628 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XV. 



French rather than direct from our Celtic neighbours ; and almost the 

 only name we have borrowed from them is shamrock, meaning literally 

 little trefoil. 



It only remains for us now to go further abroad, and enquire which of 

 our names have originated in languages spoken out of Europe. Some of 

 our favourite flowering plants have evidently been brought from Persian 

 gardens, for they bear Persian names, such as jasmine ; lilac, which 

 has reference to the bluish colour of the flower ; and tulip, which is 

 derived from the Persian word meaning turban ; and anyone who has 

 seen in an Eastern bazaar the rich effect produced by the gaily- coloured 

 head-dresses of the natives, will recoguise at once the force of the simile 

 which led to such a name being given to this rather gaudily-tinted flower. 

 The names ovange and lemon bear witness in like manner to the native 

 countries of those fruits, for they start originally from India. The latter 

 comes from a root meaning " to eat ", the former from two Sanscrit 

 words meaning ' tree ' and ' colour ', and this name was doubtless given 

 to the tree in allusion to the distinctive colour of the fruit, which has led, 

 in comparatively recent times, to the name of the fruit being given to 

 the colour. 



The earliest form of the name sycamore is probably found in the 

 Hebrew sikemali, whence it has passed to us through Greek, Latin 

 and French, changing, however, its application during the journey. 

 The Hebrew, Greek and Latin names indicate an entirely different tree 

 from that to which the title pertains in French and English, namely 

 a kind of fig, and it was up this tree that Zaccheus climbed. 



Turning lastly from the East to the West, we find that, since the 

 discovery of the New World, we have received some few names from 

 across the Atlantic, such as tomato, potato, tobacco, and maize : but 

 enough is not known of the Indian languages spoken in the parts of 

 America in which these names originated to enable us to ascertain their 

 primary descriptive meaning. 



With these American names I must now bring my long catalogue to 

 a close — not from any paucity of other names quite equal in interest to 

 those I have cited, but from a regard for your patience, which indeed I 

 fear may have been already overtried. I hope I may not have exhaust- 

 ed it, and wearied you by entering too much into detail : but you will 

 doubtless have seen that the subject is one which cannot be treated of 

 only generally. It requires considerable detail to explain and sufficient 



