XCiv. PROLEGOMENA. 



true view of antient manners ; and if we will 

 examine into the very names of plants, to take 

 only one proof out of many others that exist, 

 we shall find that they testify to the piety of their 

 early cultivators, and remind us of times when 

 the catholic religion resolved every natural object 

 into a memento of holiness, and taught men to 

 see God in all things. When the great European 

 Babel began, at that period ridiculously enough 

 called the " Reformation," and the misuse of 

 words became general, right being called wrong, 

 and wrong right, the very names of plants were 

 changed, in order to divert men's minds from 

 the least recollection of antient Christian piety. 

 A very cursory glance at the popular names for 

 plants will convince us of this.* 



The fbllowing are a few examples which 

 occur, all of medicinal plants whose names have 

 been changed in later times. The Virgiii's 

 Bower, of the Monastic physicians, was changed 

 into Flammula Jovis, by the new pharmacians. 

 The Hedge Hyssop, into Gratiola — the St, 

 Joint's Wort, so called from blowing about St. 

 John the Baptist's day, was changed into 

 Hypericum — Fleur de St. Louis, into Iris — 

 Palma C/iris/i,intoRicinus — Our Master fVort, 

 into Imperatoria — Sweet Bay, into Laurus — 



* See also a great list of these names in the Pocket En- 

 cyclopedia of Gardening, published by Dr. Forster, 12mo. 

 London, 1827. 



