INTRODUCTION. Iv 



breit ; is this an independent cognate, or 

 is it borrowed from A. S. wcegbrcede ? The 

 very frequency of like instances makes 

 enumeration superfluous. We know not 

 how to use the German names until this 

 doubt is settled ; and the decision will 

 momentously affect the whole study of 

 Gothic plant-names, both in the Teutonic 

 and in the Scandian area. 



Among the consequences of the long- 

 continued labours of the Saxon missionaries 

 we must reckon that revival of learning 

 which was fostered by Charlemagne in 

 the eighth century, and which reached its 

 acme in the ninth. These schools pro- 

 duced two remarkable books of botany in 

 verse, namely, the Hortulus of Walafrid 

 Strabo,and the DeViribus Herbmmm which 

 goes by the name of Macer Floridus. These 

 Lists claim our attention by their nearness of 

 time to our own, and by the intimacy which 

 subsisted between the learned Franks and 

 Saxons, and they are the more useful and 

 interesting for comparison because of the 

 limited number of plants which they enu- 

 merate. 



