1859.] woAD. 301 



' Mythe Toot/ as certainly bears reference to the place of one of 

 the hill-altars dedicated to heathen worship^ — but there all con- 

 nection between these two facts, as respects the presence of the 

 plant at the locality referred to, ceases; and in the absence of 

 connecting links, it is a mere exercise of the imagination to infer 

 its descent from such remote and uncertain antecedents. 



Respecting the origin of the word ' Toot/ and its derivation, 

 according to Mr. Lees, from the god " Teutates '' (whosoever 

 he may have been), I will ask permission to say a few words, as 

 the subject is not devoid of interest. The term is extensively 

 distributed, either alone or in combination, throughout the length 

 and breadth of England, and is recognizable in ' Tutbury ' and 

 'Tetbury,^ in 'Tot-hill' and 'Tuthill/ and in innumerable 

 others. It appears in our word ' Tuesday,' and in the German 

 designations 'Teuton' and 'Teutonic,' and appears to have the 

 same root as deus in Latin and ^eo9 in Greek ; it may per- 

 haps even be recognized in the ' Thoth ' of the Egyptians. In 

 fine, the word 'Teu' or 'Teut' appears to mean simply 'the god 

 who was worshiped on high places, and had his altars upon 

 such hills as the 'Mythe Toot' near Tewkesbury, the 'Toot' near 

 Clevedon, Somersetshire, and many others. 



But to return to the Woad. Its firm establishment at the 

 Mythe appears to be due not less to a favourable soil, than to 

 the protection aflbrded by an inaccessible station, which will 

 probably long continue to preserve it on the same spot. But its 

 presence, irrespective of heathen worship and the hand of man, 

 leads to the consideration of that most difficult problem com- 

 prised in the question, " Unde derivatur ?" 



Here and there occur special illustrations of the limitation of 

 plants to certain localities from whence they do not extend them- 

 selves ; examples of which occur to the recollection of every bo- 

 tanist, as in the case of Dianthus casius, on the Cheddar Cliffs, 

 Draba aizoides, on the walls of Pennarth Castle, near Swansea, 

 and the Peony, Pceonia officinalis, on the Steep Holme in the 

 Bristol Channel. But in tracing these to their origin, the ques- 

 tion still presents itself, by what mysterious agency comes it that 

 plants suddenly make their appearance in particular stations 

 where the circumstances are such as to afford no clue to their 

 introduction? Probably this question has suggested itself to 

 every botanist, however limited the field of his observations, in- 



