37S OP BARBAROUS NAMES. 



Tamardi which, independent of barbarisnij 

 ought to have been preferred to the very con- 

 iined one of Nelumbo. In Hke manner the 

 Bamboo, Arundo Bambos of Linnaeus, prov- 

 ing a distinct genus, has received the appella- 

 tion of Bambusa, though Jussieu had already 

 given it that of Nasfus from Dioscorides*. 

 Perhaps the barbarous name of some very 

 local plants, when they cannot possibly have 

 been known previously by any other, and 

 w^hen that name is harmonious and easily re- 

 concileable to the Latin tongue, may be ad- 

 mitted, as that of the Japan shrub Aucuha ; 

 but such a word as Ginkgo is intolerable. 

 The Roman w riters, as Caesar, in describing 

 foreign countries, have occasionally latinized 

 some words or names that fell in their way, 

 which may possibly excuse our making 

 Ailanthus of Aijlanto, or Fandamts of Pan- 



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

 applied as that of Cyamus, because IV<z5/m5 originally be- 

 longed to '"' a reed with a solid stem/* 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. 



