50 PLANT NAMES 



CLASSICAL NAMES 



We may group together a few names that come 

 down to us from classical and mythological lore. 

 Most of them were given in ancient ages when men 

 still believed these myths, but some by scholars of 

 modern times, who perhaps liked to display their 

 learning. Few of them, if any, have discernible 

 appropriateness to the flowers to which they belong. 

 But these old legendary stories are often beautiful, 

 and these names recall the simple beliefs of far-off 

 times when the imagination of primitive men 

 peopled the woods and streams and mountains with 

 invisible, or rarely visible, beings — fairies, nymphs, 

 satyrs, and gnomes. Thus the Andromeda was 

 called after the Ethiopian Princess who was chained 

 to a rock that she might be devoured by a sea 

 monster. Linnaeus fancifully found a resemblance 

 to her fate in the habitat of the little Andromeda 

 plants which " grew on turfy hillocks in the midst 

 of swamps frequented by toads and other reptiles." 

 Amaryllis was the pastoral sweetheart sung by 

 Theocritus and Virgil. We remember Milton's line, 

 " to sport with AmarylHs in the shade." The 

 Artemisia, Wormwood, reminds the scholar of the 

 Queen who erected the famous mausoleum in 

 memory of her husband. Achillea, Milfoil, is called 

 from the Greek hero at the siege of Troy. The 

 Centaur Chiron, fabled to have been skilled in 



