BOTANICAL NAMES 227 



" Wall " of the name comes, it is said, from the 

 plant growing on walls, but so do other plants. In 

 1597 Gerarde called it " wallgilloflower," but in the 

 1 4th century the plant was called " violaria," and 

 the flowers were known as "viola" and " wal- 

 fair." Mark that there is only one " 1 " in " wal- 

 fair." The plant is a native of Southern Europe, 

 and was introduced into this country by the monks 

 of old. In those days " wal " meant " foreign " 

 (see Walnut), i.e., foreign nut, which to this day 

 is fortunately only spelt with one " 1." It therefore 

 looks as if the flower was first called " Walflower," 

 i.e., foreign flower. Somehow a second " 1 " was 

 put in. " Wall " displaced " foreign," and a 

 wrong derivation for the word had to be found. 

 In this connection see Cheiranthus, the second bot. 

 name for W T allflower. 



Watercress. Gets its " water " from where it is 

 generally found growing. Eng. name for Nas- 

 turtium group. 



Wintercress. Eng. name for Barbarea group. 



Water Lily. Eng. name for Nymphaeceae family. 



Water Soldier. Eng. name for a group, and translation 

 of its bot. name Stratiotes. 



X 



Xanthium (zan-thi-um). G. " Xanthos " (yellow). 



Bot. name Burweed group. 

 Xylosteum (zi-los-ti-um). G. adj., " woody." Second 



bot. name Fly Honeysuckle. 



