PLANT NAMES 45 



cerasus, and was called from Kerasos, a city in 

 Pontus, whence it was brought to Rome by Lucullus, 

 whose splendid banquets became proverbial. The 

 word Quince comes also through the old French 

 coin, which was from the Italian cotogna, which was 

 from the Latin Cydonia (its botanical name), because 

 Cydonia, in Crete, was its native place. The 

 Cytisus, or Broom, came from Cythrus, an island 

 of the Cyclades, near Greece. The Damson, as also 

 the Damask Rose, came from Damascus. Iberis, 

 Candytuft, is from Iberia, the ancient name of Spain, 

 where it abounds. Nepeta, Catmint, is said to come 

 from Nepi, a town near Rome. The Pampas Grass, 

 of course, comes from the pampas or plains of South 

 America. Parnassia, or Grass of Parnassus, was 

 called after the holy mountain in Greece where the 

 Delphic Oracle was situated, where, from its ele- 

 gance, it was fabled to have sprung. The Peach comes 

 through the old French pesche, from the Latin 

 persicum — that is, the fruit of the Persica arbor, 

 because it came from Persia. Rhubarb is from the 

 Greek Rheon barbaron, or the Rha plant from the 

 barbarous country. The Rha took its name from 

 the River Rha, now the Volga. The Greeks called 

 all foreigners who did not speak the Greek language 

 barbaroi, or stammerers. Barbaroi was their way 

 of contemptuously expressing the strange sound of 

 an unintelligible tongue, just as the Dutch in South 

 Africa called the natives in derision Hottentots. 

 The word Shallot, too, has a queer history. We get 

 it from the old French eschalote, which was a variant 



