xv INTRODUCTION. 



Classicce as grounded too often upon spu- 

 rious evidence of modern Greek names ; 

 while both Sibthorp and Fraas are com- 

 mended by Ernst Meyer but as stepping- 

 stones to the more satisfactory work that 

 may be expected when a traveller equipped 

 equally in botanical science and the know- 

 ledge of antiquity shall undertake the task. 



When we set about identifying our old 

 vernacular names, we naturally lean in 

 the first instance upon the signification of 

 those Latin names for which the English 

 names are offered as equivalents. But 

 these Latin names themselves are largely 

 identical with the names used by the 

 ancient authors, and these, unless where 

 helped out by collateral aids, are subject 

 to all the uncertainty of which we have 

 just spoken. But while our enquiry is 

 thus often entwined with the question 

 of the Latin names, it has some incidental 

 lights of its own, which we must try to 

 make the best of. The chief of these arises 

 from the continuity of the living tradition. 



One thing is obvious. We cannot be 

 more exact than the authors of the Lists 



