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their name from the British oak, ash, elm, beech, birch, alder, 

 box, &c. ? He knew of no places near Bath, however, derived 

 from flowers or fruit ; but from more humble plants, e.g., the 

 nettle, several instances were given. Claverton, near Bath, was 

 supposed by a high authority to have derived its name from the 

 water lily, and was originally written Clat-ford-tun, or the town 

 at the ford of the dote or lily. This derivation, though extremely 

 pretty, he thought was incorrect, for dote he considered to be the 

 water-bur, ditch-bur, or reed-bur, and not the water lily. This 

 view as regards Claverton was not acceptable to Mr. Skrine, who 

 contended earnestly for the more flowery and poetical derivation, 

 and had not failed to fortify himself with the following letter 

 from Professor Earle, who maintained the correctness of his 

 former view of the coimection of Claverton and water lily by 

 reference to some learned authorities : — 



" The argument for the Water Lily claims no higher a rank than pro- 

 bability, and it is of the nature of such arguments to be in some 

 degree matter of opinion. My opinion is strong in favour of the 

 connection of Claverton with the Water Lily. 



Our early authorities are Glossaries of Latin and English, ranging 

 from the 8th to the 12th century. In these we find the word elate 

 representing various Latin names of plants, Blitum, Tubera, Blitum 

 vel Lappa, Amorfolia, Philantropium, Cliton, all, so far as we can 

 gather (for the identity of these plants is obscure), large leaved plants. 

 The name of all these which we have most confidence in recognising 

 is Lappa, which is our Burdock, and the fruit of which is still called 

 clotbur, where I have no doubt dot is the old date. But the Glossaries 

 contain another entry besides all the above, viz., O.vylapation "aneo 

 cyunes elate," i.e., one sort of clote ; thus informing us that 

 date was used very freely for a large diversity of plants, and that all 

 the above Latin names are not a variety of names for the same or 

 nearly the same plant, but rather for so many different plants. 



The name of elate being then used with so much latitude, we may 

 claim it for the Water Lily without denying it to the Burdock. And as 

 one part of the evidence in favour of the Burdock consists in the 



