102 THE KEY. V. A. WALKER, D.D., P.L.S., ON 



and marshy districts should derive its ordinary name, "Bog 

 Myrtle," from the myrtle of which the Greek appellation is 

 fivpa-iVT] or fjbvppivT] in Attic Greek, probably from the fact of 

 its fohage exhaling a powerful scent, and its botanical 

 title Mjiviea <jale from /xvpUr]. which is, as above stated, the 

 Greek for tamarisk. To avoid any confusion, however, be 

 it noted, en passant, that /jivppivr] and fivpUr], the myrtle and 

 the tamarisk, have no similarity except in their respective 

 names. 



It is worth remarking in conclusion that Odysseus (Iliad, 

 Lib. X, 465-467) raises aloft and casts spoils and armour of 

 the dead body of the spy Dolon whom he had just slain on 

 the tamarisk bed, heaping over them reeds and blooming 

 sprigs of the tamarisk. Reeds or flags are mentioned here 

 in conjunction with the tamarisk, just as I noticed their joint 

 growth on the banks of the Suez Canal. And the Scholiast 

 on the passage describes /xvpiKrjv ''tamaricem sen tamaris- 

 cum, liumida loca amantem. Cogitandum autem est eos 

 incedere locis paludosis, in quas exundare solet Simois." 



So in Lord Derby's rendering of the passage — 



"Tlius as he spoke, amid the tamarisk scrub 

 Far oft' he threw the trophies ; then with reeds, 

 And twigs new broken from the tamarisk boughs, 

 He set a mark, lest in the gloom of night 

 Returning they might haply miss the spot." 



So once more in Jliad, xxi, 350-352, apropos of the banks 

 of the river Xanthus, elms and willows are mentioned along 

 with the tamarisk, and moreover, the lotus, rushes, and 

 galingal. Lord Derby's version — 



" Burnt were the willows, elms, and tamarisk shrubs, 

 The lotus, and the reeds, and galingal. 

 Which by the lovely river grew profuse." 



And to end a long story, Roman bards, equally Avith those 

 of Greece, have been fain to celebrate the tamarisk, inasmuch 

 as Virgil sings of it in four passages of his Eclogues — 

 "Non omnes arbusta juvant humilesque myricse." 



Ed. iv, 2. 



" Te nostras, Vare, myricte, 

 Te nemus omne canet." 



Ed. vi, 10, 11. 



" Pinguia corticibus sudent electra myrictB.'' 



Ed. viii, 54. 



" Ilknn etiam lauri, etiam flevere myricte." 



Ed. X, 13. 



