Blechnum. 
75 
frequently questions connected with nomenclature are brought before them, just as scientific 
workers are but too well aware of the difficulties presented by synonymy. Generic names 
always begin with a capital letter — we have already said something about these at p. 59 — 
specific ones with a small one, except in the cases which we have mentioned above. Some of 
these names point out something special about the plant upon which they are bestowed ; 
for instance, the Yellow-wort, or Yellow Centaury, is called Chlora perfoliata, in allusion to the 
curious way in which the stem seems to pass through the leaves ; the Arrowhead is named 
Sagittaria sagittifolia because of its arrow-shaped foliage, and so we might go on through a long 
list, for an interesting chapter might be written on the meanings 
and applications of generic and specific names.* When the specific 
name is commemorative — of which we have already had an ex- 
ample in Cheilanthes Szovitzii — a capital letter is employed, and this 
is also the case when it is a name which was formerly used as 
substantive or generic ; of this we had an example in Onoclea 
Struthiopteris, Struthiopteris having been at one time employed as 
a generic name. This accounts in some measure for the spelling 
of Spicant with a capital S. Linnaeus so wrote it, and it is to be 
supposed that by so doing he showed that he regarded it as an 
old substantive name. Such, indeed, it may be, and most probably 
is, for it is difficult to see otherwise how it could have arisen. It 
has been suggested that the name originated in a lapsus calami, and 
that it should be written spicans, but there is no ground for such a leaf of arrowhead. 
supposition. Bauhinf has among its synonyms “ Spicant Germanorum , 
forte a radice Indicant spicant referente',' but the resemblance between the rhizome of the 
Blechnum and that of Nardostachys Jatamansi — a valerianaceous plant, which, according to the 
best authorities, constituted the spikenard of the ancients — is not very striking, although a 
certain similarity may be traced. But it would seem that the name Spicant is still in use 
as a popular German equivalent for the plant. J 
* A full explanation of the generic and specific names of British plants with a very interesting introduction 
to the subject, will be found in Mr. R. H. Alcock’s “Botanical Names for English Readers.” 
t “ Pinax,” p. 359 (1623). I See F. Kirschleger’s “Flore Vogdso-Rhenane,” ii., p. 262 (1870). 
