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has demonstrated that Asaphus possessed eight pairs of five-jointed

legs of uniform size."

Such statements are apt to mislead, unless we carefully compare the characters of each group. And first let me express a caution against the too hasty construction of a classification based upon larval characters.

Larval characters are useful guide-posts in defining great groups, and also in indicating affinities between great groups; but the more we become acquainted with larval forms the greater will be our tendency (if we attempt to base our classification on their study) to merge groups together which we had before held to be distinct.

To take a familiar instance: if we compare the larval stages of the common Shore-Crab (Carcinus manus) with Pterygotus, we should be obliged (according to the arguments of Dr. Packard) to place them near to or in the same group.

The eyes in both are sessile, the functions of locomotion, prehension, and mastication are all performed by one set of appendages, which are attached to the mouth; the abdominal segments in both are natatory, but destitute of any appendages.

Such characters, however, are common to the larvæ of many Crustaceans widely separated when adult, the fact being that in the larval stage we find in this group, what has been so often observed by naturalists in other groups of the animal kingdom, namely, a shadowing forth in the larval stages of the road along which its ancestors travelled ere they arrived from the remote past at the living present.

If we place the characters of Limulus and Pterygotus, side by side, and also those of Trilobita and Isopoda, we shall find they may be, in the present state of our knowledge, so retained in classification.

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5. Other segments destitute of any 5. Other segments destitute of any

appendages.

6. Thoracic segments unanchylosed. 7. Abdominal segments free and well developed.

8. Metastoma, large.

appendages.

6. Thoracic segments anchylosed.
7. Abdominal segments anchylosed
and rudimentary.

8. Metastoma, rudimentary.

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Should our further researches confirm Mr. Billings's discovery fully, we may propose for the second pair of these groups a common designation (as in the case of the Merostomata); meantime, the above may serve as representing the present state of our knowledge.

BOTANY AND ZOOLOGY.

POPULAR NAMES OF PLANTS.-Botanists generally ignore the use of any other than scientific names for plants, because it leads to a great deal of confusion in their nomenclature, the same name being frequently applied to two or more plants of entirely different species, and sometimes of widely separated genera; and in other cases the same plant will receive a dozen or more names, varying in different countries, and even in various sections of the same country, among people speaking the same language. For precise nomenclature, therefore, the names given by acknowledged authorities in the botanical world have to be accepted by amateurs and professional men. Nevertheless, the popular names of plants are not merely empirical, but are founded, as the scientific names are founded, upon some peculiar feature or use of the plant.

Of late years these popular names have become the object of very interesting research, as throwing much light upon ethnological history, the antiquity of various nations, and the migra tions of the larger tribes of men. We can not, of course, go into a lengthy account of these matters, or give the derivation of all the popular names in use-it would require a large volume to do this; but we will give a few examples of the results of the

researches made as to the names of some common trees and plants. With the exception of the hazel-nut, and some other wild berries, the Apple appears to be the only fruit known to our European ancestors, as it is the only name not derived from the Latin or French. In the Zend, or old Persian language, and in the Sanscrit, the name for water is ap, and for fruit p'hala; hence ethnologists think that the name is compounded of these two words, meaning "water fruit," or "juice fruit." This corresponds with the Latin name pomum, derived from po, to drink, which is a somewhat curious coincidence. In Welsh it was formerly called apalis, now apfel; in high-German, aphol; in German, apfel; in Anglo-Saxon, apl, or, æppel; in old Danish, epli; in modern Danish, able; in Swedish, aple; and in Lithuanian, obolys, or obelis. This close similarity in the name as used by these various nations, renders it highly probable that they all come from the same root or stock, and that such root or stock originally inhabited the western spur of the Himalayan Mountains or northern Persia.

Again, the name of Beech-tree, given to the Fagus sylvatica, is another curious proof of our descent from Asiatic nations. In Sanscrit the word bôkô signifies a letter, and the word bôkôs writings. In Swedish the name of the Beech-tree is bok; in Danish, bög; in Dutch, beuk; in German, buch; in modern high-German, buoche; in old high-German, puocha; and in Anglo-Saxon, boc, bece, and beoce-names applied indifferently to this tree and to a book, because the ancient books of these different nations were written in their Runic characters upon tablets or leaves made from the bark of this tree. Ethnologists, therefore, consider this as another proof of our descent from the nations of Upper Asia, the more so as the use by the Greeks of the word biblos, as signifying a book, is derived from the name of an Egyptian plant that was used in making the material upon which they wrote, showing that our ancestors received their ancient alphabetic signs from India by the way of the north, and not by a southern route.

