XX INTRODUCTION. 



all doubtj and that is concerning a plant 

 singularly describeable, the Polypodium 

 vulgare, of which it is said in the Herba- 

 rium 4iabens in foliis sino-ulis binos ordines 

 punctorum aureorum.' This the Saxon 

 translator has rendered with an amplifica- 

 tion which manifests pleasure : — ' and heo 

 haef'S on aghwylcum leafe twa endeb^^rd- 

 nyssa faegerra pricena and ]7a scina^ swa 

 gold.' 



2. The Synonymy has its source in 

 Dioscorides. The Greek text of Diosco- 

 rides gives, besides the Greek names of 

 plants, the Roman, Dacian, GaUic, Punic, 

 and Egyptian equivalents. This was the 

 second scientific device for identifying a 

 plant, and it continued to be the chief 

 means to this end, down to the seventeenth 

 century. This was an instrument of some 

 power. One name of a plant might be 

 ambiguous, and a second name for the 

 same plant might also by itself be am- 

 biguous, and yet the conference of the two 

 might determine the plant intended. Two 

 names, each severally inadequate, may so 

 check and limit each other as to exclude 



