CHAPTER XII 



PLANT NAMES 



"The fascination of plant names is founded on two instincts, 

 love of Nature and curiosity about Language." 



English Plant Names, REV. JOHN EARLE, 1880. 



ERBAL magic is the subtle mys- 

 terious power of certain words. 

 This power may come from asso- 

 ciation with the senses ; thus I 

 have distinct sense of stimulation 

 in the word scarlet, and pleasure 

 in the words lucid and liquid. 

 The word garden is a never ceasing delight ; it seems 

 to me Oriental ; perhaps I have a transmitted sense 

 from my grandmother Eve of the Garden of Eden. 

 I like the words, a Garden of Olives, a Garden of 

 Herbs, the Garden of the Gods, a Garden enclosed, 

 Philosophers of the Garden, the Garden of the Lord. 

 As I have written on gardens, and thought on gar- 

 dens, and walked in gardens, " the very music of 

 the name has gone into my being." How beautiful 

 are Cardinal Newman's words : 



" By a garden is meant mystically a place of spiritual 

 repose, stillness, peace, refreshment, delight." 



There was, in Gerarde's day, no fixed botanical 

 nomenclature of any of the parts or attributes of a 



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