41 
The history of its introduction into cultivation is very obscure. 
It is commonly stated that it came from China, but this is pro- 
bably incorrect. No one except Loureiro ren to have seen 
Chinese specimens, and there is reason to think that this botanist, 
Japan, and then apparently as a ee iy plant. Maximowicz 
(Melanges biologiques, ix., decas xiii., p. 17) accepts it as wild in 
ltai Mountains and Nort keth rsia. 
To Marco Polo has been attributed the credit of bringing it 
from Central Asia to Europe, but without sufficient evidence. 
More recently medecin: (Botanisches Centralblatt, 25, p. v: has 
given reason for th g that, besides inhabiting entra a, it 
occurs wild in Podole sid Volhynia in S.W. Russia. FE this 
region, he thinks, it was introduced into Qu many by some Micha ; 
as early almost as the Norman conquest of England. There is no 
great improbability aboutthis. Certainly, of the names Gore da to 
it in various European languages, all, with two exceptions, appear 
akin to its German names, and may well be the result of carrying 
those names with it as it travelled from a German starting-point. 
1y 
by such statements as that of ves coii uy Serr T a Br the 
irret came into France from Ger nis that of Simon 
te (1613), who, according Bosipfinski, says that it was 
roduced into Galicia from Mai 
gorp up the evidence, which language affords, upon the 
migration of the epee we commence with an old German name 
* Gerle " or “ Girel," ged, according to pede n 1160. This 
transferred to the Sack language has bec = Girole, " and by 
the addition of moren (Móhre — a carr ren i esculent root) 
became “ Gritzelmóren " in Hesse, and “ Kritzelmore " or 
t 
* Krotzelmore " in other parts of ie German Empire. Thence 
it is easy to trace the Polish * Krucmorka” or * Kucmerka," and 
the Russian * Kuczmerka.” The Germans, however, originated, 
amongst others, a descriptive name, “ Zucke rwurzel," and this 
gave rise, it seems, directly or indirectly to the Danish * Sokerot, ud 
the Dutch * Suikerwortel, " and our English * Skirwort" or 
the tran 
incoming Skirret. From this second French name would come 
the Spanish * Chirivia." Thus have we three sets of names; the 
first derived from Girel, and common to the Russian, Polish, 
Seien and French languages ; the second er, of 
rman origin, and common to the Anglo-Saxon races; the 
third apparently of French origin, and common wu French and 
Spanish. Without dragging this form of evidence into too great 
prominence, we may still see in it some indication of the way in 
which the plant eiie. discussion has wandered through Europe. 
The least widely spread names are likely to be the most modern, 
and the most obscure in meaning and cause of application the 
most ancient, And thus this points towards a German centre of 
persal 
Whether the French word “Berle” has any common origin 
with “ Ge ” does not seem to have been discussed ; nor has the 
origin of the Scotch word “ Crummock ” been clearly traced, 
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