490 HISTORY OF THE HOUSELEEK. [July , 



derives the Greek aeii^wov from aet and OaXKo'^, ever green^ instead 

 of from aei and ^aov, ever living ; hence the term singreen or 

 ayegreen is not a very inadequate representative of the plant In 

 the Germanic series of languages. The prefix sin appears in the 

 Gothic version of the Gospel by Mark, v. 5 : " Sinteino thans 

 unledans habaith mith izuis, ith mik ni sinteino habaith/' — " Ye 

 have the poor always {sinteino) with you, but me ye have not 

 always [sinteino) ." In the ancient German glossaries, sin is given 

 as the Teutonic equivalent of the Latin semper or the Greek aet, 

 and is expressive of the perennial or lasting duration of the plant. 

 Sengreen is just the same as ayegreen or evergreen. Many other 

 plants besides the Houseleek bore this name^ because they were 

 always green. Bailey says Sengreen is the herb Houseleek, and 

 and the herbalists both of ancient and modern times give all the 

 English synonyms Ayegreen, or Houseleek, or Sengreen. When 

 Linnaeus reformed the nomenclature of botany, he selected Sem- 

 pervivum, and rejected Crassula and Sedwn, which were synonyms 

 in former times, and invented the specific name tectorum to dis- 

 tinguish this kind of Houseleek from other species. 



In latter times, during the last twenty or thirty years, an opi- 

 nion has been gaining ground, especially among the younger and 

 more critical botanists, that the Houseleek is not a native of Bri- 

 tain, and consequently is also an introduced plant in the northern 

 parts of Europe generally. In support of this view it is urged 

 that it is found only on walls, that it scarcely propagates itself, 

 or in other words, it is found only on artificial erections, and is 

 never, so far as we know, of spontaneous growth on these. By 

 these two botanical canons the Houseleek is excluded from the 

 native Flora of the British Isles. It is believed by the compiler 

 of these linguistic notes on the history of the plant, that by the 

 same rules it must be banished from the Floras of Europe from 

 the 45th to the 49th degrees of latitude. 



The plant must have a native country ; it may have rtiore than 

 one. It may be a cosmopolite. The learned editor of the ' Gar- 

 deners' Chronicle ' tells us that it is certainly most strange that 

 the fatherland of so many of our best-known cultivated plants 

 should thus defy detection in their native haunts. Thus Reseda 

 odorata, the fragrant Mignionette, was long believed to be an 

 Egyptian plant, or a native of the north of Africa ; but the re- 

 searches of botanists to detect it in any of these countries have 



