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same class in other. European nations. . And. he. has not even: limited 
himself to this wide field of inquiry, but, (following in the footsteps of 
Bopp. and Jacob Grimm) he. has extended hjs researches as far as the 
Sanskrit, which, in common. with. those great. philologists; he regards 
as the oldest known, and consequently the earliest accessible source 
of all linguistic inquiries into the immense family of ops 
tongues. 
Of the many difficulties which beset the etymologist, that iih 
probably first oecurs to check his self-satisfaction in the pursuit is to 
find that the most obvious derivation is not always the true one. Take 
the following as an example :— 
* PRIMROSE, from Pryme rolles, the name it bears in old books and MSS. 
The ‘ Grete Herball,’ ch. ceel., says, * Tt is called Pryme Rolles of se tyme 
because it beareth the first floure in pryme tyme? It is in Frere 
Randolph’s catalogue. Chaucer writes it in one wo ord, primerole. “This little 
common plant affords a most, extraordinary example of blundering. . Primerole 
is an abbreviation of Fr. primeverole, It. gerens dim. of prima vera, from 
fior di prima bed the fits spring Bower Primerole, As an outlandish unintelli- 
gible word, v lles, " This 
is exphinsdili: in — w first f th spring j aname ee 
primula veris; and the ‘ Ortus Wanikatia’ Ed. Augsb. 1486, ch. AREER g 
where we have a very good woodcut of a daisy titled ' masslieben, Premula 
veris, Latine. Brunfelsius, ed. 1531, speaking of the Herba DE 
cowslip, says, p. 190, expressly, * Sye würt von etlichen Doctores Primula veris 
genannt, das doch hit ist, wann Primula veris ist matsomen ii. zeitlosen.’ 
Brunschwygk, b. ii, c. viii., uses the same words. The Zeitlose is the daisy. 
vii vr, ed Bot. P. si assigns the name to both the daisy and the prim- 
-"Matthioli, Ed. Frankf. 1586, p. 653, calls his Bellis get Frana ste 
prian seu pee di prima vera, nonnullis Primula veris major, and figures 
a P alpi His Bellis minor, which seems to be our daisy, he calls 
mo. fiore minore, Fior di primavera, Gallis Marguerites, Germanis mass- 
tise ^ At p. 833, he figures the imer and calls that also * Primula veris, 
Italis Fiore di primavera, Gallis evere? But all the older writers, as the 
author of the * Ortus Sanitatis,’ Denotes Brunsfels, Fuchs, Lonicerus, and 
their contemporaries, with the single exception of Ruellius, assign the name 
to the daisy only. Primula veris, L. acaulis.” 
In this, it will be seen, we have also-an instance of another great 
and startling difficulty in the way of botanical etymology, viz. the 
