270 THE AMERICAN NATURALIST. (VoL. XXXIX. 
form of the French /azgousfe, or Spanish /angosta, which lead us 
back to the Latin Zocus/a. The example shows, however, how it is 
possible for folk-etymology to transform crayfish, which are indeed a 
variety of shell-fish, and may properly be described as long, into a 
“long oyster.” So too “penny-winkle ” for the shell-fish commonly 
called periwinkle, is a partial reversion to its original form ize- 
wincla, ; 
Many extraordinary verbal complications are brought about 
through the tendency to assimilate words of a foreign or unfamiliar 
aspect into something of like sound that shall be more intelligible. 
Amongst the innumerable corruptions of plant-names to which this 
process gives rise, may be mentioned “ bloody Mars,” a kind of 
wheat, for 6/ de Mars; “Christian anthems” for chrysanthemums ;' 
the various forms of Polly Andrews, Polly Ann, or polander for 
polyanthus ; “rosy-dandrums” for rhododendrons ; and the correla- 
tive " high-belia " and “low-belia” as offshoots from lobelia. Amus- 
ing illustrations of the same tendency are furnished by the soubriquets 
under which famous race-horses are known to grooms and jockeys. 
Thus, Chemisette was nicknamed Jimmy's hat; Othello and Des- 
demona were familiarized into *Old Fellow" and “ Thursday 
Morning”; and the Irish horse Usquebaugh became to the farrier 
Huskeyball. 
Professor B. K. Emerson, in relating the following anecdote, offers 
some instructive comments on the tendency toward assimilation, or 
as he calls it, *the principle of attraction in language whereby words 
without meaning to their users tend to be modified into forms which 
at least appear intelligible.” Writes the genial professor’: “ Many 
years ago I visited the British flagship Bellerophon in the harbor of 
Bermuda, and was told that when the ship was first named, the 
sailors wrestled with the sonorous but unmeanin 
transformed it into ‘ Billy-ruffian ’ 
ligible, and belligerent 
g name, and quickly 
; and it became at once intel- 
distal extremities.” 
The significance of this and of similar incidents that are common 
to everyday experience consists in their being typical of a distinct 
! Geological Myths : Vice-Presidential Address. 
Proc. A i : i 
soy, bak orak "oc. | mer. Assoc. Adv. Sci., 
