THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 115 



he found several plants of the genus in question. At the end 

 of the description in this latter work he says : "Lilio Narcis- 

 sus vocahiilm est confarcinatum quod rejicio. Flores hujus 

 generis eximii sunt, nescio nmn 2da par em hahet, hinc Bellae 

 donnae nomine transiit in proverhium de onini grato, et de se- 

 cunda specie apiid Hortulanos quosdom quae cum et radice 

 amara sit pro Amarella, Amaryllis. In the "Philosophia 

 Botanica" Linnaeus was called on to make his apologia for the 

 changes he made and he explains there many derivations of 

 words which our modern Manual makers have badly misinter- 

 preted. He himself, however, sometimes makes mistakes as in 

 the case of Sedum. On page 170 he says : "Nomina generica 

 poetica, Dearum ficta, Regum concerata, and promotor um 

 Botanices promerita retineo." In this list of poetical names 

 given in honor of mythological persons and deities also pro- 

 motors of botanical science he has the word Amaryllis. It 

 was for this reason, then, that Alphonso Wood that ardent and 

 clever American botanist and also A. Gray in his earlier works 

 had under Amaryllis the words "Dedicated to that nymph." 

 Taking these several quotations in connection we see that since 

 Linnaeus, as he says in the "Hortus Cliffortianus," must re- 

 ject the name Lilio Narcissus of the older botanists, and since 

 the flowers of the 'second plant he describes (i. e. Amaryllis 

 Bella donna) are so remarkable that they have no equal and 

 have been called Bella donna (i. e, "beautiful lady"), hence 

 all were called Bella Donna. The Bella donna of Vergil had 

 passed into proverb as significant of every good gift and since 

 of the second species (i. e. Amaryllis Bella donna) the roots 

 are bitter for the word Amarella (diminutive of "the bitter 

 one") we may use Amaryllis F The words of Linnaeus speak 

 for themselves. In general where the author gives a new 

 name or applies an otherwise obscure one he always explains 

 somewhere, or at least apologizes for his inability to explain 

 name derivations. We may say too that if our very recent 

 botanical name-tinkers looked into that gem of a book the 



