140 ON SPECIFIC NAMES OF PLANTS. [May, 



Our Pellitory, Parietaria officinalis, is not forgotten. The 

 learned Celsius quotes Bartholomeus Glanville, our countryman, 

 'De Proprietatibus Eerum/ who says, "Tantse auctoritatis herba 

 fait apud veteres, ut sine aspersione se purificari non posse in 

 delubris non reputarent;" "et hoc Plinium dicere idem, ille 

 Glanville asserit, non dubito," says Celsius, "quin sit falsis- 

 simum." But William Westmacott, who lived a century before 

 Celsius, informs us that '' Hyssop cleanseth the breast and lungs, 

 and purgeth the head very orderly from flegme and tough clam- 

 mie humours, and therefore is of singular effect to help the pleu- 

 risie, stitch, or any other griefe or paine in the side " (p. 147) . 

 '' Our common hysope, which is not a small and slender herb, 

 but sometimes of a foot or more in height, bearing a spiked 

 purple or dark-bleuish flowers. Whole leaves are," etc. (p. 148). 



It is more than probable that the Hyssop of the ancient au- 

 thor (Barth. 'De Proprietatibus Rerum^) was a plant noticed 

 and strongly recommended by the author or authors of the 

 ' Schola Salernitana.^ The most of the medical and botanical 

 knowledge then popular and prevalent was derived from this 

 source. There is no very strong objection to the view that it 

 was exactly what is called Hyssop at this day. Thomas Newton, 

 a contemporary of Westmacott^ s, inclines to the opinion that it 

 was Rosemary. 



(To be continued.) 



ON SPECIFIC NAMES OF PLANTS. 



(From a Correspondent.) 



Sir, — Under " Specific Names," etc. (' Phytologist,^ p. 95, vol. 

 iii.), there is a quotation from Smith's ^Introduction to Botany' 

 in reference to the above ; also the following inference : — " There- 

 fore Erythraa linariifolia is more correct than linaricsfolia. 

 Having by an oversight misled your readers on this point, it is 

 hoped that you will insert this in the ' Phytologist.' " 



The ' Phytologist ' is not exactly the work in which philology 

 finds its right place. Hence, in what follows, only the practice of 

 botanical writers will be noticed ; and- from this it will be seen 

 that the rule laid down by the eminent author of the ' English 

 Flora,' if a rule it be, has not been universally followed. 



