128 CARYOPHYLLE^ 



malakos, soft or feeble, on account of its weak straggling habit. It grows on 

 the maigiiis of streams and ditches from Yorkshire southward. 



14. Cyphel {Cherleria). 



Mossy Cyphel (C sedoides). — Leaves crowded, slender, and awl- 

 shaped ; ilowers solitary ; calyx membranous at the edge ; petals none, or 

 rarely present ; stamens ten ; styles three. Plant perennial. This rare little 

 Cyphel grows at the very summit of the Highland mountains, especially 

 those of the Breadalbane range. It has long roots, and numerous densely 

 tufted stems, which scarcely rise above the ground. Its yellowish-green 

 flowers are, in August, half hidden among its crowded leaves. John Henry 

 Cherler, after whom the plant was named, assisted John Bauhin in preparing 

 his " Historia Plantarum." 



15. BUFFONIA. 



Annual Buffonia {B. dnnua). — Stem loosely panicled from the base ; 

 branches spreading, short, and firm ; capsules scarcely so long as the calyx ; 

 leaves awl-shaped, spreading at the base. Annual. This plant, though still 

 retained in the list of our English flora, is now extinct in this country. It is 

 recorded as having been found in the time of Dillenius and Plukenet, about 

 Boston, in Lincolnshire, and on Hounslow Heath. Many botanists call this 

 B. tenuifolia, but Sir W. Hooker and Dr. Arnott remark, " Linnseus' B. tenui- 

 folia is made up of several species ; hence it is better to adopt the name given 

 by De Candolle." 



We have, on an earlier page, noticed the English rural names of many 

 plants — names given by the monks or herbalists of the olden days, expressive 

 of the real or supposed virtues of plants, of religious or other associations. 

 The name Buffonia reminds us of a large class of names, many of them of 

 more modern date, given by botanists in memory of men of eminence. A 

 very large number of names, both generic and specific, have this origin; 

 and many, like the Banksias, Fuchsias, and Dahlias of our gardens, or the 

 Cherleria, Linnsea, Sibbaldia, and others of our native plants, serve to remind 

 us of men who have done good service to the cause of science. It is not 

 often that a botanic name bears a contemptuous allusion, and when Sauvages 

 gave the name of Buffonia tenuifolia to a plant, because its slender leaves 

 were typical of the slight attainments made by the natui^alist in botanical 

 science, he deviated from the ordinary practice of botanists. It is true that 

 Buffon knew little of plants — true that he was a vain man ; yet such of us 

 as, like Baron Cuvier, learned from his glowing pictures of animated nature 

 to look around us and mark the wonders and beauties of all living creatures, 

 from the lion to the wren, feel unwilling to associate his name with one 

 contemptuous thought. Flowers should be connected with nought that is 

 unamiable ; they are so lovely and so pure, such meet representations of all 

 sweet and kindly sentiments, that we would fain link them with but loving 

 and gentle memories. A few other well-known names of plants have a similar 

 fault ; and Linnseus, in his " Critica Botanica," mentions that the genus 

 Dorstenia, with its obsolete flowers, devoid of all beauty, alludes to the anti- 

 (^uated and uncouth book of Dorstenius ; while the specific name of Hillia 

 parasitica is thought by other botanists to be a just satire on the pompous 



