XX INTRODUCTION. 



this is the more extraordinary, as the flora of that island 

 is very similar to the Italian, and from its vicinity might 

 have been familiar to Italian poets. But we find even in 

 our own small island, that, what a Scotchman calls a 

 " Bluebell," and makes the subject of popular songs, is a 

 totally different flower from the English Bluebell. 



It is this vague and random way of applying the 

 same name to very different plants that occasions the 

 greatest difficulty in the attempt to discover its original 

 meaning. Who would dream that the Privet, for in- 

 stance, has obtained a name indicative of " early spring" 

 from having been confused under "Ligustrum" with 

 the Primrose ? or that the Primrose has borrowed its 

 name from the Daisy ? Numberless blunders of this 

 kind arose while the art of describing a species was as 

 yet unknown, and learned recluses, instead of studying 

 nature in the fields, were perplexing themselves with a 

 vain attempt to find in the north of Europe the Mediter- 

 ranean plants of Theophrastus and Dioscorides. Indeed it 

 was not till the publication of Turner's Herbal in the six- 

 teenth century, that there was any possibility of ascertain- 

 ing with certainty, through any English work, which of 

 several species, or, indeed, which of several genera, might 

 be meant by any given name ; and, as it would be mere 

 waste of time to attempt it now, the following vocabulary 

 will contain, with the exception of a few from Chaucer, 

 none but such as have been in use since that period. 



Under the head of Popular Names our inquiry will 



