XVIU 



PREFACE. 



Herbalist 

 learnino-. 



" and coined into mancuses ;" ^ that is, there was a gold 

 coin of a determinate weight called a mancus, and coined 

 in England. Suppose when the document is fairly be- 

 fore us that this will turn out suspect ; suppose it be 

 pronounced a forgery ; still we have Saxon authority 

 for coininof wold mancuses, and at home. All works 

 that touch the subject, know that there were in those 

 times royal mints and royal moneyers. 



The Glossary appended to this work exhibits, from 

 among a still wider list, a large number of names of 

 herbs ; and materials exist for determining most of these 

 to full conviction. The change of residence produced 

 doubtless some confusion, by depriving the Saxons of spe- 

 cimens of the trees and plants answering to their names. 

 The Germanic races had not before their arrival here 

 pushed down upon the Mediterranean ^hores, but we 

 all know historically that they had not been confined 

 to cold climates, and one very curious proof exists 

 that in some instances the name they fixed on a plant 

 was appropriate only to its aspect in warmer countries.^ 

 It is true that the oak, beech, birch, hawthorn, sloe- 

 thorn, bore native names, but elm,^ walnut, maple, 

 holly,* are equally native names ; and, except the 

 walnut, native trees. The cherry was brought to Italy 

 by Lucullus, from Kspatrouj, Cerasus, a city of Cappadocia, 

 where it was plentiful, and it has ever borne the 

 same name. The students of nature learn that many 

 species of its Fauna, and also, though less so, of its Flora, 

 can be traced to a single spot. Thus the peach, peppoc, 



' panne mmpe (read nime) man 

 tpencij; hunb mancufa golbep -] 

 gemynerige to mancujan, HID. fol. 

 21 a. The transcript is not by any 

 means cotemporary. 



2 1 regret I cannot here explain 

 this fully. 



^ Not a Latinism. 



* Holen, which is originally an 



adjective, Hole5n,HoleSen, and even 

 now so applied to Holn Wood on 

 the banks of the Dart, near Ash- 

 burton. Holej, Holly, is the ori- 

 ginal substantive, C.E. 437, line 

 19. The old Latin name is Aqui- 

 folius : the Ilex was glandiferous, 

 the evergreen^ oak. 



