. an ash, has 

 relation also to hasta, a spear, as spear handles were 

 generally made of ash wood. yEsc may also mean a 

 spear. 



Asparagus, — may have been spear grass, for the 

 plant comes up like a multitude of little spears. 



Dove Carnation, — not from its scent is it so called, 

 but from the petals being so remarkably cloven ; as 

 clover grass is so called from the division of its 

 leaves into three. 



Penny-royal, — a corruption of its old name puliall 

 royal), so that the modernised should really be poly- 

 royal. 



Gooseberry, — German plants of this genus are 

 named Johannis beeren, because the fruit is ripe about 

 the feast of St. John. In Low Germany the name is 

 Jan^ beeren, corrupted into Gans beeren, and then 

 lite-rally translated Gooseberries. 



Pansy, — not from pensee, although a beautifully 

 poetical name, but from panacea. Amongst the 

 Greeks it was a most celebrated herb curing all woes, 

 the heartache amongst others — hence its synonym in 

 English, heart's-ease. 



Houseleek, — a corruption of houseleaf Its German 

 name is hauslaub. The plan has no resemblance to a 

 leek. 



Fern, — the usual derivation is from A.-S. faran, to 

 go, as its spores, when concealed about the person, 

 enaVjle one to wander invisible. Our author how- 

 ever jirefcrs the derivatio offer, a northern .vord for 



feather, applied to the plant on account of the shape- 

 of its fronds. 



Mustard, — from the Spanish mastuerzo, carelessly 

 pronounced mustort. Mastuerzo in its turn is cor- 

 rupted from nasturtium, a plant nearly allied to 

 mustard, and nasturtium is derived from nasus, the 

 nose, and wort, a plant (an inadmissible hybridism) ;. 

 the word thus means nose plant, a very descriptive 

 name. I believe however the true derivation of the 

 word is nasus and torqueo, tortus, or nose-twister,, 

 from its pungent qualities. 



Vetch, — from vicium, a Latin word often used in 

 tlie sense of a weed. It injures and disfigures crops 

 in the same way as vices disfigure and blemish the 

 moral world. 



Rue or Herb of Grace, — the latter name from the 

 resemblance of the former to Rood or Holy Cross. 



Southern Wood, — has nothing to do with the south, 

 and affords no particular kind of wood, as it is only a 

 low shrub. The old English name is suthe-wurt or 

 soothing wort, so called from its possessing a soporific 

 quality. 



Wagbread, — an old name for plantain. Has 

 nothing to do with bread. The German is wege- 

 tritt, i.e. way tread, from the plant being trodden; 

 underfoot by the wayside. 



Wolfsbane, — the ultimate syllable of course indi- 

 cates poison ; but as this plant would not affect wolves 

 in particular, whence have we the first word of the 

 compound ? Our author gets at it thus. All 

 poisonous herbs were called banes in the ancient 

 German ; and this was called white bane to distin- 

 guish it from aconite or blue bane. Some Greeks 

 who understood a little German (showing how a little 

 learning is a dangerous thing), mistook this word for 

 beans (bohnen), hence the plant was called in Greek 

 the white bean. The error of calling it a bean was 

 perceived by the acute retranslators, who restored the 

 bane ; but at the same time they read leukos, white, 

 as though it were lukos, wolf, and so rendered the 

 name wolfsbane, as it remains to this day. Which 

 tale is of course to be received qicantum valeat. 



F. H. Habben, B.A. 



Tree Frogs. — When I was at Cannes two years 

 ago, in company with a pupil of mine, we found- 

 scores of tree frogs, and brought a few home with us. 

 They are alive and flourishing still. We find they 

 require no food in the winter, for being provided with 

 sufficient depth of soil they will bury themselves. If 

 however any of the party refuse to go below, we 

 provide him with an occasional meal worm — or 

 common earth worm will do. Care must be taken, 

 that only small worms be given. If your correspon- 

 dent has a greenhouse, he may turn the frogs loose 

 in it in summer and feel no further concern about 

 their food, for they will forage for themselves, and the 

 greenhouse (or rather the plants) will not regret the 

 exiic:- ment. — 'John R wr. 



