THE PLANT WOELD 31 



BRIEF ER ARTI CLES. 



Derivation of Columbine. 



At page 107 of tlie preceding volume of tliis journal are presented 

 some curious attempts on the part of lexicographers to get at the origin 

 of the name Columbine. In the opinion of the author, Mr. Saunders, 

 no acceptable explanation of its derivation has ever been given ; and to 

 my mind, his own suggestion about a dovecote, as being hinted at by 

 the columbine flower "when regarded full in the face," fails to com- 

 mend itself as meritorious above those which the lexicographers had 

 offered. 



A little simple and easy grammatical analysis of such a term may 

 be worth making. Columbine is, first of all, simply the English form 

 of a Latin adjective colimibiuus. There was, originally, a substantive 

 of wdiich this adjective was the modifier, and if this long-suppressed 

 noun could be discovered, w^e may say we should have an absolutely 

 certain clew to the derivation of columbine. 



In default of time for a thorough investigation of the early history 

 of the Aquilegias, I am unable to say whether or not that suppressed 

 substantive was ever printed. But I am sure it must have existed, if 

 only colloquially^ and at some time, perhaps very remote. I also infer 

 that the said substantive was, in Latin, pes, in English foot; and that 

 thus the real full name once used for the columbine was "dovefoot." 

 This I say is an inference, not a mere guess. The inference is drawn 

 from the fact that in another instance where the adjective columbinus 

 formed the jjart of a plant name, just this noun pes formed the other 

 part of that name. The species I have in mind is that for which Lin- 

 naeus perpetuated the old binary name of Geranium columhinum. Not 

 only this particular species, but a whole group of them, found mention 

 and description under the name, as much generic as specific, of Pes 

 columbinus, or Dovefoot. It is manifest to me that the elastically 

 curving mature carpels of the true geraniums reminded ancient observ- 

 ers of these plants of the claws of a bird ; and as the dove was the most 

 familiar of birds, the common wild geraniums obtained the name of 

 dovefoot. Doubtless also the curved and claw-like hollow petals of 

 Aquilegia caused this plant also to be designated dovefoot ; and I should 

 almost expect to find in some old books of pre-Linnaean botany, had I 

 time to look, the name Pes columbinus assigned to this plant also. 



What seems to render it quite certain that the bird's foot idea gave 

 the origin to columbine as here applied, is the circumstance, e%ddently 



