A NOTE ON BORAGE. 303 



a courageous or noble person, in Celtic* Dr. Mahn, who made a 

 thorough revision of the etymologies of the words in the latest 

 recension of "Webster's ' English Dictionary,' derives it from the 

 Low Latin horra, the hair of beasts, flock, from its hairy leaves.! 

 But this opinion is, in all likelihood, specious rather than well- 

 founded. Dr. Prior remarks that "it is probably a Latinized 

 oriental name, brought with the x^lant from Syria" ; and Mr. 

 Bentham says,! " Etymologia verbi valde incerta est, verisimiliter 

 a nomine quodam orientali corrupta." To M. Littre, however, is 

 probably due the credit of tracing the word to its real source, and 

 his decision is in accord with the surmises of the two last-named 

 authors. In the unrivalled work to which so many years of his 

 honourable and laborious life have been dedicated, he derives the 

 French word Buurrache% from the Arabic Ahou rack, "the father 

 of sweat" ; and he adds, " Borrago est du latin des botanists, forme 

 de bourraclie."|l If it be true that Borage was introduced into 

 Europe either from Aleppo by pilgrims or from Mauritania by the 

 Moors, this would support M. Littre's etymology. I notice with 

 some surprise that in the ' Dictionnaire etymologique des mots 

 d'origine orientale,' of M. Marcel Devic, appended by M. Littre to 

 the lately issued Supplement to his * Dictionary,' the word hour- 

 rache does not occur. Whether, however, this is due to oversight, 

 or to a divergence of opinion as to its oriental origin on M. Devic's 

 part, I am unable to say. 



As regards the orthography, as Mr. Bentham observes, southern 

 authors — as for example C^esalpinus, Matthiolus, the Bauhins and 

 Tournefort — usually spell it with two E's ; northern writers — as 

 Dodonaeus and Kay — with one. But the assertion that Linnaeus 

 followed the latter method is not strictly accurate, as may be seen 

 by a reference to the excellent and useful compilation of Richter.ll 

 It is obvious that if either the mediaeval idea of the origin of the 

 word or the derivation given by M. Littre be correct, but one E 

 should be employed, and two if Dr. Mahn'a etymology be 

 accepted. 



* ' Brit, n.', ed. omn. suh voce. 



t See also Dr. Ernst (Hardwicke's ' Science Gossip,' vii. 214). One writer in 

 that periodical (vii. 165) derives Borage from the Greek ^opci, food ; another 

 puts forth the eccentric sug.i^^estion " that it seems allied to or derived from the 

 Latin and Greek Boreas " (vi. 21-4). 



+ ' Gen. Plant.' ii. 854. 



§ ' iJict. de la langue fran^.' i. 394. 



II The plant was also called borraquia in mediaeval Latin (Maigne d'Arnis, 

 •Lexic. man. ad script, med. et inf. Latin,' 341). 



^1 ' Codex hot. Linnoean.', 154. 



