316 CHAPTERS ON BRITISH BOTANY. \July, 



Cystoseira tamariscifoUa, Halydris siliquosa, etc. They are all 

 named Fuci by Sprengel. 



One of the commonest of these is that usually called Bladder 

 Fucus, F. vesiculosus, Linn. ; Stackhouse, 4 -, Withering 4, 84 ; 

 and Clusius^ i. 21. This is Quercus marina, Bpv^ iroTVLa, of Clu- 

 sius. The latter author names and describes several other ma- 

 rine algals^ and gives a figure of one (i. p. 35), which he names 

 Abies marina, probably ekarr] irorvta of Theophrastus. 



The ancient botanists were frugal of their nomenclature : they 

 used few and short words as representatives of their species. 

 Compare the terms sea-onion, sea-leek, sea-oak, sea-pine, sea- 

 vine of Theophrastus, with the sesquipedalian vocables now in 

 daily use, of which we have examples in Desmarestia, Cystoseira 

 tamariscifoUa, etc. These are fair samples of modern nomen- 

 clature, which now passes all understanding, barl^rous, unintelli- 

 gible, and inconsistent. 



Again, few plants in these primitive times had more than one 

 name. One name had sometimes to perform double or even triple 

 duty, or was applied to several distinct objects. This was a defect 

 in ancient nomenclature. In modern times there has been a ten- 

 dency to give a plant twice as many names as describe a Castilian 

 nobleman of the highest rank, and more aliases than any cracks- 

 man of Old Bailey notoriety needs to conceal his identity. A 

 plant is a mere parvenu, an upstart, a thing of yesterday, which 

 cannot boast of having a handle of from six to a score of pre- 

 tentious synonyms, every one of which is indorsed by several 

 respectable authorities who vouch for the respectability of their 

 respective bantlings. 



Galium. The term Aparine, so common as a generic name 

 in ancient and medissval botany, is now restricted to one species 

 of the genus. Dioscorides uses <yaXi.ov, Galium,, as a synonym 

 of Aparine, airapivT). Billerbeck thinks G. verrucosum is the 

 plant of Theophrastus. Sprengel in his list enters G. Aparine 

 without any remark. In the History of plants, viii. 8, it is said 

 to grow among the crops of pulse, inter segetes ervi. Stack. 10. 

 G. verrucosum was probably the common representative of the 

 genus in Greece, as G. Aparine is in the north of Europe. In 

 Hist. vol. vii. 8, its property of adhering to the clothes, etc., is 

 duly recorded. 



Gladiolus. The Greek synonym for this term is ^i<f)Lov, a 



