178 THE PLANT WOKLD 



ORIGIN OF PLANT NAMES. 



By Grace Stoddard Niles. 

 U HISTORY- Continued. 



Among some of tlie terms applied to tlie parts of a plant may be 

 cited acinus, denoting the whole fruit of the grape, juice, grains and 

 stones. Viuaeeis denotes the outer skin, while racemus is used to des- 

 ignate a bunch of grapes, or a cluster of fruit of other vines. Radix 

 becomes root, applied to the lower part of a shinib or plant , Caiidex 

 becomes stem, and is that part of a tree or plant rising above the soil or 

 roots. Folium becomes leaf, and clothes or adorns a tree or plant ; Jios 

 becomes flower, not clearly defined, but includes the perianth of a flower 

 entire. Corolla becomes the flower's petals, and calyx, sepals, is the 

 outer cup or sheath inclosing the blossoms of trees or plants. The 

 stamina and apices, signifying anthers and pistils, were not fully under- 

 stood by him, and he remarked that they " arise like threads from the 

 herb's depth of the blossom within the calyx.'' Julus became catkin and 

 is that part of the flower hanging down, as in the walnut, mapel, mul- 

 berry, beech and chestnut trees. Fructus becomes fruit, or ovary and 

 ovules. Thus originated the names of the structural parts of plants in 

 part. 



The use of dried plants for study was advocated by Luca Chini, and 

 his pupils, Aldrovandi and Cesalpino, directors of the garden at Bologna, 

 are said to have formed the Jirst herbaria, in the modern sense of the term. 

 The name " herhariiuii," however, before the sixteenth century denoted 

 a book of plants instead of dried or pressed specimens of living species. 

 Tournefest, as late as 1719, called his work " Institutiones Res Herhareae,'' 

 a book of plants. One of the first extant herhariua of dried species was 

 formed by Ratzenberger in 1559, discovered in the museum at Cassel, 

 and described by Kessler. 



Mathias Lobelius, in 1576, and Dr. Rembert Dodoens, 1555-1578, 

 approached a natural system with order of arrangement of species, and 

 although neither produced such an order, they appear to have been 

 guided by instinct for natural affinity of forms of leaves and flowers, and 

 associated unconsciously several species and genera according to the 

 law of nature and habitat. Caspar Bauhin about this time also was 

 working upon the classification of plants and their nomenclature. His 

 researches may well be considered scientific in the sense of the word. 

 In his " Prodromus Theatri Botanici,'' 1620, he noticed all parts of a 

 I)lant with all possible briefness and order. Every plant with him has 

 a generic and specific name, especially in his " Pinaxy Although a 

 third or fourth auxiliary may be observed to the second or specific des- 

 ignation, in part explaining size, color or habitat; as for instance 



