430 NAMES OF PLANTS. [-^«2/^ 



Car ex filiformis is the most interesting member of the Cyperacece 

 which takes up its home here, while Isoetes lacustris will be a 

 welcome acquisition to the fern-hunter. With some interesting 

 .species of Potamogeton, as graminea, perfoliata, lanceolata, 

 natans, etc., the list of flowering-plants of interest appears to be 

 complete, unless my memory and notes have played me false. 



NAMES OF PLANTS. 

 {Frovi a Correspondent.) 



Sir,— In ' Phytologist ' for Feb. 1858, p. 359, under ' Deriva- 

 tion of Botanical Names,' " F. C." very kindly observes, that the 

 correspondents who ask for the derivation of botanical names, 

 Berberis for example, " are probably not aware that ' Paxton's 

 Botanical Dictionary ' (in most cases) will afford an answer to 

 such inquiries," etc. I am one of the correspondents who have 

 given some trouble to the Editor of the ' Phytologist,' but I am 

 not unawai^e of the publication recommended, nor of the exist- 

 ence of a better medium than the ' Botanical Dictionary ' for the 

 resolution of these difficulties. Although I readily admit my hav- 

 ing propounded queries on nomenclature, I submit that I have 

 never cumbered the pages of the ' Phytologist ' with any question 

 on botanical etymology till I had exhausted every available re- 

 soiu'ce. From my experience of ' Paxton's Botanical Dictionary,' 

 I am disinclined to adopt F. C's. favourable view of its linguistic 

 capabilities. Such things might be expected in botanical glos- 

 saries or dictionaries, but from Bradley's times to the present, 

 when botanists are favom'ed with explanatory works from the 

 very elite of botanical writers, Henslow, Lindley, and Paxton, 

 nothing seems to have been further from the aim of these dis- 

 tinguished writers than this subject, the etymology of botanical 

 names or terms, or scientific phrases. These eminent authors 

 had other views, which they have abundantly realized, and it 

 would be unfair to expect in their scientific pages another series 

 of grammatical or etymological facts which they do not profess 

 to communicate. 



As a general rule, ' Paxton's Dictionary ' does give the deriva- 

 tion of the generic names. But as there are exceptions to all 

 general rules, if Ave may believe the proverb, the dictionary in 



