December 1, 1891.] 



KNOWLEDGE 



223 



Fig. 7. — Arcliesonc 

 greatly magnified. 

 c. Canal, o. Oo- 

 spliere. After Brr- 

 kolcv. 



and the other to the stamens including the anthers 

 of a flowei-ing plant. The organ 

 correspoiuling -n-ith the pistil is called 

 the archegoniiini or arcliegone ; the 

 organs corresponding ■nith the stamens 

 the antheridia or antherids. The arche- 

 gone is a flask-shaped organ, which 

 ultimately produces a specialized cell, 

 known as the oosphere, at the bottom 

 of the flask, the neck of which is per- 

 forated by a canal. This organ is 

 usually surrounded by circles of leaves, 

 often larger and almost always different 

 in form from the ordinary leaves of the 

 Moss. The ordered arrangement of 

 these leaves produces something like a 

 flower, and is known as the pericha?- 

 tium, i.e., the surroundings of the 

 couch. If the reader will tin-n to Figs. 

 1 and 2, and note the letters a r, 

 they will indicate the situation of the 

 archegone before it gave rise to the 

 capsule. 



Fig. 7 will show an archegone, 

 with the canal, c, and the oosphere, o. 

 The male organs are known as 

 antherids. Fig. 8 shows an antherid, 

 a long bag-like cell, surrounded by fila- 

 ments, sometimes club-shaped, called 

 paraphyses. These are usually associated in groups, and 

 surrounded by specialized leaves, often in the shape of 

 a rosette, and when (as sometimes) they 

 are highly coloured they present the „• _..,,- 

 aspect of small but beautilul tlowers. 

 Fig. 3 exhibits a male plant of one of 

 our common Mosses, the Polytrichum, 

 terminating in the rosette-shaped flower 

 of a scarlet colour, composed of the 

 antherids, the paraphyses, and the 

 specialized leaves. The large beds 

 of these short stiff male plants of 

 Polytriclium, which may often be seen 

 in the spring of the year, are objects 

 of great, but, I fear, often neglected, 

 beauty. 



The antherids burst and give out swarms of small 

 bodies, known as antherizoids, con- 

 sisting of roundish cells containing in 

 the interior a spiral thread, which 

 produces a rotatory movement in the 

 containing cell. Fig. 9 represents such 

 antherizoids. These little bodies find 

 their way to the canals of the archegone, 

 pass down it, and enter the oosphere, 

 and so effect that union of two in- 

 dependent cells which produces fertili- 

 zation. 



(To be continued. ) 



FiG.S.— Antlierid.a, 

 with Paraphyses, 

 P- "=: K«-aping 

 Antherizoids. 

 After Bcrliclev. 



Fio. 9. Antheri- 

 zoids, showing 

 spiral threads. 



.\fter Schimper. 



A GOSSIP ON GHOST-NAMES. 



By Canon Isaac Tavlok, M..\., LL.D., Lin.l).. 

 AkIIiui- of '' Words ((ml I'Idccs," dr. 



A 



(1001) many words have crept into' our dictionaries 

 w hich are not words at all, having arisen from un- 

 corrected misprints, Uie blunders of scribes, or the 

 mistakes of compositors in deciphering the illegible 

 manuscripts of authors. Such words have been 



well designated by Professor Skeat as Ghost-words. But 

 Professor Skeat has said nothing about what may be 

 called Ghost-names, which are, perhaps, more numerous 

 than Ghost-words, inasmuch as in a manuscript, however 

 badly written, the context gives some clue to an un- 

 decipherable word, whereas in the case of a name there is 

 no such aid. Hence we find on our maps not a few names 

 which are properly not real names, but merely blunders 

 which pass for names. 



Not long ago I happened to be present at the birth of a 

 Ghost-name. Crossing the Bay of Biscay from the south 

 in one of the boats of the P. & C, a passenger inquired 

 when we should pass Cape Quessant. Never haung heard 

 of such a cape, 1 asked him where it was. He took me 

 into the smoking room, where a well-thumbed atlas, 

 belonging to the ship, lay upon a table, and he pointed to 

 the name of Cape Quessant at the extreme western corner 

 of Brittany. An examination of the map led to the 

 removal of a tiny speck of du-t at the bottom of the first 

 letter of the name, and Cape Quessant reappeared as Cape 

 Ouessant, the usual French spelling of the name, often 

 written Ushant in English books. 



Several Ghost-names have arisen in this way from 

 misreadings of the manuscripts of classical writers. In 

 Scotland we have three such names, those of the Hebrides, 

 the Grampians, and lona. The Western Isles of Scotland 

 are called the Hebrides, a name which has been trans 

 ferred by Captain Cook to the New Hebrides in the South 

 Pacific. Much fruitless ingenuity has been expended in 

 the attempt to discover the etymology of the name. The 

 explanation is very simple. Before the introduction of 

 the dot over the letter / in the eleventh century, the letters 

 /■/, in the Caroline Minuscule, resembled greatly the letter 

 u. Two early editions of Pliny's " Natural History " were 

 printed from a manuscript in which the name H»b»des 

 appeared as Hebrides, and hence Hai'brides was accepted 

 as the ancient name of the ^Vestern Isles. That the 

 reading was erroneous is shown, not only by better manu- 

 scripts, but by a notice in Solinus, who speaks of the 

 Hflmdes insiihc (piiiKptc numero, and the islands are caUed 

 Ebudre by Ptolemy. The Ebudes were doubtless so called 

 because they lie around the island of Ebuda, now Bute, 

 which is the nearest to the mainland, and would therefore 

 be the first to become known to the Romans. 



The second Scotch Ghost-name is that of the Grampians, 

 which is given to the backbone of Scotland, extending 

 from Ben Nevis to Ben Lomond. The old and correct 

 Gaelic name was " Drumalban, " the Homiin Alh(ini(r of 

 Latin writers. This use of the name Grampians contains 

 a double blunder. Tacitus, in his " Life of Agricola," 

 chapter 29, describing the victory of the Romans over 

 Galgacus, tells us that the Caledonians were posted on a hill, 

 which in all the best manuscripts appears as Mons Graupius. 

 In one manuscript of small value, this name Graupius appears 

 as (irampius. The Scotch historian. Hector Boece, who 

 died in 1.586, was the first to transfer this misread name 

 from the rising ground on which the battle was fought to 

 the central ridge of Scotland. The blimder was per- 

 petuated in the celebrated forgery published iu 1747 by 

 Dr. Bertram, with the tiile Dc Situ Britunniir, professing 

 to be the work of Richard of Cirencester, a monk of 

 St. Peter's Abbey, Westminster, who died in 1-100 ; 

 Bertram having doubtless made use of the history of Boece 

 in compiling his work. Till Professor Mayors detection of 

 the forgery. Richard of Cirencester was supposed to be 

 one of the best authorities for early English geography, 

 and the book was freely used by tiibbon, Lingard, and other 

 writers. Hence the double blunder of transferring a 

 misread name from a small hillock to the great mountain 



