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description, as you will see from one which I have traced from 

 Parkinson. We cannot now see all that those missionaries saw, 

 but the name they gave the flower still remains. 



It is very curious to note from how many different sources 

 we have derived our plant names. It is still more curious to note 

 how very few we have that bear the genuine English names. 

 Among our common English plants we have a large number of 

 names which are true Greek, or Greek so little Anglicised that the 

 Greek name is quite clear. For these we are no doubt indebted 

 to the mediaeval monks, who tried hard and very often very 

 successfully to identify the Greek names of plants with their 

 English representatives ; and if they were not always successful 

 in this identiiication, they did drive out the old English names, 

 which were very loosely given, and very generally to different 

 plants in different parts of England. Among such names I will 

 just mention these — crocus, cyclamen, orchis, bugloss, hyacinth, 

 narcissus, anemone (which by the way you must call auf^utn, 

 if you wish to be very pure in your Greek), amaranth, beet, biyony, 

 celandine, cypress, hellebore, lichen, melon, polyanthus, polypody, 

 asparagus, squill, sycamore, thyme, and many others. 



In the same way we have true Latin names in rose, columbine, 

 saxifrage, laurel, lily, lupin, pine, violet, vine, and others. 



We have true French names in mignonette, dandelion, osier, and 

 pansy, and true Italian in belladonna lily. We have Arabian and 

 Persian in artichoke, ceterach fern, lilac, and saffron, and we have 

 American Indian names in potato, tobacco, tomato, and yucca. 

 We may, indeed, congratulate ourselves that we have not more 

 names from that source — the American Indian. We have adopted 

 some of the native names, but they are not yet common names 

 with us nor likely to be so. You will agree with me when I read 

 to you one name which our botanists have adopted, but which 

 indeed I cannot read, but must spell to you — iztactepotzacuxochitl- 

 icohueyo. 



Plant names, like all other words, often go through a strange 

 course of manufacture. I will mention two instances. There is 

 a plant called Stavesacre, of the Larkspur tribe, a well-known old 

 medicine, which I believe still holds its place in our pharmacopoeia. 



