THE PLANT WORLD. 107 



in the ed^e of the iiond in the centre of that town and showed it to 

 Mr. Chas. Mohr, who was there also. Neither he nor I nor Dr. (iray, 

 to whom I sent specimens, could guess its identity, there beinpf no 

 vestige of flowers or fruit. Three years ago I revisited the localit}^, 

 hut the nameless plant had disappeared. 



On the eastern coast of Fk^irida. at })oints a hundred miles apart, 

 I have found an epiphytic orchid which remains nameless for the same 

 reason. 



As this may be considered a sul)iect not deserving much space 

 I will not enlarge on it further than by describing a curious incident 

 of my botanical experience in Piedmont, Virginia. Two years before 

 niv removal to Florida (in 187i-'>) I came across a vig-^rous youns^ tree 

 which 1 cruld not identify, there being no flowers or fruit and the 

 foliage l)eing strange to me. I sent specimens of it to three of the 

 most eminent botanists of that time asking their opinions. One 

 guessed Quercus, another Ilex, and the third Ericaceae. The last 

 proved to be the correct guess, for the tree came into flower the next 

 year, and J saw at a glance that it was a narrow leaved 0,rt/de)u//-//m 

 a/'hoi'rt'/H, a tree a!)undant there and (jnite uniform as to foliage. I 

 never revisited the locality, but have often wondered whether that was 

 the beginning of a new species or the end of an old one, or only an 

 accidental variation. But what of the outcome of such accidents^ 



ETYMOLOGY OF COLUMBINE. 

 By C. .F. Saunders. 



THE deriviation of the word Columbine has been the subject of 

 considerable speculation, and does not appear to have ever been 

 surely solved. That it was from the Latin word cohnnha, a 

 dove, is o-enerallv assumed: but iust what the connection is between 

 the bird and the flower constitutes the rub. Under the word cohmihine, 

 Wei)ster*s dictionary says "so called from beaklike spurs of the 

 flowers". Prior, in his authoritative "Popular Names of the English 

 Plants*', elaborating on the same idea, attributes the name to the re- 

 semblance of the plant's "nectaries to the heads of ])igeons in a ring 

 round a disk, a favorite device of ancient artists". The Century dic- 

 tionary adopts this explanation in its entirety: and Britten c^c HoHand, 

 authors of an exhaustive "Dictionary of English IMant names", 

 cannily avoid the issue by venturing no explanation whatever. 

 ir"^\The idea of "pigeons in a ring round a disk" is not very convinc- 

 inof, and it w'ould be interesting to know if anyone has suo;crested a 



