CHAPTER XII 
PLANT NAMES 
“The fascination of plant names is founded on two instincts, — 
love of Nature and curiosity about Language.” 
— English Plant Names , Rev. John Earle, 1880. 
ERBAL magic is the subtle mys- 
terious power of certain words. 
This power may come from asso- 
ciation with the senses ; thus I 
have distinct sense of stimulation 
in the word scarlet, and pleasure 
in the words lucid and liquid. 
The word garden is a never ceasing delight ; it seems 
to me Oriental ; perhaps I have a transmitted sense 
from my grandmother Eve of the Garden of Eden. 
I like the words, a Garden of Olives, a Garden of 
Herbs, the Garden of the Gods, a Garden enclosed. 
Philosophers of the Garden, the Garden of the Lord. 
As I have written on gardens, and thought on gar- 
dens, and walked in gardens, “ the very music of 
the name has gone into my being.” How beautiful 
are Cardinal Newman’s words: — 
“ By a garden is meant mystically a place of spiritual 
repose, stillness, peace, refreshment, delight.” 
There was, in Gerarde’s day, no fixed botanical 
nomenclature of any of the parts or attributes of a 
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