22 ORIGIN OF CULTIVATED PLANTS. 



indicate long-known species, not imported from foreign 

 countries, while complicated signs are doubtful or indi- 

 cate a foreign origin. We must not forget, however, that 

 the signs have often been rebuses, based on chance 

 resemblances in the words, or on superstitious and fanciful 

 ideas. 



The identity of a common name for a given species 

 in several languages may have two very different ex- 

 planations. It may be because a plant has been spread 

 by a people which has been dispersed and scattered. It 

 may also result from the transmission of a plant from 

 one people to another with the name it bore in its original 

 home. The first case is that of the hemp, of which the 

 name is similar, at least as to the root, in all the tongues 

 derived from the primitive Aryan stock. The second is 

 seen in the American name of tobacco, the Chinese of 

 tea, which have spread into a number of countries, 

 without any philological or ethnographic filiation. This 

 case has occurred oftener in modern than in ancient 

 times, because the rapidity of communications allows of 

 the simultaneous introduction of a plant and of its name, 

 even where the distance is great. 



The diversity of names for the same species may also 

 spring from various causes. As a rule, it indicates an 

 early existence in different countries, but it may also 

 arise from the mixture of races, or from names of varieties 

 which take the place of the original name. Thus in 

 England we find, according to the county, a Keltic, 

 Saxon, Danish, or Latin name ; and flax bears in Germany 

 the names of Jlachs and lein, words which are evidently of 

 different origin. 



When we desire to make use of the common names 

 to gather from them certain probabilities regarding the 

 origin of species, it is necessary to consult dictionaries 

 and the dissertations of philologists; but we must take 

 into account the chances of error in these learned men, 

 who, since they are neither cultivators nor botanists, may 

 have made mistakes in the application of a name to a 

 species. 



The most considerable collection of common names is 



