men" 
cite nd 
aiins 
k 
3 by the Mediterranean," it may not be irrelevant to quote 
NEW. PUBLICATIONS.. 383 
tended to apply.only to the name, and. not to the Grass itself (Phlewm, 
T 
pratense), which has always been one-of the most widely-diffused .o 
European Grasses, and is believed to have oe introduced into North 
America by cultivation alone. 
With one other extract we will close our notice of a work which, for 
the fulness of its nomenclature, the large amount of information. brought 
to bear upon individual names, and the thoroughly conscientious cha- 
racter of its investigations, must necessarily become the standard book 
of reference in the interesting branch of study on which it treats. 
“Brxcn, Anglo-Sax. boc, bece, beoce, Old High Germ. puocha, Middle High 
Germ. buoche, Germ. buch, Du. beuk, Old Norse beyki, Da. bög, Sw. bok, words 
which, in their several dialects, mean, with difference of gender only, a book 
and a beech-tree, from Runic tablets, the books of our ancestors, having been 
made of this wood, "The origin of the word is identical with that of the Skr. 
bék6, letter, b6k6s, writings ; and this correspondence of the Indian with our 
own is interesting as evidence of two things, viz. that the Brahmins had the art’ 
of writing before they detached themselves from the common stock of the Indo- 
race in Upper Asia, and that we and other Germans have recet 
uro 
alphabetic signs from the East by a northern route, and not from the Medi- 
terra: 
For if we had learnt the signs from Greeks or Romans, we sho 
have adopted their names for a book, and for writing materials, as the Celtic 
nations have done. On the other hand, in the Greek word BigAos, the name 
stock before its invention. The German term buch-stab, a beech-stave, is still re- 
eastern origin of this word is, 
not only did know letters then, but must have known them 
nse a book ; while our beech mean 
the book, and only in a secondary sense a tree. The word write, Anglo-Sax. 
writan, like the Greek ypapew, and the Latin seribere, dates from a time when. 
letters were scratched, and not painted or pe i 
that. the art was not of Roman introduction, or we should. have had some de- 
rivative of seribere to denote it. Beech was the wood of which Runic almanacs 
were made, several of which are still preserved. 
Fagus sylvatica, L.” 
that we and other Germans have 
rthern route, and not 
a couple of 
In confirmation of the hypothesis 
received alphabetic signs from the East by a no 
^ 
