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NOTICES OF BOOKS. 



Flore Populaire, ou Histoire Naturelle des Plantes dans letirs rapports 

 avec la Lingidstique et le Folklore. Par Eugene Kolland. 

 Tome I. [RanuncnlacefB — Crucifera] . Librairie Rolland, 

 Paris. 8vo, pp. iii, 272. Price 6 fr. 



An undertaking which must have suggested itself to many 

 besides the writer of this notice is now being executed by one 

 whom previous work in kindred matters has shown to be fully 

 competent for the task. M. Eugene Rolland has already issued 

 the Faane Populaire de la France (1877-83), the six volumes of 

 which contain the popular names and folklore connected with the 

 beasts and birds (wild and tame) and other living creatures of his 

 native country ; now that he comes to deal with the vegetable 

 world he has taken a wider range, extending his researches to the 

 plants of the countries of Europe, as well as of Western Asia and 

 Northern Africa. 



M. Holland's book shows how vast is the popular nomenclature 

 of plants, although at the same time it demonstrates the hopeless- 

 ness of any attempt to record such nomenclature exhaustively. 

 The list of authors cited, with the abbreviated titles of their books, 

 occupies fourteen closely printed pages, and includes writers of all 

 classes, from the Latin and Greek authors down to the present day. 

 No language comes amiss to M. Rolland, but we could wish that 

 he had given translations of the Polish, Hungarian, Artibic, and 

 other names from languages with which most of his readers Avill 

 hardly be familiar. Such translations are often appended to the 

 Welsh citations, greatly to the advantage of the student who likes 

 to trace the connection of one name with another. The old herbals 

 and glossaries have been ransacked, and their numerous contri- 

 butions are duly catalogued. 



French names naturally predominate ; many of them, says the 

 author, "nous avons ete chercher nous-meme dans ce puits sans 

 fond qu'on appelle la Tradition orale." No one who has not 

 attempted to collect such information has any idea of the number 

 of popular names still extant among the people, in spite of the 

 advance of what is called education. Thanks to the English Dialect 

 Society (whose work has been, we think, somewhat too abruptly 

 terminated, in consequence of the issue in parts of the Fnglish 

 Dialect Dictionari/), we have readily accessible a vast store-house of 

 information regarding the folk-speech of our country ; but it is 

 certain that the gleaner in such fields will yet find many stray qars 

 ready to his hand, sufficient, indeed, to make no inconsiderable sheaf. 

 M. Rolland has mainly followed (although by no means ex- 

 haustively) the Dialect Society's Dictionary of Fw/lish Plant-navies 

 for the popular nomenclature of this country, supplemented here 

 and there by references to more recent works. Many local floras — 

 such as Mr. F. A. Lees's West Yorkshire — would have supplied him 

 with important additions, and the manuscript Supplement to the 

 Dictionary of Plant-names — now, through the disruption of the 



