468 ON ' SUNOICOUS^ AND OTHER BOTANICAL TERMS. [June, 



which the caterpillars feed, T do not find any representation of 

 a Fern. 



I may here observe that Turner, in his Herbal, in speaking of 

 the " vertues of the male ferne/^ says, " The roots of the male 

 feme driveth out the broad-worms of the belly." He also says, 

 if a man cut the roots of this Fern in the middle, it will show 

 on each side a black eagle with two heads. Referring to what 

 is said of the Ferns in some manuscript notes to an old copy of 

 Dodonseus, I find it mentioned that the roots of the Filix-mas 

 driveth forth and killeth broad-worms, and the leaves of this 

 and another kind, put into the bed-straw, " driveth away the 

 stinking punayces and all other such-like worms." S. B. 



ON 'SUNOICOUS' AND OTHEE BOTANICAL TERMS. 



In reply to our correspondent who asks the meaning of the 

 above term, and to our contributors generally, the following is 

 respectfully submitted. In the first place, it is a fact that the 

 Editor does not know the scientific meaning or application of 

 ' sunoicous,' and therefore he cannot define it. Its literal or 

 grammatical sense may be rendered by social or domestic, or 

 perhaps more explicitly by living together, or dwelling in the 

 same house, or being felloiv-citizens of the same state or country ; 

 and it would, in conformity with the usages adopted in the case 

 of such derivations, be written synoicous, from aw, together, 

 and oiKo<i, a dwelling. 



The word comes from a sufficiently creditable source, but it is 

 not necessary. It does not appear in Lindley's ^Botanical Glos- 

 sary,' nor in any other glossarial scientific work at hand; therefore 

 it is judged to be superfluous. It would not be amiss if the in- 

 ventors of new terms were enjoined to explain them ; and even 

 then such terms would not obtain currency unless they were 

 wanted. New terms are wanted only when new things, or new 

 attributes of things, or new combinations of things, are to be 

 described. Necessity is in these cases a sufficient justification 

 for introducing linguistic novelties. The term sunoicous, or 

 synoicous, may be intended as an equivalent for the inelegant 

 and barely decent term hermaphrodite, a term applied to flowers 

 which have the essential organs of fructification contiguous or 



