HISTORY IN NAMES. IGl 



tiquity. The common names of many culti- 

 vated plants are very similar in widely dif- 

 ferent languages, and these similarities are 

 proofs that the plants have migrated from 

 one people to another, carrying with them the 

 old names, which have become modified to 

 suit the genius of the foster tongue. We 

 can sometimes trace these common names, 

 as spoken by different peoples, back to one 

 common origin, which must be coincident 

 with the origin of the plant itself. In this 

 manner we can trace the word apph^ and 

 its equivalents in modern languages, to an 

 Asiatic origin, and we are justified in saying 

 that the apple was native to that Asiatic re- 

 gion, and that it was carried to the westward 

 by the early migrations of men. 



An apt illustration of this growth of 

 names is found in the specific name of the 

 common garden carnation, Dianthus Cary- 

 ophjdlus, and in the name of the Pink fam- 

 ily, Caryophyllaceae, to which it belongs. 

 Among the Greeks the clove was known as 

 caryophyllum or earyophyllus, literally " nut- 

 leaf," probably in allusion to the bud-like 

 or nut-like form of the spice. When the 

 carnation began to be cultivated it was 

 found to possess so strongly the odor of 

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