Our Lexicon Page 403 



OUR LEXICON PAGE— EXPLANATION OF 

 SCIENTIFIC TERMS. 



{Continued from p . 359.) 



Icon. — This word, borrowed from the Greek, means simply 

 an image or portrait, or representation. In natural history 

 Icones (Latin plural) are pictorial representations of butter- 

 flies, birds, &c. In Art and History they are collections of 

 portraits (e.g., Beza's Icones, reviewed at p. 416). In Religion 

 they are little images or pictures used in public or family 

 worship, or carried about the person. The word is still in 

 ordinary use in Russia and by the Greek Church. In Eng- 

 land it has been supplanted by the word Image. It still 

 survives, however, in the word " Iconoclast," a " breaker of 

 Images," and several others. j 



Catkin. — This word is of Anglo-Saxon derivation and means 

 literally a small cat. It has been applied to certain flower- 

 forms which are supposed to resemble cats' tails. The term 

 lambkins might be more appropriate, for catkins more usually 

 hang down, and more nearly resemble in form the tail of a lamb 

 than that of a cat. The stamen-bearing flower of the hazel 

 supplies a good example of a catkin, but catkins are produced 

 also by^ the willow, oak, birch, poplar, and some other trees. 

 As a rule it is the male flowers only which assume the catkin 

 arrangement. The florets, which consist of scales and have no 

 true petals, are placed around a slender central thread so as to 

 form a cylinder. Many catkins remain for months in the bud 

 stage, but finally they open and shed their pollen. The 

 " palms " of the willow with their abundant yellow pollen are 

 catkins. 



Amentum. — This Latin word, which signifies a thong or 

 lash, is used in botany as equivalent to catkin. The catkin- 

 bearing trees were formly grouped together as Ameniacece. 



