"English Plant Names," a remark which, indeed, most equally applies to
other sections of our subject beyond that of the present chapter:--"The
fascination of plant names has its foundation in two instincts, love of
Nature, and curiosity about Language. Plant names are often of the
highest antiquity, and more or less common to the whole stream of
related nations. Could we penetrate to the original suggestive idea that
called forth the name, it would bring valuable information about the
first openings of the human mind towards Nature; and the merest dream of
such a discovery invests with a strange charm the words that could tell,
if we could understand, so much of the forgotten infancy of the human
race."



Footnotes:


1. "Dictionary of English Plant Names," by J. Britten and Robert
Holland. 1886.

2. "English Plant Names," Introduction, p. xiii.

3. See Folkard's "Legends," p. 309; Friend's "Flowers and Flowerlore,"
ii. 401-5.

4. See "Flower-lore," p. 74.

5. Friend's "Flower-lore," ii. 425.

6. _Garden_, June 29, 1872.