210 CHAPTERS ON BRITISH BOTANY. [July, 



Gaza translates the term Chelidonium by hirundinaria. This 

 is the name of the plant in all the languages of Europe. Cheli- 

 don, Hirundo, Schwalben, and Swallow, are exactly synonymous. 



The Lesser Celandine is Ranunculus Ficaria or Ficaria ra- 

 nunculoides, a plant which cannot be confounded with the real 

 Celandine. It differs essentially from the former in size^ form, 

 time of flowering, locality, etc., as well as in name."^ 



Chenopodium Bonus-Henricus, arpa<^a^L<i. (Theoph. vii. 1, 2, 

 3.) Pliny describes two species of this ancient genus. One 

 is the above, according to Billerbeck and Stackhouse (Bil. 6; 

 Stack. 7, Cat. System.) ; the other is our modern Spinach, Atri- 

 plex hortensis. Sprengel enumerates the latter among the 

 plants of Hippocrates (i. 40) . 



CiCHORiUM. Chicory or Endive are both wild and cultivated 

 in many parts of Europe. C. Intybus {Kt'x^aypLov), common 

 Chicory or Wild Chicory, as it is called, to distinguish it from 

 C. Endivia, Endive, is general, from the south of Sweden to 

 Greece. It is also an Egyptian plant. (Bil. 202 ; Theo. i. 16.) 

 Sprengel enters it in his list without any mark of doubt (i. 100) . 

 See Bil. 202. Stackhouse, lUustr. p. 36, intimates no doubt 

 about the identity of the modern with the ancient plant. 



Cnicus or Cnecus. This ancient name was, in former as well 

 as in recent ages, a synonym of Acantha, Carduus, Cirsium, etc. 

 (Stack. 37.) 



CoLCHicuM. The common Meadow Saffron, C. autumnale, 

 e^rjfiepov : so called in Greek, because if any one eats it, he 

 will not live a day. Sibthorp saw it on Mount Hymettus, near 

 Athens ; also near Mount Parnassus. Its range is from Den- 

 mark to the south of Europe. (Bil. 97; Theoph, is. 16, i. 11 ; 

 Tragus, 760.) 



The farmers in the west of England know to their cost the 

 truth of this common Greek appellative. Stackhouse does not 

 notice this plant as one of Theophrastus's ; he merely says, in 

 his ' Lexicon Theophrasti,' €cf)7]/jb6pov ^appuaKov, venenum quod 

 cito enecat [eodem die), (ix. 6; Spr. ix. 16). It is not certain 



* Nomenclatiire is probably ths most incomprehensible of all imaginable 

 sciences ; or in other terms, the inventors of nomenclature are the most capricious 

 of mortals. In not very remote times, i.e. not more than thirty years ago, the 

 public conveyances in France were called Mirondelles, "swift as swallows," because 

 they travelled at a snail's pace. Sic lucus a non lucendo. 



