XIV INTRODUCTION. 



than an army on its march. The unquestionably native, 

 and not Latin or Celtic origin of such names as Beech and 

 Hawthorn, of Oats and Wheat, prove that although our 

 ancestors may have been indebted to the provincials of the 

 empire for their fruit-trees, and some other luxuries, for a 

 knowledge of the fine arts, and the Latin literature, and a 

 debased Christianity, the more essential acquirements upon 

 which their prosperity and progress as a nation depended 

 were already in their possession. Like the scattered lights 

 that a traveller from the wilderness sees here and there in 

 a town that lies shrouded in the darkness of night in a 

 valley beneath him, and the occasional indistinct and soli- 

 tary voice of some domestic animal, that for a moment 

 breaks the silence, these distant echoes of the past, these 

 specks that glimmer from its obscurity, faint as they are, 

 and few and far between, assure us that we are con- 

 templating a scene of human industry, and peace, and 

 civilization. 



In this respect the inquiry is one of the highest interest. 

 In another it is probable that some who consult these 

 pages will be disappointed. The names have usually been 

 given to the plants from some use to which they were 

 applied, and very few of them bear any trace of poetry or 

 romance. In short, our Sweet Alisons and Herb Tru- 

 loves, our Heartseases, Sweet Cicelies, and Sweet "Williams 

 resolve themselves into sadly matter-of-fact terms, which 

 arose from causes very different from the pretty thoughts 

 with which they are now associated, and sometimes, as in 



