CONCERNfNG NOMENCLATURE. 



BY CHAS. D. TURNBULL: 

 CCORDING to Genesis, "Adam gave names to all cattle 

 and to the fowl of the air and to every beast of the 

 field," and v^e have therefore authority to declare that 

 although Father Adam named both bird and beast, he 

 woefully neglected the flower, and left the task to the 

 fancy and haphazard desires of his descendants. So it 

 happened that every people and tribe had its own collec- 

 tion of names; and the names of one nation^s flower did 

 not describe another's. With the spread of botanical 

 science, these limits became annoying — to the scientific 

 folk — and soon came Linnaens with his systematic botany, 

 who bestowed long, heavy names on the small weak 

 flowers. Burdock became Lappa major^ our own colt's 

 foot was burdened with Tussilago farfara and there were 

 still heavier names for the tirnid ones who had hidden in 

 fright. Now all things have their time and place, are ne- 

 cessities, but who thinks of Houstonia coerulea when he 

 sees the innocents coloring the pastures in spring ? There- 

 fore let us preserve our Latin and Greek mouthful, in the 

 manual and when we meet ragged robin we shall greet 

 him, ragged robin, not Lychnis BoscucuU. 



Many of our common plant names have descended to 

 us from early Saxon times. Witness nettle, henbit, pim- 

 pernel, thyme, hyssop, hollyhock, woad, cowslip and many 

 more. Many are of such ancient origin that the original 

 orthography is obscure and forgotten. The silent h in 

 thyme is a Latin affectation adopted at the time of the 

 Renaissance and is an instance of its widespread influence 

 on northern European civilization, H in hyssop has also 

 been adopted ; it was once issop or yssop. Hollyhock is 

 of the deepest antiquity, dating from the troublous times 

 of the Crusades. Hock was the early English word for 

 mallow of which family this plant is a member, and being 

 brought from the Holy Land by returning Palmers and 

 Crusaders it naturally acquired the title hollyhock. 



