204 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
July 6. 
2. U. lactuca (Lettuce-like).—On rocks and stones in 
the sea: very delicate and beautiful; of a lighter green 
and finer texture than the preceding. Dr. Johnston says : 
“ In its first stage this Ulva resembles a Florence flask in 
miniature ; but it soon bursts, and becomes cleft in a very 
irregular manner." 
3. U. linga. —A very pretty plant, with linear lanceolate 
fronds; much curled at the edges,'and attenuated at each 
extremity ; of a bright and glossy green in spring, and Ad¬ 
hering well to paper; the fronds are sometimes eighteen 
inches long and an inch broad. 
3. PORPHYRA. Ag. 
“ Frond plane, exceedingly thin, and of a purple colour; 
fructification, 1, scattered sori of oval seeds, 2. roundish 
granules, mostly arranged in a quarternate manner, and 
covering the frond. Name refers to its colour—purple.”— 
Greville. 
P. lacineata (Ragged). — Very common, on rocks and 
stones: fronds from four to eight inches long; when dried, 
transparent, and of a fine glossy purple. Miss Me Leish 
gave me the most beautiful specimen I ever saw, found by 
her at Port Glasgow. Children call it “sea-silk,” it is so ex¬ 
ceedingly soft. This plant is used for the table under the 
name of laver; in Ireland, sloke. It requires much stewing 
to make it tender. “ The inhabitants of tho Western Is¬ 
lands gather it in the month of March ; and after pounding, 
and stewing it with a little water, eat it with pepper, vinegar, 
and butter. Others stew it with leeks and onions. In 
England, it is generally pickled with salt, and preserved 
in jars, and when brought to table is stewed, and eaten 
with oii and lemon juice.” Professor Harvey says, “After 
many hours’ boiling, the frond is reduced to a somewhat 
slimy pulp, of a dark brown colour, which is eaten with 
pepper and lemon juice or vinegar, and has an agreeable 
flavour to those who have conquered the repugnance to taste 
it, which its great ugliness induces; and many persons are 
very fond of it. It might become a valuable article of diet, 
in the absence of other vegetables, to the crews of our 
whaling vessels in high latitudes, where every marine rock 
at half-tide abundantly produces it.” 
2. P. vulgaris (Common). — “Frond simple, broadly 
lanceolate; the margin much waved.” Very common, on 
rocks in the sea: the fronds are ono or two feet long, and 
waved. It differs little from tho preceding, except in having 
tho fronds undivided. 
With this we conclude our papers on the Plants of the 
Ocean. We shall be glad if they have afforded information 
or amusement to any of our readers. Still more glad, if 
they have led to the contemplation of the vegetation of the 
deep as the wonderful work of an Almighty hand; the sur¬ 
prising variety and beauty of which cause them to “ Praise 
Him,” as do all His works. And it is not only tlieir curious 
and variously beautiful forms which may excite our admira¬ 
tion, but, as we have remarked in former papers, the various 
uses to which they may be applied; and though the olive- 
weeds, which are the plainest-looking, are the most useful (by 
what may be called a law of compensation, as, for instance, 
the nightingale in her suit of sober brown is the most de- 
! lightful of songsters), yet all have, doubtless, their purpose of 
one kind or other; and we see that some of those noticed in 
this last great division are used as articles of food, as, for 
instance, Ulva and Porphyra; while the smaller conferva? 
help, minute and insignificant as they may appear, to purify 
the waters in which they grow. The very smallest of the 
works of God has its use and its appointed place in the 
creation ; and the most minute required “ a God to form.” 
“ The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament 
sheweth His handy works,” yet grand, surpassingly grand 
and glorious, as they are, no less wonderful are the minute 
creations of Him who called them all into being.—S. B. 
DERIVATION OE CURIOUS BOTANIC NAMES, 
AND ANCIENT ITALIAN KALYDOR. 
The generic name of the fern Ceterach officinarum is ge¬ 
nerally said to be derived from the Arabic Chctlierak. I 
find, however, among a list of ancient British names of 
plants, published in 1633 at the end of Johnson’s edition of 
Gerard, the expression cedor y wrack, which means the joined 
or double rake, and is exactly significant of the form of the 
Ceterach. The Fernrakes are joined as it were back to 
back; but the single prongs of the one alternate, botanicully 
with those of the other. Master Robert Dauyes, of Guissa- 
ney in Flintshire, the correspondent of Johnson, gives the 
name of another of the Filices ( Eguisetum ) as the English 
equivalent of the ancient British term. But the form of 
this plant does not at all correspond to that signified by the 
Celtic words. It is not improbable, therefore, that lie was 
wrong as respects the correct English name of the plant. 
The Turkish shetr or chetr , to cut, and warak, a leaf, seem 
to point out the meaning of the Arabic, term quoted in 
Hooker’s Flora and elsewhere. Probably some of your Ori¬ 
ental readers will have the kindness to supply the exact 
English for chetherak. 
It appears to me, however, that the transition from cedor- 
wrach to ceterach is more easy, and is a more probable 
derivation. 
Hooker and Loudon say that another generic name, Vero¬ 
nica, is of doubtful origin. In the Arabic language I find 
virunika as the name of a plant. This word is evidently 
composed of nikoo, beautiful, and viroo, remembrance; 
viroonika, therefore, means beautiful remembrance, and is 
but an Oriental name for a Forget-me-not, for which flower 
Veronica chamwdrys has often been mistaken. Possibly the 
name may have come to us from the Spanish-Arabian voca¬ 
bulary. The Spaniards call the same plant Veronica. They 
use this word to signify the representation of our Saviour’s 
face on a handkerchief. When Christ was bearing his cross, 
a young woman, the legend says, wiped his face with her 
handkerchief, which henceforth retained the divine likeness. 
The feminine name Veronica is of course the Latin form 
of (pepoviKt], victory-bearer (of which Berenice is the Mace¬ 
donian and Latin construction), and is plainly, thus derived, 
inappropriate as the designation of a little azure wild flower 
which, like loving eyes, greets us everywhere. 
In looking over Martin Mathee’s notes on Fioscorides, 
published 1553, I find that Italian women of his time used 
to make a cosmetic of the root of the Arum, commonly cal¬ 
led “ Lords and Ladies.” The mixture, he says, makes the 
skin wondrously white and shining, and is called germ. 
(“ Its font des racincs d'Aron de Venue et de lexive," &c., tom. 
v. p. 98.)— Hughes Fraser Halle, L.L.D.,— South Lam¬ 
beth .— (Notes and Queries.) 
ROSE AMATEUR'S GUIDE. * 
This very trustworthy and very useful little volume has 
reached a fifth edition, nor is it a mere reprint of its pre¬ 
decessors, but the author, one of our best authorities on , 
this flower, has, to use his own words, “ profited by time and 
experience.” He has improved his lists, discarding those 
varieties that have been excelled by more recent introduc- 
tions; and has added much valuable information relative to 
the cultivation of Roses in pots, and the modes of propa- ( 
gating them. Tho following are extracts from these new 
additions. 
“ Spring and Summer Grafting of Autumnal Roses.— 
* The Rose Amateur’s Guide. By Thomas Rivers, of the Nurseries, 
Sawbridgeworth, Herts. Longman and Ca., London, 1854. Fifth 
Edition. 
