178 PROSERPINA. 



provided the grounds themselves were separately firm, 

 and the inconsistency of method advisedly allowed, and, 

 in each case, justified. If the histories of King Gentius 

 and Dr. Funk are indeed important branches of human 

 knowledge ; if the Scrophulariaceae do indeed cure 

 King's Evil ; if pinks be best described in their likeness 

 to nuts ; and the Star of Bethlehem verily remind us of 

 Christ's Nativity, by all means let these and other such 

 names be evermore retained. But if Dr. Funk be not a 

 person in any special manner needing either stellification 

 or florification ; if neither herb nor flower can avail, more 

 than the touch of monarchs, against hereditary pain ; if 

 it be no better account of a pink to say it is nut-leaved, 

 than of a nut to say it is pink-leaved ; and if the modern 

 mind, incurious respecting the journeys of wise men, has 

 already confused, in its Bradshaw's Bible, the station of 

 Bethlehem with that of Bethel,* it is certainly time to 

 take some order with the partly false, partly useless, and 

 partly forgotten literature of the Fields ; and, before we 

 bow our children's memories to the burden of it, ensure 

 that there shall be matter worth carriage in the load. 



4. And farther, in attempting such a change, we must 

 be clear in our own minds whether we wish our nomen- 

 clature to tell us something about the plant itself, or only 

 to tell us the place it holds in relation to other plants : 

 as, for instance, in the Herb-Robert, would it be well to 



* See Sowerby's nomenclature of the flower, vol. ix,, plate 1708. 



