S^wamp of Oracles 169 



ancient herbals, however, there is no record of this 

 derivation. Originally, as Dodoens wrote in 1578, this 

 plant was known as Aqiiileia. Aquileia was also the 

 name of a town in the vicinity of ancient Tro3^ The 

 town was celebrated in history for its desperate resist- 

 ance to Attila, King of the Huns. Assuming that 

 the origin of the name is vague, and observing the 

 customs of the ancients in the naming of plants, it 

 might be inferred that these flowers were first observed 

 in the town of Aquileia, or were named in honor of a 

 king or herbalist of the region. This was the case 

 wath the Pceonia, which took its title from that good 

 old man, Dr. Paeon of Pseonia, in Macedonia. The 

 origin of the common name Columbine, also, has occa- 

 sioned of late much discussion in the popular plant 

 journals.' One author, claiming that the spurs of 

 these flowers resembled a dove's-foot, said that the 

 name should read ''Pes Columbinus'" —pes meaning 

 foot, and columbinus signifying dove. But ''Pes Co- 

 bimbmum'' was used by the ancients to designate an 

 allied group of Aquilegia, a species of wild geranium, 

 written of by Linnaeus in 1753 as Gerayiuim Columbi- 

 num. It is commonly known in English as Dove's- 

 foot Geranium, and in French as Pied de pigeon. 



According to Gaza, species of Aquilegia were sup- 

 posed to have been named originally by Theophrastus 

 — centuries before Christ — Pojithos Theophrasti. Theo- 

 phrastus is accepted as our first real botanist leaving 



' The Plant World, July, 1900 ; February, 1901 ; September, 

 1902 ; November, 1902. 



