210 OUR ROCK-GARDEN 



that on the whole, though its use is now legalised, if 

 confession be made of its introduction, coffee pure 

 and simple would appear to be the preferable 

 beverage. In Germany and France the roasted 

 roots are sometimes used by themselves in substitu- 

 tion for coffee. Its use was well known by the 

 ancients, Horace, Juvenal, Virgil, Pliny, and other 

 writers referring to it. 



At the bare mention of some few subjects certain 

 quotations may be at once looked for. No writer, 

 we suppose, on physical culture, no kindly chairman 

 presenting the gymnasium prizes at any institution, 

 could long resist the temptation to refer to the mens 

 sana in corpore sano. In like manner no reference 

 to plant-names without early reference to the 

 well-worn deprecatory quotation, " What's in a 

 name ? A rose by any other name would smell as 

 sweet " would appear possible. Words are too 

 commonly regarded and employed as but arbitrary 

 symbols that by some chance have become associated 

 with certain things ; yet, like the coinage we use in 

 our daily transactions, each is stamped with a mean- 

 ing and a history. In many cases the lapse of time 

 may have made the significance obscure or beyond 

 recovery, but we may safely assume that no matter 

 how meaningless these names may appear to us, 

 they will only be so because we have lost the key to 

 their significance. 



Before the Christian era Hippocrates Theophras- 



