THE PLANT WORLD 175 



tliese sliade-loviug plants. The Betula leiita, DierviUa trifida and 

 Pin us Sfrohus are much beyond their usual range. If this patch of woods 

 were not protected by a fence and the broken detritus of rocks, these 

 stations would soon disappear. 



THE ETYMOLOGY OF COLUMBINE, 



By E. J. HiLi.. 



IN some former issues of the The Plant Wokld (July, 1900, February 

 1901), this subject was discussed. In the first article, by C. F. Saun- 

 ders, objection was made to the etymology commonly found in 

 standard English dictionaries, where it is based on the resemblance of 

 the nectaries or spurred petals to a ring of pigeons around a dish, a 

 common device of ancient artists. A deviation from the Latin noun 

 columbarium, a dove-cote, was suggested, because, as he views them, the 

 five round openings, or mouths of the funnel-shaped petals, resemble a 

 dove-cote. The second article, by Dr. E. L. Greene, gives the etymology 

 generally acknowledged from the Latin adjective, columbinus, " pertain- 

 ing to doves or pigeons." But an application to the dove's foot rather 

 than to its head and neck is preferred, analogous to the deviation of 

 Aquilegia from aquila, the eagle, the petals being curved at the end like 

 the claws of that bird. Reference is made to Pes columbinus, or dove's- 

 foot, the name of a geranium among old authors, which Linnaeus has 

 preserved in Geranium columbinum, a plant of Europe and Northern 

 Asia. It is suggested that some pre-Linnaean writer maj^ have applied 

 this name to the columbine, in allusion to the curved or claw- like petals. 

 The etymology is one that seems to rest on the history and use of 

 the term. No reference being made of such use of the noun columbarium, 

 it may remain, as given, a suggestion of Mr. Saunders. In the Portuguese 

 tongue there is one which favors the statement of Dr. Greene, in which 

 Pes columbinas is a name of the herva aquilegia, (herb Aquilegia). But 

 as far as opportunity has i3ermitted the examination of pre-Linnaean 

 writers on botany, no such use of Pes columbinus has been found. A 

 very strong clue to the extent of its use may be seen in the Pinax Theatri 

 Botanici of Caspar Bauhin. It was published at Basel, in 1623, and 

 shows a very careful survey of the literature of botany down to his time, 

 so that it has remained a classic in its way. It is a list or index of 

 plant names and their synonyms found in the ancient classical and 

 modern writers upon botany previous to his era, and comprises about 

 six thousand names of plants. There is no citation of Pes columbinus 

 used for any i^lant except the geranium, chieflj', as Bauhin groups them, 

 the mallow-leaved geranium {Geranium malvaefolium). The Pes colum- 



