MIDLAND NATURALIST. 59 
meaning; but these etymologies, commonly but guessed at—or 
more commonly pirated from some other author—are often most 
improbable, and not rarely absurd or ridiculous. Of these failings 
of hasty and slip-shod botanical etymologists the author of the 
Elysium is well aware. Also the explanations, where he produces 
them, are found worthy of a better than parenthetic placing; and 
he presents them not in his own language, but precisely that of the 
author who made the name; and this not only as a matter of 
scholarly discretion, but in justice to authors themselves; for the 
writer of the Elysium seems to hold piracies in abhorrence. Here 
is the classic explanation that he reproduces for the classic Greek 
ADIANTUM: ‘‘Adianton aulem ex co dicitur, quod folium, ut 
Theophrastus ait, non madescat: Dodonaeus, 1583. Stirp Hist. 466. 
There is in these reproduced etymologies no condescension to 
modern botanical illiteracy. He will not turn them into English. 
The even half equipped botanical taxonomist, even of this twentieth 
century, knows Latin. So also if the founder of a genus has ex- 
plained the name of it in French, in German, or in Italian, the 
author of the Elysium does not translate it. He means his booklet 
for the tolerably well educated only. 
Passing over the formal diagnosis of genus and species and this 
bibliography of the latter, all of which are accurate, yet also brief, 
- as they should be, we present in its entirety theconcluding Adian- 
tum paragraph. It occupies about as much space as all ‘the 
onomastic and diagnostic paragraphs combined. 
"The leaves of 4 Capil/us Veneris have been used in medicine 
from time immemorial: they: are known in pharmacy as Herba 
Capillorum Veneris s. Folia Capilli, and were used in making a 
Syrup ( .Ssyrupus Capillorum).”’ , 
This appears to me to be Mr. Tidestrom’s own writing, and re- 
lates to the more southerly of the American species of genus; but 
the following he has taken from another author. 
'" Adiantum pedatum (see Linn. Spec. p. 1095) was also one 
of the plants in which a flourishing trade is carried on by Canada. 
Cornut in his Canadens. Plant. Hist. p. 7, calls it Adiantum 
Americanum ; it is also described and illustrated on page 6. In 
Canada the plant is usually called Herba capillaris and Matdenhaire 
by the English in their colonies. It grows in abundance in all the 
HE 
Englishe provinces through which I have journeyed. It is just as 
frequent in Southe-n Canada, but I have never observed it about 
Quebec. It thrives especially in shady forests and rather rich soil. 
Several people in Albany and in Canada told me that its [leaves] 
