GARDEN NOMENCLATURE. 



29 



shaped leaves are often filled with water, and offer a refreshing draught 

 to the shepherd, is a Banuncidus. 



Nor is the term " violet " restricted, as it ought to be, to the genus Viola. 

 Thus the water-violet is one of the Primulacece, and the dame's violet 

 is one of the Cruciferce. And according to the commentators Virgil uses 

 the term Viola for the wallflower as well as the violet.* 



The word " leek," again, is not confined to the familiar garden vegetable, 

 the national badge of the Welsh, Allium Porrum of botanists. For is 

 there not the familiar house-leek, Jove's beard, planted on the house-top 

 to ward oflf the lightning, which is a near relation of the stonecrop? 

 And the second syllable in hemlock " was originally leek, which 

 formerly meant any green kitchen herb. 



A large number of plants have received the name of honeysuckle, 

 vvhich have no connection with our familiar and fragrant woodbine, 

 and do not belong to the genus Lonicerus of Linnasus. 



Thus the common red clover of our fields has often been called 

 honeysuckle, and French honeysuckle is a leguminous plant, Hedysarum 

 coronarium. In America there is a honeysuckle which is botanically an 

 Azalea, while in Australia they apply the word to a species of Banksia. 

 In Jamaica they have a honeysuckle which is a Passion-flower. 



One of the dog- woods is also known as dwarf honeysuckle in this 

 country. 



The word "plantain," again, is used for plants in three very different 

 and widely separated genera : Plantago, the plantains or ribgrasses ; Alismay 

 the water-plantains ; and Musa, which includes the plantains and bananas. 



The botanical order of the grasses is a very definite and well-defined 

 one. Yet the word " grass " is used of a large number of plants which have 

 no affinity with it. Goose-grass belongs to the bedstraw genus, Galium ; 

 knot-grass— the " hindering knot-grass " of Shakespeare — is Polygonum 

 aviculare ; whitlow-grass and scurvy- grass are both cruciferous ; Grass - 

 of-Parnassus belongs to the Saxifrage order ; scorpion-grass is a name of 

 the forget-me-nots.t 



The yellow loosestrife of the woods is one of the Primulacece, while 

 the purple loosestrife of the river banks belongs to the Lythracece. 

 Lavender is a Labiate, while sea-lavender belongs to the same order as 

 the thrift. Milkwort, Polygala, gives its name to its order, while Sea- 

 milkwort belongs to the Primrose family. 



The word "rose," again, has been extended beyond the genus Bosa, to 

 which it ought to be restricted. Thus the primrose, that is, the first or 

 earliest rose, does not even belong to the order Bosacece. It is a flower 

 of a very different form, and has been made the type of a distinct order, 

 the Primulacece. The rock-rose, again, belongs to the Cistus order. 



Nor has the Ehododendron, that is, tree-rose," any claim to the title, 

 for it belongs to the great Heath family. 



Says Biron in Shakespeare's "Love's Labour's Lost," 



At Christmas I no more desire a rose 



Thau wish a snow in May's new-fangled shows. 



* The so-called "violet powder" is made ivom Iris florentina. The dog's-tooth 

 violet is Erythronium, and belongs to the Lily tribe. 



t Felon's grass is a name given to the hellebore in Westmorland. 



