GARDEN NOMENCLATURE. 



33 



on the book-plate of Linnaeus, with the motto borrowed from Virgil, and 

 used by him of the bee : " Tantus amor Horum." His herbarium is now 

 one of the most cherished possessions of the Linnean Society. 



The name of Matthias Lobel, of Lille, is probably known to most 

 people only in the familiar lobelia of the summer border. Lobel was a 

 botanist and physician to James I. The lobelia first described was the 

 less known scarlet species, the rich crimson cardinal's flower. Parkin- 

 son says of it : " It groweth neere the river of Canada where the French 

 plantation in America is situated." The more familiar blue lobelia is 

 from the Cape. 



The dahlia is named after Dr. Dahl, a Swedish botanist and pupil 

 of Linnasus. It was introduced into England in 1789, but the plants 

 were soon afterwards lost. Seeds were reintroduced by Lady Holland, 

 and so botanists changed the name to Georgiana in her honour. The 

 name dahlia, however, had obtained firm root, and the Partington broom 

 of botanical authority was powerless against the tide of popular use. This 

 favourite flower remains the Dahlia. In Germany, however, Georgine is 

 still used as a name of the Dahlia. 



The pretty little purple Aubrietia of our spring gardens appropriately 

 recalls a French flower and miniature painter, Claude Aubriet. Aubriet 

 made the drawings for Tournefort's "Elements of Botany," and succeeded 

 Joubert as Royal painter in the Jardin des Plantes, Paris. 



The Tmdescantia, or Virginian spider wort, again, reminds us of the 

 two John Tradescants, father and son, travellers, botanists, and gardeners. 

 It was the elder Tradescant who established at Lambeth the first " physic 

 garden" in this country. He was gardener to Charles I., and was also 

 employed by the Earl of Salisbury and the Duke of Buckingham. John 

 Tradescant the younger travelled much, collecting plants for the " Physic 

 Garden," to which, in 1640, he brought the occidental plane tree. From 

 North America he introduced many plants, among them the Virginian 

 spiderwort, which bears his name. Like his father, he was gardener to 

 Charles I., and made large collections of all sorts of things. These were 

 described in a work entitled " Museum Tradescantianum," and were given 

 to Elias Ashmole. Hence they may now be in the Ashmolean Museum, 

 Oxford.* 



Bartsia alpina may in a special sense be said to be a memorial name. 

 The flower also, according to Kerner's description, is specially a memorial 

 flower. "This remarkable plant," he says, " is very striking owing to the 

 colour of its foliage being a mixture of black, violet, and green. The 

 flower, too, is of a sombre dark-violet hue, and the entire plant, by reason 

 of this peculiar colouring, gives a truly funereal impression." So it was 

 chosen by Linnaeus, and named by him Bartsia to express his grief at the 

 early death of his intimate friend John Bartsch, a zealous naturalist and 

 physician. 



Other examples are the red alum root, Heuchera, from Johann 

 Heinrich Heucher, German professor of medicine; Budbeckia from Olaf 

 Rudbeck the younger, professor of botany, Upsala ; Sherardia, the field 

 madder, from James Sherard, an eminent botanist ; Lavatera, the tree 



* For information regarding the Tradescants I am indebted to my friend Pro- 

 fessor Lebour, M.A., D.Sc, of the Armstrong College, Newcastle on-Tyne. 



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