THE PLANT WOELD 219 



ORIGIN OF PLANT NAMES.* 



By Grace Niles. 

 in. THE COLUMBINE. 



THE demand of the general public to dispense with technical names 

 in the pages 6i nature books is evidently a sign that the popular 

 interest is but a passing fancy on the part of flower lovers, since 

 they care not for the hidden story beyond the common names, which in 

 reality originate the Greek and Latin designations, so full of classical 



beauty. 



" The poetical mystery of the flower 



That sleeps in the origin of its name, 



Is like the hidden roots of Ovid's lily, 



That nourishes its fragrance, and feeds its flame." 



The ancients referred to the lilies as pure white like those original 

 roses of earth. Ovid's lily, known also as Martagon and in Latin Lilium 

 rubrum or rusnm, bore from twenty to thirty flowers of a rich orange-red 

 or blood color. Ovid wrote that Apollo and the boy Hyacinthus were 

 playing, when Apollo, by misfortune, threw the youth. The grass and 

 herbs about thus became sprinkled with the child's innocent blood, 

 whereupon Apollo immediately commanded that flowers arise ; and 

 Earth brought forth a flower resembling a white lily save that it was red 

 or ruby toned, which Apollo perpetuated as Hyacinthus, afterward known 

 as Martagon and Lilium rusum. The pure white lily of the ancient 

 Grecians was known as Rosa Junonis and Lilium album, or in French 

 as Lys blanc, which became in English our Easter lily of to-day. It was 

 very beautiful and fragrant, likened to a cathedral bell, " out of which 

 there groweth a long triangular stem in the center, surrounded by six 

 small tongues like to the clappers of a bell." 



Constantine wrote of this lily and remarks that Jupiter desired to 

 make his infant Hercules immortal, and thus took him to nurse his 

 sleeping wife Juno. The infant Hercules having received his portion of 

 immortal life fell asleep and Jupiter departed with his son. Yet the 

 immortalizing life of the slumbering Juno flowed on and was spilt in 

 heaven, falling upon the skies, whereof the sign and marks remain even 

 to-day in the " milky way " that flows through the heavens from north 

 to south. The rest fell upon earth, and from it there sprang up these 

 pure and immortalized Easter lilies, milky-white in color, that indeed 

 seem descended from heaven ! 



The origin of columbine and honeysuckle are deserving of inter- 

 est. Indeed, there are many curious attempts made by botanists to get 

 at the truth of " what's in a name !" 



Professor Greene and Mr. Saunders, in former issues of The Plant 



* Continued from October issue. 



