INTRODUCTION. XXI 



comprise those of the species most commonly cultivated 

 in this country, as well as those of the naturalized and 

 indigenous ones, but not Gardeners' or Farmers' names 

 of mere varieties. Provincial words, that have not found 

 their way into botanical works, are, with a very few ex- 

 ceptions, omitted. Many of these are very ancient, and 

 expressive, and good names, and curiously illustrative of 

 habits and superstitions that are rapidly passing away ; 

 but the study of them must be left to the local antiquary. 

 They seem, generally, to be traceable to the language of 

 the race which settled in the district where they prevail, 

 and much less than the book names to a French or Latin 

 source. In the northern counties and Scotland the nomen- 

 clature is very essentially different from that of the middle 

 and south of England, and contains many words of Norse 

 origin, and many of Frisian ; but unfortunately these 

 have been so vaguely applied, that nobody knows to what 

 plants they, any of them, properly belong. This is more 

 particularly the case with Scotch names. " Growan," 

 for instance, which in our English editions of Robert 

 Burns is explained for us as " the daisy," means in dif- 

 ferent parts of Scotland many different plants, which agree 

 in nothing but the having a yellow flower.* In Devon- 

 shire and the west of Somersetshire, there is also much 

 that is peculiar, and, apparently, continued from the 



* The Cleveland dialect of Yorkshire, a dialect almost purely Norse, has 

 been most carefully investigated by the Rev. J. C. Atkinson in a work that is 

 a model of accurate research, and should form a basis upon which to construct 

 a more general glossary of the language of the North .Humbrian counties. 



