Plant Names 



to fill up the gap between Caspar Banhin and the 

 nineteenth century. I should, indeed, like to go 

 back further than Theophrastus, for plants must 

 always have had names, and I should like to 

 know where they are first mentioned.^ I suppose 

 the earliest names in the Bible would be those in 

 the Book of Job, and I have been told that very 

 old Egyptian names have been discovered, but I 

 am very ignorant of Egyptian literature. The 

 earliest distinct mention that I have found of the 

 use of plant names in a garden is in the Odyssey. 

 When Ulysses is making himself known to 

 Laertes, who in his doubts asks for some sign, 

 he very simply tells him that he will show him 

 in his garden the trees that he gave him as a 

 boy, and at the same time taught him their 

 names : — 



'E( 5' ({7^ Tot KoX d4vdpa ^'FivKn.jxevqv Kar dXwrjf 

 €Xirti3 a fioL irdr ^5(d/ca5, iyuj 5' ijreov (re eAiaora, 

 iraLdvos iuji' Kara KTJirov eTrtffTrofievos' dia 5' aOruv 

 LKveijfjLeffda, <yd 6' (jjvSfxairas Kal eetires e/catrra. 



— xxiv., 335-338. 



" I'll tell you, too, the trees (in goodly frame 

 Of this fair orchard) that I askt of you 

 Being yet a child, and followed, for your show 

 And name of every tree." — C/iapman's Translation. 



' We are told that " Adam gave names to all cattle and to the 

 fowl of the air and to every beast of the field " ; but according to 

 Milton the naming of the flowers of Eden fell to Eve ; 

 " O flowers, 

 Which I bred up with tender hand 

 From the first opening bud, and gave ye names." 



— Paradise Lost, xi. 277. 

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