As a curious example of the way in which the names of plants become transmitted in passing from one language to another, we instance one of the names of the Carnation, or Dianthus caryophyllus. Chaucer, in his Canterbury Tales, speaks of "A primerole, a piggesnie." This last word, the glossaries state, means "pig's-eye," the first one meaning the primrose. Now

"piggesnie" really means Whitsuntide Pink, and comes from the German words Pingsten, or Pfingst, derived from a Greek word for fiftieth, meaning the fiftieth day after Easter, and eye from the French œillet, a Pink. The word Pingsten, therefore, has reference to the time of its blooming, and eye to the circular markings in the flower, and thus Pinksteneye has passed into Piggesnie.

The Viola tricolor, or Pansy, is an instance of numerous and various names being applied to the same plant. The above name comes from the French word pensée. Because it has three colors in the same flower it is called "Three faces under a hood," and also" Herb Trinity;" and from its coloring, "Flame Flower." It is also called "Heart's-ease," but this name properly belongs to the Waliflower, which was formerly called giroflée, or Clove Flower, because cloves were in former times considered good for diseases of the heart. Of amatory names, the Pansy has probably more than any other plant; we name a few of them: "Kiss Me ere I Rise," "Kiss Me at the Garden Gate," "Jump up and Kiss Me," "Cuddle Me to You," "Tittle my Fancy," "Pink of my John," "Love in Idle," or "in Vain," "Love in Idleness," and many others.

The old herbalists were great believers in the doctrine of signatures; by which they meant that some particular character or habit of the plant indicated its medical use. Thus the spotted leaves of the Pulmonaria indicated that it was a remedy for pulmonary complaints; the tubers of the roots of Scrophularia, being hard and knotty, must be good for glandular affections, and because the Saxifrage grows in the clefts of the rocks it must be good for stone in the bladder. They even ascribed different qualities to various parts of the same plants. An old author says: "The seed of garlic is black; it darkens the eyes with blackness and obscurity. This is to be understood of healthy eyes. But those which are dull through vicious humidity, from these garlic drives it away. The skin of garlic is red; it expels blood. It has a hollow stem, and therefore helps affections of the windpipe."

Some common names are the embodiment of some poetic thought of our forefathers, as the Daisy, Belle's-perennis, which comes from the Anglo-Saxon dages-eage, or the old English Daiesey-ghe, meaning the eye of day, because its flowers are only

open in the day time; though some derive the name from dais, a canopy, from the shape of the flower, as in the line,

"The daisie did unbraid her crownall small".

crownall meaning coronal, the upper part of a canopy.

Other names derive their origin from the uses to which the plant is put, as the Dogwood; which is not named after the animal, but because the wood was formerly used for making skewers, the proper name being dawkwood, or skewer-wood, this name coming from the Anglo-Saxon dalc or dole; German, dolch; Spanish, daga; French, dague; and old English, dagge.

A curious instance of confusion and transposition of names is to be found in the Forget-me-not, as this name has only been given to the pretty blue Myosotis within the past forty or fifty years. For more than two hundred years the name had been given by the English to the Ajuga chamapitys, or Ground-pine, on account of the unpleasant taste it leaves in the mouth. Some of the German botanists and herbalists gave the name to a plant known botanically as Teucrium Botrys In Denmark and some parts of Germany the name was applied to the Speedwell or Veronica chamaedrys, and by others to Gnaphalium leontopodium. The name appears properly to belong to the Veronica, having reference to the way in which the flowers fall off and are blown away as soon as it is gathered; hence the valediction "Speedwell," "Farewell," "Good-by," "Forget-me-not," etc., as applied to this plant. The later application was brought about by the legend in a story of modern date in which a drowning lover snatches it from the river bank, and as he sinks throws it ashore, as a token of remembrance.

J. H. in "Hearth and Home."

MISCELLANEOUS.

OBITUARY.-SIR RODERICK IMPEY MURCHISON, BART., K.C.B., LL.D., D.C.L., M.A., F.R.S., F.G.S., &C., &C., &C.

The death of Sir Roderick Murchison, although at the ripe age of 80 years, is a loss which Geologists and Geographers are alike called upon to mourn. In relation to both these sciences, he has for many years justly occupied the most prominent positiBut, apart from his high social and scientific standing, he was a man full of genial and kindly feeling, who could be readily

ons.

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