THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 103 



a stmthcrn botanist who discovered the plants since called 

 Lcavcmvorthia. Berteroo is iur Carlo Gnisepi)e Bertero a 

 Picdmontese botanist, Neslia is named for J. A. N. de Nestle 

 of Poitiers and Conrinyia is for Prof. II. Conring of Helni- 

 stedt. Count F. G. de Bray of Roiten is honored by Bray a. 



In contrast to generic names in other families, though 

 quite natural under the circumstances, none of our cruiferous 

 genera is named for the appearence of the flowers. The 

 nearest we come to it is in Hcspcris, the name of the dame's 

 violet which means evening and alludes to the fact that the 

 flowers give off their perfume then. There is also lodanthes 

 which is literally violet-colored flower. 



Names referring to the seed-pods are numerous. Our 

 familiar shepherd's purse has a generic name, Capsclla, which 

 is the diminutive of capsa, a box. Our word capsule comes 

 from tile same source. The flat pods of the plants in the 

 genus riilaspi account for this name from Greek meaning to 

 crush. Silciiia and Lnnaria both refer to the moon, the first 

 being from the Greek and the second the Latin. Here the 

 round flat moonlike pods gave origin to the names. Dipio- 

 ta.vis is from the Greek and alludes to the two-ranked seeds 

 and Lepidiiun means a little scale, which the small seed-pods 

 resemble. Whether Lobulus meaning "a little lobe" refers to 

 the "two-lobed hairs" is a question. It may have originally 

 referred to the capsules which in so many species are lobed. 



From the Arabic comes Arabis and Ccikilc. Brassica is 

 the Latin name for the cabbage which is said to have been 

 originally the Celtic hressig. Sisymbrium is an old Latin 

 name for certain species of mustard and Camclina is the 

 Greek for "dwarf flax" (chamac-linum). Dcntaria is froni 

 the Latin dens, "a tooth." in reference to the toothed projec- 

 tions on the root-stocks of some species. Coronopiis means 



