130 OUR ROCK-GARDEN 



other writer, we find always a striking unanimity of 

 testimony, copying being so much easier than inde- 

 pendent investigation, and if the patience of the 

 reader could bear the strain we could fill pages from 

 the various authorities in praise of the borage. As 

 samples of the bulk we may quote from Boorde's 

 "Dyetery of Helthe," 1542, the declaration that 

 " Borage doth comfort the herte and doth ingender 

 good blode, and causeth a man to be mery," and 

 the statement of John Pechey in his " Compleat 

 Herbal of Physical Plants," 1694, that "the distill'd 

 Water and the Conserve of Borrage Flowers doth 

 comfort the Heart, relieve the Faint, and cheer the 

 Melancholy." Lovell, 1665, gives a section of his 

 treatise to " Mirth Causing Herbs," and here again 

 our plant finds honoured place. 



An old name of the borage was the corago, from 

 a belief in its value in affections of the heart, and 

 we are invited by divers authorities on plant nomen- 

 clature to believe that the more modern name is 

 a corruption of this. Others have it that the name 

 is a Latinised version of some Oriental name that 

 came with it on its introduction from the East, 

 while yet others declare that the hairy nature of the 

 leaves and stems makes the Italian word borra, the 

 hair of a goat or flock of wool, an obvious deri- 

 vation. These are not the only suggestions brought 

 forward, but they will suffice to show that the 

 meaning of the name is hopelessly obscure, 



