The  Origin  of  some  Old  Agricultural  Words.  57 
A large  number  of  agricultural  words  are,  from  the  nature 
of  the  case,  drawn  from  the  various  provincial  dialects  of 
England.  It  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  such  country  words 
are,  in  general,  either  of  late  growth  or  of  what  is  called  vulgar 
origin.  All  experience  shows  that  they  are  frequently  of  great 
antiquity,  and  not  unfrequently  preserve  old  forms  with  an 
accuracy  beyond  expectation.  But  inasmuch  as  varying 
dialects  have  each  their  own  phonetic  laws,  the  same  old  word 
is  frequently  represented  by  different  forms  at  the  present 
day.  It  is  not  always  easy  to  decide  which  of  these  is  to  be 
preferred ; but  it  will  obviously  be  convenient  to  make  such  a 
decision  whenever  it  is  practicable. 
Amongst  the  various  subjects  with  which  agriculture  has  to 
deal,  I find  it  convenient,  first  of  all,  to  consider  plant-names. 
Under  this  head,  I beg  leave  to  submit  the  following  observations. 
This  subject  long  ago  received  particular  attention  by  the 
English  Dialect  Society.  Its  importance  was  fully  recognised, 
and  the  very  difficult  task  of  drawing  up  a full  and  sufficient 
list  was  entrusted  to  two  most  competent  experts,  who  were 
engaged  upon  it  for  several  years.  The  result  was  the 
Dictionary  of  English  Plant-names , by  James  Britten,  F.L.S. 
(of  the  department  of  Botany,  British  Museum),  and  Robert 
Holland,”  published  for  the  English  Dialect  Society  in  1886. 
Here,  at  any  rate,  is  an  authority  which  is  worth  attention. 
When  Dr.  (now  Professor)  Wright  undertook  to  edit  the 
whole  of  the  material  collected  by  the  Dialect  Society,  with 
large  additions  from  other  sources,  this  work  was  constantly 
in  requisition,  and  nearly  all  of  it  was  incorporated  in  his 
volumes.  It  will  thus  be  seen  that  the  first  book  to  be  con- 
sulted for  the  use,  not  only  of  plant-names,  but  of  a large 
number  of  agricultural  terms,  is  certainly  the  English  Dialect 
Dictionary,  a copy  of  which  should  be  accessible  to  all  who  are 
concerned  in  agricultural  pursuits. 
I am  afraid  that  this  wonderful  work  is  very  little  known 
and  but  slightly  appreciated.  Yet  these  six  quarto  volumes 
are  such  as  any  nation  may  well  be  proud  of,  and  such  as  no 
nation  but  our  own  possesses.  It  not  only  provides  us  with  an 
enormous  store  of  dialectal  words,  such  as  was  never  got 
together  before,  but  it  tells  us  what  the  words  mean,  how  they 
are  usually  pronounced,  in  what  counties  they  are  used,  and  in 
what  glossaries  they  are  recorded.  The  most  astonishing  part 
of  the  performance  is  the  English  Dialect  Grammar,  a work 
which  none  but  Dr.  Wright  could  have  edited,  in  which  the 
phonetic  side  of  our  dialect  receives  minute  attention.  This 
is  appended  to  the  sixth  volume,  and  is  followed  by  an  index 
which  is  the  most  wonderful  achievement  of  all.  In  this  we 
find,  for  example,  a complete  list  of  the  number  of  ways, 
