Evening star., 1936-09-12
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL.
Names are intriguing. whether of child.

Names are intriguing. whether of child.
book or flower.
The little girl named Mindwell. now
a woman grown-did she get her first
name as a parental Injunction, or was
it just in the family?
As for books, when their names get
put down on bills by clerks obviously
no booklovers. they become twisted in
queer ways.
Thus Prof. Liberty H. Baily's book,
"How Plants Get Their Names" came
out on the bill, How Pants Get Their
Names"
j. B. Priestley's "They Walk in the
City" became They Walk in the Street" "
which Is something else again.
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AS for flowers, what shall we say OF
the witch hazel, famous in song and
story. as well as in household medicine?
The plant originally was called wich'
or dropping. hazel, owing to the char
acter of the branches, but the chance
of hitching the plant up to witches was
too much for the people.
They called it witch hazel" and SO
1t remains, although not planted nearly
as often in yards as it once was. or
ought to be. This Is q nice, II rather
sprawly, shrub, owing to its late Autumn
towering, with nice yellow blooms at a
time when blossoms are rare.
The famous herb rosemary got its
name in a roundabout manner. Prob
ably it was too much to expect the COM
mon people to let pass such a word as
the Latin "rosmarinus," the scientific
name of the genus.
The syllable 'ros" means dew, and
"marinus," of the sea, the whole signi-
flying dew of the sea. referring to the
gray green of the foliage.
So close to Rose Mary 1t was that
the people were unable to reject the ap-
plication.
The common hollyhock, stately favor
ite of the millions, had its first syllable
made "holly," when really it was holy"
but some way the temptation to hook 1t
I'D with the well-known holly was too
much. evidently.
Such flower names as zinnia, dahlia
and forsythia, on everybody's tongue,
and almost always printed in lower case,
are really the names of Zinn. Dahl and
Forsythe the first a German botanist,
the second Swedish and the last an
Englishman.
The poinsettia, favorite at Christmas
time, owing to its red bracts erroneous
ly called leaves, is really the name OF
Joel Poinsett Of South Carolina, AM
bassador of the United States to Mex
leo, who brought the plant to this coun-
try.
Lobelia cardinals. charming dark red
flower of the border, is named after the
Frenchman. NJ Lobel, who was botanist
and physician of King James /.
Garden flowers known as nicotiana
smelling sweetly at dusk. got their name
from Jean Nicot, who introduced their
great brother, tobacco, into France.
Our word nicotine is his memorial.
So one might go on endlessly to prove
that names are intriguing. interesting,
beautiful, at one and the same time.
Use Of the larger dictionaries affords
a wealth of speculation to the home
gardener.
Most persons, one may suspect, are In
clined to view the big books as nui-
sances, more or less cumbersome, and
hard to handle.
These physical aspects are certain.
Some of the larger dictionaries have at
tempted to overcome this by putting
out their work in several volumes. The
big books remain standard with most
searchers. A bit of effort is required,
but once the start is made the use of