THE CAPE LEADWOKT. 



Plumbago c/ipensis. 



HE names of plants present for 

 our consideration innumerable 

 strange questions, mostly of a 

 mirth-provoking kind, but some- 

 times sad enough. The name 

 that now confronts us possesses 

 but little interest of any kind; 

 but the reader may very properly 

 ask why a plant should be called 

 a plumbago? It is, perhaps, 

 impossible to explain the reason 

 of the name, but it seems to 

 have originated from the use of 

 one of the species as a remedy 

 in some disease of the eye. Then 

 the decoction of the plant was 

 probably considered the equivalent of a solution of lead, 

 or the name of the disease may have carried with it an 

 allusion to the metal. The blue colour of the flowers is 

 not far unlike that of pure lead that is as yet free from 

 corrosion and dirt. But, after all, plumbago is not lead; 

 it is "graphite/' and graphite is a natural charcoal, or 

 silicate of carbon, without a shadow of lead in its substance. 

 It derived its name from its likeness to lead, or "plumbum ;" 



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