162 NAMES OF PLANTS. 



and its head stretched up as high as possible to get 

 at the catkins, which it is eating. 

 He'lix, Linneus ; see Hedera. I do not understand the 

 reason of the application of this name to the Rose 

 • "Willow, which is so called from the rose-like expan- 

 sions at the end of its branches, caused by the 

 puncture of an insect, which are permanent through 

 the winter. 

 Myrsini'tes, Linneus. From G. myrsino-eides ; Mj^tle- 

 like. This is not an old substantive name, and, as in 

 the case of Salix arbuscula and S. caprea, there seems 

 to have been some carelessness in the use of the capital 

 letter, for while the Linnean school spelt myrsinites, 

 and Bentham does the same, Hooker and Arnott, 

 Babington, 'English Botany' and others give us Myr- 

 sinites. This must be accidental. Linneus has (Salix) 

 97iyrsinites and (Euphorbia) illjTsinites, but in the last 

 instance it is the Myrtites of Plin3^ 



Sal'sola, Csesalpinus. From L. sal^ salt; on account of 

 the abundance of alkali yielded by its ashes (see 

 Salic ornia). 

 Kali. An Arabic name ; the same as alkali (see p. 17, the 

 Arabic article ; also Salsola and Salicornia). 



Sal'via, Pliny. L. for sage, from salvo, I heal; on account 

 of its medicinal repute. 



Sathbu'cus, Pliny. L. for the Elder. This name is sup- 

 posed to have been given because a musical instru- 

 ment called the sambuca was made of it, but I do not 

 know what authority there is for the fact. The 

 sambuca was a stringed instrument, and whatever 

 musical instrument w^as made of the Elder was 

 probably a wind instrument, a shepherd's horn in 

 fact, for Pliny tells us : — " It is a belief among the 

 shepherds that if the^ cut a horn, or trumpet, from 



