THE BROOKLIMK 59 



derived from the Celtic word betn, the birch ; and Alisma, 

 the water-plantain, from the Celtic alts, water. In the same 

 way some of the words which we ordinarily use and accept as 

 English are, except by their continued usage, not so at all ; 

 tobacco, for example, was adopted from the word found in 

 use amongst the American Indians; so also was tomato, 

 while lilac is the Persian name introduced together with the 

 shrub thus called. Our English word potato is but a 

 corruption from the Spanish patata, which was in turn 

 corrupted from the Indian name for the plant. The plant 

 we term samphire was originally, from its love of the sea- 

 shore, dedicated to St. Peter, the fisherman of Galilee, and 

 is still known amongst the French as the St. Pierre, and 

 by the Italians as the Herba dl San Pietro. The interest 

 of the subject will, we trust, be sufficient excuse for this 

 wandering from our immediate point, the derivation of 

 Beccabunga. The name is Flemish in its origin, beck- 

 pit ngcn meaning " mouth-smart/' a name suggested by the 

 pungency of its leaves, which were formerly eaten in 

 salads. We have thus tried them ourselves, but did not 

 find them sufficiently tempting to care to repeat the 

 experiment. 



The stems of the brookliuie trail, and throw out bunches 

 of rootlets from their lower portions, while at intervals the 

 flowering stems ascend. The leaves are stalked, slightly 

 toothed on their margins, and thick and leathery in texture. 

 The flowers are arranged in long racemes, the flower-stems 

 being given off in pairs from the axils of the leaves. In 

 the germander speedwell it will be noticed that only one 

 flower-stem rises from each pair of leaves. A variety of 

 the brooklime is sometimes met with having pink blossoms, 

 but only one or two stations are recorded, and our readers 



