PREFACE ix 



them, merely the names of famous botanists slightly 

 altered to make them look like Latin words. For 

 example, " Bartsia," the name for a group is named 

 after John Bartsch, a Dutch botanist, who died in 1736. 



Only one lady is among those so honoured, and she 

 was an Irish botanist, Miss Hutchins. The group 

 " Hutchinsia " is so named after her. 



Alcock, in his most interesting work, " Botanical 

 Names for English Readers," tells us that, according to 

 Pliny, " Polemonium," the Greek and Latin name for 

 Greek Valerian or Jacob's Ladder, was derived from 

 " polemos " war, the plant having caused a war 

 between two Kings, who each of them claimed its 

 discovery. Another derivation is that it was so named 

 after Polemo<n, a King of Pontus, who died 270 years 

 before Christ. 



It is immaterial now which derivation te correct. 

 They both, together with the fact that many plants were 

 named after their gods, goddesses, heroes or eminent 

 men, sufficiently prove that the ancients set a high value 

 on the discovery of the medical properties of plants. 



J. S. F. MACKENZIE. 



