GREEK OR LATIN NAMES. 3 73 



dang. Still I can only barely tolerate such 

 names out of deference to the botanical me- 

 rits, not the learning, of their contrivers; 

 and I highly honour the zeal and correctness 

 of Mr. Salisbury, who, in defiance of all 

 undue authority, has ever opposed them, 

 naming Aucuba, on account of its singular 

 base or receptacle, Eubasis. I know not how 

 Pqndanus escaped his reforming hand, espe-? 

 cially as the plant has already a good cha- 

 racteristic Greek name in the classical Forster, 

 AthrodactijUs. 



Excellent Greek or Latin names are such 

 as indicate some striking peculiarity in the 

 genus: as Glycyrrhiza 9 a sweet root, for the 

 Liquorice; Amaranthus, without decay, for 

 an everlasting flower; Helianthus, a sun- 

 flower; Litkospermum, a stony seed; Erio- 

 calia*, a flower with a singularly woolly base 

 or cup ; Origanum, an ornamental mountain 

 plant; Hemerocallis, a beauty of a day; 



* When I named this genus in Exotic Botany, I was 

 not aware of its having previously been published by 

 M. Billardierc under the name of Actinotus ; a name 

 however not tenable in Botany, because it has long been 

 preoccupied in Mineralogy. 



