432 ON BLECHNUM SPICANT. [_Ma'l/, 



cause ; " There is a river in Wales/' etc. As Pagus and Fago- 

 pyrum (Beech) are derived from the verb (jiajco, I eat, the reason 

 of the derivation is not very obscure. Now for the English prefix, 

 buck. Beech in German is buche, and buclie is easily corrupted 

 into buck, and hence we have Buckwheat as a corruption of 

 Beechwheat. It may here be admitted that to many people of 

 good understanding, Buckwheat is just as rational a term as 

 Beechwheat. This is true; but etymologists have to judge on 

 etymological and logical principles, and as the word beech can 

 be traced from (f)ayco, I eat, and as buche is easily corrupted 

 into buck, so also the German word bach, brook, is as readily 

 corrupted into buck. Bachbunge in German is the name of 

 another brook-plant, viz. Veronica Beccabunga, our Brooklime. 

 Again, we have the term Buckbean more directly from the Danish 

 Bukkeblade. Bukke is buck in that language, and brook is hoek in 

 Danish, and bdk in Swedish, and beck in Old English : beck, a 

 little river or brook, is still a current word in the Craven district 

 of Yorkshire. The transition from the German bach, the Danish 

 boek, or the Swedish bdk, to the English prefix buck, is obvious 

 enough. Bean, or bonne, Danish, or bona, Swedish, indicate the 

 shape of the mature capsules, which are not much unlike a bean, 

 and there is also a resemblance in the foliage. The term Bog- 

 bean is also a corruption from the Danish. It is not so called 

 because it grows in bogs, but because g and k are convertible let- 

 ters in the science of etymology. For example, H'dgsurt in Danish 

 is Hawkweed in English; and the term Bogbean is probably 

 onlj' an ancient corruption of Buckbean, more Danico. There 

 exist more than traces of the influence the Danish language has 

 had on the vernacular of almost all parts of the British Islands. 



Etymologus. 



ON BLECHNUM SPICANT. 



^ To the Editor of the '■Vhytologist? 



Sir, — Your correspondent who tells us (p. 220, vol. ii.) that 

 Spicant is a lapsus calami or a printer's blunder for spicans, as- 

 sumes more than can be proved, or more than some of your 

 learned readers may be willing to concede, viz. that it would be 

 absurd to suppose that the great Linnaeus formed it from spico 



