llV INTRODUCTION. 



borrowed names, whether we look at those 

 that have been adopted, or at those which 

 have been translated, in both cases we 

 seem led to the conclusion that the Saxon 

 acquaintance with Roman botany must be 

 dated as high as the Conversion, even if it 

 be not the heritage of a provincial Roman 

 culture. And this conclusion has a fur- 

 ther consequence. It opens a wide ques- 

 tion. If this herb-lore is so old^ it follows 

 that the Saxons carried it with them in 

 their German missions, and that the Ger- 

 man plant-names may have been moulded 

 more or less after the Saxon. 



And if this was so, how far will it affect 

 the standing of the German and even of 

 the Scandinavian plant-names in the court 

 of comparison ? When^ for instance, meg- 

 hede is quoted as the Old German name 

 for Camomile, is this an independent cog- 

 nate of our mage^e, or is it simply our own 

 word shghtly disguised in a foreign dress ? 

 The Old German name for Urtica was 

 netele; now it is 9leffel. ,The form netele 

 looks questionable for continental German. 

 The Plantago is called in German 2Beg- 



