80 THE JOURNAL OP BOTANY 



" In Northumberland holly leaves were used for divining. It 

 was planted near houses to ward off lightning, as early as the days 

 of Pliny. Because it resembles the word ' holy ' it was reputed to 

 be inimical to witches. Holly wreathes [sic] were employed in 

 Eoman times at weddings. People used to cure their chilblains 

 by threshing [sic] them with holly leaves. The bark has been 

 used in place of cinchona, being astringent " (p. 82). 



It is difficult to imagine that unauthenticated scraps of this 

 kind — even if accurate, which we do not think is always the case — 

 can be of the slightest value to any serious student. The same 

 may be said of the scraps of verse — Shakespeare is misquoted on 

 p. 55 and Samuel Lover on p. 96 ; the dedications — there is no 

 authority for saying that Caltha " is called Marigold because it 

 was dedicated in mediaeval times to the Vii'gin Mary " ; snippets 

 from Gerard, "Baldur" (p. 141), and the like; and the references 

 to foreign species. 



A further example of padding is found in the space devoted to 

 the popular names of the species, which have been appropriated 

 wholesale from the Dictiojiary of English Plant-names. Mr. 

 Horwood has not even taken the trouble to consult the body of 

 that work: he has simply "lifted" from the index, in which all 

 the English names are conveniently placed under their Latin 

 equivalent, such portions as suited his purpose. He has not even 

 taken the trouble to do this correctly ; thus in taking the twenty- 

 three names of the Ash (p. 158) he misprints " Urchin, Wood- 

 broney " as "Urchin Wood, Croney" ; and tells us that "Esh " — 

 the north-country variant of Ash — "means to flog, the twig of an 

 ash being used for the purpose " ! This astounding derivation, 

 worthy to stand beside Dr. Brewer's "Coltsfoot — cold's food, i.e. 

 food for colds and coughs" — is at any rate, in common with others 

 (see "Bow Thistle," p. 115) equally ridiculous, Mr. Horwood'sown; 

 the Dialect Dictionary gives no such use of the word. Nor has he 

 even appropriated intelligently, for he includes words obsolete and 

 of doubtful application; thus he gives as " common names of the 

 Violet " several to which in the Dictionary a " ? " is attached. 

 Under Tilia we have this amusing note : " Though Pliny gave 

 the name ' Tilia,' there are some old vernacular names that might 

 equally have given origin to it, such as Telle, Til," &c. — names 

 which anyone but Mr. Horwood would have seen are derived 

 from Tilia. Perhaps, considering the numerous misprints and the 

 unintelligent way in which the names are printed, it is as weU 

 that Mr. Horwood should not have acknowledged the source of 

 his information, even by placing it in the very inadequate biblio- 

 graphy (p. 222) ; nevertheless this wholesale appropriation of 

 other men's work calls for explanation either from the author or 

 from his pubhshers, whose attention we call to the fact. 



The numerous figures from photographs which accompany the 

 descriptions are very unequal : some — c. g. Violet, Sloe, Angelica, 

 and Coltsfoot — are good, others — e. g. Broom, Meadow Cranesbill, 

 Groundsel — the reverse. The indications of size are sometimes 

 misleading — e. g. the flowers of Stitchwort and Oxeye Daisy do 



