SALLOW. 7 



ful for such a purpose, or for weaving into basket-work. 

 The generic name, Salix, is the Latin word for a willow 

 tree, while the specific name, caprea, bestowed on the plant 

 by the great Linnaeus, is also derived from the same lan- 

 guage, and signifies a goat. Smith, in his " English Flora/' 

 published about the beginning of this century, says, " The 

 name caprea seems to have originated in the reputed fond- 

 ness of goats for the catkins as exemplified in the wooden 

 cut of the venerable Tragus, their namesake/' In the 

 illustration referred to, we see a goat standing on its hind 

 legs and reaching up as high as possible for the sallow 

 catkins, which it is represented as eating. The book was 

 published in 1532, first in German, and then, in 1552, in a 

 Latin edition. Tragus was a Latin travesty of the writer's 

 true name, Jerome Bock. In the same way the real name 

 of the great reformer Melanchthon was Schwarzerd, a name 

 signifying in German black earth, and which, in accord- 

 ance with general usage, was changed into the compound 

 Greek work of the same significance, Melanchthon. Eras- 

 mus, in like manner, was really named Gerard, a name 

 which in German signifies amiable ; hence he called himself 

 Desiderius Erasmus, the Latin and Greek equivalents of 

 the German Gerard. In mediae val times it was the almost 

 invariable custom to Latinise or turn into Greek the 

 proper names of illustrious men, and this often led to 

 a little neavy humour, and while in some cases the name 

 of the person merely received a classic termination, as 

 Didoens becoming Didonseus, and Lobel being Lobelius, in 

 others the temptation to take such a name as Fox or Bull, 

 and convert it into Vulpes or Taurus was irresistible. 



To entomologists the sallow is especially dear, as its 

 fragrant catkins offer great temptation to many kinds of 



