115 
SourH Arrica. Knysna Division: Bosch River, between 
the “ Bush ” and the river, below 140 m., fl. & fr., Oct., 
Drége ! 
X.—RAVISON AS A COMMERCIAL TERM. 
L. A. Boonie. 
Though the word ‘ Ravison” has been introduced into 
England from France, it is not to be found in Littré’s Diction- 
naire de la Langue Frangaise, and therefore appears not to be 
recognised among the current French names of plants. 
Rolland (Flore Populaire, 1899) gives numerous popular 
names applied to species of Brassica and Sinapis in France. Of 
these, ravasson and ravoss’ show the nearest approach to the 
word ravison, and both are used to designate Sinapis arvensis, 
L, (Charlock). Rolland notes, by way of authority, that he met 
with the name ravasson in Corbigny, and ravoss’ in Chambéry, 
the use of both words depending on oral tradition. This locali- 
sation suggests that the employment of these names may be 
somewhat restricted. 
Several Ttalian words cited by Rolland are apparently related 
to “ravison.” Three of these, ravizzone ravissOn* and ravis- 
cion, are placed under Brassica Napus ere sylvestris), by which 
Brassica campestris var. autumnalis, DC. (B. Rapa var. oleifera, 
DC., 7.e., Winterriibsen, sometimes called Wild Turnip or German 
Rape) is presumably intended.t Ravizzone is listed as an 
Italian word,t while ravissén and raviscion are quoted as 
belonging to the Genoese and Milanese dialects respectively. 
For Brassica Napus var. oleifera, DC.§ (Rape), the following 
are among the Italian names quoted by Rolland :—ravizzioni 
(Italian, 1805), raviscion and ravizzon (Milanese), ravizon (Tre- 
viso), ravazzon (Verona), ravizzon and ravizze (Friuli). Further, 
under B. campestris (L.) ravissun (Piedmont) is cited. All these 
appear like variants of the same word, and it is to be noted that 
in the Milanese dialect precisely the same word (raviscion) is 
applied to varieties of both B. Rapa and B. Napus. It is prob- 
able that some of these names are used loosely, for instance for 
rape or for other plants resembling it 
olland writes this word with a circumflex over the last vowel, 
but "the orthography should probably be ar ig 
+ Am the names Rolland gives for B. us (var. rep b 
are :—navette and navette dinipkinsiee uli Riibsen and Riibsa 
(4.é., vcard Se 
Raviz appears also the following Dictionaries :—Targioni 
Tozzetti, Dis Bot. Ital., 1826; qs _ di Bot., 1876; yeah Roast? eta 
and Baretti’s Ital. Dic. The meanings give are :—(1) Brassica 1 Napus, 
por sts "() B. Napus, L. (3) a variety of ae 
§ Written by Rolland :—Brassica Napus (L.) var. oleifera 
© @ synonym of B. Napus var. biennis, Reichb, in Tagler’s 
enreich. 
B2 
