372 OF BARBAROUS NAMES. 



Tamard, which, independent of barbarism? 

 ought to have been preferred to the very con- 

 fined one of Nelumbo. In like manner the 

 Bamboo, Arundo Bambos of Linmjeus, prov- 

 ing a distinct genus, has received the appella- 

 tion of Bambusa, though J ussieu had already 

 given it that of Nastns from Dioscorides *. 

 Perhaps the barbarous name of some very 

 local plants, when they cannot possibly have 

 been known previously by any other, and 

 when that name is harmonious and easily re- 

 concileable to the Latin tongue, may be ad- 

 mitted, as that of the Japan shrub Aticaba; 

 but such a word as Ginkgo is intolerable. 

 The Roman writers* as Caesar, in describing 

 foreign countries, have occasionally latinized 

 some words or names that fell in their way, 

 which may possibly excuse our making 

 Ailanthns of Aylanto, or Pandanus of Pan- 



* It is not indeed clear that this name is so correctly- 

 applied as that of Cyamus, because Nastus originally be- 

 longed to " a reed with a solid stern/' perhaps a palm ; 

 but not being wanted, nor capable of being correctly 

 used, for the latter, it may very well serve for the Bam- 

 boo. There is no end of raking up old uncertainties 

 about classical names, 



