A Dictionary Of American Plant Names Classic Reprint

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Excerpt from English Plant Names: From the Tenth to the Fifteenth Century The fascination of Plant-names has its foun dation 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. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Excerpt from Plant Names IT is very unlikely that all the derivations given in this book are correct, and learned readers must form their own judgment in each case. For even the soundest etymologists resort to conjecture sometimes, and there is no branch of learning in which it is more useful. I can only say that I consulted the best authorities, and that when a derivation seemed doubtful I said so. But a critic will find plenty of marks at which to have a shot, and when the attempt has been made to explain over a thousand names there is sure to be difference of Opinion about some, probably many, of them. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Excerpt from A Dictionary of English Names of Plants Applied in England and Among English-Speaking People to Cultivated and Wild Plants, Trees and Shrubs It is an undeniable fact that the vast majority of people of all classes who take an interest in horticultural pursuits consists of those who, jnever having received any classical or botanical training, find it difficult to learn and remember, and impossible to understand, the Latin or scientific names by which plants are spoken of and described by botanists. These names, however useful and even necessary they may be as technical terms to the systematic botanist, become a senseless jargon in the vain attempt to fix them amongst our household words, and most of us are keenly alive to the inconsistency of employing words from a foreign and even dead language to name such familiar everyday objects as the flowers and shrubs which are grown in our gardens and woods. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Knowledge of plant names can give insight into largely forgotten beliefs. For example, the common red poppy is known as "Blind Man" due to an old superstitious belief that if the poppy were put to the eyes it would cause blindness. Many plant names derived from superstition, folk lore, or primal beliefs. Other names are purely descriptive and can serve to explain the meaning of the botanical name. For example, Beauty-Berry is the name given to the American shrub that belongs to the genus Callicarpa. Callicarpa is Greek for beautiful fruit. Still other names come from literary sources providing rich detail of the transmission of words through the ages.Conceived as part of the author's wider interest in plant and tree lore and ethnobotanical studies, this fully revised edition of Elsevier's Dictionary of Plant Names and Their Origins contains over 30,000 vernacular and literary English names of plants. Wild and cultivated plants alike are identified by the botanical name. Further detail provides a brief account of the meaning of the name and detailed commentary on common usage. * Includes color images * Inclusive of all Latin terms with vernacular derivatives * The most comprehensive guide for plant scientists, linguists, botanists, and historians