A Note From “The Hoe.” How Flowers Are Named
“Why was this plant so called?” is a question that even th.e most enthusiastic gardeners never seem to ask themselves. Perhaps they rightly consider that their time is better spent in attending to the welfare of the garden than in probing into the “whys” and “wherefores” of some lengthy tatinmame. The subject is. however, one of great fascination, for plant names always have something to tell us about the tree Or flower to which they belong. In some cases the plant is named after the place of its origin, this is so with several of our fruit trees. The Cherry came from Cerasos, on the Black Sea, the Currant from Corinth, the Quince 1 from Cydonia, the Damson from Damascus, and the Shallot from Ascalon, in Palestine. The memory of a pioneer botanist is sometimes preserved in the plant which he introduced; thus we have the Lobelia. 1 named after Lobel, a Frenchman who came to England in the reign of James I, while Zinnias and Gloxinias were named after Zinn and Gloxin respectively. The name "Greengage” perpetuates the memory of the Gage family, who introduced the fruit into England. The Wistaria was named after Wistar, an American anatomist. An interesting legend explains the origin of the word Peony: Paeon, physician to the Greek gods, used it to cure Pluto of a wound inflicted by Hercules. The Centaur Chiron used the Centaury for a similar purpose. It would not be amiss to mention two other plants here, the Scabious, once used as a specific against scab and other diseases of the skin, and the. Saxifrage, which means “stonebreak.” and was used to cure calculus.
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Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 85, 4 January 1935, Page 7
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283A Note From “The Hoe.” How Flowers Are Named Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 85, 4 January 1935, Page 7
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