BOTANICAL NOTES, NOTICES, AND QUERIES. A837 
Taxus, Yew.—The branches of the Yew, being long and slender, pliable 
and elastic, with considerable bearing strength, were anciently used in the 
making of the implement which the Greeks called togov, a bow. 
SamBucus.—From Greek sambuke (oapPBvu«n), the name of a musical 
instrument made of the wood of this tree. Its long, straight, hollow 
branches, from which the pith is easily removed, are easily formed into 
various kinds of wind musical instruments. 
SPaRTIuM.—From spartum, omaptos, cordage, for which some of the 
species are still employed, especially im Spain and Portugal. Both the 
generic and specific names of one of these plants point out the uses for 
which it is employed, viz. Spartinm junceum. The latter or specific name 
is from Juncus, a Rush, from jungo, [ bind, because many of the Rushes 
were used for binding; as we have seen drawing-ropes, traces, and other 
horse- and ox-gear, prepared from the rind of several kinds of Rushes. 
SprrHa.—F rom speira (oreipa), a cord; the pliant twigs of some of 
the species were anciently twisted into cordage. 
Visurnum.—From vieo, I bind ; for which purpose the tough, slender 
twigs are very applicable. 
Buxus.—tThe ancient Greeks made small boxes called zvéides (rvéis): 
from the wood of this tree. The Latins employed the wood of the tree 
for the same purposes; and the moderns manufacture snuff-boxes and 
similar fancy articles from the roots and stems of this tree; hence our 
English term doxwood. 
Violets —This term, which is well understood by the scientific, must be 
very puzzling to the unlearned reader of botanical books. Botanists re- 
strict the name V7olet,—in Latin Viola, and in Greek Iov,—to plants of the 
natural Order VioLace®, and to the genus Viola. The non-botanical 
reader applies this name on/y to the Sweet Violet, Viola odorata or V. alba 
of botanists. The Dog Violet, because it has no scent, is called the False 
Violet. The sweet scent is the sole character by which the unlettered dis- 
tinguish the genuine violet, whether dark purple or white. By English 
writers on plants the generic word Violet is applied to many plants, of 
very distinct and widely separated orders and genera, as well as species. 
The Sweet, the Marsh, the Hairy, the Dog Violet, and many other less 
common epithets, which the necessities of science authorize or justify, all 
belong to the genuine Viole¢ and to its various and different congeners. 
But there are other applications of the word Violet which are still more 
perplexing to the untutored mind. The following are Violets, viz. Hesperis 
matronalis, the Dame’s (our Lady’s) Violet. The “padlentes violas” of 
Virgil, Ec. ii. v. 47, were probably another species of this genus, viz. Hes- 
peris tristis, the Night-stock, a very popular plant, still highly prized for its 
exquisite odour, which it only yields in the evening and during the night. 
Among the Greeks the word Iov is equally indefinite as the word Violet is 
among us; for example, lov Aevkov is said to be the Leucojum estivum and 
L. autumnale, Lu., our Summer and Autumn Snowflake. ov kpoxeov, Viola 
flava, Theoph., is our common Wallflower, Cheiranthus Cheiri, Lin. 
The Tusculan and marine violets of Pliny (Bk. xxi. c. 14, Bohn’s ed.) 
are supposed to be plants of the natural Order Cracifere ; and in this 
sense alone can the introductory lines to this, the 14th chapter, be under- 
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