44 PLANT NAMES 



PLACE OF ORIGIN 



When we find plants called after countries or dis- 

 tricts we learn the place from which they came, or 

 where they were found in remarkable abundance. 

 And we may with certainty infer that the name did 

 not arise there, but in some other place to which 

 they were introduced. Currants, for example, are 

 called after Corinth, a Greek city, but the Corin- 

 thians would never think of giving them that name. 

 Thus we glean some interesting information about 

 the origin and history of the tree. Aconite was 

 plentiful round Acona, in Italy.* Arahis was first 

 recorded as being an Arabian plant; Agaricus, the 

 genus of Fungi to which mushrooms belong, was 

 plentiful near Agaria, a town in Sarmatia; Berga- 

 mot is from Bergamo in Italy! ; the Araucaria is 

 called after the name of a native tribe in Chile, where 

 it was first found. The first syllable of Chestnut is 

 derived from Castana, a city in Greece. Colchicum, 

 the Meadow Saffron, sometimes called the Autumn 

 Crocus, though not akin to the Crocuses, is from 

 Colchis, famous in Greek legend. Cherry ought to 

 be Cheris, which was erroneously supposed to be 

 plural. It comes through the French cerise, from 



* Skeat, however, derives it from Greek en akonais, from 

 its growing on steep, sharp rocks. 



t But the Bergamot Pear is from the Turkish heg armudi, 

 the Prince's Pear. 



